ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES in rocky mountain coniferous ...

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Understory Residue Vegetation Response to Harvesting and Management in a LarchlFir Forest Wyman C. Schmidt Project L .eader and Research Si 1 vi cul turi s t USDA Forest Service, I ntermountai n Forest and Range Experiment Station ABSTRACT This paper reports the response of understory shrubs and herbs to combinations of three si 1 vicul tural harvest- cutting systems--cl earcut, she1 terwood, group selection-- and four residues treatments--intermediate utilization of harvest residues followed by broadcast burning, conventional-utilization-and-broadcast-burn intense removal of a1 1 woody residues, and understory-protected treatments. Volume, cover, and biomass of shrubs and herbs were evaluated before, and at 2 years and 4 years after harves ti ng. A1 1 treatments substantial ly reduced the volume and biomass of 1 ive shrubs to as little as 3 percent of the preharvest vol ume on burned treatments. However, a1 1 vegetation responded rapidly under all treatments, in some cases approaching preharvest levels in as few as 4 years. Herbs responded earlier and more to treatments than did the shrubs. Total biomass of 1 i ve understory vegetation (not including trees) averaged over 5 000 kglha (4,500 pounds/acre) in the mature forest, reached about half that 2 years after harvesting, and about three-fourths of that 4 years after harvesting. KEYWORDS: Larix oceidentiaZCs, Pseudotsuga rnenziesii, larch/ Douglas-fir, understory vegetation, residues uti 1 i zation, prescribed burning , shrubs , herbs, si 1 vi cul tural system
INTRODUCTION Vegetation integrates the effects of biological and physical intrusions into an ecosystem and provides the best indicator of response to various treatments that man and/or nature impose on the system. Vegetation also provides both direct and indirect benefits to man in a variety of resources ranging from timber products, to forage and cover for wildlife, water regulation, protection of the soil mantle, and esthetics, This is particularly apparent in the extensive 1 arch/Dougl as-fir (~arix occidentaZis/ Pseudotsuga mensCesiC) forests of the Northern Rockies where no single resource predominates (Schmidt and others 1976). Natural succession i n Northern Rocky Mountain forests slowly but inexorably drives vegetation toward a greater complement of shade-to1 erant species. This is particularly striking in larch/fir forests because of the wide range in species and shade-tolerance levels. Vegetation classification schemes capitalize on these to1 erance differences , and classifications based on climax stages of the vegetation have been developed (Daubenmi r e and Daubenmi r e 1968; Pf i s ter and others 1977). Under the cl imax concept, nature has had sufficient time to integrate time and space variation in vegetation development. Natural intrusions of fire, insects, disease, wind, and other factors disrupt succession and can either set vegetation back to year one, have little effect, or greatly accelerate succession toward more shade-tolerant forest vegetation. However, man's activities in the forest, particularly harvest cuttings, now create most physical , biological , and esthetic change. Even-aged si 1 vi cul tural sys terns--cl earcutti ng , seed tree, and she1 terwood--coupled with site preparations that expose mineral soi 1 and reduce vegetative competi ti on, have proved most successful in regenerati ng larch/ Doug1 as-fi r forests (Schmidt and Shearer 1973). However, changing management objectives and wood-uti 1 i zation standards have made i t necessary to reevaluate some of these silvicultural systems in terms of environmental effects. As utilization of woody residues intensifies, the number of mi crosi tes provided by materi a1 formerly 1 e ft in the woods decreases, the amount of fuel for prescribed burning decreases, and the amount and form of nutrients may be changed. Some of these changes may positively influence one resource and negatively influence others. There is no single combination of harvest cutting, uti 1 i zation level , and subsequent cultural practice that wi 11 meet all forest management objectives. Combinations of these practices are dictated by economics, pub1 i c needs, protection of the basic soi 1 resource, biological and physical practicability, forest type, landform, and a host of other factors. One resource needing increased ernphasi s i n forest management is understory vegetation. It serves both actively and passively to increase wildlife and esthetics values, and to protect basic soil resources. However, understory vegetation can a1 so serve as competi ti on for tree seed1 i ngs, often del ayi ng tree regeneration for decades (Schmidt and Shearer 1973). This paper presents prel imi nary results demonstrating the effects of three different si lvicul tural practices combined with four different residue uti li- zation treatments on understory vegetation in a larch/Dougl as-fir forest in Montana. Four years of understory vegetation-response data are presented.
