Historical Northern spotted owl habitat and old-growth dry forests maintained by mixed-severity wildfires

Baker, William L.

doi:10.1007/s10980-014-0144-6

Cited by 31 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Hanson et al (2009Hanson et al ( , 2010, Baker (2012), Williams and Baker (2012), Dellasala and Hanson (2015), Odion et al (2014), and Baker (2015) have argued against fuels reduction or landscape restoration of any magnitude in Inland West pine and mixedconifer forests. They provide evidence that current large patches of high-severity fire may be within the historical range of variability for these forests, and the risk of loss of dense multistoried forest to high-severity fire is relatively low.…”

Section: Management Challenges In Msforestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tamm Review: Management of mixed-severity fire regime forests in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California

Hessburg

Spies

Perry

et al. 2016

Forest Ecology and Management

176

190

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tIncreasingly, objectives for forests with moderate-or mixed-severity fire regimes are to restore successionally diverse landscapes that are resistant and resilient to current and future stressors. Maintaining native species and characteristic processes requires this successional diversity, but methods to achieve it are poorly explained in the literature. In the Inland Pacific US, large, old, early seral trees were a key historical feature of many young and old forest successional patches, especially where fires frequently occurred. Large, old trees are naturally fire-tolerant, but today are often threatened by dense understory cohorts that create fuel ladders that alter likely post-fire successional pathways. Reducing these understories can contribute to resistance by creating conditions where canopy trees will survive disturbances and climatic stressors; these survivors are important seed sources, soil protectors, and critical habitat elements. Historical timber harvesting has skewed tree size and age class distributions, created hard edges, and altered native patch sizes. Manipulating these altered forests to promote development of larger patches of older, larger, and more widely-spaced trees with diverse understories will increase landscape resistance to severe fires, and enhance wildlife habitat for underrepresented conditions.Closed-canopy, multi-layered patches that develop in hot, dry summer environments are vulnerable to droughts, and they increase landscape vulnerability to insect outbreaks and severe wildfires. These same patches provide habitat for species such as the northern spotted owl, which has benefited from increased habitat area. Regional and local planning will be critical for gauging risks, evaluating trade-offs, and restoring dynamics that can support these and other species. The goal will be to manage for heterogeneous landscapes that include variably-sized patches of (1) young, middle-aged, and old, closedcanopy forests growing in upper montane, northerly aspect, and valley bottom settings, (2) a similar diversity of open-canopy, fire-tolerant patches growing on ridgetops, southerly aspects, and lower montane settings, and (3) significant montane chaparral and grassland areas. Tools to achieve this goal http://dx

show abstract

Section: Management Challenges In Msforestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tamm Review: Management of mixed-severity fire regime forests in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California

Hessburg

Spies

Perry

et al. 2016

Forest Ecology and Management

176

190

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Notably, burned forests successionally link complex early seral forests [10,11] to future old-forest development [92] and are not ecological disasters as often claimed. Depending on fire severity, burned forests provide nesting and roosting (low-moderate severity) or foraging (high severity) habitat for spotted owls [45,46,51]. Federal managers, however, have increasingly proposed massive post-fire logging projects that degrade complex early seral forests [95] and spotted owl habitat [45,46], and that can elevate fuel hazards and re-burn potential [96,97].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the dry portions of the owls' range, where fire is common, owl fitness is associated with a mosaic of older forests (nesting and roosting habitat) and open vegetation patches (foraging areas; [47,48]). Such patch mosaics are produced by mixed-severity fires characteristic of the Klamath and eastern Cascade dry ecoprovinces [49,50] that may have contributed to maintenance of owl habitat historically [51]. However, if fire increases in severity or homogeneity of burn patterns due to climate change [52,53] and if LSOG losses outpace recruitment rates over time, the beneficial habitat effects of fire to owls would diminish.…”

Section: Northern Spotted Owl Decline Slowed But Not Reversedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building on Two Decades of Ecosystem Management and Biodiversity Conservation under the Northwest Forest Plan, USA

