scholarly journals Restoration of Natural Forests After Severe Wind Disturbance in a Cold, Snowy Region With a Deer Population: Implications From 15 Years of Field Experiments

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junko Morimoto ◽  
Mio Sugiura ◽  
Miho Morimoto ◽  
Futoshi Nakamura
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Wind Disturbance ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Deer Browsing ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
Deer Population ◽  
Forest Management Practices ◽  
The Impact

Questions have been raised about the application of conventional post-windthrow forest practices such as salvage logging, site preparation, and afforestation in response to the increase in wind disturbance caused by climate change. In particular, it is necessary to identify effective forest management practices that consider the pressure from deer browsing in forests in cold, snowy regions because the population of ungulates is expected to increase. The impacts of legacy destruction, i.e., the destruction of advance regeneration, microsites, and soil structure, caused by conventional post-windthrow practices have rarely been assessed separately from the impacts of subsequent deer browsing on forest regeneration or evaluated based on sufficiently long monitoring periods to assess vegetation succession. This lack of studies is one reason that alternative forest management practices to salvaging and planting have not been proposed. We conducted a field experiment at a large-scale windthrow site with a deer population to (1) assess the impact of legacy destruction and deer browsing on vegetation biomass and species composition after 15 years and (2) identify the effects of legacy retention. The study design allowed us to distinguish between and measure the impact of legacy destruction and that of subsequent deer browsing during a 15-year period. The results revealed the following: (1) Salvage logging and site preparation suppressed the development of biomass of shrub and tree layers in forested areas where harvest residues were piled up and shifted the plant communities in these areas to herbaceous plant communities. (2) Subsequent deer browsing suppressed the development of the biomass of shrub and tree layers throughout the forested site and shifted herbaceous communities to ruderal communities dominated by alien species; and 3. Compared with salvaging and planting, legacy retention enabled the windthrow sites to more quickly develop into a stand with characteristics similar to that of a mature, natural forest. Forest management practices that consider the presence of deer are necessary. We propose a policy shift from planting trees after salvaging to leaving downed trees to regenerate natural forests, unless there is concern about insect damage to the remaining forestry land in the vicinity.

scholarly journals Effects of forest management practices on red-shouldered hawks in Ontario

2004 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J Naylor ◽  
James A Baker ◽  
Kandyd J Szuba
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Nest Success ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
Forest Management Practices ◽  
Effectiveness Monitoring ◽  
Hardwood Trees ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Special Concern ◽  
The Impact

The red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) is a species of special concern throughout its northern range. It is considered to be sensitive to forest management practices because it requires dense mature hardwood forest for nesting. In Ontario, guidelines that prescribe spatial and temporal buffers were developed in about 1990 to mitigate the potential impacts of harvesting. We monitored 84 nesting areas of red-shouldered hawks in central and southeastern Ontario from 1988 to 1995 to describe the effects of forest management practices on the occupancy and productivity of nesting areas, to evaluate the effectiveness of the guidelines, and recommend modifications as appropriate. The number of years nesting areas had been used previously had a significant negative effect on activity status, but not on nest success. Nesting areas harvested with application of the guidelines had a similar probability of being active to those in uncut forest but nesting areas harvested without application of the guidelines did not. Neither the area nor proximity of selection cuts with a moderate to high residual basal area ( ≥18 m2/ha) affected the activity status of nesting areas. In contrast, the area and proximity of heavy cuts (shelterwood cuts or selection cuts with a residual basal area of 14–16 m2/ha) appeared to have a negative effect on activity status. When nesting areas were active, the proximity and amount of harvesting did not influence nest success. We concluded that the impact of harvesting on the activity status of nesting areas could be mitigated by prohibiting heavy cuts within 300 m of active nests and retaining ≥20 ha of forest dominated by tolerant and mid-tolerant hardwood trees, ≥18 m tall, with ≥70% canopy closure around nests. Key words: Buteo lineatus, effectiveness monitoring, habitat guidelines, nest success, Ontario, red-shouldered hawk, forest management, selection, shelterwood, tolerant hardwoods

Different management practices impact on CO2 and H2O budget of wind disturbed forest sites- 5-year dataset

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaudia Ziemblinska ◽  
Janusz Olejnik ◽  
Marek Urbaniak ◽  
Stanislaw Malek
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Restoration ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Soil Cover ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Organic Layer ◽  
Forest Site ◽  
Forest Management Practices ◽  
Soil Preparation ◽  
The Impact

