Assessment

* Logging in the Sierra Nevada

Management Strategies

* Implementing SNEP Forest Strategies

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Status of Current Late Successional Forests Late successional old-growth forests of middle elevations (west-side mixed conifer, red fir, white fir, east-side mixed conifer, and east-side pine types) at present constitute 7%30% of the forest cover, depending on forest type. On average, national forests have about 25% the amount of the national parks, which is an approximate benchmark for pre-contact forest conditions. East-side pine forests have been especially altered.

Forest Simplification The primary impact of 150 years of forestry on middle-elevation conifer forests has been to simplify structure (including large trees, snags, woody debris of large diameter, canopies of multiple heights and closures, and complex spatial mosaics of vegetation), and presumably function, of these forests.

Distribution of Late Successional Forests Four Sierran national parks, Lassen Volcanic, Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon, provide most of the remaining large contiguous areas of late successional forests in middle-elevation conifer types.

Historic Conditions of Federal Lands Much of the best of the accessible pine forest was cut before the national forests were created. Many national forest lands were created from the leavings: cutover lands, steep canyon walls, high montane forests, and relatively inaccessible timberlands.

Continuous Forest Cover Despite 150 years of Euro-American timber harvest activity in the Sierra Nevada, clear-cut blocks larger than 510 acres are at present uncommon in the conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada, and tree cover is relatively continuous.

Forest Mortality Over the past decade, as they have many times in the past, Sierra Nevada conifer forests have experienced widespread, locally severe mortality caused principally by bark beetles infesting trees stressed by drought, overdense stands, and pathogens.