USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region Ecology Program Accomplishments for Fiscal Year 2009 (October 2008-September 2009) Region 6 Ecology Program 1 Annual Report USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region Ecology Program USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region 333 SW First Avenue Portland, Oregon 97204-3440 Contact: Tom DeMeo, Regional Ecologist e-mail: [email protected] Cover photo, taken by John Hutmacher, is of a rainbow over Crooked River National Grasslands. Region 6 Ecology Program 2 Table of Contents: Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ 1 Ecology Program objectives ............................................................................................... 2 About the program .............................................................................................................. 2 Western Washington Area Ecology Program ..................................................................... 3 Eastern Washington Area Ecology Program .................................................................... 10 Northeastern Oregon Area Ecology Program ................................................................... 18 Central Oregon Area Ecology Program ............................................................................ 22 Southwest Oregon Area Ecology Program ....................................................................... 34 Northwest Oregon Ecology Program ................................................................................ 38 Pacific Northwest Regional Office ................................................................................... 46 Region 6 Ecology Program 1 Ecology Program Purpose: Applied science for better forest and range management. Ecology Program objectives: • Provide Science Expertise • Monitoring Implementation • Technology Transfer • Troubleshooting • Support to NEPA Process • Managing and Providing Data About the program: The ecology program is organized into six areas in the Region: Western Washington, Eastern Washington, Northeast Oregon, Central Oregon, Southwest Oregon, and Northwest Oregon. Each area has a core team of ecologists who work closely with other disciplines, both within the agency and with our partners. The Regional Ecology Program staff meets at least annually to discuss programs of work, funding, standards and guidelines, future planning, and topics of current interest. The Ecology Program provides products and expertise to support state-of-the-art science- based, multiple-use natural resource management in the Pacific Northwest. Visit us at our new site at http://ecoshare.info/ (or Google ―ecoshare.‖). Ecoshare provides information on the environment, ecology, and natural resources. We include publications, data sets, code sets, GIS data, and plant photography to a wide audience. Our spirit is interdisciplinary and interagency. All materials presented here are in the public domain. On this site you will find electronic versions of plant association guides and other publications, maps, datasets, photos, and the contact information for the area ecology teams. The site also includes the Regional and Northwest Oregon area newsletters. Region 6 Ecology Program 2 Western Washington Area Ecology Program (Area 1) Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, Olympic, and Gifford Pinchot National Forests Team: Jan Henderson, Robin Lesher, and Chris Ringo Projects 1) Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV) Model and Mapping Project: We led a coordinated PNV mapping project for Region 6 with wall-to-wall coverage for Washington and Oregon. We provided products, data, and technical expertise from this mapping effort (including maps, spatial data on potential vegetation and environmental gradients, methodology, interpretation, training, and technical support) to various government and land management agencies, resource professionals and scientists throughout the Pacific Northwest. A wall-to-wall vegetation zone map at a 90-meter pixel resolution was completed for Oregon and Washington. • PNV Overview Manuscript: Submitted manuscript ―Modeling potential natural vegetation of the Olympic Peninsula USA using boundary equations and newly developed environmental variables‖ to Ecological Society of America for possible publication as a ―Concepts and Synthesis‖ paper in the journal Ecological Monographs. Manuscript presents an overview of modeling and mapping potential vegetation zones using a boundary equation approach, and presents the newly defined environmental variables ―Precipitation at Sea Level‖, ―Mean Annual Temperature at Sea level‖, ―Fog Effect‖ and ―Cold Air Drainage‖ effect, plus modifications to existing concepts for the variables of Topographic Moisture and Temperature