Ecological Evaluation and Assessment of the Lakeside Land Management Unit
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Ecological Evaluation and Assessment of the Lakeside Land Management Unit Aitkin County Land Department, Minnesota Scott C. Zager, Plant Ecologist Wildlands Ecological Services Ecological Evaluation and Assessment of the Lakeside Land Management Unit Aitkin County Land Department, Minnesota February 16, 2012 Aitkin County Land Department 209 2nd St. NW Room 206 Aitkin, Mn. 56431 218-927-7364 fax - 218-927-7249 email: [email protected] Submitted to: Rich Courtemanche Assistant Land Commissioner Aitkin County Land Department Submitted By: Scott C. Zager, Plant Ecologist Wildlands Ecological Services 2009 Maryknoll Avenue North Maplewood, MN 55109-3645 ph: 651-261-2398 email: [email protected] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank the staff of the Aitkin County Land Department (ACLD), specifically Rich Courtemanche, Bob Kangas and Tom Parkin for their assistance and advice. Aitkin County Land Department: Mark Jacobs, Land Commissioner Rich Courtemanche, Assistant Land Commissioner. Bob Kangas & Tom Parkin: ACLD Foresters. http://www.co.aitkin.mn.us/departments/land/landhome.html I especially wish to thank the people of Aitkin County for their outstanding conservation ethic and strong heart-felt desire for sustainable resource management. Mission Statement: The Aitkin County Land Department (ACLD) is responsible for managing the natural resources on approximately 222,000 acres of tax forfeited lands. ACLD strives to manage these lands so they contribute to the quality of life in terms of economic, ecological, and social benefits. Through good forest management, ACLD strives to conserve the natural environment, develop unique recreational experiences, preserve historical and scenic values, enhance essential habitat, protect rare and endangered species and plant communities, as well as forest soil and water quality. ACLD is able to maintain and enhance timber quality and productivity of our forests and provide a sustainable yield of renewable resources for area industries and for our citizens. To demonstrate the commitment to good forestry ACLD has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council™, since 1997. ACLD has two citizen committees that advise the Aitkin County Board of Commissioners on issues related to natural resources (Forest Advisory Committee and Park Commission). Aitkin County Land Department, Minnesota Ecological Evaluation and Assessment of the Lakeside Land Management Unit TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................ SUMMARY. .................................................................1 INTRODUCTION.............................................................1 The Minnesota County Biological Survey (MCBS).. 2 Ecological Classification System. 2 Principal Investigator. 3 Study Area. 4 Geologic Landformations. 4 Modern Climate. 5 Expected Climate Change.. 5 Observed Climate Trends. 5 Scenarios of Future Climate. 5 METHODS...................................................................5 RESULTS & DISCUSSION Collected Data............................................................6 Soils and NPC distributions. .................................................6 General Descriptions of Soil Moisture Types......................................8 Species Lists of Native Plant Communities.......................................8 Waypoint Sample Locations. 9 Existing Vegetation Map. ...................................................9 Potential Vegetation Map...................................................10 General Recommendations for the Lakeside Unit Area High Conservation Value Forest. 10 Existing Biological Legacies for Lakeside Unit on Upland Forests.....................10 A Suggested Goal for Incorporating Ecological Silviculture Techniques. 11 Suggested Examples of Ecological Silviculture Objectives...........................12 Management for Climate Change. ............................................12 NPC Description and Commentary............................................13 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................. 22 APPENDIX 1 - ECS DEFINITIONS & METADATA Definitions of terms related to the ecological land classification hierarchy. 37 Definitions of survey terms.. 38 Metadata...............................................................44 Scott C. Zager, Wildlands Ecological Services Table of Contents - Page 1 of 2 Aitkin County Land Department, Minnesota Ecological Evaluation and Assessment of the Lakeside Land Management Unit TABLE OF CONTENTS APPENDIX 2 - TABLES Table 1: Acreage of Native Plant Community & Non-Natural Cover Types (Undisturbed Natural Communities Highlighted in Gray).. 