DellaSala

Baker

Heiken³

et al. 2015

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) shifted federal lands management from a focus on timber production to ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation. The plan established a network of conservation reserves and an ecosystem management strategy on ~10 million hectares from northern California to Washington State, USA, within the range of the federally threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina). Several subsequent assessments-and 20 years of data from monitoring OPEN ACCESSForests 2015, 6 3327 programs established under the plan-have demonstrated the effectiveness of this reserve network and ecosystem management approach in making progress toward attaining many of the plan's conservation and ecosystem management goals. This paper (1) showcases the fundamental conservation biology and ecosystem management principles underpinning the NWFP as a case study for managers interested in large-landscape conservation; and (2) recommends improvements to the plan's strategy in response to unprecedented climate change and land-use threats. Twenty years into plan implementation, however, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, under pressure for increased timber harvest, are retreating from conservation measures. We believe that federal agencies should instead build on the NWFP to ensure continuing success in the Pacific Northwest. We urge federal land managers to (1) protect all remaining late-successional/old-growth forests; (2) identify climate refugia for at-risk species; (3) maintain or increase stream buffers and landscape connectivity; (4) decommission and repair failing roads to improve water quality; (5) reduce fire risk in fire-prone tree plantations; and (6) prevent logging after fires in areas of high conservation value. In many respects, the NWFP is instructive for managers considering similar large-scale conservation efforts.

show abstract

“…It is unclear what the proportion of this type of structure would have been under the historical disturbance regime. However, it probably was quite high, e.g., > 75%, given the recent historical work of Hagmann et al (2014) and Merschel et al (2014) and that of Baker (2015), who found that > 76% of the forests of all levels of canopy cover contained trees > 53 cm dbh in central Oregon. An earlier simulation study by Kennedy and Wimberly (2009) estimated that under historical regimes, 35% of all forest types on the Deschutes River, Oregon was covered by old forest structure, of which approximately 25% was in closed canopy conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using an agent-based model to examine forest management outcomes in a fire-prone landscape in Oregon, USA

Spies¹,

White²,

Ager³

et al. 2017

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

. 2017. Using an agent-based model to examine forest management outcomes in a fire-prone landscape in Oregon, USA. Ecology and Society 22 (1) ABSTRACT. Fire-prone landscapes present many challenges for both managers and policy makers in developing adaptive behaviors and institutions. We used a coupled human and natural systems framework and an agent-based landscape model to examine how alternative management scenarios affect fire and ecosystem services metrics in a fire-prone multiownership landscape in the eastern Cascades of Oregon. Our model incorporated existing models of vegetation succession and fire spread and information from original empirical studies of landowner decision making. Our findings indicate that alternative management strategies can have variable effects on landscape outcomes over 50 years for fire, socioeconomic, and ecosystem services metrics. For example, scenarios with federal restoration treatments had slightly less high-severity fire than a scenario without treatment; exposure of homes in the wildland-urban interface to fire was also slightly less with restoration treatments compared to no management. Treatments appeared to be more effective at reducing high-severity fire in years with more fire than in years with less fire. Under the current management scenario, timber production could be maintained for at least 50 years on federal lands. Under an accelerated restoration scenario, timber production fell because of a shortage of areas meeting current stand structure treatment targets. Trade-offs between restoration outcomes (e.g., open forests with large fire-resistant trees) and habitat for species that require dense older forests were evident. For example, the proportional area of nesting habitat for northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) was somewhat less after 50 years under the restoration scenarios than under no management. However, the amount of resilient older forest structure and habitat for white-headed woodpecker (Leuconotopicus albolarvatus) was higher after 50 years under active management. More carbon was stored on this landscape without management than with management, despite the occurrence of high-severity wildfire. Our results and further applications of the model could be used in collaborative settings to facilitate discussion and development of policies and practices for fire-prone landscapes.

show abstract

Historical Northern spotted owl habitat and old-growth dry forests maintained by mixed-severity wildfires

Cited by 31 publications

References 30 publications

Tamm Review: Management of mixed-severity fire regime forests in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California

Tamm Review: Management of mixed-severity fire regime forests in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California

Building on Two Decades of Ecosystem Management and Biodiversity Conservation under the Northwest Forest Plan, USA

Using an agent-based model to examine forest management outcomes in a fire-prone landscape in Oregon, USA

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About