1 Extreme stress events in the Alpine forests: management experiences based on recent occurrences WP6 Handbook MANFRED project – Extreme stress events in the Alpine forests MANFRED project – Extreme stress events in the Alpine forests 2 Table of Contents Preface ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 Section I – Forest Fires ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Table I‐1: synoptic table: forest fires extreme events collected within the MANFRED project. ................. 10 I.2 Glossary of categories and keywords ..................................................................................................... 11 I.3 SUBJECT INDEX ....................................................................................................................................... 17 Section II – Biotic disturbances ........................................................................................................................ 20 Table II‐1: synoptic table: biotic extreme events collected within the MANFRED project. ........................ 22 II.2 Glossary of categories and keywords .................................................................................................... 23 II.3 SUBJECT INDEX ...................................................................................................................................... 26 Section III – Abiotic disturbances .................................................................................................................... 28 Table III‐1: synoptic table: abiotic extreme events collected within the MANFRED project. ..................... 31 III.2 Glossary of categories and keywords ................................................................................................... 32 III.3 SUBJECT INDEX ..................................................................................................................................... 34 S.III.4 ‐ Abiotic forest stress factors: evaluating windthrow risk sensitivenes in Alpine forests ...................... 37 S.III.5 ‐ Abiotic forest stress factors: strategies for storm damage management ........................................... 45 MANFRED project – Extreme stress events in the Alpine forests 3 Preface MANFRED project Work Package 6 worked on collecting data all above the Alpine region about disturbance events that damaged forests and in particular about those events considered “extreme”. This gathering of information has been pursued through different means: numerical data have been collected in a large database, questionnaires have been spread out to catch the notion of memory sifted events from the territory and eventually local experts have proposed their deepenings over some very significant extreme events. This document is essentially a review and an analytical and synthetic collection of the insights produced on specific case histories by the professionals, researcher and pratictioners who have been involved in the years in the project MANFRED. Scope of the present document is therefore to present a review of the management experiences of so called extreme events, occurred in the recent past over the Alpine region. Of this collection hopefully more researchers and pratictioners will take advantage in developing new solutions and strategies when coping with similar events in the future. It is possible to find the personal references of these pratictioners or researchers within the case histories documents themselves. The documents can be found as annexes at the end of this paper. Within the present work, the case histories have been gone over again and analized, trying to catch their conceptual cores, by the mean of pointing out keywords that could define and synthetize their contents and peculiar topics and arranging them into easy reading tables and subject indexes. The observation of the keywords allowed to organize them into conceptual categories and to produce a subject index of the case histories and the related documents. This dual‐purpose process permits at one time to obtain two results: the first is to point out the main issues that the case histories analysis have dealed with; the second is to share and hopefully make accessible and usable the knowledges desumed and contained in the analysis themselves. The body of the document has got therefore the pattern described right below, while the case histories, as mentioned before, are enclosed as annexes in the end of the document. Three different sections are dedicated to the considered stress categories: first section is about forest fires, second one is about biotic disturbances, mainly forest pathogen insects, and the third one is about abiotic disturbances, such as windthrows and heavy snow fellings. MANFRED project – Extreme stress events in the Alpine forests4 In each one of the sections you can find some common elements: ‐ A map, derived from the MANFRED webGIS (www.manfredproject.eu Æ webGIS), on which it is possible to visualize the geographic location of the considered events; ‐ A synoptic table that shows the collection of the events defined by their main parameters and that highlights the keywords of each of them. ‐ A subject index, reporting the same keywords in alphabetical order and the related categories, referring the words to the related case histories. ‐ A brief gloss about the categories which have been selected to represent the keywords and of the main issues highlighted in the case histories: the conceptual categories represent as a matter of fact the common aspects in the approach to the description of the events, showed by the single authors of the case histories. Some of the keywords are then shortly illustrated in order to guide the user in the reading of the several deepenings here presented and integrating further hints and information derived from expert audition during the Round Tables and conferences organized in the scope of MANFRED project. Finally, in Section III “Abiotic disturbance”, two documents are presented which deal with pre‐event management1 and post‐event management2 guidelines especially for great storm events. Note: an identificatory code has been assigned to each event; the code is formed by initials: FF (forest fire),BI (biotic disturbance), AB (abiotic disturbance); the year of occurrence, the nation (in brackets) and eventually a distinctive letter (e.g. FF_07(D), BI_03(SLO), AB_08(I)a, etc.). In the tables and in the annexes the case histories are presented in a chronological order, in order to point out a possible evolution in the material and conceptual issues and the related knowledge and experience. 1 “Evaluating windthrow risk sensitivenes in Alpine forests” proposed by F. Berger – CEMAGREF. 2 “Strategies for storm damage management” proposed by B. You – FVA. MANFRED project – Extreme stress events in the Alpine forests 5 Section I – Forest Fires Within the project MANFRED, a census of data about forest fires has been carried out at the alpine scale. Furthermore an analysis of those data has been provided and all the results are presented in the project document Alpine Report on extreme fires. Moreover pratictioners and researchers could propose analysis over 20 different case histories from different regions in Italy, Germany (Bavaria) and Slovenia in a timespan going from 1965 to 2010. In the map below it is possible to locate geographically the considered events.The events, their main carachteristics and the distinguishing keywords are summarized in table n.I.1. MANFRED project – Extreme stress events in the Alpine forests 6 Affected Pre‐event Fire Code Region Year Event Season forest type Elevation management Aspect Cause type Impacts (I) Impacts (II) Keywords coordination, fire spread opposite to slope, lack of Larch, Norway Valle Cleve (1500‐ surface, production, roads, monitoring, FF_65(I) 1965 spring Spruce, Scots high stand SW, SE unknown landscape d'Aosta Magne 2000) crown protection reforestation, specialized pine training, steep slope, water deficit Larch, Norway Spruce, Beech (500‐ high stand, surface, 2672 ha, uncultivated FF_81(I) Piemonte 1981 Quincinetto winter ‐ anthropic protection landscape and other 1500) coppice crown lands broadleaves coordination, decision making strategies, lack Norway ground, of infrastructure, lack of FF_90(D) Baviera 1990 Herzogstand winter spruce, Pines, 1500 high stand SE anthropic stock, protection ‐ snow, monitoring, Beech crown resources locating, sensing technology abandonment, crop residues burning, forest Valle surface, management, FF_90(I) 1990 Arnad winter Larch 1000 ‐ SW anthropic protection landscape d'Aosta crown information campaign, pastures, specialized training accessibility, drought, Mediterranean hydrogeological hazard, macchia, ground, reforestation, rock falls, FF_97(I) Lombardia 1997 Limone spring 1000 high stand SW anthropic protection landscape Austrian pine crown safety restore, salvage (reforestation) logging, steep slope, strong wind Norway bark beetle, economic Berzo crown, naturalistic, FF_01(I) Lombardia 2001 winter spruce, beech, 550 coppice W anthropic production loss, infrastructure Inferiore ground landscape chestnut upkeeping MANFRED project – Extreme stress events in the Alpine forests 7 Affected Pre‐event Fire Code Region Year Event Season forest type Elevation management Aspect Cause type Impacts