GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Tom Iraci
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Goal 1: Develop a fundamental understanding of
ecological, social, and economic systems and
their interactions
K e y
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F i n d i n g s
Population growth, rising incomes, and land
development are shown to stimulate public
support for protecting forest, range, and other
open-space lands.
Different land use policies can result in different
patterns of forest fragmentation, which in turn
can have widely differing effects on wildlife
and biodiversity. New models can be used to
analyze the possible outcomes from various
land conservation policies.
The Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling
Study (CLAMS) shows that in the Oregon Coast
Range, hardwood and vegetation diversity may
decline under current policies.
After the devastating eruption of Mount St. Helens
in 1980, Spirit Lake recovered rapidly, with plankton,
insects, amphibians, and eventually fish, returning
more quickly than expected.
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In western Oregon headwater streams,
macroinvertebrate species richness is similar
in young and old forests.
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Alaska yellow-cedar heartwood, the essential
oil, and individual compounds from the
heartwood prevent reproduction of the
fungus that is responsible for sudden oak
death.
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During summer drought, networks of
mycorrhizal fungi transfer water from
roots of large ponderosa pines to roots
of seedlings.
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In the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver
Island region, marbled murrelets’ home
range in 2005 was five times that of 2004,
suggesting the birds had to travel greater
distances to find food in 2005.
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
with population growth and rising incomes
The Forest Service recognizes the loss of open space,
which fragments landscapes and reduces wildlife habitats,
as one of the four biggest threats to wildlife and biodiversity
resources on national forests. Forest Service policies promote
managing open-space lands across public and private landowner boundaries, and protecting private lands with valuable
ecological and recreational resources. Because protection often
involves local public financing to purchase conservation easements and land, local support is essential.
The Trust for Public Land, the national open-space preservation organization that provided data for the study, will
use the findings to better target their public education and
outreach programs. Other national and local open-space
organizations, which frequently partner with the Forest
Service in open-space programs, are expected to use the
findings also. The findings were presented at an open-space
protection workshop in 2006.
Contact: Jeff Kline, jkline@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program
Partner: Trust for Public Land
Tom Iraci
Research shows that local support depends on socioeconomic factors. Public support for local preservation funding
increases with population growth, land development, and
loss of open space. Local residents must also be able to afford
preservation financing. Thus windows of opportunity open
when public support for local preservation is most likely,
but often only after significant open space is already lost. In
places where key areas are at risk, education and outreach
may help build local support to protect open spaces.
Public support for open space increases
Local support for open-space protection increases with population growth.
Different land use policies affect patterns
of forest fragmentation
Population growth and rising personal incomes lead to
changing land uses and often to forest fragmentation, which
can affect wildlife habitat and biodiversity. New research
shows that different land use policies can result in different
forest fragmentation patterns, and different effects on wildlife
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
The Northwest Forest Plan provides a valuable model
for ecosystem management because it aims to
connect environmental and socioeconomic goals by
creating local jobs linked to forest stewardship.
and biodiversity. For example, a policy that targets land parcels for conversion based on the least cost of achieving a total
area target may create a substantially different landscape than
a policy that targets the creation of interior forest patches. The
study found that in western Oregon, attributes such as soil
fertility or the distance of urban plots to amenities are significant determinants of forest fragmentation.
New models based on this finding compare the different
effects that various land use policies would have on a region’s
forests, including fragmentation, wildlife habitat, and biodiversity. Policymakers and planners at different government
levels can use model outputs to better understand the possible
outcomes of policies and design land conservation policies
that align private incentives with broader public goals.
Nongovernment organizations with land conservation
interests can also use the research. Results were presented
at a workshop on open-space protection in 2006.
Contact: Ralph Alig, ralig@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program
Partners: NatureServe; Oregon State University, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
More information: Science Findings 88. Society’s Choices:
Land Use Changes, Forest Fragmentation, and Conservation. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi88.pdf.
In Oregon Coast Range, current policies
may not produce the desired biodiversity
Bob Szaro
Since 1995, scientists involved with the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling Study (CLAMS) have been
conducting research on the ecological, economic, and social
consequences of forest policies in Oregon’s Coast Range. The
collaborative study has yielded detailed models that simulate
historical and current conditions of the area’s nearly 5 million
acres as well as projected conditions under different management scenarios.
In the Oregon Coast Range, landowners’ current policies may not always
achieve their intended outcomes.
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Recently, the CLAMS work was highlighted in the journal
Ecological Applications. Findings were presented about potential cumulative effects of different landowner policies on
biodiversity and timber. Some projected outcomes of current
policies are consistent with management goals; for example,
the area of diverse conifer forests is projected to increase.
Other projected outcomes are not consistent with current
In developing countries, plantation forestry
policies, however. The models showed that hardwood and
vegetation diversity are projected to sharply decline. These
results can help construct alternative policies that better provide the desired mix of forest values.
rarely provides local socioeconomic benefits
The CLAMS results have been used by managers and policymakers from the Oregon Department of Forestry and the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to understand how
their individual actions might affect biodiversity and economics. Some individual models from the study also have been
used to analyze alternatives in the Interagency Modeling and
Analysis Program (IMAP) assessment conducted by the State
of Oregon and the USDA Forest Service, and in the BLM’s
Western Oregon Plan Revision analysis.
Partners: Oregon Department of Forestry; Oregon State University; USDI Bureau of Land Management
Contact: Susan Charnley, scharnley@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program
More information: Ecological Applications, 2007, Vol. 17, No. 1
Wildland-urban interface maps are available on
Managing Disturbance Regimes Program
the Internet
Successful approaches to linking socioeconomic
and forest management goals provide models
Many forest managers are concerned with how forest
management affects social and economic conditions in local
communities. In the Pacific Northwest, economic development and social justice goals were included with environmental goals in the Northwest Forest Plan. Success in meeting
the socioeconomic goals has been mixed so far, because key
assumptions underlying the strategies were flawed and the
agencies had limited institutional capacity to achieve the
goals. However, the Plan still provides a valuable model for
broad-scale ecosystem management, because it aims to connect environmental and socioeconomic goals for forest management by creating local jobs linked to forest stewardship.
Contact: Susan Charnley, scharnley@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program
The wildland-urban interface (WUI), where homes and
other structures are built among forests, grasslands, or shrubs,
has received much attention owing to the growing number
of structures destroyed in WUI wildfires and the increasing
number of people and resources at risk in these areas. Forest fragmentation, habitat loss, and declining biodiversity in
WUI areas are also concerns.
A new assessment has produced maps and other data on the
WUI for the coterminous United States, by using a standard,
legislatively relevant definition and consistent mapping
techniques. Most of the WUI is in the Eastern United States,
especially in northern Florida, the southern Appalachians,
and coastal areas of the Northeast. Other major WUI areas
are located along the west coast, the Colorado Front Range,
southeast Texas, and the northern Great Lakes States. The
digital maps and other spatial data on the WUI are available
on the Internet. The maps and databases are compatible with
vegetation and fuel maps currently under development, which
makes them useful for midscale analyses of fuel treatment
needs, determining economic values at risk, and allocating
federal cost-share, and as a partial basis for stationing
wildland firefighting resources.
The assessment is now publicly available on the Internet. The
Web site includes WUI maps, statistics, and a nationally
standardized geographic information system data library for
the WUI. Information is presented on change in the west
coast WUI and Midwest housing growth.
Contact: Jeremy Fried, jsfried@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory
and Analysis Program
Partners: University of Wisconsin; USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station
How to get it: See the Web site at http://www.silvis.forest.wisc.edu/
projects/WUI_Main.asp
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GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Contact: Thomas Spies, tspies@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
In many developing countries, the establishment of
intensively managed tree plantations often results in land
ownership concentration, loss of customary rights to resource
access, displacement of rural people, and local socioeconomic
decline. Plantations do not often provide many local jobs
or benefit people who are already poor and powerless. On
the other hand, examples can be found around the world
in which plantation forestry is integrated with surrounding
communities and provides local socioeconomic benefits as
well as forest products. These examples can provide decisionmakers with guidance on forest management approaches that
contribute to local community development, promote social
justice, and avoid negative social and economic effects.
