Ecological to Promote Healthy

Dr. Marcella Windmuller-Campione Assistant Professor, Department of Resources University of Minnesota [email protected] Outline

 History

 Definitions

 Break for Questions

 Natural Disturbance Regimes

 Examples

 ** Could teach a whole semester course on this Key Thoughts

 Ecological forestry (or one of the other terms we will cover) focus on using natural disturbance processes to inform and develop management strategies which increase complexity

 Using the same silvicultural toolbox but with different desired future conditions  Need multiple approaches

and silviculturists are increasingly managing for broad objectives including wildlife, water, and maintaining healthy forests Early Minnesota Forests

"The white pine of the Upper Mississippi was a magnificent . Sometimes it stood in the forest 200 feet high with a diameter of 5 feet." Agnes M. Larson, "History of the White Pine Industry in Minnesota"

 1849 – Minnesota Territory  19th century began land clearing of southeast

*** Similar trends in forests across the US

Fires  Fires often followed destructive

 Hinckley Forest Fire – 1894  Extremely destructive  Chief Fire Warden - 1895

www.listupon.com The Golden Era of

 Average of 1.5 billion board feet removed yearly during the 1890s to 1910s

 Peaked at 2.3 billion board feet in 1899  Most was white pine  600,000 two-story homes

http://www.dellslumberjackshow.com Beginning of the End  Estimated that in 20 years all pine would be cut  In 1929, the Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company closed it’s door – considered one of the largest white pine lumber companies  ~ 68 billion board feet of pine was harvested  Lumber companies shift from saw logs to pulp, paper, and building material in 1930s

 Push for restoration & sustainable forestry by Andrews  First state nursery established in 1903  Cloquet Forest Experiment Station Established in 1909  Minnesota Forest Service Established 1911  Focus on fire protection & suppression Rebuilding the Forests  Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – 1933 -1942  166 CC camps in Minnesota  Planted over 25 million tree  Established more state forests

CCC construction of Fechner Dam, Cut Foot Sioux District, Chippewa National Forest http://foresthistory.org Sustained Yield - Production

 1940’s  Production for war goods  Packing crates, bridges, railroad ties, ships, etc.  Little forest recreation  Sustained-Yield Act of 1944

 1950’s  Post war housing boom  Increased use of chain saw  Production – need lumber for houses  National forest research A New Century of Forest Planning

The Forest History Society

Now what is Ecological Forestry? Definitions

 New Forestry (Franklin 1989) Definitions

 New Forestry (Franklin 1989)  “Uses ecological principles to create managed forests superior to those created under common current forestry practices.” Definitions

 New Forestry (Franklin 1989)

 Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004) Definitions

 New Forestry (Franklin 1989)

 Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)  “Continuous cover is defined as the use of silvicultural systems whereby the forest canopy is maintained at one or more levels without clear .” Definitions

 New Forestry (Franklin 1989)

 Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)

 Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes (ENDR) (Perera & Buse 2004; Long 2009) Definitions

 New Forestry (Franklin 1989)

 Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)

 Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes (ENDR) (Perera & Buse 2004; Long 2009)  ‘‘management strategies and practices, at appropriate spatial and temporal scales, with the goal of producing forest . . . structurally and functionally similar . . .to the ecosystems that would result from natural disturbances’’ Definitions

 New Forestry (Franklin 1989)

 Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)

 Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes (ENDR) (Perera & Buse 2004; 2004.Long 2009)

 Ecological Forestry (Franklin et al. 2007) Definitions  New Forestry (Franklin 1989)  Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)  Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes (ENDR) (Perera & Buse 2004; 2004.Long 2009)

 Ecological Forestry (Franklin et al. 2007)  1) understanding the importance of biological legacies created by a tree regenerating disturbance and incorporating legacy management into harvesting prescriptions; 2) recognizing the role of stand development processes, particularly individual tree mortality, in generating structural and compositional heterogeneity in stands and implementing prescriptions that enhance this heterogeneity; and 3) appreciating the role of recovery periods between disturbance events in the development of stand complexity. Definitions

 New Forestry (Franklin 1989)

 Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)

 Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes (ENDR) (Perera & Buse 2004; 2004.Long 2009)

 Ecological Forestry (Franklin et al. 2007)

 Close-to-Nature Forestry (Pro Silvia 2012; O’Hara 2015) Definitions  New Forestry (Franklin 1989)  Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)  Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes (ENDR) (Perera & Buse 2004; 2004.Long 2009)

 Ecological Forestry (Franklin et al. 2007)  Close-to-Nature Forestry (Pro Silvia 2012; O’Hara 2015)  ‘guaranteed continuity of naturalness’, ‘adopt a holistic approach involving continuous ’, ‘adding value by selection felling and tending at all stages of development’ (i.e. selection systems), ‘working towards a balance on as small a scale as possible between increment and harvesting in each management unit’, ‘use of natural regeneration’, ‘restricting the use of exotics’ and many others (Pro Silva, 2012). Definitions  New Forestry (Franklin 1989)

 Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)

 Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes (ENDR) (Perera & Buse 2004; 2004.Long 2009)

 Ecological Forestry (Franklin et al. 2007)

 Close-to-Nature Forestry (Pro Silvia 2012; O’Hara 2015)

 Alternative (Puettman et al. 2015) Definitions  New Forestry (Franklin 1989)  Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) (Mason et al. 1999; Pommerening & Murphy 2004)  Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes (ENDR) (Perera & Buse 2004; 2004.Long 2009)

 Ecological Forestry (Franklin et al. 2007)  Close-to-Nature Forestry (Pro Silvia 2012; O’Hara 2015)  Alternative Silviculture (Puettman et al. 2015)  “Are characterized by a set of fundamental principles, including avoidance of , an emphasis on structural diversity and small-scale variability, deployment of mixed species with natural regeneration, and avoidance of intensive site-preparation methods” Pommerening & Murphy 2004 Puettmann et al. 2015 Pommerening & Murphy 2004 Just A Few Definitions – What do they have in common? Just A Few Definitions – What do they have in common?

 “Natural”

 Not conventional (move away from clearcut harvest system)

 Disturbance regimes

 Structural, compositional, and functional complexity Franklin et al. 2007

Pommerening & Murphy 2004 What is Natural? What is Natural?

 Without human influence (Hunter 1996)  Pre-European colonization

 Shift in management where “…nature was controlled to approaches that attempt to integrate natural processes into management or to use natural processes to guide management.” (O’Hara 2016) One more definition

 Silviculture- the art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests and to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society on a sustainable basis (Helms 1998)  *** really depending on needs and values

Break For Questions? Disturbance Regimes

 Disturbance – any relatively discrete event in time that disrupts ecosystems, community, or population structure and changes resources, substrate availability, or the physical environment (Helms 1998)

 Disturbance recovery regime – a natural pattern of periodic disturbances, such as fire or flooding, followed by a period of recovery from the disturbance (Helms 1998) Kuuluvainen, T., & Grenfell, R. (2012). Where does this info come from on natural disturbance regimes?

 Old-growth stands What are the natural disturbance regimes?

 Old-growth stands  Directly observable  Rare  Not necessarily representative

Minnesota DNR What are the natural disturbance regimes?

 Old-growth stands

 Land survey records What are the natural disturbance regimes?

 Old-growth stands

 Land survey records  Broad  Low resolution, coarse-scale  Major stand replacing disturbances Minnesota Historical Society What are the natural disturbance regimes?

 Old-growth stands

 Land survey records

 Tree Cores () & Lake Cores (Palynology) What are the natural disturbance regimes?  Old-growth stands

 Land survey records

 Tree Cores (Dendrochronology) & Lake Cores (Palynology)  Tree cores – high resolution but limited decomposition and age of  Lake cores – low resolution but broad landscape level

Archaeosoup Productions Sierra Nature Notes Should we only look to the past?

GLISA - University of Michigan Nagel et al. 2017 Increasing Complexity in Red Pine

http://hikingmn.com/the-pit-stops/2014/6/26/the-lost-40

What Can You Do?

