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OCR for page 199
9
CONC US/ONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
No single phrase, concept, or picture can capture the breadth of forest
management in the Pacific Northwest or the environmental issues that
are involvecE in it. The region is large and geographically varied. its
forests are complex. Although the public policy debates over forest
management have focused on federal forests, ownership is varied.
There are large and more or less contiguous blocks of state, Tnctian, ancL
forest industry forests throughout the region. Privately owned forests
other than those in forest industry ownership, and often in relatively
small tracts, are mingled among the larger ownerships. The conclusions
and recommendations that follow in this chapter must necessarily be
cirawn in terms that give full recognition to the complexities of the
region's forests and its forest ownerships.
Management of federal forests in the region has changed c3 ramatically
over the past two decades. The Northwest Forest Plan for federal forests
in the range of the northern spotted owl west of the Cascades Crest
brought the most dramatic and immediate changes. But even it was the
continuation of a process of change that has affected management of
federal forests throughout the region and, indeed, in other parts of the
country as well. Although change in forestry practices has also occurred
on other forests, public and private, it has been more gradual. It is clear,
however, that what happens on any of the major categories of forest
ownership in the region affects practices on the others.
799
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200
FORESTRY PRACTICES
IN THE PAC/F/C NORTHWEST
Pacific Northwest Forests
Protected reserves: The chief role of federal forests in the region has
shifted from one of providing timber and other forest products to one of
sustaining and restoring forest ecosystem integrity. Reserves have been
established for various purposes: as elements of the National Wilderness
Areas Preservation System, as protected natural areas, and most recently
on the Westside to protect the northern spotted owl and other threat-
ened species. Some have been selected because they contain old growth
and others because they provide amenities not necessarily associated
with old growth. The common characteristic is their relatively natural
conditions. Management of the matrix of federal forests that encom-
passes the reserves has shifted from an emphasis on timber production
to an emphasis on sustaining ecological conditions.
intermingled with the federal forests are nonfederal forests managed
by a diverse set of owners with a wide range of goals. Most forest
industry land is managed intensively for timber. The rest of the
nonfederal forests is managed at various intensities to meet goals that
range from timber production to full protection of natural values.
This not wholly coherent amalgam of more-or-less natural reserves
scattered across a forested landscape of tracts, large and small, managed
for various purposes reflects the shifting policies for federal forests as
wed as the changing management practices on nonfederal forests. To
suggest Mat there should be a single coherent policy framework for all
Pacific Northwest forests is probably futile. To suggest that even the
policy framework for the region's federal forests should be stable and
the same across the entire region is probably unwarranted. But the
committee believes some elements of such a policy framework can be
defined.
The committee believes that forest-management goals should include
conservation and protection from harvest of the vast majority of iate-
successional and old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. The long-
term values of conserving remaining late-successional and old-growth
forests in the Pacific Northwest are great. Further cutting of the
remaining late-successional and old-growth forests will accelerate
threats to the biological diversity of the Pacific Northwest and threaten
our ability to sustain important ecosystem processes. Protected reserves
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202
Pacific Northwest Forests
ing at the level of the stand, the spatial patterns of stand structures at the
landscape level, and the temporal dynamics of both stand and landscape
structure that result from disturbances.
The effects on ecological processes and biological diversity of natural
disturbances and those caused by human activities are highly variable.
Variations in the scale at which disturbances occur are poorly under-
stood, but they are known to be significant. The inevitability of
catastrophic disturbances that may reset successional processes should
be acknowledged in the design and extent of late-successional and old-
growth preserves. For managed forests, silvicutural treatments intencled
to simulate the effects of disturbances must be designed with attention
to specific goals. These include effects on fuel loads, structural features,
or legacies important to postdisturbance regeneration, biodiversity,
patterns of postharvest recovery, and landscape flammability.
Natural disturbances such as fire and severe wind are an integral part
of Pacific Northwest forests, although the spatial and temporal patterns
of such disturbances vary among ecosystem types. Alteration of natural
disturbance cycles has had adverse effects on the condition and
diversity of some forested landscapes in the region. Extensive accumu-
lations of fuel have put Eastside forests and landscapes at risk from
intense and extensive wildfires. In many Westside forests, losses of tree
diversity and structural complexity that normally result from snags and
downed logs have altered ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling
and water movement and might have increased risk from epidemics of
insects and disease.