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Sudden oak death has killed thousands of oak trees in
California since it was first observed in 1995.
Dave Peter
Consume, a fuel consumption model,
requirements. A tutorial and a user’s manual are available.
Consume can be used for all forest, shrub, and grasslands in
North America.
Seventy-one sites were inventoried and burned in black
and white spruce/hardwood forests (Alaska), chaparral
(California), ponderosa pine/mixed-conifer forests (Oregon),
and pine/hardwood forests (South Carolina, Tennessee, and
Florida). Data from all burns were used in building Consume
3.0, a significant upgrade of this fuel consumption model.
Consume 3.0 was released in beta format in November 2005
and is available for download at http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/
fera/consume/. Consume is being used in the BlueSky smoke
modeling framework. It is also being used to track fuel consumption and emissions for smoke management reporting
by the USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and
National Park Service. The software
system has been taught at 3 regional
fuel workshops and at 12 regional and
national training sessions. The USDA
Forest Service, Pacific Northwest
Region, is considering establishing a
Consume 3.0 teaching curriculum,
and the University of Idaho is incorporating Consume 3.0 into a 2-credit
continuing education class.
New research measured fuel
consumption on sagebrush, pine
flatwoods, and chaparral prescribed
fires throughout Oregon, California,
Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Florida,
and Georgia. Sagebrush fuel load
and consumption equations were
incorporated into Consume 3.0. Fuel
loading equations are in development
for pine flatwoods, chaparral, and
pitch pine scrub.
Managing Disturbance Regimes Program
helps prepare burn plans and meet smoke
requirements
Contacts: Roger Ottmar (forest types),
Land managers and researchers input
Crew weighs fuel-load sample before burning in
rottmar@fs.fed.us; and Clint Wright (shrub
fuel characteristics, lighting patterns,
sagebrush fuel type.
ecosystems), cwright@fs.fed.us, Managing
fuel conditions, and meteorological
Disturbance Regimes Program
attributes; then Consume outputs fuel consumption and
Partners: Alaska Fire Service; Florida Department of Environmental
Protection; Joint Fire Science Program; The Nature Conservancy; U.S.
emissions by combustion phase and by fuelbed category.
Air Force; USDA Forest Service, National Forest System, National Fire
Consume 3.0 is designed to import data directly from the
Plan; USDI Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and
Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS), and the
National Park Service; U.S Environmental Protection Agency; University
of Washington
output is formatted to feed other models and provide usable
outputs for burn plan preparation and smoke management
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Essential oils from Alaska yellow-cedar
heartwood combat sudden oak death fungus
As an immediate action, the use of yellow-cedar chips or
shavings at trailheads, picnic areas, and parking lots in
recreational areas might prevent hikers’ boots, bicycle wheels,
and car tires from carrying the fungus spores from infested
woodlands to new areas. There may be potential to develop
a fungicidal spray by using the bioactive compounds from
yellow-cedar. Scientists have expanded their search for
additional antifungal compounds in the heartwood of
other conifers.
Contact: Rick Kelsey, rkelsey@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program
Partners: USDA Agricultural Research Service and Forest Service,
Pacific Southwest Research Station; Oregon State University
between wildfires, insects
One goal of the Station’s new Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center is to better understand the
complex relationships among threats acting synergistically. As
part of this focus, the center’s scientists studied the effect of
insect outbreaks on wildfire risk and, in turn, how wildfires
may promote insect outbreaks.
Using a quarter-century of data on fire occurrence and
insect damage on public lands in Oregon and Washington,
scientists developed a model that uses a site’s fire and insect
outbreak history to predict the likelihood of future insect
outbreaks and fires. They found a slight increase in the probability of wildfire after bark beetle outbreaks, but no increase
in wildfire probability after outbreaks of defoliating insects.
This work is the beginning of a framework for understanding
wildfire and insect interactions.
Contact: Jerry Beatty, jbeatty@fs.fed.us, Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center
Partner: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station
In pines, mutation rates are highly variable
Trees accumulate mutations during their growth and
reproductive processes. These mutations, or genetic changes,
introduce variation into a population and can sometimes
result in traits that help a tree adapt to its environmental
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GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Sudden oak death has killed thousands of oak trees in
California since it was first observed in 1995, and millions
of acres are at risk in coastal California and southwestern
Oregon. The national strategy for managing the disease
focuses on preventing the spores of the nonnative fungus
from moving into new areas. Scientists looking for natural
fungicides have found that Alaska yellow-cedar heartwood,
the essential oil, and individual heartwood compounds
nootkatin and carvacrol, all prevent the fungus spores
from germinating. These compounds appear to damage
the spore’s membrane, releasing the spore’s contents, and
were 100-percent effective in laboratory cultures.
Study sheds light on complex interactions
John Laurence
conditions. Estimates of the rate at which mutations occur
are fundamental to genetic models that predict, among other
things, how well genetic variability is being maintained in a
population. To better understand mutation in pines—species
common across the Western United States—scientists did
a comparative study of 60 genes across different pine species and characterized the pace and pattern of their genetic
mutations.
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
They found that yearly mutation rates for pines were onehalf to one-sixth of those of most flowering plants. When
combined with pines’ typically long lifespans, however,
this relatively slow mutation rate results in a per-generation
mutation rate far exceeding that of most short-lived flowering
plants. Results will help scientists to predict the response
of genetic variants to selective events, like white pine blister
rust outbreaks, which favor certain genes
over others. This information also is helping
scientists identify which pine genes likely
have responded to recent selective pressures
such as environmental conditions and human
influences.
Tree height limited by the tradeoff between
upward water transport and safety
Have you wondered why trees grow to the height that
they do? Xylem, the tissue that transports water from the
roots to the leaves of trees, must be efficient and at the same
time resist entry of small air bubbles that could permanently
disrupt water transport, leading to the tree’s death. In
conifer xylem, water passes from one tracheid (a xylem
element) to the next through structures called “bordered
pits.” Larger pits result in greater efficiency of waterflow
but greater susceptibility to entry of air bubbles. Studies of
Douglas-fir tracheids along a height gradient from roots to
upper branches have found that the efficiency of moving
water decreases and the ability to prevent disruptive air entry
increases with height. These findings indicate a tradeoff
Contact: Richard Cronn, rcronn@fs.fed.us, Resource
Management and Productivity Program
Partners: Oregon State University; USDA Forest Service,
Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest Regions
In the Pacific Northwest, conifers are
well-adapted to withstand the region’s summer
drought. They possess deep roots that allow
them to extract water from deep soil layers and
redistribute it to the upper portion of the soil,
slowing the drying of these layers and the seasonal dieback of shallow roots.
Tom Iraci
For pine seedlings, membership in
mycorrhizal network may be key to
summer survival
In summer droughts, mycorrhizal fungi networks transfer water brought up by deep roots of large
pines to the shallower roots of seedling pines.
In a study conducted in the semiarid ponderosa pine forests
of eastern Oregon, scientists found that this hydraulic
redistribution in ponderosa pine is aided by the trees’
mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi grow symbiotically on certain
tree species’ roots, assisting in the transfer of nutrients.
By injecting trees with a nontoxic tracer, a substance that
allows the movement of water through a tree and the rest
of the ecosystem to be monitored, scientists demonstrated
that mycorrhizal fungi hydraulically transferred water from
larger trees to seedlings through the network comprising
their filaments. This suggests that seedlings linked in a
common mycorrhizal network to larger ponderosa pine may
be at an advantage during drying conditions. These findings
underscore the importance of mycorrhizal networks’ role in
stand regeneration.
Contact: Rick Meinzer, fmeinzer@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
Partner: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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of efficiency against safety and imply that there may be a
maximum height at which tracheids can still resist air entry
but become unable to transport enough water to replace
transpirational losses from leaves.
The findings contribute to the basis for understanding interactions between site quality and tree height and are of interest
to wood scientists and engineers, particularly those involved
in pressure treatment of wood.
