ASSESSMENT

* Logging in the Sierra Nevada

Management Strategies

* Implementing SNEP Forest Strategies

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The current extent of structurally complex, late successional middle-elevation conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada is probably far below levels that existed prior to western settlement. The widespread occurrence of such forests can be inferred from historical accounts, the pre-contact fire regime, and current conditions in the national parks. Late successional forests (ranks 4 and 5) now occupy 19% of all federal lands comprising these middle-elevation forests, with 13% of those on the national forests versus 55% on the national parks. The amount of late successional forest on the national parks is an approximate benchmark for pre-contact conditions. Including polygons ranked 3 or higher, the proportion of late successional forest is 47% on all federal lands, 42% on national forests, and 82% in national parks. The lower values on the national forests reflect more than a century of harvest activity. Although densities have increased and composition has shifted toward shade-tolerant species in middle-elevation park forests as a result of fire suppression, it is nonetheless reasonable to infer that most Sierran forests of these types in pre-contact times maintained moderate to high structural complexity and high horizontal diversity through frequent low- or moderate-intensity fire. The collective inference is that stands with moderate (rank 3) to high levels (ranks 4 and 5) of late-successional-related structural complexity once occupied the majority of what are now middle-elevation commercial forest lands in the Sierra. The still-considerable area with polygons ranked 3 on the national forests offers significant promise for a future increase in late successional forest, should that be a policy goal.