The legacies of disturbance—residual woody debris, ash accumula-
tions, seed banks, advanced regeneration, and surviving organ-
isms—greatly influence change after disturbance (Franklin 1993b). The
legacies vary among fire regimes and between natural disturbances and
managementinterventions. Managers cannot control these phenomena,
but they can and should protect and, where necessary, restore the
natural mechanisms by which ecosystems are buffered from such
change.
Recommendation: The important roles of natural disturbances and
legacies in sustaining ecological processes must be recognized in
forest-management practices for both federal and nonfederal forests
in the Pacific Northwest.
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Conclusions and Recommendations
203
Given the spatial and temporal variability of disturbance processes,
collaborations across boundaries of ownership and jurisdiction will be
necessary. Natural disturbances occur at spatial scales that transcend
ownership and political boundaries. Fires can burn across vast areas,
influenced by regionwide variations in fuels and climate; population
processes that ensure viability of species, especially wide-ranging
vertebrates, have little to do with the borders of jurisdictions; and the
functioning of aquatic ecosystems depends on the continuity and
integrity of entire hydrologic systems well beyond the reach of an
individual stream.
A formalized approach to adaptive management is needed to evaluate
effects of new forestry practices on key ecosystem properties and to
adjust management practices in a timely fashion to changes in forest
condition across all spatial scales. The approach should include
elements such as acknowledgment of ignorance, identification of key
ecosystem processes, mode} development, monitoring that focuses on
management objectives, standards for data evaluation and data quality,
and timely feedback.
For example, the role of pathogens and insects in sustaining Pacific
Northwest forests is clearly important, but is poorly understood. At the
same time, outbreaks of both are becoming increasingly severe and
widespread. The place of various methods for controlling outbreaks and
their potential effect on sustaining ecological processes are also poorly
understood. Adaptive management approaches for dealing with such
outbreaks could be used to recognize that decisions must be made in the
absence of solid information.
Recommendation: A formalized approach for adaptive management
should be developed and applied in evaluating the effects of forest
management practices on key ecosystem properties and to guide
changes in these practices that reflect forest conditions at all spatial
scales.
Our understanding of the fuB costs of using forest resources is also
changing as pressure on these resources to meet human demands
mounts and as scientific knowledge grows. in some cases, recognition
of the full costs comes only after use has occurred. Examples include
decreases in the ability of forest land to sustain long-term timber
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204
Pacific Northwest Forests
production as a result of practices that significantly lower the productiv-
ity of the forest or that cause offsite impacts and the loss of species that
are dependent on old-growth forests.
Management strategies to restore ecosystem features win be impor-
tant in a long-term conservation plan. Such management might include
reduction of flammable fuels in Eastside forests or enhancement of
structural complexity in Westside forests. Forest managers will need to
develop and implement a combination of protocols using of prescribed
fire, as well as silvicultural and harvest techniques, to reduce accumu-
lated fuels where such accumulations increase risk of catastrophic
wildfire. Those protocols should be sensitive to protection of streams,
soils, and other vulnerable components of the forest environment.
Economic consequences: The impacts of changing forestry practices on
federal lands on overall employment and regional income in the Pacific
Northwest have been relatively small. Even the establishment of old-
growth reserves on a substantial part of the Westside federal forests has
had only minor effects on the reg~on's economy as a whole. At the same
time, some communities that had been heavily dependent on federal
timber harvests have had a difficult time. Even there, the impacts have
been ameliorated by growth of the overall region's economy, as well as
by assistance provided by the federal government as part of the
Northwest Forest Plan (Tuchmann et al. 1996~.
Over the past 20 years in the Pacific Northwest, rural communities
have generally become much less dependent on timber, mining, fishing,
or agriculture (Anderson and Olson 1991~. The region's local economies
increasingly benefit from a mix of extractive industries, light manufac-
turing, retirement, residential, service, and recreation sectors. In Oregon,
for example, the lumber and wood products industry now represents
only 5% of total employment. Mills have been closed and more jobs
have been lost to increases in efficiency and productivity than to
reductions in timber harvests. National end world economic forces have
had a more direct bearing on employment than has timber supply
(Waggener 1990~.
Before adoption of the Northwest Forests Plan, disputes over likely
economic effects of reductions in federal timber harvests were heated.
The range of employment losses projected by opposing interest groups
was broad in large part because estimating the regional economic effect
OCR for page 205
Conclusions and Recommendations
205
of shifts in the proportions of wood and nonwood products resulting
from changes in timber harvests is difficult (Sample and Le Master
1992~. This suggests the need to improve the analytical and information
bases for relating changes in forestry policies at various levels to
possible economic consequences.
