Reconstructed Old Growth Forest Stand Structure And Composition Of Two Stands On The Olympic Peninsula Washington State

We reconstructed the stand structure and composition for two western Washington old-growth forest stands harvested around 1930 (named Fresca and Rail) from field and historical data. Both old-growth stands had a codominant or dominant 250-year-old Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) overstory with a few scattered older Douglas-fir. Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) was codominant at Rail but was predominantly in the mid-story and understory at Fresca. The Fresca site is now dominated by Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) and western hemlock, whereas Rail has a composition similar to the previous old-growth stand. Events taking place early in succession are probably responsible for the differences between the modern and historical stands. Accelerated restoration of old-growth structural diversity may be possible at both sites through repeated creation of artificial gaps, but Fresca will remain different from its historical composition.

"The Great Bear Rainforest Order (GBRO), established January 2016, presents legal objectives for the protection of Old Forests and Red- and Blue-Listed Plant Communities (Listed Communities) within the timber harvesting land base of the Great Bear Rainforest. Although the direction on management and conservation of both Old Forest and Listed Communities is conceptually straightforward, practical field implementation is challenging due to the lack of explicit field assessment criteria. This guidance document provides an overview of key aspects of the GBRO with respect to Old Forest and Listed Communities, and interpretation of the text in the GBRO with reference to current ecological concepts. Additionally, the document discusses how the GBRO text relates to the B.C. Conservation Data Centre methods for assessing Red- and Blue-Listed Ecological Communities. A set of field keys is provided to facilitate consistent application of ecological concepts to meet the intent of the GBRO objectives for Old Forest and Sufficiently Established Listed Communities. The keys incorporate initial minimum criteria for certain ecological features, and an index that integrates a suite of old forest attributes (the Forest Attribute Score) based on features that reflect the complexity of these older coastal, forested ecosystems. Both keys require the field practitioner to determine stand age and occurrence of a Veteran Overstory Tree layer. To evaluate the requirement for protection of Listed Communities, the level of understory development must also be evaluated. Calculation of a Forest Attribute Score requires the assessment of six stand attributes: density of Veteran Overstory Trees, density of large snags, vertical canopy differentiation, understory shrub and herb cover, amount of coarse woody debris, and stand disturbance history."--Publisher's website