Aiming for Healthy Forests: Active, Intentional Management for Multiple Values
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United States Department of AIMing for Healthy Forests: Agriculture Forest Service Active, Intentional Pacific Northwest Research Station Management for Multiple General Technical Values Report PNW-GTR-721 November 2007 Andrew B. Carey The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is dedicated to the principle of multiple use management of the Nation’s forest resources for sustained yields of wood, water, forage, wildlife, and recreation. Through forestry research, cooperation with the States and private forest owners, and management of the national forests and national grasslands, it strives—as directed by Congress—to provide increasingly greater service to a growing Nation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and were applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Author Andrew B. Carey is an emeritus research scientist, Forestry Sci- ences Laboratory, 3625 93rd Avenue, Olympia, WA 98512-9193. Technical Editor Annette S.B. Wilson is a biological science specialist, Forestry Sci- ences Laboratory, 3625 93rd Avenue, Olympia, WA 98512-9193. Table of Contents Preface v P A R T I Social Aspects of Conservation 1 1 Conservation and Biodiversity 3 2 Culture and Conservation 9 A History of Conservation Ideas 10 Arcadianism and the Ecology Movement 11 Christian Pastoralism, the Imperial View 12 Arcadian Imperialism 12 Thoreau’s Romantic Ecology 12 Darwinian Ecology 12 From Ecology to Conservation 13 Contemporary Themes in Conservation 19 Compositionalism 21 Functionalism 22 A Fusion of Complementary Approaches 22 Conservation, Forest Management, and Sustainability 25 Forestry and Conservation 26 Reserves and Conservation 29 New Conservation Objectives 30 General Sustainability 32 Ecosystem Management 35 Total Landscape Management 49 Culture and Contemporary Players in Conservation 51 Cultural Streams in the United States 51 Leadership by Nongovernmental Organizations 53 ii AIMing for Healthy Forests: Active, Intentional Management for Multiple Values Managing Public Lands 55 Managing Private Lands 56 Property Ownership and Conservation 57 3 Individuals, Society, and Conservation 59 Ways of Thinking, Learning, and Knowing 62 Critical Theory and Green Political Thought 73 The Role of Place in Conservation 76 Communities and Conservation 78 Social and Personal Evolution 80 Agencies, Organizations, and Society 96 Science, Scientists, and Society 97 Social Sciences 99 4 Conservation Revisited 107 Suggested Reading 113 P A R T II Understanding Forest Ecosystems 115 5 Terms, Concepts, and Theories 117 Terminology 118 Theories, Frameworks, and Points of View 120 Panarchy Theory 126 6 Ecological Foundations of Biodiversity 129 Why Are There So Many Species? 130 Biogeography 136 Landscape Ecology 147 Fragmentation 150 Isolation, Connectivity, and Viability 154 Temporary Isolation 156 Dispersal and Colonization 157 Landscape Epidemiology 160 Landscape Mosaics 163 Landform Variability 166 Landform Analysis, Communities, Habitats, and Niches 168 Communities and Ecosystems 176 Self-Organizing Systems 180 TABLE OF CONTENTS iii Formation of Biotic Communities 181 Ecosystem Structure 185 Forest Structuring Processes 191 Ecosystem Development and Community Succession 200 Wildlife-Habitat-Relationships Models 201 Forest Development Models 202 Reserve Design 204 Washington Forest Landscape Management Project 204 Research Responses to the Old-Growth Crisis 206 Natural Forests 207 Old-Growth Versus Managed Forests 208 Modeling Landscape Alternatives 209 Implications 213 The Forest Ecosystem Study 214 Experimental Design 215 Soil Food Webs and Forest-Floor Character 220 Understory Plants 221 Small Mammals 222 Squirrels 222 Wintering Birds 223 Implications 223 Stochasticity, Disturbance, and Change 225 Hierarchy Theory 227 Panarchy Theory 228 7 From Ecology to Forest Management 235 Structure, Pattern, and Processes 238 Synthesis 238 Problems 244 Biological and Functional Diversity 245 Processes Underlying Forest Development 254 Exogenous Disturbances 258 Endogenous Disturbances 267 Crown-Class Differentiation 275 Decadence 297 Canopy Stratification 315 Understory Development 319 Development of Habitat Breadth 321 Spatial-Scale and Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity 324 iv AIMing for Healthy Forests: Active, Intentional Management for Multiple Values 8 AIM for Resilient Forests 333 Components 336 Legacy Retention 336 Multispecies Management 338 SAVE Trees and Shrubs 339 Planting, Underplanting, and Seeding 339 Precommercial Thinning 339 Commercial Thinning 340 Decadence Management 341 Rotation Age and Uneven-Age Management 343 Landscape Management 344 Common Questions 346 Will Plantations Develop Into Old Growth? 