What is a good forest opening

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What is a good forest opening?

• Is the future a concern?

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Early Successional Communities

• What is high quality early seral forest habitat?
• How has it been created in the past?
• Where will it be provided in the future?
• What silvicultural tools can provide for this
  habitat?

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Well, lets take a look at natures varieties of
early successional communities on forested sites

• Most notably, they are not
• dominated by trees!

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Attributes of Early Successional Communities on
Forest Sites

• Jerry F. Franklin and Mark Swanson
• University of Washington
• (jff_at_u.washington.edu)

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Definition

• Early successional communities are the
  communities that occupy potentially forested
  sites between the time of a stand-replacement
  disturbance and re-establishment of a closed
  forest canopy

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Early Successional Communities

• Altered (non-forest-dominated) microclimate
• Structurally rich (with most natural
  disturbances)
• Biodiversity rich
• Process rich (alterations in ecosystem functions)

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Altered microclimate

• Not dominated by trees!
• Sunny, greater microclimate extremes
• Heterogeneity
• Terrestrial (non-tree) and aquatic ecosystems
  bloom

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Structurally rich

• Wood legacies (snags logs)
• Habitat
• Long-term energy/nutrient source
• Physical interactions
• PERSISTS ONLY SOURCE of CWD for MANY DECADES
• Diversity and balance (evenness) in plant life
  forms

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Biologically rich

• Most biodiverse of forest stages
• Diversity composed of
• Legacy species
• Opportunists (weeds?)
• Habitat specialists
• Predators (land water)
• Adapted, native tree genotypes

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Black-backed woodpecker. Photo Dr. R. Hutto
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Three-toed woodpecker. Photo Dr. R. Hutto
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Mountain Bluebird. Photo Dr. R. Hutto
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Olive-sided Flycatcher. Photo Dr. R. Hutto
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Western meadowlark. Photo Dr. R. Hutto
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White-crowned sparrow. Photo Dr. R. Hutto
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Garter Snake. Photo Dr. C. Crisafulli.
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Process Alterations (Terrestrial)

• Significant nitrogen fixation
• Accelerated nutrient cycling
• Diversity in primary productivity
• More complex food webs
• Increased herbivory
• Effects on hydrologic cycle
• Often, increased flows

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Process Alterations (Aquatic)

• Significant primary productivity
• More diverse allochthonous inputs
• Richer food webs
• Greater fish production

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Other Attributes of ESFCs

• Duration highly variable depending upon
  disturbance size, type, and chance
• Example short small windthrow
• Example long large or repeated wildfire or fire
  on severe site
• Heterogeneity initial developmental

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Ecological Importance of ESFCs

• Opportunity for organisms and processes
  absent/poorly represented under closed forest
• Opportunity for nutrient recharge
• Regional and local hotspots of biological
  diversity (source areas)

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So, what is high quality early successional
habitat?

• Early successional communities with a large array
  of structural and organismal legacies and
• Exhibiting heterogeneity in space and time and
• Diverse in life forms, food webs, and ecosystem
  processes

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Does the job!

• Provides for the richness of
• Biodiversity
• Functional diversity
• That we want to sustain in our forest landscapes

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How has it been created in the past?
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How (where) will it be provided for in the future?
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What management tools can provide for this
habitat?
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Best management tool for early successional
habitatCONSERVE IT WHEN AND WHERE NATURE
CREATES IT
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Naturally-regenerated ESFCs are likely to be more
resilient under climate change due to - greater
species diversity - tree genotypes selected by
nature (i.e., environmental stresses)
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Pacific Tree Frog. Photo Dr. C. Crisafulli.
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What is a good forest opening?

• Is the future a concern?

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Where management goals are primarily oriented
toward characteristic biodiversity and ecological
processes,hurrying ecosystem development
through the pre-canopy closure stage is not
appropriate
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Salvage

• WILL eliminate key structural legacies
• Key habitat and substrate, so many secondary
  effects on biota
• This is a LONG TERM impact, since no new CWD for
  many decades
• WILL destroy/damage recovering vegetation
• MAY cause damage to aquatic ecosystems and and
  soils

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Salvage logging never contributes directly to
ecological recoverySalvage logging is always a
tax on ecological recovery the tax may be large
or small
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Reforestation will usually

• Reduce the duration of ESFCs
• Reduce heterogeneity of the process by which
  closed forest canopy is re-established
• Alter genotype of planted species (less selection
  by environment)
• Homogenize composition of forest

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Potential negative management

• Early SFCs need full compliment of biological
  legacies to fully function
• Salvage will reduce functionality
• Reforestation will truncate modify ESFCs
• Naturally-regenerated ESFCs are more likely to be
  resilient to climate change (more diverse, good
  genotypes)

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Blue Grouse. Photo Dr. C. Crisafulli.
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Principle 3 Conservation of biological legacies
is critical for postfire reestablishment of
characteristic levels of ecosystem processes
biodiversity
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Principle 5 Whatever activities are undertaken
seek to avoid causing additional harm and to
enhance natural recovery processes!
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BIOLOGICALLEGACIES

• Organisms and reproductive structures
• Structures and organic matter
• Organically-derived spatial patterns

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Salvage of dead wood

• Done to capture socio-economic value
• Has negative impacts on recovery
• Removal of legacies is most profound long-term
  impact

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Timber salvage rarely, if ever, contributes
directly to ecological recovery, including native
biodiversity
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Salvage is always a tax on ecological
recovery!The tax may be large or small depending
upon the salvage operation.
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Importance of Coarse Wood

• Habitat for species
• Organic seedbeds (nurse logs)
• Modification of microclimate
• Protection of plants from ungulates
• Sediment traps

• Sources of energy nutrients
• Sites of N-fixation
• Special source of soil organic matter
• Structural elements of aquatic ecosystems

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The early post-disturbanceperiod of forest
ecosystem development- pre-tree-canopy closure
is profoundly important!
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Deer Mouse. Photo Dr. C. Crisafulli.
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Montane Shrew. Photo Dr. C. Crisafulli.
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Northern Pocket Gopher. Photo Dr. C. Crisafulli.
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Where management goals are directed to sustaining
ecosystem services and biodiversity, most
postdisturbance restoration activities are
inappropriate
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MAJOR EXCEPTIONHuman intercession may
contribute ecologically where the disturbances
are unique (uncharacteristic) in either intensity
or frequency or invasive species are involved
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