UFR Plan-Dec2008
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Version 2.0 Cedar River Municipal Watershed Upland Forest Habitat Restoration Strategic Plan December 2008 Upland Forest Restoration Inter-Disciplinary Team Amy LaBarge (Team Leader - Forest Ecology) Rolf Gersonde (Forest Ecology) Sally Nickelson (Fish and Wildlife) Bill Richards (Fish and Wildlife) Duncan Munro (Information Technology) Clayton Antieau (Planning) Ecosystems Section Watershed Services Division Seattle Public Utilities Version 2.0 CRMW Upland Forest Habitat Restoration Strategic Plan REVISION TRACKING SHEET Primary Date File Name Author(s) Released Description of Version Reviewers UFR Amy LaBarge This version of plan is substantially Strategic revised from previous June 2004 draft Rolf Gersonde Plan (version 1.0). It is based on new outline Bill Richards developed with other restoration programs and incorporates the “measures of success Sally Nickelson framework” and the recently completed Duncan Munro Landscape Synthesis Plan. Clayton Antieau i Version 2.0 CRMW Upland Forest Habitat Restoration Strategic Plan TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................................................................IV LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................................................IV LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................................. V EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................................................................I 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................1 1.1 PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT ........................................................................................................................................ 2 1.2 STRATEGIC PLAN ORGANIZATION................................................................................................................................. 2 1.3 HCP UPLAND FOREST RESTORATION PROGRAM GOALS AND OBJECTIVES............................................................ 3 1.3.1 Adaptive Management – Conducting Restoration within a Learning Model.............................................4 1.3.2 Applying the Upland Forest Restoration Programs .......................................................................................4 1.3.3 Restoration Thinning Goals and Objectives.....................................................................................................5 1.3.4 Ecological Thinning Goals and Objectives......................................................................................................6 1.3.5 Restoration Planting Goals and Objectives .....................................................................................................6 1.3.6 Additional HCP Goals and Commitments ........................................................................................................6 1.4 LINKAGES TO OTHER PLANS AND DOCUMENTS.......................................................................................................... 7 1.4.1 Landscape Synthesis Plan....................................................................................................................................8 1.4.2 Restoration Philosophy........................................................................................................................................8 1.4.3 Riparian and Aquatic Restoration Strategic Plans.........................................................................................9 1.4.4 Monitoring and Watershed Characterization..................................................................................................9 1.5 ASSET MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK............................................................................................................................. 9 1.5.1 Obtain the Greatest Ecological Benefits for the Financial Cost................................................................10 1.5.2 Service Levels ......................................................................................................................................................10 2.0 STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR UPLAND FOREST ECOSYSTEM CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION..........................................................................................................................................................................11 2.1 UPLAND FOREST ECOSYSTEM CLASSIFICATION........................................................................................................ 12 2.1.1 Potential Natural Vegetation Model................................................................................................................12 2.1.2 Forest Ecosystem Types, Defining Conditions, and Processes...................................................................13 2.2 CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF FOREST ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION............................................................................... 16 2.3 ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS................................................................................................................................................ 19 2.3.1 Forest Ecosystem Structure and Wildlife Habitat .........................................................................................19 2.3.2 Biodiversity...........................................................................................................................................................21 2.3.3 Water Cycle Regulation .....................................................................................................................................23 2.4 KEY ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES...................................................................................................................................... 23 2.4.1 States of Ecosystem Development ....................................................................................................................24 2.4.2 Disturbances........................................................................................................................................................28 2.4.3 Conceptual model of forest ecosystem process interaction .........................................................................30 2.5 HISTORY OF ANTHROPOGENIC DISTURBANCE AND CURRENT CONDITIONS......................................................... 31 2.5.1 History of Land Use in the CRMW..................................................................................................................32 2.5.2 A Brief Picture of Current Forest Conditions................................................................................................34 2.6 DESIRED FUTURE CONDITIONS, ATTRIBUTES AND RELEVANT DATASETS............................................................ 34 2.6.1 Benchmark Conditions and Attributes.............................................................................................................36 2.6.2 Data Sources to Describe Forest Conditions.................................................................................................37 2.6.3 Development of Benchmarks and Desired Future Conditions....................................................................40 2.6.4 Information Sources regarding Plant Diversity - Cryptogam and Botanical Surveys...........................41 2.7 RESTORATION TREATMENTS AND RATIONALE.......................................................................................................... 42 2.7.1 Species diversity and niche differentiation .....................................................................................................42 2.7.2 Resource competition and crown development..............................................................................................43 ii Version 2.0 CRMW Upland Forest Habitat Restoration Strategic Plan 2.7.3 Reducing migration barriers.............................................................................................................................44 2.7.4 Vertical diversification.......................................................................................................................................44 2.7.5 Horizontal diversification, patchiness, mosaic..............................................................................................45 2.7.6 Creating decadence............................................................................................................................................45 2.7.7 Enhancing carbon sequestration, productivity, and nutrient cycling ........................................................45 2.8 RISKS, UNCERTAINTIES, AND THREATS IN REACHING DESIRED FUTURE CONDITIONS....................................... 45 2.8.1 Variable developmental pathways and unpredictable disturbances..........................................................46 2.8.2 Forest restoration paradigm requires new tools to evaluate treatment effects........................................46 2.8.3 Effects of climate change...................................................................................................................................47 2.8.4 Invasive species...................................................................................................................................................47