Contact: Rick Meinzer, fmeinzer@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
Partner: Oregon State University
Arboreal rodent demography informs ecosystem
management of interior dry forests
A series of studies was completed on the ecological web
supporting the threatened northern spotted owl in interior
dry forests, with findings on northern flying squirrel demography and bushy-tailed woodrat abundance. Flying squirrels
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
and woodrats make up about 60 percent of the owl’s diet and
potentially drive patterns of owl habitat selection and demography. Past research addressed the abundance and use of
mycorrhizal fungi and arboreal lichens, both key biodiversity
elements and food of many arboreal and terrestrial mammals. The study quantified the demography and habitat use
of arboreal rodent prey in three forest types over 4 years in a
portion of the Cle Elum long-term spotted owl demography
study area. The dry forests studied are those targeted for large
fuel-reduction programs.
The flying squirrel data have already been used for several
significant programs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) used the data and findings in their 5-year status
review of the northern spotted owl. The data and findings
have also been used by government and private scientists
analyzing 10-year demographic trends of the northern
spotted owl. The principal investigator presented findings
to the USFWS northern spotted owl recovery team, and
serves on its science advisory committee. In addition, these
findings will influence wildlife viability modeling for forest
plan revisions on the Colville, Okanogan, and Wenatchee
National Forests, and ultimately all forests in the Pacific
Northwest Region.
Contact: John Lehmkuhl, jlehmkuhl@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program
Partners: Central Washington University; Oregon State University; USDA Forest Service, Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests
New Tool
New GPS-based telemetry system
for monitoring movements of
large animals
Description: The new global positioning system (GPS)-
based, automated telemetry system at Starkey Experimental Forest and Range allows scientists to obtain
real-time location and activity data on elk, deer, and
cattle as often as every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, for
an entire year or longer. The system includes analytical
software and databases that store and analyze
telemetry data.
Outcomes: The new system provides the most accurate and frequent data on animal movements and
activities ever collected, thus providing real-time
studies of elk, deer, and cattle responses to human
activities and forest management. Scientists are able
to obtain the data remotely and efficiently. The data
serve a variety of research objectives that could not be met with past telemetry systems.
How to get it: For Starkey data, contact Michael
Wisdom, mwisdom@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance
Regimes Program, or visit the Starkey Web site at
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/starkey/.
For information about the telemetry system and its
components, go to http://www.lotek.com/, the Web site for Lotek Wireless, Inc.
Partner: Lotek Wireless, Inc.
15
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
In the quarter-century since the eruption of Mount St.
Helens, scientists have documented Spirit Lake’s rapid
and unexpected recovery.
Tom Iraci
Wolverine range contracted substantially over
the past century
Ecosystem Processes Program
Wolverines are a species of concern, but reliable information on their habitat and distribution has been scarce. A new
analysis of historical and current wolverine range in the contiguous United States found that wolverine range contracted
substantially during the 20th century. In the West, current
distribution is limited to north-central Washington, northern and central Idaho, western Montana, and northwestern
Wyoming. Historically, wolverines occurred in or near
alpine habitat, especially at the periphery of their range in
the Pacific Coast mountains and southern Rockies. The only
variable that accounted for the historical distribution pattern
was late-spring snow cover. Causal factors for the extirpation
of wolverines from the southern portions of their range in
the contiguous United States are
unknown, but are likely related
to high levels of human-caused
mortality and low or nonexistent
immigration rates.
Wildlife biologists radio-collar a temporarily sedated male wolverine in northern Washington to learn about
wolverines’ current range in the United States.
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Petitions have been filed twice
to list the wolverine under the
federal Endangered Species Act,
but both petitions were denied
owing partly to a lack of reliable
information regarding their historical and current distributions
and broad-scale habitat relations.
The new information on wolverine range should be a significant
contribution to conservation
planning for the species in the
contiguous United States.
Contact: Keith B. Aubry, kaubry@fs.fed.
us, Ecosystem Processes Program
Partner: USDA Forest Service, Rocky
Mountain Research Station
Small mammals and amphibians showed varied
responses to headwater stream buffers after
forest harvest
Forest-floor small mammals and stream/land amphibians showed varied responses to headwater stream buffers after
timber harvest. Overall, small-mammal diversity increased in
the patch-cut and no-buffer treatments, but particular species
had differing population responses, with populations increasing for some species and declining for others.
Before the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens
in May 1980, Spirit Lake—which lies at the volcano’s north
base—was cool, clear, and nutrient-poor. After the summit of
the volcano slid into the lake as a massive avalanche and tremendous amounts of shattered forest entered the lake’s water
from the eruption’s massive lateral blast, however, Spirit Lake
became much shallower and immediately turned tepid, black,
and nutrient-rich. Although these new conditions killed
the lake’s pre-eruption inhabitants, they also set in motion
a series of biophysical changes that ultimately increased the
lake’s productivity.
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
For amphibian responses, seven land species were found, but
only western red-back salamanders were common. Neither
red-backed salamanders nor total land amphibian numbers
differed significantly by buffer type. Four aquatic and five
streambank amphibian species were found. In the year after
treatments, overall amphibian detections dropped in harvested sites, but the amount of change was not statistically
different from amount of change in control sites. Populations declined for all stream amphibian species after timber
harvest.
Spirit Lake recovered rapidly after Mount
St. Helens’ 1980 eruption
These findings will be used by the Washington Department
of Natural Resources in developing a long-term conservation
strategy for headwater streams as part of a habitat conservation plan for state forest lands in Washington.
Contact: Randall Wilk, rwilk@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
Partner: Washington Department of Natural Resources
Aquatic and Land Interactions Program
Updated DecAid Advisor for managing snags and
down wood now includes east-side forest types
A major update was completed for the Web-based DecAid
Advisor, which is a tool for managing snags, partially dead
trees, and down wood for biodiversity in Washington and
Oregon forests. DecAid Advisor 2.0 now includes east-side
forest types and postfire conditions. The tool is a statistical
compilation of data, along with publications and narratives
interpreting the data, for helping guide management of snags
and down wood. The upgrade includes new data, a revised
tutorial, and explanation of the tool’s statistical underpinning.
Background references were also updated.
DecAID Advisor 2.0 has been posted on the Internet for
use by all forest managers and results reported in an issue of
Science Findings. The new version is being used by the Pacific
Northwest Regional Office and national forests to help guide
management of wood decay elements for biodiversity and
wildlife.
Contact: Bruce G. Marcot, bmarcot@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
Partner: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region
More information: Science Findings 83. If a Tree Falls in the
Woods, Who Will Measure It? DecAid Decayed Wood Advisor. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi83.pdf.
Scientist finds evidence of Spirit Lake’s ecological recovery since the
1980 Mount St. Helens eruption poured hot debris into the lake.
In the quarter-century since the eruption, scientists have
documented Spirit Lake’s rapid and unexpected recovery.
Within 18 months of the eruption, they found, the lake’s
waters cleared and oxygen returned. Next, numerous species
of plankton, insects, and amphibians colonized its waters.
Most recently, from 1990 to 2006, extensive aquatic vegetation developed along the lake’s shores, supporting insects for
Spirit Lake’s growing rainbow trout population.
These findings are important to other researchers and
managers working in volcanic regions around the world.
This well-documented case study is helping researchers and
managers better understand the resilience of ecosystems.
Contact: Charlie Crisafulli, ccrisafulli@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land
Interactions Program Partners: Oregon State University, Portland State University, University of Washington, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
17
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
In headwater streams, macroinvertebrate
species richness is similar in young and
old forests
Aquatic and Land Interactions Program
In riparian and headwater-stream ecosystems, both
macroinvertebrate diversity and density can be important
components of the forest’s overall health. Headwater streams
play an important role in distributing nutrients and prey
species, like macroinvertebrates, downstream.
At sites in Oregon’s H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest,
scientists studied the long-term responses of macroinvertebrate
communities to forest harvest and the natural variation and
diversity of these macroinvertebrates in headwater streams.
The scientists found that species richness was similar in
streams through young- and old-growth stands throughout
the year. The type of species, however, changed with season.
Densities of stream-bed macroinvertebrates were highest in
summer, and densities were slightly higher
in streams through young stands. Streams
through old-growth forests did not have
consistent “indicator” macroinvertebrate
species, as community composition differed
among old-growth basins at different
elevations.
Scientists are studying the many ways that headwater streams, forests, and watershed food webs
are connected.
