Early Seral Forestry: A State Trust Lands Perspective

1. Early Seral Forestry: A State Trust Lands Perspective “Keeping Common Species Common” Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

2. Agenda • Policies • Planning as Related to Early Seral Stages • Silviculture & Other Disciplines • Examples • Techniques and Field Craft • Summary—The Process Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

3. Policies • Tenets of The Trust Mandate • Prudent person doctrine • Undivided loyalty to the trusts • Intergenerational equity of benefits • Maintaining future options • WA-DNR’s Policy for Sustainable Forests • Forest land planning determines rotation age • Landscapes are issue driven • WA-DNR’s HCP • Multi-species — entire Endangered Species Act spectrum • Adaptive management based • Cohort Management • Enables managing single stands for multiple objectives • Identifies and manages objective-specific stand cohorts • Accounts for silvics of tree species Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

4. Planning as Related to Early Seral Stages • Northern Spotted Owl—NSO Landscapes • Longer rotations—At least 50 percent of each landscape in structural stages • SO: Up to 50 percent of each landscape could be in early seral stands • General Ecological Management (GEM) Landscapes • Shorter rotations • Most of landscapes in competitive exclusion or earlier seral stages • KEY: Formulating and Integrating Objectives for: • Landscape • Unit-Rotation • Unit-Activity Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

5. Techniques and Field Craft • At the Unit Scale: Cohort Management • Unit Rotational Objectives Represented by Distinct Stand Cohort(s) • Rotational Silvicultural Prescriptions (Chronology of Events—Over a Rotation—That Best Achieve Unit/Stand Objectives) Include Activities of: • Planting (early seral): mix shade tolerant and intolerant species • Variable Density Thinning (VDT): retains a portion of early seral • Variable Retention Final Harvest: around 15 percent left in late seral cohort aggregates; remainder is early seral • At the Landscape Scale: • Ample opportunities – accidental or not – for early seral habitat • Sustain between 30 and 60 percent of landscapes in early seral conditions, depending upon landscape objectives Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

6. Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

7. Summary—the Process • Objectives for early seral management are defined and quantified by disciplines from whom concerns emanate • Unit-rotational scale • Landscape scale • Foresters devise unit-level rotational silvicultural prescriptions that best achieve unit-rotational objectives • Foresters define objective-specific stand cohorts and plan their presence on appropriate spatial and temporal scales • Activity objectives are drawn from rotational prescriptions with a focus on refinement of imminent activities • Landscapes are perpetuated in desired proportions of early and later seral stand conditions Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

8. Questions? Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

9. Q&A Slides on--What is Silviculture?--Early Seral TTs in Older Forest Objectives Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

10. Silviculture & Other Disciplines • “. . . the art and science of cultivating forests to achieve objectives” • Thus, silviculture is the tool; it does not have its own objectives • Objectives at stand and landscape levels must be expressed by their associated disciplines (i.e., wildlife biologists, financial interests, etc.) • Objectives must be defined in terms of arrays of threshold targets i.e., discrete and measurable stand parameters Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov

11. Older Forest Objectives: Some Retention of Early Seral Conditions • Landscape: Sustain at least 50% of SOMU in sub-mature NSO habitat (i.e., 50% of SOMU could be early seral stands) • Unit-Rotational: Attain sub-mature NSO habitat • Main canopy at least 30 percent conifer • Curtis’ RD > 50 for trees > 4 inches DBH • 115 to 270 trees per acre for trees > 4 inches DBH • Dominant and co-dominant trees > 85 feet in height • At least 3 snags or cavity trees per acre > 20 inches DBH • At least 5 percent of the ground covered with LDWD • Activity: VDT to average Curtis’ RD 45 for trees > 12 inches DBH • Vary RD by +/- 8 RD points over 85% of area on a scale of ½ to 5 acres • Create skips and gaps over 15% of area on a scale of ½ to 5 acres • Leave/create > 3 snags/ac > 20 inches DBH • Leave/create at least 5 percent ground cover of LDWD • Leave all bigleaf maple with 3 stems or less Pete.Holmberg@wadnr.gov