Restoration Planning and Evaluation Following Damage by the
Southern Pine Beetle in a Sustainable Forest Management Context1
Introduction:
The economic, social, and ecological impacts of the southern pine
beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) (SPB) are catastrophic across the Southern
US. The geographic range of the current epidemic continues to expand and
new host tree species are being infested. The extensive damage caused by
this insect exceeds all historical records. Consequently, an issue of
paramount importance is the restoration of landscapes that have been
damaged by the SPB. Accordingly our GOAL in this project is to develop a
procedure to facilitate restoration planning and evaluation in a sustainable
forest management context. The specific OBJECTIVES are (1) to adapt
the LANDIS forest simulation model for use in SPB damage restoration
planning and evaluation and (2) to apply the LANDIS model and develop a
SPB damage restoration plan that can be implemented in a sustainable forest
management context.
Background:
Sustainability is defined as a function of organization, activity, and
resilience of a landscape. That is to say, a sustainable forest landscape is
one that, through a period of time and in the face of management practices,
(i) retains the basic elements of its structure, (ii) the processes, which define
how the system functions, operate within normal or expected ranges and (iii)
the system can withstand disturbance and return to the normal (nominal)
condition (Coulson and Witter 2003). Sustainability also has a temporal
component, which is generally defined by a number of human generations
(usually three) (Forman 1995). This time frame is a practical boundary that
attempts to set a realistic planning horizon.
For management purposes sustainability of a forest landscape is
normally defined by a set of criteria (e.g., plant and animal biodiversity) and
indicators (e.g., numbers and kinds of soil arthropods) and evaluated in the
context of the set of processes that guide ecological succession. Sustainable
forest management practices are place-based activities that influence both
the mosaic pattern and constituency of landscape element types present
through space and time. Both natural (SPB herbivory) and cultural
1
Prepared by Robert N. Coulson and Maria D. Tchakerian, Knowledge Engineering Laboratory,
Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University.
(harvesting) disturbances are expected events associated with the process of
ecological succession of forest landscapes.
Development of simulation modeling approaches that capture and
abstract essential forest landscape processes operating at broad spatial extent
and long time frames has proven to be a challenging task. LANDIS
(Mladenoff and He 1999) is a simulation modeling environment developed
to predict forest landscape change over time. It is a spatially explicit
landscape-scale simulation model, with an ArcView® interface, that
incorporates natural processes (e.g., fire, wind, and insect disturbance),
ecological succession, seed dispersal, and forest management practices.
LANDIS has been adapted for use in a variety of forest management
applications. Examples of applications relevant to this proposal include He
et al. (2002) [forest harvesting and fire disturbance], Akcakaya (2001) [risk
assessment and landscape habitat models], Schifley et al. (2000) [landscape
change and management practices, and Gustafson et al. (2000) [forest
succession and harvesting].
Approach
The general approach for SPB restoration planning and evaluation
involves adaptation of LANDIS within the framework illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The general steps involved in using LANDIS for SPB restoration
planning and evaluation.
The project will be conducted on representative National Forests within
Region 8. The specific Ranger Districts will be selected for study based on
history of SPB outbreaks and the extent (time frame) and completeness
(constituency) of spatial and tabular databases available. Thematic
databases needed for the study include CISC (continuous inventory of stand
conditions) and SPBIS (the southern pine beetle information system). The
spatial databases include coverages dealing with streams, roads, special use
management, etc.
Following definition of the Forest Condition (the state of the forest),
specific Forest Management Plans (based on Forest Service Practices, FSI
Practices, Restoration Practices or Industry Practices) will be defined and
used as the starting point for landscape simulation. Based on the starting
conditions LANDIS will simulate Forest Succession. Constraints to the
simulation will be harvest schedules and other management practices. At
various stages (time steps) in the simulation we will evaluate the landscape
structure using criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management.
Initially the focus can be directed to a specific criteria, e.g., habitat
suitability for selected vertebrate species (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Method for Evaluating Habitat Suitability (a criterion for sustainable
forest management).
As the forest ages the likelihood of a Disturbance event involving the SPB
increases. Rules associated hazard and risk rating systems, developed for
the SPB, will be used to predict the event. Again the specific management
criteria will affect the likelihood of disturbance.
Rationale:
1. The magnitude of the continuing outbreak of the SPB has altered the
resources and conditions of forest landscapes in the Southern region to a
point where restoration planning, evaluation, and implementation are of
paramount importance.
2. The LANDIS simulation modeling environment provides a means of
evaluating SPB restoration planning and evaluation in a sustainable forest
management context. The approach will permit “testing” of different types
of forest management practices.
3. The USDA Forest Service has in place the necessary spatial tabular
databases (thematic data themes, CISC, SPBIS) to implement LANDIS.
4. The results of the planning and evaluation phases of the study will provide
guidelines for implementation restoration practices.
Literature Cited:
Akcakaya, H. R. 2001. Linking population-level risk assessment with
landscape habitat models. The Science of Total Environment 274:
283-291.
Coulson, R. N. and J. A. Witter. 2003. Forest Entomology 2nd Ed. John
Wiley and Sons. NY.
Forman, R. T. T. 1995. Land Mosaics. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, UK.
He, H. S., D. J. Mladenoff, and E. J. Gustafson. 2002. Study of landscape
change under forest harvesting and climate warming-induced fire
disturbance. Forest Ecology and Management 155: 257-70.
Mladenoff, D. J. and H. S. He. 1999. Design and behavior of LANDIS, an
object-oriented model of forest landscape disturbance and succession.
In D. J. Mladenoff and W. L. Baker, (Eds.) Advances in spatial
modeling of forest landscape change: approaches and applications.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Shifley, S. R., F. R. Thompson III, D. R. Larsen, and W. D. Kijak. 2000.
Modeling forest landscape change in the Missouri Ozarks under
alternative management practices. Computers and Electronics in
Agriculture 27: 7-24.
Gustafson, E. J., S. R. Shifley, D. J. Mladenoff, K. K. Nimerfro, and H. S.
He. 2000. Spatial simulation of forest succession and harvesting
using LANDIS. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 30: 32-43.