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By documenting the long-term legacies of
forest harvest, scientists provide managers the
data for evaluating the ecological recovery of
streams flowing through timber harvest areas.
A better understanding of natural variability
in headwater stream macroinvertebrates
provides a context for evaluating streams
across landscapes and using streams as
indicators of ecological disturbance.
Contact: Sherri Johnson, sherrijohnson@fs.fed.us,
Ecosystem Processes Program
Partner: Oregon State University
In headwaters, food, conditions,
and interactions control fish
productivity
Headwaters are central to stream
food webs; being most directly linked
to the land ecosystem, they can play an
important role in delivering materials,
nutrients, and prey species, like macroinvertebrates, to downstream fish
communities.
Aquatic and Land Interactions Program
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Scientists studied the relationship
between headwater conditions and
downstream lake communities.
They found that both fish and
macroinvertebrate abundance were
greater at stream junctions. One native
fish species, the resident sculpin,
was as much as twice as abundant at
stream junctions, compared to control
sites, showing a strong link with food
resources delivered by the streams.
Juvenile sculpin also congregated at
these sites, risking predation by adult
sculpins for enhanced foraging.
These findings are helping managers to better understand the
role of headwater streams in watershed food webs relevant
to managing habitats for some threatened and endangered
species. The findings also demonstrate the importance of a
healthy watershed in the lifecycles of native fish.
Contact: Karl M. Polivka, kpolivka@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land
Interactions Program
Partners: University of Washington, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
New Tool
FLOW: watershed streamflow data sets
Description: The online FLOW tool interactively delivers
streamflow data for a number of gauged small watersheds. Currently, the streamflow data are available for
specific watersheds in the H.J. Andrews Experimental
Forest, Alsea basin, Coyote Creek area, and Fox (Bull Run)
watershed. The user can request data by time interval and
date range.
Outcomes: The FLOW tool has been used by scientists
and modelers to obtain customized streamflow data
products. For example, on the H.J. Andrews, FLOW has
been used with a hydrologic model that analyzes the
hillslope water-residence times in a small watershed.
How to get it: See the Web site at http://www.fsl.orst.
edu/lter/data/abstract.cfm?dbcode=HF004&topnav=97.
Stream temperatures may be reduced by
adding gravel
Dams block the downstream movement of gravel, and
river reaches downstream can become depleted of gravel, an
important part of healthy stream ecosystems. A new approach
to river restoration adds gravel to rivers whose sediment
supply has been depleted by dams and reservoirs. Although
gravel augmentation is primarily used to allow rivers to
rebuild habitat features, it may also help mitigate the thermal
effects that reservoirs can cause downstream. The gravel can
increase the interchange between surface flows in the river
and groundwater, thereby reducing temperature peaks.
The research includes field investigations on Oregon’s
Clackamas River and laboratory investigations at the
National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics in Minnesota.
Field and lab data will be used to model the likely temperature benefits of gravel augmentation, design augmentation
strategies, and contribute information needed for relicensing
and managing hydropower dams on the Clackamas River.
Specific users include the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Portland General Electric, and the U.S.
Geological Survey, among others.
Contact: Gordon E. Grant, ggrant@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes
Program
Partners: Oregon State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Portland General Electric
PNW Research Station contact: Don Henshaw, dhenshaw@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
19
When in search of food, marbled
murrelets travel far and wide
Teresa Hollingsworth
New research on the murrelet, a threatened species, used
ground, boat, and aerial surveys to track 107 radiotagged
murrelets throughout the breeding season and also collected
blood samples for genetic analyses. Scientists confirmed and
documented 14 murrelet nests within the older forests of
Olympic National Park, Olympic National Forest, and Vancouver Island. They also found that murrelets’ home range in
2005 was five times that of 2004, suggesting the birds had
to travel greater distances to find food in 2005, when delayed
upwelling of nutrient-rich waters likely resulted in less food.
In interior Alaska, smoke rises from a distant wildfire, while fireweed
blossoms in area burned the previous year.
In Alaska’s boreal forests, links revealed
between prefire forest conditions and
postfire forest recovery
In the boreal forests of interior Alaska, research that
began in 2001 to study vegetation in black spruce stands
provided 3 years of valuable baseline data when much of the
study area burned in 2004, a record fire year in Alaska. The
before-fire data provided a rare opportunity to directly assess
relationships among prefire vegetation patterns, fire behavior,
and fuel consumption, and postfire vegetation in Alaska’s
flammable black spruce forest.
Marty Raphael
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
The marbled murrelet relies on both oceans and forests to
survive. During the breeding season, the female and male of
each nesting pair alternate between foraging in coastal ocean
waters and nesting inland on the branches of large, old trees.
In previous studies, Station scientists documented the species’
tendency to travel widely between their foraging and nesting
sites—sometimes crossing the entire Strait of Juan de Fuca as
they switch places with their mate.
These findings will be critical to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s upcoming rangewide status review of the marbled
murrelet. Information on murrelets’ at-sea movement also
will help managers connect population monitoring results
to inland nesting habitat.
Contact: Martin G. Raphael, mraphael@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
Partners: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region; USDI Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Olympic National Park; Washington Department of Natural Resources
Using data from an extensive network of sites, scientists were
able to link early postfire species colonization, recovery, and
establishment to prefire species composition, fire severity, and
site moisture. Results show that wetter, less severely burned
sites will likely regenerate as black spruce, whereas drier,
more severely burned sites provide excellent seedbeds for
colonizers such as white spruce, aspen, birch, and fireweed.
These findings are being included in a field guide that can be
used by Alaska land managers after a wildfire to determine
postfire recovery and vegetation establishment. Understanding successional trajectories is critical to management of these
forests for large mammal habitat, prescribed burning, and
timber harvest.
Contact: Teresa Hollingsworth, thollingsworth@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
Partners: Joint Fire Science Program; University of Alaska Fairbanks
Invasive white clover is spreading on
Alaskan river flood plains
Unlike alders and willows, woody shrubs that play
decades and even centuries-long roles in the development
of flood-plain vegetation, the effects of the invasive white
clover appear to flicker briefly but intensely across recently
deposited flood-plain surfaces. Where white clover becomes
established, it grows in dense stands producing copious
20
New ToolS
WatershedDB interactive mapping site
Description: The pilot WatershedDB Web site organizes and
manages the data stored by ClimDB and HydroDB, which
continually collect climate and hydrology data from watershed studies across the Nation. WatershedDB is managing
data from 47 sites from Alaska to Antarctica, including
Forest Service experimental watersheds and all the LongTerm Ecological Research sites. The tool gives researchers
multiple options for working with the data; users can
access data directly through pull-down tabs or zoom into
sites on a map.
How to get it: See the Web site at http://wwwgis.forestry.
oregonstate.edu/website/wsheddb1/wsheddb.htm.
PNW Research Station contact: Theresa Valentine, tvalentine@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program
Partners: Oregon State University, College of Forest
Resources; USDA Forest Service, Wildlife, Fish, Water, and Air Research (WFWAR)
Description: The FRESH system quantitatively evaluates the
nutritional quality of habitat for deer and moose. Users input
the biomass of forage for a given area, the concentrations of
digestible energy and protein in the forage, and also specify
the animal’s metabolic requirements. The FRESH system then
calculates the number of animal days that could be provided
by the forage resources, at the specified level of animal
requirements. The system consists of a Web-based application
for stand-level analysis and a geographic information systembased application for landscape-level analysis.
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Outcomes: This pilot site shows how data can be organized
and managed for multiple research sites. WatershedDB has
been demonstrated at several user-group meetings.
Forage Resource Evaluation System
for Habitat (FRESH)
Outcomes: The FRESH system has already been used in
limited research applications. The Tongass National Forest
intends to replace their current deer habitat models with
FRESH, after collecting the necessary field data. Also, the Sealaska Corporation has been using it to evaluate their lands and in limited research applications.
How to get it: FRESH is available on a University of Alaska
Anchorage Web site: http://cervid.uaa.alaska.edu/.