56 Table 2: Soil Moisture-Texture Values Assigned to USDA Soil Map Units in Blind Lake, Rice Lake, Lakeside, Wagner, Libby Lowlands, Seavey and Cornish Areas in Aitkin County ............................................................... 59 Table 3: Percentage of NRCS Soil Types For Each Native Plant Community (NPC) Class (see Table 1)... 64 Table 4: Species lists of vascular plants observed within NPC Types. Sorted by Site Name, NPC type code, Structural Code, Abundance Code (descending) and Scientific Name... 66 Table 5: Waypoint Sample Descriptions, ECS Field Survey 2011 (sorted by Site Name and Waypoint #).. 80 Table 6: Criteria for scoring attributes of potential High Conservation Value Forests.. 90 Table 7. Rare, threatened, endangered (RTE) plants and animals within the MN DNR Heritage Database Recorded Within the ACLD Lakeside HCVF and Vicinity.. 91 Table 8. NRCS Descriptions of Soil Series - Lakeside Management Unit.. 93 APPENDIX 3 - FIGURES Descriptions of Figures 1 - 10.. 102 Fig 1 - Locations of ACLM Management Units - ECS Subsections. 112 Fig 2 - Legend Surficial Geology. 113 Fig 3 - Locations of ACLM Management Units - Surficial Geology.. 114 Fig 4 - ACLD Lakeside Unit - USGS Topographic Map & Waypoint Sample Locations.. 115 Fig 5 - ACLD Lakeside Unit - NRCS-USDA Soil Polygons Classified by Soil Moisture-Texture Categories.. 116 Fig 6 - ACLD Lakeside Unit - Native Plant Community (NPC) Polygons on Color Infra-Red (CIR) Aerial Photographs. 117 Fig 7- ACLD Lakeside Unit - NPC Legend. 118 Fig 8 - ACLD Lakeside Unit - Extant NPC & Non-Natural Cover Types. 119 Fig 9 - ACLD Lakeside Unit - NPC Potential Class (Desired Future State). 120 Fig 10 - ACLD Lakeside Unit - NPC Potential System. 121 APPENDIX 4 - DIGITAL DATA ON ATTACHED COMPACT DISC....(Vol. 1, Back Page) Scott C. Zager, Wildlands Ecological Services Table of Contents - Page 2 of 2 Aitkin County Land Department, Minnesota Ecological Evaluation and Assessment of the Lakeside Land Management Unit SUMMARY application to their lands. The Aitkin County Land Department (ACLD) contracted Scott Zager, Plant Ecologist for Wildlands The Aitkin County Land Department (ACLD) manages Ecological Services, to survey vegetation and soils on the natural resources on approximately 222,000 acres of the Lakeside Management Unit. This report, maps and Aitkin County tax forfeited lands. ACLD does this in a supporting database are the result of that study variety of ways by managing the timber, the recreational conducted during the field season of 2011. The report opportunities, and access roads for the various uses of analyzes USDA soil types and compares them with the lands. In Aitkin County, there are three “zones” of vegetation data and soil data collected for this study. differing landscape objectives that apply to broad-scale This report also reviews ACLD management ecological goals. Current conservation science prescriptions for the Lakeside Management Unit and encourages a combined coarse- and fine-filter approach comments upon their ecological appropriateness to for managing ecosystems across the landscape. upland forests described in this survey. Fine-filter management focuses on specific rare, threatened, endangered (RTE) species as well as other The results described in this report demonstrate that the sensitive plant and animal species. Coarse-filter area surveyed within the Lakeside Unit has high-scoring management is distinct from fine-filter in that it does ecological attributes that meet, or exceed, Forest not use a species-by-species approach, but focuses on Stewardship Council criteria for designation as a High habitats and species associations across the landscape. Conservation Value Forest. The ACLD Forest Management Plan defines a set of INTRODUCTION ecological objectives across the various landscapes, Ecological land classifications, such as Minnesota’s which prescribes a “coarse-filter” ecological approach Ecological Classification System (ECS), are used to across a range of forest types on ACLD land (while identify, describe and map progressively smaller areas specific site management directives by area foresters of land. As these hierarchical units diminish in scale, apply a “fine-filter” approach to individual stands their ecological attributes become increasingly more supporting RTE species on a case-by-case basis). Since uniform and easier to describe. Consequently, ECS will 1997, ACLD has been in process of recognizing, make forestry more efficient while simultaneously, ECS delineating and managing forests with high conservation will help maintain valuable biological legacies of a values. natural forest ecosystem. ECS uses associations of biotic and environmental factors including climate, High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) is a forest geology, topography, soils, hydrology and vegetation. management designation by the Forest Stewardship These are