<p>There is evidence of increasing severity of extreme meteorological events, which due to climate warming are also more frequent than in the past few decades. Any disturbances (either natural or anthropogenic) exert a significant influence on the forest’s functioning. In Canada and the USA, fires and insect outbreaks cause the greatest damage while in Europe wind disturbances are the main threat. Since in Poland the majority of forests are managed by the State Forests, after such events disturbed areas are almost immediately designated for reforestation. While natural regeneration still contributes the least to forest restoration, the most common practices in our country include harvesting, soil preparation (ploughing) and manual seedlings introduction, which in this sense is similar to clear-cut’s management. </p><p>Once such an event happened in Poland two EC stations were set up in the area of an 80-year old pine forest, which had been wiped out by a tornado in July 2012, to asses the impact of forest management. To date, there have been more than 5 full years of continuous carbon and energy fluxes measurement, allowing insight into forest regeneration patterns due to manual reforestation, as well as differences in CO<sub>2</sub> losses connected to chosen treatments. The two sites (Tlen I and Tlen II) differ mostly in terms of soil preparation – at Tlen I site soil was ploughed before replanting and at Tlen II soil cover remained almost intact. Additionally, at the second location, only trunks and main branches were harvested, while all uprooted stumps were left to decompose. Both meteorological and soil conditions have been investigated, with most of them not being significantly different, which allowed drawing the conclusion that observed differences in GHGs balance <span>are most likely related to chosen forest management practices</span>. Thorough analysis of quality checked EC data revealed that in 5-year perspective the application of traditional method (Tlen I site), mainly due to soil ploughing, resulted in much less total CO<sub>2</sub> loss to the atmosphere, reaching C-neutrality point in only 6 years after the damage as well as better seedling growth in general in comparison to the technique, where the soil cover was not disrupted. Moreover, it seems that furrows created at the conventionally managed forest site (“double” organic layer) serve as crucial water reservoirs during water shortage periods, preventing from the pine plantation damage caused by prolonged droughts.</p><p>This work advances our understanding of how different forest management practices can help to sustain the least CO<sub>2</sub> losses on the example of wind-disturbed forests. Although, it has to be remembered that long-term studies are needed to point the best option from the perspective of climate change mitigation. </p>

scholarly journals Biological Legacies and Rockfall: The Protective Effect of a Windthrown Forest

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1141
Author(s):  
Maximiliano Costa ◽  
Niccolò Marchi ◽  
Francesco Bettella ◽  
Paola Bolzon ◽  
Frédéric Berger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Shielding Effect ◽  
Mountain Forests ◽  
Protective Function ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
Biological Legacies ◽  
The Impact

Windstorms represent one of the main large-scale disturbances that shape the European landscape and influence its forest structure, so post-event restoration activities start to gain a major role in mountainous forest management. After a disturbance event, biological legacies may enhance or maintain multiple ecosystem services of mountain forests such as protection against natural hazards, biodiversity conservation, or erosion mitigation. However, the conservation of all these ecosystem services after stand-replacing events could go against traditional management practices, such as salvage logging. Thus far, the impact of salvage logging and removal of biological legacies on the protective function of mountain stands has been poorly studied. Structural biological legacies may provide protection for natural regeneration and may also increase the terrain roughness providing a shielding effect against gravitational hazards like rockfall. The aim of this project is to understand the dynamics of post-windthrow recovery processes and to investigate how biological legacies affect the multifunctionality of mountain forests, in particular the protective function. To observe the role of biological legacies we performed 3000 simulations of rockfall activity on windthrown areas. Results show the active role of biological legacies in preventing gravitational hazards, providing a barrier effect and an energy reduction effect on rockfall activity. To conclude, we underline how forest management should take into consideration the protective function of structural legacies. A suggestion is to avoid salvage logging in order to maintain the multifunctionality of damaged stands during the recovery process.

scholarly journals Aboveground stock of biomass and organic carbon in stands of Pinus taeda L.

CERNE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciano Farinha Watzlawick ◽  
Marcos Vinicius Winckler Caldeira ◽  
Tiago de Oliveira Godinho ◽  
Rafaelo Balbinot ◽  
Jonathan William Trautenmüller
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Pinus Taeda ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
Stem Wood ◽  
Quantification Method ◽  
Forest Management Practices ◽  
Pinus Taeda L ◽  
Age Category

This study aimed to estimate biomass and organic carbon in stands of Pinus taeda L. at different ages (14, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23 and 32 years) and located in the municipality of General Carneiro (PR). In order to estimate biomass and organic carbon in different tree components (needles, live branches, dead branches, bark and stem wood), the destructive quantification method was used in which seven trees from each age category were randomly sampled across the stand. Stocks of biomass and organic carbon were found to vary between the different age categories, mainly as a result of existing dissimilarities between ages in association with forest management practices such as thinning, pruning and tree density per hectare.

scholarly journals Historical Forest Management Practices Influence Tree-Ring Based Climate Reconstructions

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios Skiadaresis ◽  
Bernhard Muigg ◽  
Willy Tegel
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Growth Patterns ◽  
Climate Control ◽  
Climate Signal ◽  
Forest Management Practices ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Climate Reconstructions ◽  
Historical Forest

Tree-ring widths (TRW) of historical and archeological wood provide crucial proxies, frequently used for high-resolution multi-millennial paleoclimate reconstructions. Former growing conditions of the utilized trees, however, are largely unknown. Potential influences of historical forest management practices on climatic information, derived from TRW variability need to be considered but have not been assessed so far. Here, we examined the suitability of TRW series from traditionally managed oak forests (Quercus spp.) for climate reconstructions. We compared the climate signal in TRW chronologies of trees originating from high forests and coppice-with-standards (CWS) forests, a silvicultural management practice widely used in Europe for most of the common era. We expected a less distinct climate control in CWS due to management-induced growth patterns, yet an improved climate-growth relationship with TRW data from conventionally managed high forests. CWS tree rings showed considerably weaker correlations with hydroclimatic variables than non-CWS trees. The greatest potential for hydroclimate reconstructions was found for a large dataset containing both CWS and non-CWS trees, randomly collected from lumber yards, resembling the randomness in sources of historical material. Our results imply that growth patterns induced by management interventions can dampen climate signals in TRW chronologies. However, their impact can be minimized in well replicated, randomly sampled regional chronologies.

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