PNW Research Station contact: Tricia Wurtz, twurtz@fs.fed.us,
Ecosystem Processes Program
Partner: University of Alaska Anchorage
Understanding the dynamics of colonization and dispersal of white clover
will help characterize its ecological
impacts, including those on wildlife
habitat, and will aid in the development of pathway risk analyses and
mitigation measures.
John Laurence
amounts of seed leading to rapid
spread of the species downriver.
Cameras mounted on a tethered blimp
provided low-cost, high-resolution
imagery of the Matanuska River
flood plain over two growing seasons.
Scientists mapped small patches of
both first- and second-year white
clover plants. They found that, owing
to the species’ biennial habit, the
small-scale distribution of this plant
shifted markedly at 2-year intervals.
On this site, surfaces dominated in
2004 by second-year plants were
completely devoid of the plant in 2005,
a finding with significant implications
for assessing the role of this invader in
the flood-plain successional sequence.
Alders and willows colonize river flood plains in interior Alaska; spreading invasive plants may affect
those dynamics.
Contact: Tricia Wurtz, twurtz@fs.fed.us,
Ecosystem Processes Program
Partners: ABR Inc., University of Alaska
Fairbanks
21
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Goal 2:
Assess the status and trends of ecosystems
and natural resources and their uses
K e y
Fi n d i ngs
➤
Western juniper forest and savanna have expanded in eastern Oregon
from an estimated 1.5 million acres in the 1930s to about 6.5 million
acres in 1999, and juniper expansion seems likely to continue.
➤
A stream’s biological productivity is a result of both local and
regional factors.
➤
An updated timber inventory for south-central Alaska found
that 4 million acres, slightly over one-fifth of the region, is forested.
Of that total, about 1.9 million acres is timberland.
➤
Three tree species vulnerable to sudden oak death, California
black oak, coast live oak, and tanoak, predominate on about
1.52 million acres in quarantined California counties.
➤
Sagebrush habitats are declining rapidly across western North
America, with populations of over 350 associated plant and
animal species at risk of extirpation.
22
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Tom Iraci
juniper expansion in eastern Oregon
Western juniper forest and savanna have expanded in
eastern Oregon from an estimated 1.5 million acres in the
1930s to about 6.5 million acres in 1999. The area classified as
juniper forest, defined as tree cover of at least 10 percent, has
increased from about 420,000 acres in the 1930s to almost
3.5 million acres. A large increase recorded since a 1987
inventory is partly a reflection of better inventory methods
and partly the actual expansion of juniper forest. The new
inventory methods also found juniper on over 2 million acres
classified in 1987 as not having
juniper; most of these acres were
classified as juniper savanna. Over
one-third of the savanna acres
had juniper seedlings, suggesting
that tree density will increase and
some savanna lands will become
juniper forest.
About 52 percent of juniper
forest and savanna lands are
privately owned, the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM)
manages another 43 percent,
and the remaining 5 percent is
on national forests and other
public lands. In terms of counties,
Crook County has the greatest
proportion of its area in juniper
with over 58 percent, followed by
Wheeler County with 46 percent and Jefferson County with
34 percent. The expansion of juniper changes the landscape
not only visually but also in many other ways: the types of
wildlife habitat available, grazing carrying capacities, and
amount of precipitation reaching the soil and available to
other plants.
Contact: David Azuma, dazuma@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
More information: Resource Bulletin PNW-RB-249. The Western
Juniper Resource of Eastern Oregon. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/
pubs/pnw_rb249.pdf
Tom Iraci
New inventory shows extent of western
Western juniper forest and savanna cover four times as much area in eastern Oregon as they did in the 1930s.
23
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Scientists are studying the effects of regional factors such
as geology, climate, and land use on headwater streams,
as well as how the condition of these streams influences
biological productivity downstream.
Tom Iraci
Maps provide county-wide view of invasive
The invasive shrub tamarisk is disrupting riparian and
aquatic ecosystems along streams in the semiarid Western
and Southwestern United States. It is dominating the banks
of some Washington, Oregon, and Idaho streams, potentially
threatening native plant communities, wildlife habitat, recreation, and municipal water supply. Because of its potential
to disrupt aquatic ecosystems and stream food web dynamics,
tamarisk could imperil salmon recovery and management in
the interior Columbia River basin.
In 2006, scientists with the Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center worked with specialists in
Crook County to integrate local knowledge and data from
state, county, and federal sources on the current and historical
distribution of invasive weeds in Crook County, located in
central Oregon. Maps of 17 potentially controllable noxious
weed species were generated, yielding a county-wide view of
problem locations for invasive plants, for the first time.
Its recent spread along the streambanks of
Washington, Oregon, and Idaho has been
mapped for the first time. Local reports of
tamarisk infestation were combined with
a habitat suitability model into one geographic information system map. The map
is part of the Westwide tamarisk mapping
work and can be accessed at the Tamarix
Cooperative Mapping Initiative (T-Map)
Web site, at http://www.tamarixmap.org.
The map is the first comprehensive documentation of tamarisk in these states and
provides the foundation for tamarisk management in the Pacific Northwest. Scientists
are now working to refine the map with
high-resolution imagery and additional
field observations.
Contact: Becky Kerns, bkerns@fs.fed.us, Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center
24
Bob Conrad, Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station
Scientists map occurrence, risk of invasive shrub
Tamarisk.
plant occurrence and spread
Scientists are now overlaying the weed distribution maps with other county-wide data,
such as rainfall and road locations, to reveal
possible influences of these attributes on
the occurrence, distribution, and spread of
invasive plants in the county. These maps will
be used by managers as part of their invasive
plant control programs to help predict the
movement of invasive plants to new locations
in the county. The technology developed
during this project will be shared with others
to begin building an invasive plants database
for federal, state, county, and private land
managers throughout central Oregon.
Contact: Terry Shaw, cgshaw@fs.fed.us, Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center
Partner: Crook County, Oregon
More information: http://gis.co.crook.or.us/
Portals/3/CC_Weeds.pdf.
LIDAR reveals effects of Biscuit Fire on southern
Oregon’s biodiversity
Contact: Jerry Beatty, jbeatty@fs.fed.us, Western Wildland Environmental
Threat Assessment Center
Partners: National Commission on Science and Sustainability; USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station
combination of local, regional processes
Scientists continued their work with regional and
national partners to test and enhance ways to monitor the
health of aquatic habitats within the Wenatchee River subbasin. Their initial findings suggest that the factors that lead
to physical differences in streams, like a landscape’s geology,
climate, and land use, explain only a portion of the stream’s
biological productivity—measured by invertebrate biomass,
for example. Thus, a stream’s biological productivity is a result
of both local and regional factors.
Contact: Karl M. Polivka, kpolivka@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land
Interactions Program
Partners: USDC Bonneville Power Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Fisheries Service; University of Alaska Fairbanks; Upper Columbia Regional Technical Team
Forest sector in United States can weather
changes in climate and society
The forest sector in the United States has faced major
challenges over the past decade, including forest damage
from severe fires and major hurricanes, changing social views
on forest management, and declines in timber harvests on
federal and state lands. However, a new assessment finds that
the U.S. forest sector is highly robust and capable of adjusting
to changes in climate, expectations for private land management, and public timber harvests. Four scenarios for climate
change were examined, with the model showing how regional
forest inventories and timber prices might be affected. Possible landowner behavior was projected by using the timber
returns that might be expected from different management
regimes and investment choices.
Resource Management and Productivity Program
Stream productivity is determined by
These findings are important to land managers and fish
conservationists who benefit from increased awareness of the
connectedness of ecosystems in maintaining fish populations.
The U.S. forest sector is highly robust and can adjust to changes in forest management policies.
25
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
In 2002, the Biscuit Fire burned nearly half a million acres
of forest land in southwestern Oregon, making it one of the
largest wildfires in the state’s history. To evaluate the fire’s
effects on biodiversity, scientists used LIDAR (light detection and ranging)—a remote-sensing technology that uses
airborne laser scanning to generate three-dimensional images
of forests—to study a variety of forest structure and composition attributes often used as biodiversity indicators. LIDAR
was most accurate, scientists found, for assessing live and
dead tree density and basal area, which is a measure of a tree’s
girth. LIDAR data also provided good estimates of conifer
density. This study is the first time LIDAR has been used
to estimate postfire tree mortality, especially over such a
vast expanse.
