Wildlife is probably the most relatable aspect of nature. We all want to see squirrels, deer, bears, and lynx. But do we know how best to manage a working landscape to ensure those species continue to thrive? That is the question we talked about today. How do we begin to look at forest management from the perspective of the critters? How do we incorporate wildlife values into forest management so we always have plenty of cool creatures to see when we are out with our family in the great wide open.
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Quotes
6.46 - 6.56: “Animals don’t make judgements based on forest treatments, they make judgements based on forest structure.”
Takeaways
Outcome-based forestry approaches (04.29)
Daniel says that one of the disconnects for foresters trying to work with wildlife biologists is the ambiguity and vastness of the concept of maintaining biodiversity in forests. Species-specific prescriptions by wildlife ecologists can be overwhelming coupled with the public’s liking of certain species. He says the solution is to simplify what we ask for and avoid being too prescriptive. Foresters are comfortable aspiring to beneficial forest structural characteristics.
Coarse-filter approaches 11.11
Daniel outlines how dynamics in land ownership patterns affect the health of the forest, citing examples from Canadian crown land and USA national forests. With private land forests, sustainability that had initially been built in is making way for the industry. As land ownerships get smaller, foresters and wildlife ecologists differ on how land should be managed. Biodiversity can be achieved through coarse-filter approaches, managing old growth as well as early species.
Species biodiversity (19.09)
Daniel narrates how it created problems in Maine, when, due to forest regulation, forests were managed in ways that weren’t conducive to early successional or late successional biodiversity. There are concerns about the public not seeing the need for clear-cutting to maintain forest health, or private landowners only looking to harvest. “You end with a lot of common species in the middle and a lot of species fall into the cracks on either edge”, he comments.
Partial harvesting (22.15)
Daniel talks about partial harvesting as appeasing the public because even though it doesn’t manage for species diversity, it looks less devastating than clear-cutting. He explains that clear-cutting in Maine over the years has created drops and surges in populations of certain species of animals, making it difficult to manage for public expectations and regulatory requirements. Foresters are frustrated because competing goals can’t be achieved on the same piece of land.
Everybody wants a healthy forest (28.37)
Daniel believes that group objective setting among foresters and wildlife ecologists is a solution to managing different priorities. His experience has been that both groups work well together with trust and are more tolerant of research findings - good and bad, but he has not seen the same with agencies. However, wildlife ecologists and foresters can become frustrated with policy shifts as administrations change.
Mitigating the decline in species (34.38)
The approach they take in Daniel’s lab is to derive products from forests while looking to maintain components of the landscape. They investigate the declining species and how the landscape is impacting that and make efforts to mitigate that decline. The challenge is that they need to work with foresters to ensure the habitat changes stay long enough to benefit the species. He gives examples of species through his career in Maine.
Be careful what you ask for (39.45)
Daniel shares how infestations and industry practices have impacted forests, and how public demand to not have clear cutting allowed them to keep big areas of mid-successional forest on the landscape. However, the Forest Practices Act put an incentive on large clear cuts, which caused the small clear cuts to fragment the forest. The public asking for lesser clear cuts has caused them to lose sizable blocks of forest.
Trees take time, markets change quickly (43.10)
Daniel points out that historically, they have not planted much since natural regeneration was dense enough to warrant thinning to promote growth. Maine falls in the largest contiguous forest block and his university sits on the largest river system in the state. Daniel explains the complex composition of the forest there and how they fare along the lifespan of the tree species there. The change in industries has changed how forests are managed.
It feels good vs. it is good (48.07)
Daniel believes that the order of priorities in a forest should be biodiversity, sustainability, human demands then regulations, ownership patterns and market. Most people in Maine live outside the commercial forest land and travel to the forest for recreation, bringing with them expectations of what the forest should be. Research helps in differentiating forest management practices that seem to be good from the ones that are truly good for the forest, like patches.
Commonalities among species at risk (57.41)
Daniel highlights that species at risk face some of the same bottlenecks like decreased composition and increased fragmentation of mature mixed and conifer-dominated forests, in Maine’s case. He believes that some objectives may need to be changed for some species while maintaining viable populations. Many tools like remote sensing are available along with satellite data for the last 50 years that can be used to plan the landscape of the future.
The way of the future (1.00.05)
Daniel shares examples of projects where harvesting goals had to be balanced against maintaining species populations so that both objectives could be met in the long run. Many forest management practices create wildlife habitats, which he says need to be combined with the demand for forest products to create a shared will between foresters and wildlife ecologists to work together. He looks at landscape management planning as the way of the future to achieve biodiversity and sustainability.
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