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF TIMBE
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USDA Forest Service General Technic
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REW 'ORD One of the pressing proble
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BIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS Biological
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By the mid-1 960's the apparently u
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Scientist, audience: "The Three-Mil
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I believe that the future of forest
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enewable resource that can be proce
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productive capacity. Recent legisla
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Much of the research investigating
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Six sale area blocks were logged (f
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Understory Removal Figure 4.--Eccpe
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Gentle slopes and easy access to cu
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Each of the four cutting units was
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A concerted effort was made to coor
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oriented toward the basic response
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WOODY MATERIAL IN NORTHERN ROCKY MO
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STANDING, 3 " 1 DIA. ? (GREEN & DEA
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I 11 Table 1,--Volume of wood by co
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Small material under 3 inch (7.6 cm
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Depending on the cutting and treatm
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MICROENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE TO HARV
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I Where: Cs is the concentration at
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Figure I.-- Residue treatments used
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HARVESTING AND RESIDUE INFLUENCES R
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I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 JAN. FEB. M
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Sensible heat flux, evaporative flu
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SOLO, 1977- 78 UNCUT CUT Mean max.
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It is logical that if surface tempe
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0 - 5 - 10 - 15 20 - Chips - Clrare
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Brown, crumbly, decayed material (B
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At Coram, steep harvested slopes ha
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surface of unburned and hard-burned
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canopy. Light then indirectly cause
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Moisture Moisture is frequently ide
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Net radiation--the measure of the a
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Table 5.--Possible solutions for po
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Cochran, P. H. 1969. Thermal proper
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Lommen, P. W., Cr, R. Schwintzer, C
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Stark, Nel 1 ie. 1980. The impacts
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and water use during the growing se
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The main study site (fig. 1) occupi
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The four residues util i zation tre
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RAIN The major precipitation instru
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Figure 5.--SG,L. wuwr zc)as measure
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S treamf 1 ow A &foot H-flume was i
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Figure 7.--Snow water equivalent on
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Soi 1 Water Water present in the so
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SILVICULTURE TREATMENTS Si 1 vicul
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As indicated in figure 11 and appen
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The most consistent difference in w
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MEAN CONSUMPTIVE USE -ALL YEARS (19
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Lowest daily water use occurred at
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6. Water use began in Apri 1 , acce
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Klages, M. G., R. C. McConnell , an
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APPENDICES Appendix A.--Hydrograph
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Appendix C.--Rainfall reaching the
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Appendix E.--Water use during the g
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One of the most efficient methods o
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Control Chipped Picked up Broadcast
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Control Chapped Picked up Broadcast
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Control Chipped Picked up Broadcast
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' Control Chipped and Picked up and
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One of the least detrimental residu
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INTRODUCTION In the early days, the
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%pire 1.--Measured concentrations (
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The silvicul tural treatments appli
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I 2 Table 2. --Percent of total qua
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Unmerchantable TOP Shrubs Lower Cro