With this knowledge, scientists are now studying what
effects regional factors like geology, climate, and land use
have on headwater streams—which are streams closest to the
water’s source. They also are looking at how the condition
of these streams, in turn, influences biological productivity
downstream. By linking downstream fish response to these
upstream conditions, scientists are helping to better understand how land management practices might influence stream
food web productivity.
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
The updated forest inventory of south-central Alaska
found that about 4 million acres are forested, with
1.9 million acres available for timber harvest.
Ray Koleser
Methodologies and results will be published in the Resource
Planning Act Assessment Update. The models have applications in various assessments and are available for other studies. The information on regional forest inventories and timber
prices is of interest to the public, policymakers, forest industry
personnel, and others.
Contact: John Mills, jmills@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources
Interactions Program; Darius Adams, darius.adams@oregonstate.edu,
Oregon State University, Department of Forest Resources
Partners: Oregon State University, Department of Forest Science;
USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory
Spruce bark beetle impacts are variable across
Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula
Over the past 15 years, a spruce bark beetle infestation
killed many spruce trees in the Kenai Peninsula forests of
south-central Alaska. A study of the impacts found that
spruce mortality and related changes in vegetation were quite
variable across the peninsula. Tree mortality was high in the
southern Kenai lowland forests, with an 87-percent reduction
in basal area. With much tree cover gone, southern Kenai
lowlands also showed the most marked change in vegetation
composition; most notably, early-successional species such
as bluejoint grass and fireweed greatly increased their cover.
The lowest levels of tree mortality were in the Gulf Coast
and northern Kenai lowland forests, and the related vegetation changes were variable in these forests, with no consistent
pattern.
Ray Koleser
The study found no evidence of widespread reductions in tree
regeneration after the massive spruce bark beetle infestation,
although some areas will be slow to reforest owing to having
few surviving trees and no seedlings. The regeneration of
white spruce and paper birch did not change in response
to the beetle outbreak or related increases in bluejoint
grass cover. The findings on vegetation change and tree
regeneration should be useful for land management planning
on the Kenai Peninsula.
26
Contact: Willem van Hees, bvanhees@fs.fed.us, for Tina Boucher and Bert Mead, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Scientists measure timber resources of
south-central Alaska
Within those 12 counties, most forests with the vulnerable
species are privately owned. A wide range of forest structures
(tree ages, sizes, spacing, and species mix) is found across
these forest lands. Where tanoak predominates, average
annual precipitation is estimated at 61 inches and average
tree basal area at 134 square feet per acre. In contrast, where
coast live oak predominates, average annual precipitation is
only 33 inches and average tree basal area is 93 square feet
per acre. Research is underway on how climate factors affect
the spread of the disease. Because vulnerable species are a
large component of forests in the quarantined area, sudden
oak death could have major effects on the forest ecosystems,
including wildlife that depend on acorns as a food source.
Contact: Tara Barrett, tbarrett@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Tom Iraci
Partner: USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Protection,
State and Private Forestry
The forest inventory was updated for south-central Alaska, which includes
popular recreation areas such as Turnagain Pass, seen here, as well as
remote wilderness.
Contact: Sally Campbell, scampbell01@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Vulnerable species are widespread in
counties quarantined for sudden oak death
Sudden oak death in the United States was first observed
in tanoaks in California in 1995. Since then, sudden oak
death has spread rapidly through many host species, and
counties in California and one forest site in Oregon have been
quarantined for the fungus causing the disease. Three of the
tree species most vulnerable to the disease, California black
oak, coast live oak, and tanoak, predominate by basal area on
Tara Barrett
On the 1.9 million acres of timberland, defined as forest
available for timber harvest and productive enough to regenerate after harvest, the net volume of timber was estimated
at 5,087 million cubic feet. Of that total volume, 44 percent
is on state and local government lands, 28 percent on private
lands, and 27 percent on national forest. Fifty-seven percent
of timberland acres and 93 percent of growing-stock volume
is in sawtimber stands, with the Sitka spruce forest type
predominating. Most timberland in south-central Alaska
produces less than 50 cubic feet of wood per acre annually,
considered a low productivity level. Inventory results are used
in strategic planning, policy analyses, and environmental
monitoring.
This leaf shows early signs of damage from the sudden oak death fungus,
which injures and kills many species of oak and other plants.
Lichens as bioindicators show high ammonia
deposition in parts of Sierra Nevada Range
Chronic, excessive nitrogen deposition is potentially an
ecological threat to forests of the greater Sierra Nevada in
California. Scientists have developed a model that uses lichen
communities as bioindicators for excessive nitrogen deposition in forests, which typically shows up as raised levels of
ammonia, a nitrogen compound. Ammonia is not monitored
by existing air quality networks.
27
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
South-central Alaska encompasses the region with
Kodiak Island, the Cook Inlet Basin, Kenai Peninsula, and
Gulf of Alaska coastal region east to Icy Bay. The updated
forest inventory of this 18.5-million-acre region found that
about 4 million acres, or slightly over one-fifth, is forested.
About two-thirds of the other 14.5 million acres has shrub,
herb, and grass plant communities. Species diversity is
greatest in the closed and open Sitka spruce forests, spruce
woodlands, closed tall alder shrub type, and low shrub willow
type. Nearly 1.3 million acres of forest land are reserved from
timber harvest; reserved areas are primarily on the Kenai
National Wildlife Refuge, national parks, and the Chugach
National Forest.
about 1.52 million acres in the California counties quarantined so far: Alameda, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Marin,
Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara,
Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma.
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Scientists found that sagebrush habitats are declining
rapidly across western North America, with populations
of over 350 associated plant and animal species at risk
of extirpation.
Mary Rowland
Certain lichen species, known as nitrophytes, thrive in
high-ammonia environments. Although elevation partially
confounded the data, scientists found an ammonia deposition
gradient that correlated with the presence of nitrophilous
lichens. Lichen communities indicated relatively high
deposition of ammonia to forests of the southern Sierra
Nevada, the Modoc Plateau, and forest stands near urban
areas. Ammonia levels were somewhat elevated in popular
recreation areas such as Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.
Lichen communities from forests in the Tahoe basin, northern
Sierra Nevada, southern Cascades, and eastern Klamath
Range were considerably less affected.
Tom Iraci
These data provide the first comprehensive assessment of
ammonia deposition patterns in the region. The model will
be used for continual assessment of excessive ammonia levels,
A new method tested for mapping forest characteristics in southeast Alaska
was as accurate as interpretations of satellite imagery.
28
which over time can lead to reduced soil fertility, changes in
the plant community, loss of mycorrhizal fungi, and greater
susceptibility of trees to other stressors such as drought.
Contact: Sarah Jovan, sjovan@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Partner: Oregon State University
Innovative method works well to predict forest
characteristics in southeast Alaska
Artificial neural network (ANN) methods worked well
as inexpensive, quick methods to predict forest characteristics
in southeast Alaska. The ANN methods are computational
tools that can approximate solutions to a problem by finding
patterns and relationships in a database of examples representative of the problem. In this study, ANN methods were used
to model three forest characteristics (crown closure, species
land cover, and tree/size structure) across the landscape.
The distributions predicted by the ANN methods were as
accurate as a classification based on interpretation of satellite
imagery. Landscape-scale maps of forest characteristics help
forest managers understand the regional context of their decisions in assessing how changes in management might affect
landscape components. Managers can use ANN methods to
compare the potential outcomes of management scenarios at
landscape scales.
Contact: Willem van Hees, bvanhees@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Partner: University of Leeds, United Kingdom
350 plant and animal species at risk
Regional assessments of the sagebrush ecosystem were
done in the Great Basin and Wyoming basins over the past 4
years. Scientists found that sagebrush habitats are declining
rapidly across western North America, with populations of
over 350 associated plant and animal species at risk of extirpation. Restoration potential appears limited for populations
and habitats of the greater sage-grouse; petitions have been
filed to list the species under the Endangered Species Act,
although it is not currently listed. With its strong reliance on
sagebrush habitats, the greater sage-grouse can be considered
an umbrella species for other sagebrush-dependent species but
may not be a suitable umbrella for other species of concern in
arid shrublands. In coming decades, sagebrush could be displaced by cheatgrass, a widespread invasive grass, or replaced
with pinyon-juniper woodlands across extensive areas of the
Great Basin.
