Silviculture in the Face of Global Change: Overview of UMN

Silviculture Program

Tony D’AmatoDept. of Forest Resources

University of Minnesota

Overview• Context for research

• Core focus of research program

• Silviculture in the face of uncertainty

• Summary

Current Context• Global change

– Increased climatic variation– Shifts in disturbance regimes– Invasive species– Increasing herbivore populations

• Concerns over decreasing biodiversity

Current Context• Changing ownership patterns

– Implications to silvicultural practices

• Changing land use and markets– Biofuels, carbon, etc.

Main Focus Areas• Retrospective studies of forest stand dynamics

using dendroecological approaches and long-term data collections from natural and managed stands, including long-term silvicultural experiments

• Large-scale manipulative studies examining the response of forest systems to emerging issues including bioenergy production and invasive species

Main Focus Areas

Silviculture in uncertain times

• View of forests and forest management within the context of global change largely focuses on two approaches:– Mitigation strategies: enhance forests ability to

reduce human effects on climate by sequestering CO2 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

– Adaptation strategies: improve forest resilience/resistance to changes

Carbon and climate change

Age-class diversity

Species/functional diversity

Photo: J. Bradford, USGS

• Have different management regimes and stand types been more resilient to past climactic and biotic perturbations?– Experimental Forest Monitoring Project

• Cooperators: J. Bradford, J. Brissette, S. Fraver, L. Kenefic, B. Palik (USFS)

Looking back to inform the future

Examine inter-annual variability in growth across 5 long-term silviculture experiments

Trade-offs in achieving emerging objectives

Looking back to inform the future

Looking back to inform the future

• Aspen mixedwood productivity and dynamicsLooking back to inform the future

What factors have led to compositionally complex aspen systems in MN?

Collaborators: M. Reinikainen (UMN), J. Almendinger (MN DNR), S. Fraver (USFS)

Looking back to inform the future

• Suggest opportunity for early stand entries to foster increases in compositional complexity• Later gap-phase dynamics suggest alternative to purely even-aged approaches

Looking back to inform the future

FTC

FTC/SBW

•Productivity implicationsLooking back to inform the future

Heading forward…..

• Anticipating and mitigating EAB impacts on lowland black ash systems in northern MN

Black ash project

•How will loss of black ash affect vegetation communities and site hydrology?•Can we mitigate these impacts?

• Large-scale study on Chippewa NF• 4 treatments:

1)EAB mortality (girdle ash), 2) Pre-emptive harvest (clearcutting), 3) Group selection, 4) Unharvested control

– Each treatment is 4 acres and is replicated 4 times– Project team: B. Palik,G. Swanson, R. Venette (USFS); K.

Brooks, A. Ek, C. Lenhart, P. Reich (UMN); R. Slesak, (MFRC)

Black ash project

• Evaluating strategies to mitigate impacts– Planting non-host species within each treatment:

• 11 species, including northern white cedar, American elm, yellow birch, tamarack, Manchurian ash, and swamp white oak

– Can sites remain in forested wetland condition following ash mortality?

Black ash project

Biomass harvesting impacts• Assessing the environmental sustainability of biomass

harvesting within the northern Lake States

Project team: J. Bradford, S. Fraver, D. Linder, R. Kolka, M. Ostry, B. Palik (USFS); C.Blinn (UMN), R. Slesak (MFRC), J. Forrester and D. Mladenoff (UW), F. Aguilar (UMO)

Biomass harvesting impacts• Examine impacts of varying levels of biomass removal

on:• Biodiversity (vascular plants, wood-inhabiting fungi,

amphibians)• Long-term productivity

• Nutrient and carbon cycling, forest regeneration

Summary• Goal is to develop applied solutions to emerging and

core objectives related to forest management and conservation

• Reliance on retrospective approaches provides long-term insight into questions that may not be answered with short-term studies

• Use of large-scale experiments can address emerging issues within an operational context

ConclusionsThanks!

http://silviculture.forestry.umn.edu