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create a nitrogen deficiency during
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Steele, R. W. 1975. Understory burn
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National Forest. This paper summari
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UNIT 2 CONVENT IONALLY Du Bois, Wyo
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Trees Figures 3 and 4 show the oven
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Weights of typical trees on these t
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pi1 ed-burned treatments were lowes
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MINERAL SOIL Total nutrient content
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Tab1 e 5. --Concentrations of avai
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Table 6. --Average concentrations o
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sites. Burning then transformed the
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RESIDUE DECAY PROCESSES AND ASSOCIA
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The hardwood or angiospermous timbe
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Woody Substrates Gyrnnospermsr (Int
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Natural inoculation of residues may
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On the Coram site, brown-rot fungi
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Table 2.--Probability (P) of encoun
Page 173 and 174: Recognizable brown-cubical decayed
Page 175 and 176: I Newly formed, small-dimension res
Page 177 and 178: Highley, T. L. 1976. Hemicellulases
Page 179 and 180: MICROBIAL PROCESSES ASSOCIATED WITH
Page 181 and 182: Nonsymbiotic N Fixation Free-1 ivin
Page 183 and 184: In a previous paper (Jurgensen and
Page 185 and 186: Symbiotic N Fixation The establishm
Page 187 and 188: carbon and NHq (Ahlgren, 1974). Mic
Page 189 and 190: Prescribed f~re CLEARCUT - BURN CLE
Page 191 and 192: Hungerford, R.9. 1980. Microenvi ro
Page 193 and 194: ECOLOGY OF ECTOMYCORRHIZAE IN NORTH
Page 195 and 196: Coram - Subalpine fir Site (ABLAICL
Page 197 and 198: Figure 2.-- ReZative yield capabiZi
Page 199 and 200: Figure 5. -- Percentage of soCZ-woo
Page 201 and 202: Figure 9,-- Percentage of toid ectm
Page 203 and 204: Effect of Soil Components on Ectomy
Page 205 and 206: Effect of Organic Matter Quantity o
Page 207 and 208: PARTIAL CUT Effect of Harvesting on
Page 209 and 210: Figure 20. -- Average nwnbers of ac
Page 211 and 212: Gijbl , F. 1967. Mykorrhizauntersuc
Page 213 and 214: BIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS Initial cha
Page 215 and 216: FOREST SOIL BIOLOGY The act of incr
Page 217 and 218: the soil will retain its ability to
Page 219 and 220: Since the best quantity of organic
Page 221 and 222: We can also visualize situations on
Page 223: Harvey, A. E., M. F. Jurgensen, and
Page 227 and 228: Because of cool, wet weather in 197
Page 229 and 230: We determined volume and cover usin
Page 231 and 232: The stems were divided at 4 mm (0.1
Page 233 and 234: RESIDUES TREATMENT EFFECTS As descr
Page 235 and 236: Overall shrub recovery rates do not
Page 237 and 238: Rose behaved similar to ninebark (f
Page 239 and 240: Meanwhile, small shrub cover change
Page 241 and 242: Biomass Regression analyses relatin
Page 243 and 244: SILVICULTURE TREATMENT EFFECTS Harv
Page 245 and 246: RESIDUES TREATMENT EFFECTS Major sh
Page 247 and 248: Lesser vegetation--herbs and small
Page 249 and 250: Leaf and stem components of the shr
Page 251 and 252: APPENDIX I Trees and shrubs found o
Page 253 and 254: INTRODUCTION Many western larch (La
Page 255 and 256: Figure 2. --Lower cutting blocks on
Page 257 and 258: each permanent point) of the clearc
Page 259 and 260: Figure 3.--Marking gemination and c
Page 261 and 262: were not significant. These treatme
Page 263 and 264: Tab1 e 2. --Fi 11 ed conifer seed (
Page 265 and 266: Dispersal of sound seed on the uppe
Page 267 and 268: Table $.--Number of 3- and 5-year-o
Page 269 and 270: Table 6. --Germination of conifers
Page 271 and 272: Survival, growth and form will be m
Page 273 and 274: Es tab1 ishment and Initial Develop
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to the amount of residue originally
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As the following tabulation shows,
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Soot-Seeded Broadcast burning, and
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Natural Regeneration Natural regene
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.4s shown in fig. 5, vegetation was
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Interestingly, the high phenol leve
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DeByle, Norbert V. 1980. Harvesting
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EFFECT OF SILVICULTURAL PRACTICES,
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mountain pine beetle. These two for
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GROUP SELECTION 22 CONTROL SHELTERW
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FIELD AND LABORATORY PROCEDURES To
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I Many of the groups were trapped v
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shelterwood with residues, were sig
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HARVESTING AND RESIDUE MANAGEMENT T
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indicate a treatment effect of burn
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Undisturbed Forest .". . . . Clearc
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1 equally abundant in all treatment
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I not seem to be directly caused by
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the undisturbed forests. Some resea
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Huhta, V., E. Karppinen, M. Nurmine
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POPULATIONS OF SOME FOREST LITTER,
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STUDY DESIGN The study area is loca
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GROUP SELECTION 22 CONTROL '... . .