Partners: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station; USDI
Bureau of Land Management, Geological Survey
More information: Book, Habitat Threats in the Sagebrush Ecosystem:
Methods of Regional Assessment and Applications in the Great Basin.
Wisdom, M.J.; Rowland, M.M.; Suring, L.H., eds. 2005. Lawrence, KS:
Alliance Communications Group
New Tool
Home range tools (HRT) for ArcGIS
Description: The HRT software extends ArcView and
ArcGIS to analyze the home ranges of animals. The tool
can use large data sets and carry out all required home
range analyses within a single software environment. The
HRT software is used by wildlife managers and scientists.
How to get it: Download from the Centre for Northern
Forest Ecosystem Research Web site at http://blue.
lakeheadu.ca/hre/; or contact John Kie, jkie@fs.fed.us,
Managing Disturbance Regimes Program
Partner: Centre for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research
Walter Foss
Larry Ridenhour, Bureau of Land Management
Decline in sagebrush habitats puts over
Contact: Michael J. Wisdom, mwisdom@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance
Regimes Program
29
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
The ferruginous hawk is one of over 350 animal and plant species at risk as
sagebrush habitats decline over western North America.
Results from the Great Basin assessment have been used
in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest plan revision
in Nevada and in Bureau of Land Management field
offices throughout the Great Basin. Also, the assessment’s
methods of landscape analysis were used for a new sagebrush
conservation assessment and strategy encompassing nearly
40 million acres in Colorado. The findings on greater sagegrouse as a potential umbrella species are being used in
development of a range-wide conservation strategy for this
species.
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Goal 3:
Develop science-based options for informed management
K e y
➤
➤
➤
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30
F i n d i n g s
An analysis of 12 Western States estimated that
fuel reduction treatments on 23 million acres of
timberland could generate 12 million oven-dry
tons of biomass annually; the Western Governors
Association used this analysis in developing a
regional biomass energy program.
Climate change may result in significant changes
in California ecosystems, annual acres burned in
the state, and biomass consumed.
Climate change may lead to changed fire behavior
in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills, with the
number of fast-spreading fires in grass and brush
fuel types increasing several-fold.
The California Fire Economics Simulator version
2 improves the analysis of initial attack resource
needs, with more realistic assessment of initialattack success under worse-than-average
conditions.
➤
A software application using Ecosystem Management Decision Support was developed to help
establish priorities for allocating the national
budget for fuel treatment.
➤
The Fuel Characteristic Classification System was
formally released in 2006 and is being used in
national and forest-level applications.
➤
The BlueSky smoke modeling system shows
promise for regional application, after evaluation
of a Westwide field trial led to several improvements in BlueSky’s accuracy.
➤
The Pacific Northwest is generally well positioned
to continue as a world leader in wood production;
challenges faced include forest fragmentation,
parcelization, and increasing international
competition.
➤
Specific changes could improve the performance
of adaptive management in the Northwest Forest
Plan.
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
➤
Certain highly productive soil types in Washington
were found to be less sensitive to soil disturbance
than previously thought and are suitable for intensive management.
➤
➤
➤
➤
➤
Seed zones for Douglas-fir were revised in light
of new findings on cold-hardiness and frost
adaptations in the species.
Public support for the management of rare and
little-known species is more likely if scientists and
managers clarify the rationale for and impacts of
policies, are specific about the context for actions,
outline specific actions to be taken, and identify
when and where policies will be employed.
➤
Thinning and underplanting can promote the
development of old-growth characteristics in
young, Douglas-fir-dominated forests.
If escaped Atlantic salmon establish breeding
populations in Pacific Northwest streams, they
could pose a significant threat to native salmon.
➤
Future demand for timber from Alaska national
forests could range from 48 to 370 million board
feet of logs annually, depending on the demand
for lumber products and other factors.
Juvenile and adult coho salmon benefit from
habitat in intermittent streams in the Oregon
Coast Range, with these streams more important
than previously thought.
➤
An improved model better identifies the sites
in western Oregon most likely to be sources of
debris flows and landslides, analyzes the likelihood
of these events reaching fishbearing streams, and
estimates the amount of wood that would be
carried into the stream channel.
In southeast Alaska, streams in wetland-dominated
watersheds have higher concentrations of
dissolved organic carbon than streams in
watersheds not dominated by wetlands.
31
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
An analysis of 12 Western States found thinnings that
maintain an uneven-aged stand structure would meet
hazard-reduction targets on more acres while also
providing revenues to cover harvesting costs.
Westwide fuel reduction could generate
12 million tons of biomass annually
An analysis of 12 Western States estimated that fuel
reduction treatments on 23 million acres of timberland could
generate 12 million oven-dry tons of biomass annually, about
25 percent of current roundwood removals in those states.
The study analyzed the timberland acres currently at high
risk for stand-replacement fire and used a treatment scenario
of 0.5 million acres per year. The analysis found thinnings
that maintain an uneven-aged stand structure would meet
hazard-reduction targets on more acres while simultaneously
providing revenues to cover harvest costs, than would thinnings that maintain an even-aged structure.
The Western Governors Association (WGA) used the biomass analysis in their January 2006 report, “Clean and Diversified Energy Initiative: Biomass Task Force Report.” In June
2006 the WGA adopted a policy
resolution, based on the report’s
recommendations, to develop an
additional 30,000 megawatts of
clean energy by 2015. The Western Regional Biomass Energy
Program, part of the WGA
clean energy initiative, promotes
the increased use of bioenergy
and biobased products through
the conversion of biomass residuals from forest health projects
and commercial agriculture.
Tom Iraci
Contact: Jamie Barbour, jbarbour01@
fs.fed.us, Focused Science Delivery
Program
Twelve million tons of biomass could be generated annually from Western forests at high fire risk because of
overstocking and insect outbreaks.
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Partners: USDA Forest Service,
Forest Products Laboratory, Northern
Research Station, Rocky Mountain
Research Station
Small-scale power plants not profitable
in southern Oregon forests at current
electricity prices
John Laurence
The analysis found, however, that at current
electricity prices in Oregon, and assuming a 23percent pre-tax nominal return on invested capital,
it would not be economical to operate either a
100-kilowatt or 1,000-kilowatt gasification plant
at a forest landing without a subsidy or tax credit,
even if fuel were delivered at no cost. Such subsidies would only make sense if the unmerchantable
wood otherwise had to be disposed of at a higher
cost. If it were possible to sell merchantable logs
removed in the forest health treatments for an
average of $175 per thousand board feet, in addition to generating power from low-value wood,
then most acres on gentle slopes in southern
Oregon could be treated and provide net operating
surpluses. Most treatments on steep slopes would
still have operating deficits.
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Small trees and other low-value wood are being thinned
from western forests to reduce fuels and fire hazard, but
the work is expensive. Scientists examined the economic
feasibility of using portable, small-scale power plants such
as the BioMax to generate electricity from low-value wood at
forest landings in southern Oregon. The BioMax gasification
plant, manufactured by the Community Power Corporation
of Littleton, Colorado, uses biomass such as forest
thinnings to produce power. It could be used at
forest landings, eliminating the cost of hauling
wood to a centrally located processing plant.
FIA BioSum was used to assess fuel treatment options for
a 22-million-acre forested landscape that includes parts of
northern California, southwest Oregon, and eastern slopes of
the Cascade Range in both states, an area dominated by high
fire hazard. The analysis found that under the most aggressive
scenarios, enough biomass would be produced to supply
four 50-megawatt power plants for decades. Under the most
conservative scenarios (for example, treatment minimizes
merchantable yield and only treats acres that could generate
a positive net revenue despite this constraint), biomass supply
would be far more limited. The merchantable wood from
The FIA BioSum analytical tool found that in southern Oregon, the merchantable trees would yield
90 percent of the total value recovered in fuel reduction projects.
