The Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment: Overview And Early Results
Event Website
http://www.nafew2009.org/
Start Date
6-23-2009 2:30 PM
End Date
6-23-2009 2:50 PM
Description
Public forest management agencies throughout the East are facing numerous obstacles. Some public groups pressure to manage with techniques that maintain high amounts of canopy cover for threatened and endangered species, such as Cerulean warbler or Indiana bat. Other groups push for early successional habitat to favor game species such as ruffed grouse and white-tailed deer. Invasive species, such as tree-of-heaven and emerald ash borer, threaten community stability in many regions; control efforts draw heavily on agency resources. Lastly, there is an imminent danger to widespread shifts in many oak-dominated forests to less desirable, mesophytic tree species from prolonged oak regeneration failures. Within this backdrop, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry teamed with researchers from Purdue University, Indiana State University, Ball State University and Drake University to form the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment (HEE) in early 2006. This long-term (100+ years), landscape-scale, management study proposes to: a) Develop even- and uneven-aged silvicultural systems that maintain oak-dominated forest communities and landscapes within the Central Hardwood Forest Region; b) Determine both the positive and negative impacts of these systems on communities of herbaceous, avian and terrestrial amphibian species groups; c) Determine the social and economic ramifications of these systems in both the local and regional communities; and d) Provide demonstration sites and develop novel educational materials and techniques to engage the public concerning forest management. HEE is replicated across nine, 80+ ha sites near Bloomington, Indiana. Treatments include single-tree selection with scattered patch cuts, clearcuts, three-stage shelterwood harvests, and uncut controls. Preharvest measurements have been ongoing since 2006. Sites were treated from July 2008 to February 2009. The purpose of this talk is to describe the design of HEE, as well as document pre-harvest results from over a dozen ongoing studies being conducted on various ecological and social components of the project.
The Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment: Overview And Early Results
Public forest management agencies throughout the East are facing numerous obstacles. Some public groups pressure to manage with techniques that maintain high amounts of canopy cover for threatened and endangered species, such as Cerulean warbler or Indiana bat. Other groups push for early successional habitat to favor game species such as ruffed grouse and white-tailed deer. Invasive species, such as tree-of-heaven and emerald ash borer, threaten community stability in many regions; control efforts draw heavily on agency resources. Lastly, there is an imminent danger to widespread shifts in many oak-dominated forests to less desirable, mesophytic tree species from prolonged oak regeneration failures. Within this backdrop, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry teamed with researchers from Purdue University, Indiana State University, Ball State University and Drake University to form the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment (HEE) in early 2006. This long-term (100+ years), landscape-scale, management study proposes to: a) Develop even- and uneven-aged silvicultural systems that maintain oak-dominated forest communities and landscapes within the Central Hardwood Forest Region; b) Determine both the positive and negative impacts of these systems on communities of herbaceous, avian and terrestrial amphibian species groups; c) Determine the social and economic ramifications of these systems in both the local and regional communities; and d) Provide demonstration sites and develop novel educational materials and techniques to engage the public concerning forest management. HEE is replicated across nine, 80+ ha sites near Bloomington, Indiana. Treatments include single-tree selection with scattered patch cuts, clearcuts, three-stage shelterwood harvests, and uncut controls. Preharvest measurements have been ongoing since 2006. Sites were treated from July 2008 to February 2009. The purpose of this talk is to describe the design of HEE, as well as document pre-harvest results from over a dozen ongoing studies being conducted on various ecological and social components of the project.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/nafecology/sessions/silviculture/1