Montane Moderately Warm Dry Coniferous Pend Oreille-Kootenai Valleys Douglas fir/common snowberry
Scenario model
Current ecosystem state
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Management practices/drivers
Select a transition or restoration pathway
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Transition T1A
If a stand sustains very high levels of roots disease mortality, then a forest stand could cross a threshold and become a shrubland once all trees are gone (Kimsey et al., 2012).
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Transition T1B
Fire exclusion over long periods allowing stands to grow into homogenous multi-storied stands
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Transition T1C
Development on forest stands in which timber harvest, private housing development or road building has occurred.
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Transition T1D
Forest stand with understory dominated by weedy invasive species or forest converted to cropland or pastureland.
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Restoration pathway R2A
Forest management practices to convert shrubland back to forest including tree planting of less Armillaria Root Rot sensitive tree species
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Restoration pathway R3A
Forest stands restored by overstory thinning, ground and ladder fuels reduction, prescribed fire and seeding of native grasses and forbs.
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Restoration pathway R4A
Development that has caused smaller forest patch sizes and changes to structure cease, restoration efforts on building areas, roads and harvested areas occur including tree planting and other measures.
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Restoration pathway R5A
Weed eradication measures to reduce or eliminate weedy species on site and usually restoration measures to increase cover of native vegetation community for weedy understory community. Afforestation through planting of native trees /shrubs and seeding of native grasses and forbs, treatment of invasive plants and Time for the forest converted to crop or pastureland community.
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No transition or restoration pathway between the selected states has been described
Target ecosystem state
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Description
Structure: Multistory with small gap dynamics in forest of high canopy cover (average 60 percent canopy cover), taller, larger (average DBH 15 to 20 feet) trees dominated by Douglas fir.
Submodel
States 1, 5 and 2 (additional transitions)
1.1. Reference Phase Douglas fir (wester larch-ponderosa pine)/white spirea-common snowberry-wood's rose/creeping barberry-kinnikinick/pinegrass
1.5. Mature Patchy Phase Douglas fir (western larch-ponderosa pine)/serviceberry/white spirea-common snowberry/creeping barberry-kinnikinick/pinegrass
1.2. Initiation Phase - Later early Seral Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, western larch, ponderosa pine/white spirea-common snowberry-wood's rose/fireweed-pinegrass-geyer's sedge
Description
This State has been shaped by fire exclusion in which the forest structure, species composition, patch patterns and fuel loading has been dramatically increased due to a dramatic reduction or elimination of fire from the ecological site. Tree density and fuel loading have reached a point in which fire if it did occur would be of very high severity. Dense multi-layered forests of Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine now exist and are homogenous on the landscape. Intensive forest management practices can reduce the risk of severe fire. There has been a dramatic increase in the area of “Dry PVG” (Douglas fir dominated forests) that used to burn with low severity fires that now has a mixed severity of lethal stand replacing fire regime (Gautreaux, Russ. 1999). Forest stand composition changes with fire suppression as well. Douglas fir does not require a post-fire mineral bed for seedling development like ponderosa pine and will outcompete it when fire does not occur. There is also usually an increase in shrubs that become decadent with the lack of fire.
Submodel
Mechanism
If a stand sustains very high levels of roots disease mortality, then a forest stand could cross a threshold and become a shrubland once all trees are gone (Kimsey et al., 2012). Persistent shrub fields may take a century or longer for the infected root mass to decline, which will return the root disease potential to background levels and allow the reintroduction of resistant conifer species. Extensive management is needed to convert the resultant shrubland back to a forest community. The shrubs that would create the converted shrubland are from those already on the ecological site such as common snowberry, serviceberry, and white spirea. A mosaic of brushy openings, patches of dying trees, and apparently unaffected trees may cover large areas.
Mechanism
Fire exclusion over long periods allowing stands to grow into homogenous multi-storied stands
Mechanism
Development on forest stands in which timber harvest, private housing development or road building has occurred.
Mechanism
Forest stand with understory dominated by weedy invasive species or forest converted to cropland or pastureland.
Mechanism
Forest management practices to convert shrubland back to forest including tree planting of less Armillaria Root Rot sensitive tree species
There can be highly significant losses, usually requiring species conversion in the active management approach. Management tactics include to correctly identify the type of root disease(s) on the management unit, and manage species such as late seral pine and larch. Pre-commercial thinning will improve growth and vigor of the residual stand. Thinning and harvest operations should remove susceptible species (Douglas-fir or true firs) to the degree practical, retaining late seral species such as western larch and pine (Hagle, 2010). Tree planting can be used to facilitate a shift in species composition to those conifers which have greater tolerance to root diseases.
Mechanism
Forest stands restored by overstory thinning, ground and ladder fuels reduction, prescribed fire and seeding of native grasses and forbs.
VRU Recommendations for sivicultural practices (Gautreaux, Russ. 1999):
• Desired forest structures would reflect the product of frequent low to moderate severity ground fires, and occasional stand replacement events
• Largely multi-storied and two-aged conditions would be sustained through prescribed fire and timber harvest at frequencies consistent with natural fire return interval (15-45 years). A variety of successional stages represented.
• Create small openings (2-5 acres) within an irregularly shaped, large treatment area (20-200 acres).
• Individual or small group selection on a 20-25 year re-entry schedule
• Shelterwood preparatory cuts and shelterwood seed cuts
• Intermediate harvest methods (improvements cuttings and thinning from below (where stand regeneration is not the intent and root disease is not a concern)
• Prescribed fire as a tool for periodic reduction in fuels, restoring and maintaining vegetative composition and structure
• Reforestation and species management
Mechanism
Development that has caused smaller forest patch sizes and changes to structure cease, restoration efforts on building areas, roads and harvested areas occur including tree planting and other measures.
Mechanism
Weed eradication measures to reduce or eliminate weedy species on site and usually restoration measures to increase cover of native vegetation community for weedy understory community. Afforestation through planting of native trees /shrubs and seeding of native grasses and forbs, treatment of invasive plants and Time for the forest converted to crop or pastureland community.
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