Assessment

* Logging in the Sierra Nevada

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

* Implementing SNEP Forest Strategies

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None of the three strategies presented here or the six developed elsewhere is perfect in addressing all important design elements. In the samples presented in this chapter, it becomes clear that decision making about goals is a local and collaborative public process, although science can help understand how forested ecosystems work, defend scientific bases for setting management targets, and evaluate progress toward goals. Exact values about acres, boundaries, or locations that would guide restorationthat is, whether to use data from historical sources to guide restoration targets, ecological goals of maintaining biodiversity, or practical goals such as fire protectionare not determinable. This is partly because information is scanty, because some aspects of ecosystems are unknowable, and because in practice restoration targets are determined by local conditions. When pieces are considered collectively for a region or watershed, modifications and compromises result. What is most needed now is a collective will for collaborative goal-setting, integrated with scientific counsel and monitoring.
The best way to ensure that late successional forest conditions are available and maintained in the Sierra Nevada is to have this goal stated and explicitly addressed as part of any management strategy. It is highly unlikely that such forests will be present in the Sierran landscapes in the desired quantities if they are expected to be a by-product of other management objectives. A point of consensus is that an effective late successional strategy would start by retaining the best high-quality stands (ranks 4 and 5 and equivalents on other forest types) as core areas in any design.
How do the directions indicated in the present strategies compare with current practices? From federal policy (e.g., the new CalOwl plan) to revised state forest practices, although explicit goals for rangewide networks of late successional forests are not stated, the tendency is toward increased representation of late successional structures in Sierran landscapes, although not necessarily representation of full late successional ecosystems. The public has clearly indicated an interest in the continued existence of late successional forests both for their intrinsic interest and as habitat for associated species and processes. A pressing need is for development of a defensible rangewide strategy that explicitly recognizes the objective of maintaining late successional forests and is flexible enough to allow local adaptation and cross-ownership implementation.