1) Incorporate biological legacies into regeneration harvest prescriptions.

2) Incorporate natural stand development processes into intermediate treatments.

3) Allow appropriate recovery periods between regeneration harvests.

https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_nc264.pdf

https://forestadaptation.org/ascc-mn How does this maintain healthy forests?

 Concerns  Drought  Thinning increase resistance and resilience to drought (D'Amato et al. 2013)  Insects & diseases  Shoot blight is a concern in uneven-aged pine stands  Shifting species composition jack and white pine can decrease risk  Mountain pine beetle – could move east.  Diversity at stand and landscape  Market variability  Greater species composition can give you greater flexibility Complex Early Successional Jack Pine Forests for Kirtland’s Warbler Corace, III et al. 2009 Lessons learned

 Manage at landscape scale  Different age classes of jack pine are important for different bird species

 Fires leave legacies  Fires were not complete, standing and down are important legacies

 Range in variation in structure and composition Final Thoughts

 Ecological forestry (or one of the other terms we covered) focus on using natural disturbance processes to inform and develop management strategies which increase complexity

 Using the same silvicultural toolbox but with different desired future conditions  Need multiple approaches

 Foresters and silviculturists are increasingly managing for broad objectives including wildlife, water, and maintaining healthy forests Citations  Corace, III, R. G., Goebel, P. C., Hix, D. M., Casselman, T., & Seefelt, N. E. (2009). Ecological forestry at National Wildlife Refuges: experiences from Seney National Wildlife Refuge and Kirtland’s Warbler Wildlife Management Area, USA. The Forestry Chronicle, 85(5), 695-701.  D'Amato, A. W., Bradford, J. B., Fraver, S., & Palik, B. J. (2013). Effects of thinning on drought vulnerability and climate response in north temperate forest ecosystems. Ecological Applications, 23(8), 1735-1742.  Franklin, J. F. (1989). The “new forestry.”. Journal of and water conservation, 44(6), 549.  Franklin, J. F., Mitchell, R. J., & Palik, B. J. (2007). Natural disturbance and stand development principles for ecological forestry.  Helms, J. A. (1998). The dictionary of forestry.  Kerr, G., & Simpson, J. (1999). What is continuous cover forestry?. Forestry Commission.  Kuuluvainen, T., & Grenfell, R. (2012). Natural disturbance emulation in boreal forest management—theories, strategies, and a comparison with conventional even-aged management 1 1 This article is one of a selection of papers from the 7th International Conference on Disturbance Dynamics in Boreal Forests. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 42(7), 1185-1203.  Long, J. N. (2009). Emulating natural disturbance regimes as a basis for forest management: a North American view. and Management, 257(9), 1868-1873.  Nagel, L. M., Palik, B. J., Battaglia, M. A., D'Amato, A. W., Guldin, J. M., Swanston, C. W., ... & Peterson, D. L. (2017). Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change: A National Experiment in Manager-Scientist Partnerships to Apply an Adaptation Framework. , 115(3), 167-178.  O'Hara, K. L. (2016). What is close-to-nature silviculture in a changing world?. Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research, 89(1), 1-6.  Perera, A. H., & Buse, L. J. (2004). Emulating natural disturbance in forest management: an overview. Emulating natural forest landscape disturbances, 3-7.  Pommerening, A., & Murphy, S. T. (2004). A review of the history, definitions and methods of continuous cover forestry with special attention to and restocking. Forestry, 77(1), 27-44.  Pro, Silva. 2012 Pro Silva Principles. Pro Silva - Association of European Foresters Practicing Management which follows Natural Processes .  Puettmann, K. J., Wilson, S. M., Baker, S. C., Donoso, P. J., Drössler, L., Amente, G., ... & Putz, F. E. (2015). Silvicultural alternatives to conventional even-aged forest management-what limits global adoption?. Forest Ecosystems, 2(1), 8.  Seymour, R. S., & White, A. S. (2002). Natural disturbance regimes in northeastern North America— evaluating silvicultural systems using natural scales and frequencies. Forest Ecology and Management, 155(1), 357-367. Questions