WHATIS OLD-GROWTH?
Old-growth forests are defined as those that have accumulated specific
characteristics related to tree size, canopy structure, dead snags and
woody debris, and an assemblage of particular plant and animal species
that inhabit them. These specific attributes of old-growth forests
develop through the process of forest succession until the collective
properties of an old-growth forest are evident. No simple measure can
be used to define an old-growth or late-successional forest.
The ecological characteristics and appearance of old-growth forests
vary among forest types across the Pacific Northwest. Increasingly,
definitions rely on indexes of successional development based on
multiple forest characteristics. Current definitions used by the U. S.
Forest Service use specific values or states for five criteria - number of
large old trees per acre, variation in tree diameters, degree of tree
decadence, amounts of large dead wood, and characteristics of the
canopy structure.
While many of the characteristics that define old-growth forests
develop during the second century of stand development, all of the
properties of an old-growth forest typically are not present until the
forest is at least 200 years old. The committee emphasizes that it is the
presence of the assemblage of characteristics that determines whether
a forest can be classed as old-growth and not a specific age. The
committee also emphasizes that the defining assemblage of characteris-
tics will vary in forests across the Pacific Northwest.
An old-growth forest in good condition is one that retains its basic
structures and processes (Rapport 1989~. Old-growth forests are
biotically more complex than forests in earlier successional stages.
Compared with younger forests, they have a greater diversity of
ecosystem components and specialized organisms and produce more
food for some animal species. They have a higher total amount of live
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206
Pacific Northwest Forests
and dead biomass and a higher amount of woody debris in streams and
terrestrial areas. Old-growth forests are also less susceptible to large-
scale disturbances and pest outbreaks, and they have a lower incidence
of root-rot problems. They have unique microclimates and might have
an effect on regional climate as wed.
OLD GROWTH MANAGEMENT
Management In the form of establishing reserves is clearly an important
too} in maintaining existing old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest.
Other kinds of management interventions in natural processes are also
appropriate to some extent in such reserves. For example, protection
against destructive wildfires may be advisable, although the role of fire
and other disturbances in sustaining natural processes in the reserves
must also be recognized. Other kinds of management practices can also
have a role within and outside of reserves in encouraging the develop-
ment of some of the properties of old-growth forests. In such cases, it
must be recognized that the defining characteristic of an old-growth
forest is the assemblage of various properties that goes beyond just age
of trees and canopy structure.
Managed forests can be thinned to produce large trees and structural
heterogeneity at a relatively early age, especially in areas of high site
quality. But accelerating the development of these two conditions does
not by itself result in old-growth forests. Whether this accelerated
development successfully mimics processes that can produce other old-
growth properties is unclear at the present time. Management ap-
proaches such as "green tree retention," which attempt to mimic natural
disturbances by preserving decaying logs and soil organic matter, with
time ought lead to managed forests with at least some old-growth
characteristics (McCo~nb et al. 1993~. The degree to which this will occur
can be determined only with extensive testing across a range of forest
types and conditions.
FOREST PRODUCTS SUBSTITUTION
Recent reductions In federal timber harvests in the Pacific Northwest
have been met by increased timber harvests in the South and increased
OCR for page 207
Conclusions and Recommendations
207
softwood lumber imports from Canada. Together, increased production
in the South and increased imports from Canada, both in response to
ordinary market forces, have offset the reduced softwood harvests on
federal forests in the West. Substantial substitution for Pacific North-
west wood products from the southern hemisphere or from Europe and
temperate parts of Asia has not occurred so far. Total consumption of
softwood wood products ~ the United States does not appear to have
beers substantially reduced. The reduction~n federal timber harvests has
been accompanied by some increase in the price of softwood lumber to
consumers and in the prices paid for timber that is harvested from both
federal and nonfederal forests.
The expected effects of adopting the Northwest Forest Plan on some
biological resources in the Pacific Northwest have been examined at
length (FEMAT 1993~. The potential effects on most other nonwood
products, such as recreation and special forest products, were not
thoroughly evaluated in that report, partly because of the lack of good
information. But it is clear that the reductions in federal timber harvests
in the Pacific Northwest favor some kinds of both game and nongame
species of wildlife over others, affect hunting conditions, improve
habitat for fisheries, and maintain opportunities for some kinds of
recreation in the region.
