Determining the disturbance effect on forest development for use in Park management plans

LARSON, BRUCE; ROCHEFORT, REGINA; AMOROSO, MARIANO

St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Conferencia; The George Wright Society Biennial Conference on Parks, Protected Areas and Cultural Sites. Rethinking protected areas in a changing world.; 2007

The George Wright Society

Coniferous forests are an important component of the landscape in San Juan Island National Historical Park (WA).  Although the forests were manipulated during the historic military time period (1853 to 1871), significant and widespread disturbances later occurred. Forest stands need to be assessed with respect to current composition, stand densities, species composition, and fuel loads to determine how close they are to the park’s desired future conditions. We studied three forest stands in detail in preparation for the initiation of a larger project to determine protocols for the management and monitoring of the forest vegetation at the Park,.  One stand with evidence of partial cutting, one with extensive windthrow, and one with little indication of major disturbance were chosen. We reconstructed the past growth and development of these stands through analysis of increment cores and determined some ways that the different disturbance types affect stand growth on the island.