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Sampling in 1977 was restricted to
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Table 1 .--Mean total mesofauna pop
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0 - (JUNE) from S helterwood (AUGUS
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SHELTERWOOD--RESIDUE BURNED The eff
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In the first season or two followin
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LITERATURE CITED Ahlgren, I. F. 197
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A REVIEW OF SOME INTERACTIONS BETWE
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and Keen 1960; Felix and others 197
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Pissodes strobi Peck, In a thinned
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foresters feel as though "It's 1 i
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The large aerial spray programs aga
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Weakened living trees, or trees kil
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Most western pine beetle attacks in
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The galleries, or mines, of wood bo
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Other wood borers. --Several specie
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Deterioration of spruce (Picea a. )
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The eruption of Mount Saint Helens
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Bark and engraver beetles infesting
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In the northern Rockies, one conife
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management, and not the beetle." If
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investigation regardin controlled b
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WOOD BORERS Mitchell and Martin (In
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Still, by 1938, there was a feeling
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I Different i nvesti gators have us
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if the forest floor is completely c
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Carabids as biological control agen
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een placed for protection from rode
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with every tree in the stand contin
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Spiders as predators.--Studies have
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At least two studies have been made
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In the long-leaf pine forests in th
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RESIDUES, FIRES, INSECTS, AND FORES
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In the spruce-fir stands infested w
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Recently, Senator John Me1 cher (Mo
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plans. Since fire, too, is a decomp
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CHANGING FOREST INSECT PROBLEMS Ins
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Basham, J. T. 1957. The deteriorati
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Cole, D. M. 1978. Feasibility of si
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Fellin, D. G. and P. C. Johnson. 19
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Graham, S. A. 1922. Some entomoloqi
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Huhta, V., M. Nurminen and A. Valpa
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Lawrence, W. H. and 3. H. Rediske.
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Miller, J. M. and J. E. Patterson.
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Rice, L * A. 1932. The effect of fi
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Stoddard, H. L. Sr. 1963. Bird habi
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Weaver, Harol d. 1951. Fire as an e
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RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS Th
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INFLUENCE OF HARVESTING AND RESIDUE
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F
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NEAR COMPLETE Figure 2.--Byrmnts f
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Figure 3.-- Bymrmrs fireZine intens
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F5qure 4. --Byramrs fireZ-Cne inten
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1. Nomographs of Rate of Spread, Fi
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3. Consider other fire-related fact
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Puckett, John V., Cameron M. Johnst
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Important and rapid progress has be
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tlarvested Areas What happened when
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UNCUT SHELTERWOOD Protect understor
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Initially the areas are rated low.
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The primary reason for this discrep
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f n contrast to displaced bears, so
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Quantitative data on grizzly behavi
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Asherin, Duane A. 1976. Changes in
Page 451 and 452:
Leege, Thomas A. 1969. Burning sera
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Reynolds, Hudson G. 1969. Aspen gro
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INFLUENCES OF HARVESTING AND RESIDU
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CLEARCUT LOGGING & COMPLETE BURN DE
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C LEARCUT LOGGING & BROADCAST BURN
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EFFECTS OF SMALL MAMMALS ON FOREST
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I I Habitat Manipulation Small mamm
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Fala, Robert A. 1975. Effects of pr
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Tevis, Lloyd Jr. l956b. Pocket goph
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forests are cavity nesters. They ar
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GROUP SELECTION: A1 1 merchantab le
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TABLE 3. Pre- and post-logging volu
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Censuses Censuses for all species (
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Fbgure 6.-- Lightn
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Pileated Woodpeckers on the CEF nes
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TABLE 7. Percent of sampling time t
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I Observed woodpecker feeding Down,
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Table 9 shows feeding time in the l
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L c - 10- ul 2 0 8- 6 - 4 2 - - 0 .
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Figure 15. -- A Hairy Woodpecker ne
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~
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oth offered advice on study site se
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Hairy Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker B
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THE SITUATION Forest land managers
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In the descriptive approach, howeve
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ORGANIZING INFORMATION One differen
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As has already been stated, the for
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Figure 7.--Matrix of interactions b
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understory biomass density, X2 repr
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or, by rearrangement, AX. I afi Ax,
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DISCUSSION It is important to note
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LITERATURE CITED Billings, W. D. 19
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Richard T. Wick Burlington Northern
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themselves, the traditional industr
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highways. Of course, all roads are
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Darrel L. Kenops District Ranger US
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In the future we will see our const
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Lyon, L. Jack, Project Leader, Ecol
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The Intermountain Station, headquar
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