The extent to which these impacts will affect interregional markets for
these and other nonwood forest products is unclear. Most nonwood
forest products are sold in local and regional markets, although some,
such as wild-grown mushrooms, may end up being used far from their
source. Although solid information is lacking, it does not seem likely
that changes In the availability of nonwood forest products in the Pacific
Northwest will be reflected in markets for these or competitive
nonwood products in other forest regions in the United States.
Sustaining the increased level of timber harvests in the South, which
come mainly from private forests, will require more intensive manage-
ment practices. The possible effects on biological resources, such as
wetlands and the red cockaded woodpecker, of more intensive practices
brought aboutby the decrease in pacific Northwest timber harvests have
apparently not been carefully evaluated. Similarly, possible effects on
employment and communities in the South have not been carefully
evaluated.
Pressures on forests for all uses in the Pacific Northwest and
elsewhere in the United States will probably continue to rise. The
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Pacific Northwest Forests
specific demands on forests may change, but the basic demands for
materials, space, and environmental amenities will almost certainly
continue to increase. The increasing production of timber on private
forests is leading to lower ages of trees at harvest and more intensive
silvicultural operations such as thinning, use of improved genetic stock
for single-species planting, fertilization, and the increased use of
herbicides and insecticides. Tracking these changes end teeing prepared
to take action when the effects are judged to be serious are challenges for
public policy.
Recommendation: Regional assessments of the impacts of increas-
ingly intensive forest management practices, especially on private
forests, should be conducted to evaluate the impacts of shifting
regional patterns of timber harvesting. In particular, an assessment
is needed of the effects on key species and ecosystems in the U.S.
South of increased timber harvests and management intensity that has
resulted from reduced timber harvests on federal forests in the West.
Existing institutional structures do not appear to have been adequate
for planning and managing forest management activities over a variety
of spatial and temporal scales. Few mechanisms are available to
facilitate dialogue and resolve conflicts at large spatial scales involving
multiple ownerships and many stakeholders. The committee believes
empirically based, comparative evaluations of the effectiveness of
alternative strategies are needed. Federal agency and constituency
dialogue should be reviewed with particular attention to procedures
and policies through which public agencies can communicate with
stakeholders.
Recommendation: Experience with FEMAT, the Northwest Forest
Plan, and other processes used to help resolve disputes over Pacific
Northwest forestry practices should be used to explore alternative
mechanisms for dispute resolution.
RESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS
Limitations on available knowledge for guiding forest management and
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(conclusions and Recommendations
209
resolving issues in the Pacific Northwest have been noted throughout
this report. An accelerated program of research is needed to fiD these
gaps. Parallel gaps in knowledge exist for other regions of the country
as well. The committee's conclusions support in general terms the
significant reorientation of forestry research recommended by an NRC
panel in 1990 (NRC 1990~.
Various institutions and sources of funding play important roles in
forest-reiated research in this region and in the country as a whole. The
federal role In funding both in-house and extramural research is
obviously very important, but the states, forest industry, and nonprofit
organizations also provide research support. The committee believes all
of these institutions can take part in supporting and conducting the
needed research. In particular, the federal government should substan-
tially strengthen its support for a competitive research grants program
that wouIcl recognize the broad array of scientific specialties and
research organizations that are relevant to current issues involving
forest management and conservation.
Specific areas of research in need of increased funding and attention
include the following:
· Me relationship of natural disturbances to the sustainability of
protected and managed Pacific Northwest forests and the extent to
which the effects of these disturbances can be simulated by management
practices;
· the relative importance of legacies and their role in maintaining
forests and regenerating harvested areas, and the extent to which
management actions can "create" legacies;
· the role of insects and pathogens in sustaining natural processes in
Pacific Northwest forests and factors involved in insect and pathogen
outbreaks in the region;
0 forest restoration methods and their role in restoring and maintain-
ing forest vitality;
· the impacts of forest-management practices, including timber
harvesting, on the production of nonwood forest products, including
recreation and special forest products such as wild-grown mushrooms;
· information for making accurate assessments of the impacts of
changes in forest practices on regional and local employment and
income;
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270
Pacific Northwest Forests
· the impacts of changes in forest practices in the Pacific Northwest
on biological and nonbiolog~cal factors within the region and in other
affected regions;
· continued basic research on the biological functioning and
interactions of the multitude of life forms present in the Pacific North-
west forests.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
federal forests
