Volume 1/Chapter 6/Late Successional Old-Growth Forest Conditions

* Critical Findings

Assessment

* Logging in the Sierra Nevada

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

* Implementing SNEP Forest Strategies

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MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Of the six strategies SNEP analyzed to counter the major declines in late successional forests that were found during the SNEP assessments, three are presented here. Each assumes that existing high-quality late successional forests must be retained and expanded to support the full range of organisms and functions into the future. In concept the strategies illustrate contrasting opportunities in a continuum of landscape designs to achieve similar goals. Although the strategies target different forest types or areas, the designs they use, as well as other combinations suggested by them, could apply to other forest types in the Sierra. Here, as elsewhere in SNEP, we emphasize that actual solutions will depend on analysis of local conditions; the key when going to the ground is to adapt a Sierra-wide framework to local needs. We suggest here the framework of thinking as well as a range of options possible for maintaining and enhancing late successional forest representation at the Sierra-wide scale.
The first two strategies (areas of late successional emphasis and distributed forest conditions) emphasize landscape designs based on existing ecological conditions encountered in different forest types (west-side versus east-side forests). They represent primarily ecological solutions, with less consideration of other factors. The third approach (integrated case study) combines a strategy with a case study. It illustrates how modification of ecological designs might occur when one applies these strategies at a local level. Other factors (than ecological) must be contended with, and several of these are integrated in the case study. A best fit of the rangewide pattern for late successional forests is found for local conditions on the Eldorado National Forest.

Goals of Late Successional Forest Strategies

The forest condition strategies have the following goals:

Maintain existing high-quality late successional forest stands in middle-elevation forests.

Expand late successional representation by actively managing forest stands that have potential to contribute structure and function.

Restore fire as an important process in maintaining and protecting late successional habitat.

Restore structural complexity in matrix lands (forested areas not targeted for primary late successional representation).

Distribute late successional representation across latitudinal and elevational ranges of the targeted forest types.

A recurring question in the development of forest condition strategies is whether provision of large blocks of contiguous late successional forest (several thousands of acres) is critical or whether necessary conditions can be provided with smaller blocks (less than a few hundred acres). Although there are ecological and practical arguments for both, it is clear that large areas of late successional forest were the aboriginal condition. These areas were complex, fine-scale mosaics of varied stand structures, including areas of high and low density, and patches with young and mixed-age trees. Thus, large blocks of late successional forest include many seral stages and structurally diverse patches. Because aboriginal late successional forests tended to be so varied, the ecological value of large, continuous undisturbed areas or reserves is less clear than in areas where homogeneous landscape is a natural condition. In the Sierra there is little scientific consensus on this issue, although it is clearer that disruption by roads, mechanical entry, harvest, or grazing reduces the habitat quality and function for some species.
Strong consensus exists, however, on the importance of a late successional strategy that is widely distributed throughout the latitudinal and elevational range of the forest types and incorporates representative cross-section habitat conditions, including different productivity classes, plant associations, slopes, and soils. It is critical to provide not only representation across the range of environments but also connectivity among late successional blocks. Thus, for any strategy, the matrix lands are extremely important parts of a rangewide network. Retaining and promoting late successional structure to some target amount in these forested areas is essential, in that many organisms will use this mosaic for habitat, either independently or as extension from primary late successional blocks. Further, fungi and other detritivores provide important ecosystem functions that will support productivity of soils, animals, and plant communities in the matrix.