Area of old-growth forests in California, Oregon, and Washington.

Bolsinger, Charles L.; Waddell, Karen L.

doi:10.2737/pnw-rb-197

Cited by 46 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In the Pacific West, more than half of old forest areas (more than 100 yr) vanished due to harvest and other disturbances. The area of old growth (generally, 200 yr old or more) in 1992 was estimated to be about 10 million acres (Bolsinger and Waddell 1993), whereas in 1920 there was an estimated 40 million acres of "virgin forest" (Greeley, 1920). There is a distinct contrast in the age pattern of young forests between Pacific Southwest and Northwest regions.…”

Section: The Us Pacific Northwest and Southwest Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age structure and disturbance legacy of North American forests

Pan

Chen²,

Birdsey³

et al. 2011

Biogeosciences

279

218

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Abstract. Most forests of the world are recovering from a past disturbance. It is well known that forest disturbances profoundly affect carbon stocks and fluxes in forest ecosystems, yet it has been a great challenge to assess disturbance impacts in estimates of forest carbon budgets. Net sequestration or loss of CO 2 by forests after disturbance follows a predictable pattern with forest recovery. Forest age, which is related to time since disturbance, is a useful surrogate variable for analyses of the impact of disturbance on forest carbon. In this study, we compiled the first continental forest age map of North America by combining forest inventory data, historical fire data, optical satellite data and the dataset from NASA's Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) project. A companion map of the standard deviations for age estimates was developed for quantifying uncertainty. We discuss the significance of the disturbance legacy from the past, as represented by current forest age structure in different regions of the US and Canada, by analyzing the causes of disturbances from land management and nature over centuries and at various scales. We also show how such information can be used with inventory data for analyzing carbon management opportunities. By combining geographic information about forest age with estimated C dynamics by forest type, it is possible to conduct a simple but powerful analysis of the net CO 2 uptake by forests, and the potential for increasing (or decreasing) this rate as a result of direct human intervention in the disturbance/age status. Finally, we describe how the forest age data can be used in large-scale carbon modeling, both for land-based biogeochemistry models and atmosphere-based inversion models, in order to improve the spatial accuracy of carbon cycle simulations.

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Section: The Us Pacific Northwest and Southwest Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age structure and disturbance legacy of North American forests

Pan

Chen²,

Birdsey³

et al. 2011

Biogeosciences

279

218

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1). Most remaining old growth in the Pacific Northwest is concentrated on federal lands (Bolsinger and Waddell, 1993). Forest industry lands typically occur in large blocks that are still intensively managed for timber production.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation and prediction of shrub cover in coastal Oregon forests (USA)

Kerns¹,

Ohmann²

2004

Ecological Indicators

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“…At the very heart of the Northwest Forest Plan was the observation that the amount of older forest on federal land in the Pacific Northwest had declined steeply in the 20 th century (see Bolsinger and Waddell 1993), and the assumption was that it would continue to decline unless policies were put in place to halt it. Declining old-growth habitat was also blamed for placing at risk some old-growthdependent species such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.…”

Section: The Plan's Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%