ConserveOnline - Forest Management Plan

Forest Management Plan

By Liane Davis on 12/1/2008 | Keyword(s): restoration; collaboration; forest; stream; thinning; roads

SOUTH WILLAPA BAY CONSERVATION AREA FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN

Ellsworth Creek watershed (Photo credit: Yoav Bar-Ness)

Documents:

South Willapa Bay Conservation Area Forest Management Plan (NOTE: This is the most recent draft of the plan. This plan is currently under revision and is not final!)

Forest Management Plan Introduction
The Nature Conservancy (the Conservancy) and the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge (the Refuge) are working together to restore young-managed forestlands at a landscape scale across the Conservancy's Ellsworth Creek property and the neighboring Refuge property in southwestern Washington. A forest management plan was collaboratively developed by the Conservancy and the Refuge as part of this effort. The forest management plan was prepared to provide specific goals and management guidance over the next 20 years for this restoration effort within the Refuge's and Conservancy's terrestrial ownership, referred to as the South Willapa Bay Conservation Area.

Forest Management Plan Background

In July of 2003, The Nature Conservancy (the Conservancy) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the purpose of "collaborating to accomplish forest management goals and objectives" on properties managed by both parties in Pacific County, Washington. Thus began a partnership to restore young-managed forestlands at a landscape scale across the Conservancy's Ellsworth Creek Preserve the neighboring Willapa National Wildlife Refuge (the Refuge). As part of this collaboration, a forest management plan was prepared to provide specific goals and management guidance over the next 20 years for this restoration effort within the Refuge and Conservancy's terrestrial ownership, hereafter referred to as the "South Willapa Bay Conservation Area" (SWBCA) (see figure below).

Forests within the SWBCA have been managed for timber production over most of the last century. Today, less than 5% of the area remains as unmanaged or old-growth forest habitat. Extensive forest management has profoundly changed ecological conditions within the landscape. The dominant, simplified young-managed forests do not support several species that are dependent on complex old-growth forests including the federally listed marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) and Northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina). Streams are altered from high sediment loads and scouring, and extensive forest road systems fragment habitat and modify hydrological processes. Low-elevation coastal old-growth forests in South Willapa Bay, however, provide habitat for an especially diverse array of species while also supporting natural ecological processes that maintain healthy freshwater stream systems and adjacent estuarine habitats. Because of the rarity and biological significance of old-growth forest ecosystems in the Willapa Hills of Washington, the Conservancy and Refuge are working together to restore a forested landscape that is representative of past, unmanaged, landscape conditions.

Restoration actions, or active management, will primarily include (1) carefully designed density management (ie. thinning) within young-managed forest stands (< 90 years old) to promote forest growth and the development of habitat complexity, (2) the removal, or repair of high risk forest roads, and (3) improvement to the existing forest road network to minimize impacts to water quality. This landscape restoration plan outlines the management direction and implementation schedule for specific restoration actions that are anticipated over the following 20 year period. The plan provides detail on management goals, conservation significance, existing natural and cultural resources, desired future conditions, planning considerations, management approach, implementation schedule, and monitoring. While the Conservancy and Refuge recognize that restoration of forest ecosystems within the SWBCA will play out over the next century or longer, we anticipate that the next 10-20 years are critical for altering the ecological trajectory of this important landscape toward a trend that supports the recovery of mutual conservation values.

Southwest Willapa Bay Conservation Area:

RETURN TO ELLSWORTH CREEK WORKSPACE HOMEPAGE