Allen M. Brackley
24June10
Outline of research proposals for Staney Community Forestry Project
1.
Project Title and personnel / collaborators
Impact of activities referred to as thinning, partial cuts, and harvesting in the Staney Creek Study area on levels of
sustainable timber harvests
EcoServ team members
2.
Rationale
Existing projects proposed for the Staney Creek Study Area have discussed a multitude of activities to create improved
ecosystems services, benefits, and products. The forest products produced from the activities include traditional solid
wood products from traditionally merchantable stems and energy products from currently unused biomass. The project
activities have been referred to as thinnings, partial cuts, and harvests. All of these activities will have an impact on the
growth, and yield of the timber stands, be they young-growth or old-growth material. All the proposed activities must be
conducted in accordance with existing legislation (Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act) and current Forest Service Policy
that require sustainable management of the timber crop and compliance with the concept on non-declining even-flow
levels of harvest.
This research will review the existing legislation and Forest Service policies relative to sustainable timber and ecosystems
management; traditional concepts of forest growth that are the basis for evaluating timber sustainability; inventory and
scaling data that are essential to the process of determining timber sustainability; methods for modeling timber
sustainability; and changes to the total system that are necessary to accommodate biomass energy products into future
systems that produce ecosystems services, including biomass based energy products.
3.
Hypotheses/Goals/Objectives
Research Questions
■ As stands and forests are managed to produce various ecosystems services what is the impact of forest growth and levels
of sustainable timber harvest?
■ As harvesting systems transition for producing traditional solid wood products from the merchantable pole to an
industry based on production of traditional products and new energy products from total above ground biomass what are
the impacts on sustainable timber management?
■ As timber stands are manipulated to produce ecosystems services what is the impact on the development of the stands
and levels of sustainable harvests of all timber and biomass products?
■ How do forest inventory data collection and reporting systems need to be modified to create data so that it is possible to
maintain inventories of stands and forest that reflect potential to produce both traditional and energy products from
biomass?
■ How does the updated forest inventory data impact on our abilities to model carbon relationships and select
management practices that meet climatic change objectives?
4.
5.
Approach
There are two possible ways that this project can be approached.
1.
If the focus is carbon the total components of the stand that contribute to the carbon cycle must be defined. Once
the components are defined the concept of sustainability must be defined in terms of carbon and traditional and
biomass products.
2.
If the focus is not carbon, but traditional forest growth only the tree component needs to defined. It should be
noted that the tree component includes both a live and dead component and in the biomass world both need to
be considered.
Expected results
Allen M. Brackley
6.
7.
Budget and schedule
Budget- unknown
24June10
Schedule- complete in approximately 1 year (fall 2010 – fall 2011)
Additional information
The information from the above project provides guidelines relative to preparation of the data necessary to create a carbon
model that is based on biomass based development curves. Biomass yield development curves are an extension of
traditional yield curves, but are a method of describing how stands, be they managed or allowed to develop naturally, will
develop over future time periods. Traditional yield curves, by definition describe managed stands.