UNEVEN-AGED SILVICULTURE AND WILDLIFESimulating the alternatives in northern hardwoods

Principal investigators:

Ralph D. Nyland rnyland@syr.edu

Eddie Bevilacqua ebevilacqua@esf.edu

Diane Kiernan dhkiernan@esf.edu

Mailing address:

SUNY College of Environmental

Science and Forestry

1 Forestry Drive

Syracuse, NY 13210

Completion date : June 2008

Funding support for this project was provided by the Northeastern States Research

Cooperative (NSRC), a partnership of Northern Forest states (New Hampshire, Vermont,

Maine, and New York), in coordination with the USDA Forest Service. http://www.nsrcforest.org

An updated single-tree selection system stand simulator allows experiments to

compare management alternatives. Output reveals changes in stand conditions,

including that for sawtimber volume and wildlife habitat characteristics for cutting

cycles of 10 to 25 years.

Summary

Simulation methods allow managers to forecast changes in forest

conditions, including effects of management on numbers and sizes of

trees, the sawtimber volume, and key attributes deemed important to

wildlife. We used measurements from real stands under selection

system to update an old simulator used with northern hardwoods.

New growth functions allow more accurate prediction of changes in

tree diameters. Others describe how many trees might die, and how

many new ones regenerate. The simulator also predicts amounts and

changes of seed production, coarse woody debris, crown canopy cover,

and cavities in living trees. Using this simulator, managers can

evaluate different treatment options for periods of 10 through 25

years. Resulting information will help them to decide how to best treat

a stand to serve the interests of a landowner. It has applicability for

uneven-aged northern hardwood stands throughout the Northeast.

The Need

• Improve our understanding about different ways to manage uneven-aged

northern hardwood stands

• Explore the effects of those alternative strategies on wildlife habitat and

timber production

•Allow managers to compare different residual stand densities, structures,

and treatment intervals for effects on stand conditions, volume production,

and wildlife habitat

… to explore different responses and different resulting stand conditions

15 m2/ha 19 m2/ha

The importance …

Appropriate management of Northeastern forests

has both ecologic and economic importance to people …

… to maintain biologically diverse and

economically viable forests and wildlife

communities into the future

…to insure a rich array of values that

sustain people’s lives and enhance their

quality of living

Methods (in four stages)

•Update the ESF uneven-aged stand simulator developed at ESF

to run on the latest version of FORTRAN

• Remeasure experimental stands to document change in tree

sizes and abundance

•Gather information about wildlife habitat conditions in

managed uneven-aged stands

•Reanalyze the growth and change functions using new remeasurement

data and add habitat values and their dynamics under management

• Incorporate the tree community and wildlife functions into

an operational computer simulator

•Share the findings through workshops, conferences, and

publications

We had information from

seven different selection

system stands …

… including changes in tree

diameters, survivorship,

regeneration, coarse

woody, cavities, and

similar features

… we used advanced methods of biometrics to analyze the data

and transform it into change functions suitable for use in the

updated FORTRAN simulator

The outcomes

•Newly functioning ESF uneven-aged stand

simulator that runs with modern FORTRAN

• Remeasured experimental stands to account

for change in tree sizes and abundance

•Gathered information about wildlife habitat

conditions in managed uneven-aged stands*

•Updated the growth and change functions and

added habitat values and their dynamics

under management

*Done in collaboration with with NSRC

project by McGee and Nyland at SUNY-ESF

in order to enhance both projects

… then projects stand characteristics into the future

First, the simulator generates average stand information for the starting year

(Time 0) …

… and summarizes the projection to

describe the change

It also adds starting

values for features

like coarse woody

debris at Time 0 ….

… and projects the change through time

… using a decay function developed from data

gathered in another NSRC project

… findings have been used in technical meetings and formal college classes

… for biometrics and silviculture

And we’ve begun to share the findings in workshops for forest managers …

The implications

~ 15 m2/ha

~ 19 m2/ha

By simulating likely outcomes from different management alternatives …

… managers and landowners become better informed

… and can make better decisions

And for a first time …

… they can consider effects on key wildlife habitat conditions

… as well as stand structural characteristics

… and levels of volume production

Future directions

• Based on accomplishments to date we’ve secured additional

funds to add a component that forecasts levels of carbon

sequestration among uneven-aged stands under selection

system

• We also have funds to compare ingrowth, diameter growth,

and mortality between uneven- and even-aged stands

… the first step in developing a comparable even-aged

stand simulator for northeastern northern hardwoods

• We’ve just begun to experiment with alternatives for stand

management, and to plan ways for sharing the findings

Important new findings about

growth, mortality, and ingrowth

in PhD dissertation …

Products

…by Diane H. Kiernan

Two manuscripts submitted to technical journals …

Kiernan, D.H., E. Bevilacqua, L. Zhang, and R.D. Nyland.

2008. Individual-tree diameter growth model for sugar maple

trees in uneven-aged northern hardwood stands under

selection system. Forest Ecology and Management: In

print.

Kiernan, D.H., E. Bevilacqua, L. Zhang, and R.D. Nyland.

2008. Modeling tree mortality in low- and medium-density

uneven-aged hardwood stands under selection system using

generalized estimating equations. Forest Science:

Submitted, under review.

Additional outreach will include …

Still to come …

•Workshops for forest

managers

• Landowners guide