Forest Restoration
The LCRI Forest Restoration program is, in
part, a response to numerous studies by the
Institute for a Sustainable
Environment at the University of Oregon,
which show that throughout the U.S., environmental impacts tend
to grow at or above the rate of economic and population growth.
At LCRI, we beleive this challenge calls for a holistic way of
developing solutions that incorporate economy, environment, and
community.
Our Forest Restoration program uses a system developed by
the University of Washington, College of Forest Resources
and Pacific Northwest Research Center (PNW). The system is
the Landscape Management Systems (LMS) approach, which is
based on the ecological theory of "constant change" (Botkin
1990, Sprugel 1991). This system mimics natural disturbances
within a forest and provides dynamic balance of stands in
various structural stages, providing habitats for a
diversity of plant and wildlife species. A variety of field
operations such as thinning, even- and uneven -aged
harvesting, snag creation and replanting will control the
balance of structures and provide products to satisfy the
economic goals.
The Forest Restoration program's three main goals are:
- to main and/or restore all habitats which have historically existed across the landscape;
- to ensure that no species become threatened or extinct, and;
- to reduce catastrophic fire events.
LMS provides a visual model that can be compared over time with an actual stand, and thus serves as a monitoring tool. LMS also provides a predicted inventory every five years, which can be compared to the actual inventory, and updated accordingly.
LCRI plans to implement LMS on a
non-industrial landowners forest. We hope to use it on a pilot
area of the Fremont National Forest, Lakeview Federal
Stewardship Unit. Check this website for updates on our
progress.
In 2001-2002 Lake County had over 150,000 acres burn. This
is a direct result of fuel build up over the past 50-60
years. Utilizing LMS, we can evaluate the risk to each stand
and design silvicultural practices to reduce that threat,
while restoring more natural stands and fire regimes.
LMS is a Microsoft Windows application that integrates
landscape-level spatial information, stand-level inventory
data, regionally specific growth models, and computer
visualization software to assist in the decision making
process. Examples of LMS can be viewed through the
University of
Washington website
http://silvae.cfr.washington.edu/ecosystem-management/
By utilizing LMS, landowners will be able to perform an in-depth analysis of specific forest management alternatives. LMS will allow landowners to observe the consequences to habitat, economies, biodiversity, jobs, timber flows, fire risk, etc. of these management choices. LMS is designed for use in conjunction with local, on-the-ground knowledge of the specific site and landscape.
By utilizing LMS, landowners will be able to perform an in-depth analysis of specific forest management alternatives. LMS will allow landowners to observe the consequences to habitat, economies, biodiversity, jobs, timber flows, fire risk, etc. of these management choices. LMS is designed for use in conjunction with local, on-the-ground knowledge of the specific site and landscape.