347 Is Active Management Better Than Leaving Second Growth Alone? 348 Will Active Management of Second Growth Produce Negative Effects? 349 Suggested Reading 351 Literature Cited 355 Appendix—Common and Scientific Names of Species 429 Preface Conservation: the protection, preservation, management, or resto- ration of wildlife and of natural resources such as forests, soil, and water. -The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Why this book? In the last years, societies everywhere have un- dergone rapid change in all aspects of life. New technology and glo- balization have accelerated use of natural resources, led to abandon- ment of customs and adoption of new lifestyles, and brought about changes in political systems and the roles of governments. This dy- namism has produced closer ties among nations, placed nations in competition, and magnified the discrepancies in material well-being between developed and underdeveloped nations. Similarly, within nations, subcultures have drawn apart, each reacting to the challenge of meeting its own needs and perceived threats to its own values and beliefs in rapidly changing social environments. Even within the Pa- cific Northwestern United States, there are substantial subcultural differences that are displayed vividly in public arenas and in interac- tions with governments at various levels. Here, and elsewhere, dif- ferences are played out in disputes over disposition and conservation of natural resources. Increasing human populations, large-scale immigration, large institutions, and a global economy have facilitated impersonal inter- national exploitation of human and natural resources. Environmen- tal problems are real, pervasive, and radically altering the conditions of life on Earth. Effects include global warming, decreasing oce- anic productivity, desertification, ground-water depletion, and vari- ous forms of persistent pollution. These conditions raise substantial ethical questions of intragenerational equity and social justice (have versus have-not nations and groups within nations) and intergener- ational equity (the kind of world we will leave to future generations), vi AIMing for Healthy Forests: Active, Intentional Management for Multiple Values as well as questions of effects on the general health and welfare of people. For example, adult asthma has increased fourfold in the Se- attle area over the last 1 years as a result of particulates from diesel emissions and cargo ship bunker fuel pollutants.¹ Such problems are international in scope and will require international, national, and regional action for resolution. A less spectacular and much less recognized problem is deg- radation of ecosystem function through neglect, unwise use, poor management, and lack of social consensus on how best to manage and conserve ecosystems. Not only is social consensus lacking, but there is also lack of consensus, even discourse, among the various sciences that inform the political and management processes that govern ecosystems. Ecosystem management is fragmented. Urban growth management, waste management, designation of transpor- tation corridors, water use, and extraction of nonrenewable resourc- es are largely made independently of efforts to conserve biological diversity and ecosystem function. The principal exceptions are in- stances where legislation protects wilderness, parks, refuges, or en- dangered species. Even within the Pacific Northwest, there is lack of coherence in management and lack of management on private, industrial, state, tribal, and federal forests. Management of different ownerships is informed by different worldviews, values, and subsets of pertinent scientific information. Even the small stage of the Pacific Northwest is changing rap- idly in response to globalization. Traditional low-intensity forestry on public, industrial, and family-owned forests may become eco- nomically unsustainable and, in the interim, environmentally and socially undesirable. Costs of producing wood given wages, workers’ rights, and environmental protection are