Management Goals & Treatments
A team of natural resource specialists from the Chippewa National Forest (CNF) and regional scientists participated in a three-day workshop in July 2013 to develop the ASCC treatments for the site. The team developed a set of management objectives, desired future conditions, and silvicultural tactics for each adaptation option:
maintain relatively unchanged conditions over time
Management Goals:
Life boat red pine into a drier future by increasing soil moisture availability during drought
Maintain red pine dominance (90% basal area) while increasing soil moisture availability during drought
Productivity remains high and disturbance remains low, but there may be variability within an acceptable range
Reduce stocking closer to woodland structure
Strategies & Approaches:
Uniform (free) thin (100 ft2/acre) removing red pine and jack pine to maintain species diversity
Maintain red pine dominance
allow some change in current conditions, but encourage eventual return to original conditions
Management Goals:
Red pine remains dominant (50-75% basal area)
Increase heterogeneity and structural complexity
Increase native future-adapted species
Productivity remains high and disturbance remains low, but there may be variability within an acceptable range
Strategies & Approaches:
Site preparation in gaps with harrow disk
Variable density thin (20% in gaps, 20% in reserves, matrix thinned to 110 ft2/acre)
Maintain red pine dominance
Plant future-adapted native species in gaps (eastern white pine, jack pine, red oak, bur oak, and red maple)
actively facilitate change to encourage adaptive responses
Management Goals:
Reduce red pine dominance to 20 – 50%
Increase future-adapted species
Productivity and disturbance occur within slightly wider acceptable ranges
Increase heterogeneity and structural complexity
Strategies & Approaches:
Site preparation in gaps with harrow disk
Irregular shelterwood (20% in gaps, thin matrix to 70 ft2/acre)
Increase future-adapted species in gaps and matrix, including native and new species (eastern white pine, red oak, bur oak, white oak, red maple, bitternut hickory, black cherry, and ponderosa pine)