Mike- You're on the ground, in your own turf. But intuitively, I'd steer away from the "choose 1/2 instead of the 1 acre size because the other side is going for three" and take a look at optimal soil disturbance levels (whatever that is...varies with each situation, whether to encourage regeneration of seeds, seedlings, etc., or other management constraints. Wouldn't it be better to have appropriate forest management sizes be based on functional goals rather than arbitrary (well sort of) constraints...a thoroughly trashed 1/2 acre is NOT (in my estimation) better than a 3 acre patch cut that was 'lightly trammeled'?
Much like all of us in the 70's seeking an 'across the board' definition of old-growth, only to find that old-growth as a term wasn't definable across multiple species/scales/regions...we tried immediately to find objective (read hard number constraints) quantitative criteria only to discover that it took discreet qualitative descriptions to more appropriately define it. Just some thoughts from afar, delete as appropriate...:>) -Don From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Re: old growth and wolves Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:23:19 -0500 RE: [ENTS] Re: old growth and wolves Don, I don’t know why the oak plantings failed but as you suggest it probably was from deer browsing despite the great reduction in the deer population on Prescott Peninsula. I don’t agree that 1 – 3 acre clearings happen naturally all the time in New England and I’ve traveled and hiked thousands and thousands of miles all over my north country. How come I never see any? Well it’s because checkerboarding the landscape with 1 – 3 acre “patch cuts” mimics no natural disturbance I know of. Sure we get occasional microbursts that might blow down a few acres here and there but they are rare. Rarer still are tornadoes and hurricanes. Our forest cutting regulations are now under review here in Massachusetts and hopefully will soon be updated with the necessary reforms. One critical issue is the definition of what a clearcut is. Should the maximum size of a “patch cut” (or minimum size of a clearcut) be ½ acre, 1 acre, 2 acres, or as some want 3 acres? Patch cuts are just other words for group selection which is used to create patches of forest of different ages. In the Dictionary of Forestry, it says that the width of groups is commonly approximately twice the height of the mature trees with smaller openings good for tolerant species and larger openings better for more intolerant regeneration. So let’s say the height of mature trees is 100 feet. Double that and multiply by two to get a square and you come up with 40,000 square feet or about one acre. So I think a patch cut should be defined as anything less than one acre but I will be pushing for ½ acre because the other side will be pushing for 3 acres. From an operational point of view yes it is much easier for a forester to mark patches to wipe out and for the logger to cut those patches without having to worry about damaging the residual stand. And that’s why we are seeing more of them not because it’s a good thing for the forest or that it “mimics” any kind of natural disturbance. For my clients, I always use single tree selection and small group selection because aesthetics is most often their prime concern and checkerboarding their woodlots with big holes wouldn’t be too appealing to them. Mike -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of DON BERTOLETTE Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 2:35 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Re: old growth and wolves Mike- How do you think the oak plantings would do if the "1-3 acre clearcuts" were fenced in? If the answer was poorly, then I'd suspect that it was the "hideous" clearcuts. If the answer was well, then I'd suggest that deer were the problem, not the clearcut. One to three acre clearings happen naturally all the time in New England. If the forest management attempts to mimic them also mimic the relatively low level of natural soil disturbance from say wind events, then it becomes a matter of aesthetics. But the aesthetic difference between the disturbances caused by say a small (1-3 acre) localized downburst and a carefully done 1-3 acre patch cut is probably not worth quibbling over. Having said that, I'm not sure how either scenario provides an immediate water quality improvement. Almost everything is scalar...3-5 years in the life time of a forest is a blink of an eye, once regeneration gets underway, the forest adjusts, the eye should too... -Don PS:Notice how the use of 'clearcut' and 'hideous' stand out in our otherwise 'not value-laden' conversation... From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Re: old growth and wolves Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:11:28 -0500 Don, I worked for a few weeks in the Prescott Peninsula at the Quabbin Watershed about 8 years ago doing Timber Stand Improvement work. I’d cut small black birch poles to release white pine saplings. Otherwise you’d have a sea of black birch there because of the history of deer over browsing which also extirpated the oak. I’ve never seen so much black birch with a complete absence of oak. So the effect of the over browsing is essentially permanent. I don’t see oak ever getting established there again – they tried some planting but it all failed. The management at the 55,000 acre Quabbin watershed has changed significantly over the last 4 years or so. Whereas prior they did mostly area wide thinnings, they are now doing more “patch cuts” (1-3 acre clearcuts). Not only does it look hideous, but it is not necessary to protect water quality from any future catastrophic hurricane (by supposedly creating a more resilient multi-aged forest). Mike -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of DON BERTOLETTE Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 4:45 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Re: old growth and wolves Mike- I recall assisting in research at UMASS in the 90's that investigated deer browse effect in the Quabbin Reservoir watershed...similarly, fenced enclosures of oak regeneration were compared with those outside (subject to deer browse) and the difference was certainly statistically significant...a positive spin on this was that oaks so browsed and then protected, developed more established root systems and grew well and fast. A quick aside, in my wanderings in the woods at Grand Canyon National Park, I ran across fenced enclosures from the 30's and 40's designed to study the impact of elk and deer on the understory. Had to protect them from planned control burns, as they were old enough to fall under the Antiquities Act...;>) -Don From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Re: old growth and wolves Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 16:28:56 -0500 Russ, Excellent article! So in order to get tree seedling regeneration you need to introduce the wolf or introduce hunting. This is a common problem all across the country especially in the east with the abundance of white tailed deer. I saw an experiment in Wells (Maine) National Estuarine Sanctuary where they fenced off areas to keep deer away and the result was half decent hardwood seedling regeneration whereas the unfenced areas were choked with invasive and non-native Japanese barberry. Another reason to shoot the deer! There was talk about introducing the wolf to Maine which didn’t please the locals. I remember when they tried to re-introduce caribou to Baxter State Park but unfortunately that noble experiment failed. Wolves may have already introduced themselves to Maine from Canada. I have only had a few landowners (from Bernardston and Warwick) in MA say they saw a wolf. But I’ve had at least15 landowners over the years tell me they’ve seen a mountain lion. Is it the supposedly extinct eastern cougar, migrants from the west, or as most state wildlife officials like to say “escaped pets”? Mike -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 10:52 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] old growth and wolves ENTS: Seattle Times recently ran an interesting article on reintroducing wolves in Olympic NP to stem the damage to the old growth woods by elk. Russ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008667916_wolves25.html Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music. Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. Check it out. Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. 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