Lapse Rate. • PNV Model Development: Vegetation Zones, Plant Association Groups, Environmental Gradient Models • Calibrated, refined and completed map displaying 12 vegetation zones for Washington State • Installed over 1600 check-plots in OR and WA for calibrating and refining vegzone map. • Calibrated, refined and completed map displaying 20 vegetation zones for Oregon State. • Completed three vegzone field checking trips focusing on southwest and eastern Oregon. See map on following page: Potential Natural Vegetation Zones of Washington and Oregon. Region 6 Ecology Program 3 Region 6 Ecology Program 4 • PNV Model Application and Data Development • Developed model architecture to address specific needs for modeling vegetation in Oregon, specifically refining the function for stratifying the landscape by geological regions (georegions), including Mt. Mazama ash deposits, pyroclastic flows and serpentine bedrock. • Developed NRCS soils-based model for a salt desert georegion based on soil taxonomy. • Incorporated layer of Pleistocene lake basins into the Cold Air Drainage Model. • Developed model for calculating Potential Evapotranspiration for incorporation into PNV model • Revised Oregon Ecoregion stratification and boundaries. • Assembled and processed regional and other agency datasets of ecoplots to use for building and calibrating vegzone model. • Downloaded, processed and incorporated additional weather station and SNOTEL data for Region 6 and adjacent areas. Jan Henderson (Area 1) and Mike Simpson (Area 4) field checking the PNV model in a western juniper woodland of Central Oregon. Region 6 Ecology Program 5 • Obtained and assembled the NLCD Landcover data for OR and WA • Obtained and assembled the 25m ETM+ Landsat scenes for OR and WA • Continued development and refinement of PNV Model PC Application, code update and development, including online help manual and documentation • Developed tools for analysis and display of data layers and model outputs • Provided PNV Model application support for model users Tom Sensenig and Pat Hochhalter (Area 5) and Jan Henderson (Area 1) field checking the PNV Model in the Rogue River valley, Oregon. 2) Interagency Mapping and Assessment Project (IMAP) support: Provided updated vegetation zone and plant association group maps 3) Ecology Program Database and GIS • Data entry and maintenance of Western Washington Area Ecology database • Continued data recovery efforts for Olympic National Forest corrupted fire history GIS layer by reconstructing and/or restoring about 100 corrupted files 4) Cook Creek Cedar Theft (Olympic National Forest): Continued participation with USFS law enforcement personnel and U.S. Attorney’s office on the Cook Creek Region 6 Ecology Program 6 Cedar theft case on the Olympic National Forest. Henderson testified as an expert witness at the restitution hearing in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on May 12, 2009. Consultation and support: 1) Cedar Huckleberry Technical Committee for Tulalip Tribes – Mount Baker- Snoqualmie National Forest Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) Served on committee with representatives of Tulalip Tribes and Mount Baker- Snoqualmie National Forest to develop recommendations for implementation of provisions of the MOA, specifically those related to the gathering of botanical resources and the distribution, ecology and sustainable management of these resources to facilitate the exercise of treaty rights. 2) Vegetation Management • Provided ecoplot data to Forest Silviculturist, including species composition, stand structure and growth and yield data for the Beckler Thin Project Area, and South Fork Thin monitoring plots • Field consultation with Forest Silviculturist on alder ecology and management in Beckler Project area. • Provided list of native trees and shrubs for use in Washington State Department of Transportation highway project at Stevens Pass area to the Forest Landscape Architect 3) Forest Monitoring Report: Prepared report on monitoring activities of the Area Ecology Program for the Forest Annual Monitoring Report. 4) Other consultation and support • Fire history data for upper Suiattle area trail reconstruction project • Provided review and ecological description for Bedal boat launch site for Forest Landscape Architect Cooperation and Technology Transfer Ecology staff had contacts with resource professionals, scientists and academics from a variety of agencies (USFS, BLM, NPS, NRCS, Department of Natural Resources, PNW, USFWS, Oregon Natural Heritage Program, Washington Natural Heritage Program) and universities in the PNW (University of Washington, Oregon State University, University of Idaho). We responded to requests for technical expertise, knowledge and information Region 6 Ecology Program 7 regarding