The analysis found that for all 15 Western States, power
generation from biomass could potentially produce 2 to
14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, if
merchantable timber is sold separately.
treatments would yield 90 percent of the total value recovered,
and scenarios that minimized merchantable yield fared poorly
on a net revenue basis.
More information: General Technical Report FPL-GTR-157. Fuel to Burn:
Economics of Converting Forest Thinnings to Energy Using BioMax in
Southern Oregon. http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fpl_gtr157.pdf
Thus, centralized, biomass electricity generation does offer an
outlet for the small-diameter wood but does not drive feasibility—that role is played by the larger, merchantable trees
removed in fuel treatments. FIA BioSum offers objective
analysis of biomass options, allowing policymakers, managers, communities, and investors to discuss the outcomes and
tradeoffs of policy choices.
Merchantable trees, not small-diameter wood,
Contact: Jeremy Fried, jsfried@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Contact: Jeremy Fried, jsfried@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Partner: USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory
drive the economic feasibility of fuel treatment
options in southern Oregon
The economics of proposed fuel-reduction projects are
critical for getting the work done. Fuel treatments in Western
States can potentially yield large amounts of woody biomass,
which typically has low commercial value. Forest Inventory
and Analysis (FIA) BioSum is a tool that can be used to
assess the financial feasibility of fuel treatments, showing
where “hot spots” of biomass supply are and the kinds of
materials, both submerchantable and merchantable, that
could be reasonably expected to flow from landscape-scale
fuel treatments.
More information: Science Update 7. Reducing Fire Hazard: Balancing
Costs and Outcomes. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/science-update-7.pdf
Cofiring biomass and coal in Fairbanks area is
technically feasible, but supply is insufficient
Work is underway to reduce fuel loads and create defensible space around buildings on about 5,000 acres in the
Fairbanks North Star Borough, which is Alaska’s secondlargest metropolitan area with a borough population of about
86,000 people. Scientists examined the feasibility of mixing
the woody biomass with coal in the area’s power plants. The
potential benefits of cofiring coal and wood include improved
33
SCIENCE 2006 aCCOMPLISHMENTS
air quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and local
employment opportunities. The analysis found, however, that
the biomass from defensible-space work would not be enough
to replace 10 percent of the coal required by the area’s four
electric power plants. Long-term cofiring operations would
require additional biomass sources, which could possibly
come from logging slash, sawmill wastes, and municipal
wastes. Although cofiring biomass and coal at all four power
plants is not a viable near-term option, short-term tests could
be tried at a single plant. Important issues for cofiring include
wood chip uniformity and quality, fuel mixing procedures,
transportation and wood chip processing costs, infrastructure
requirements, and long-term biomass supply. Natural resource
managers and power plant managers from the borough can
use the feasibility study in their planning.
Contact: David L. Nicholls, dlnicholls@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural
Resources Interactions Program
Partner: USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry, Alaska Region
More information: Research Note PNW-RN-551. Wood and Coal Cofiring
in Interior Alaska: Utilizing Woody Biomass From Wildland Defensible-Space
Fire Treatments and Other Sources. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_
rn551.pdf
Climate change may cause significant
changes in California ecosystems
The potential effects of climate change on California
ecosystems were analyzed with the dynamic vegetation model
MC1, by using three updated climate change scenarios.
Results showed that climate change may cause extensive
changes in ecosystems, carbon cycles, and fire seasons
throughout the state. Alpine ecosystems may be greatly
reduced from their current area. Shrublands and woodlands
may become forests under the wetter scenario, or grasslands
under the two dry scenarios.
The MC1 study was part of the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research program, and it was
part of the first biennial report on the potential effects of
global warming on the California economy. The full report
was a multi-institution collaboration. Currently, the Station’s
lead scientist on this research serves on a panel advising the
governor of California on climate change.
Contacts: James M. Lenihan, jlenihan@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance
Regimes Program
Partners: California Energy Commission, Scripps Oceanographic Institute
More information: Science Findings 75. Climate Change and California:
Potential Implications for Vegetation, Carbon, and Fire. http://www.fs.fed.
us/pnw/sciencef/scifi75.pdf.
Climate change may result in more
fast-spreading fires in California’s Sierra
Nevada foothills
California has diverse climates and ecosystems, ranging
from snow-capped Mount Whitney to Death Valley, and
coastal redwoods to Sonoran desert. Scientists worked across
several disciplines to understand how climate change’s effects
on rain, snow, wind, and vegetation may change fire behavior
in different regions of California, and how that in turn affects
the need for firefighting resources.
Tom Iraci
The annual area burned in California increased under all
three scenarios, ranging from 9 to 15 percent above the
historical norm by the end of the 21st century. Under the
wetter scenario, in which more vegetation would grow,
annual biomass burned was projected to be about 18 percent
greater than the historical norm. Even with more biomass
burning, enough vegetation would grow under the wetter
scenario that California would become a carbon sink (more
carbon stored than released) of about 354 million tons total,
by the end of the 21st century. Under the drier scenarios, in
which less vegetation would grow, annual biomass burned
was projected to be slightly less than the historical norm, and
California would become a carbon source, losing carbon to
the atmosphere.
Climate change may cause extensive change in California ecosystems, including grasslands, shrublands,
forests, and alpine meadows.
34
The scientists found that climate change’s
effects on fire behavior will differ for California’s diverse regions. In the Sierra Nevada
foothills, where grass and brush fuel types
dominate, the number of fast-spreading fires
is projected to increase several-fold. The
number of large fires is also projected to rise
in the Santa Clara region around San Francisco Bay. Very little change in fire behavior
is expected on California’s wetter, forested
northern coast. Regions where fire spread
and intensity are predicted to increase the
most—grasslands, chaparral, and oak woodlands—are the same areas where California’s
population, already at 36 million, is growing
the fastest.
The study found, however, that 10- to
20-percent increases of initial attack forces
would compensate for climate-related
GOAL aCCOMPLISHMENTS
Scientists worked across several disciplines to understand how
climate change’s effects on rain, snow, wind, and vegetation
may change fire behavior in different regions of California.
Tom Iraci
Contact: Jeremy Fried, jsfried@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Partners: ATMOS Research and Consulting; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Center for Isotope Geochemistry; Universidad Rey Juan Carlos; University of California Berkeley
More information: Science Findings 74. Fanning the Flames: Climate
Change Stacks Odds Against Fire Suppression. http://www.fs.fed.us./
pnw/sciencef/scifi74.pdf.
New approach to initial attack needs has
more realistic treatment of extreme conditions
Wildland firefighting agencies have long sought
analytical tools that can help them determine initial attack
resource needs. The California Fire Economics Simulator
version 2 (CFES2) provides a more realistic treatment of
issues such as firefighting tactics, dispatch policies, fire
behavior, and fireline production rates. Previous simulators
evaluated scenarios based on average conditions, and thus
failed to represent clustered fire starts such as lightning
storms, arson, or severe fire weather. With CFES2, analysts
can easily predict the outcomes for worse-than-average
conditions—for example, assessing initial attack effectiveness
in the 1-out-of-10-years worst case.
The California Department of Forestry (CDF) used CFES2
to analyze initial attack effectiveness under a range of current
and potential future scenarios in the central Sierra Nevada
foothills. One significant finding was that if wildland firefighting resources are diverted to protecting homes and other
buildings, more wildland fires escape initial attack. If local
fire departments can handle structure protection needs during
wildland fires, the CFES2 analysis found statistically significant drops in escaped wildland fires, owing to faster initiation
of fire containment work such as building fireline. The CDF
has been using CFES2 for several years, and other states (for
example, Montana) and agencies (Bureau of Land Management) are now adopting or evaluating the system.
Contact: Jeremy Fried, jsfried@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Partners: California Department of Forestry; University of California Berkeley
More information: The manual and software are publicly available at http://jfried.tullyfried.net/programs/cfes/cfes2.htm
Tom Iraci
changes in weather and fire behavior. (Climate change would
likely cause changes in vegetation and hence, fuels, also; these
factors were not part of this study.) Study results were used
in the California Energy Commission’s Governor’s Science
Report, which is the scientific base for the state’s climate
change action plan.
A new analytical tool helps wildland firefighting agencies determine initial
attack resource needs for worse-than-average conditions.
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