Management Goals & Treatments

The landscapes of Taylor Park provide a suite of important ecological values and ecosystem services, including biological diversity, wildlife, timber production, livestock grazing, recreation, carbon storage, and hydrological functions. A growing body of evidence highlights increasing forest vulnerability to changing climate and disturbance regimes. Accordingly, this area is subject to active, landscape-scale management intended to support forest resilience. Overarching management goals for the project include:

1. Increase the forest’s ability to respond to multiple and interactive forest stressors including climate change, drought, insect attack, and/or disease
2. Treat stands to improve forest health using commercial harvest, non-commercial, and prescribed fire treatments, as appropriate, to the site-specific situation
3. Reduce fuels in the wildland-urban interface to allow for the facilitation of natural fire processes on the landscape
4. Provide wood products for the local economy, which relies on wood fiber harvested sustainably from public lands

A team of natural resource specialists from Taylor Park, regional managers, and scientists came together for a three-day workshop in July 2022 to develop the study design for the ASCC project site. The team developed a set of Desired Future Condition statements, Objectives, and Tactics for each major climate adaptation trajectory. These three trajectories are briefly summarized below:

RESISTANCE

maintain relatively unchanged conditions over time

Management Goals:

• Retention of lodgepole pine on landscape
• Reduce stand density 
• Reduce fuel continuity and ladder fuels
• Maintain or increase water holding capacity/snowpack
• Maintain Engelmann Spruce & Subalpine Fir for habitat diversity (goshawk habitat and nesting sites and snowshoe hare habitat)
• Resistance to aridification, low intensity fire, and mountain pine beetle
• Maintain access to roads for recreation & operation
• Maintain snags for wildlife / cavity nesting
• Protect heritage sites

Strategies & Approaches:

• Commercial thin - crown thinning BA to open-up crown spacing
• Favor removal of large diameter trees with Dwarf Mistletoe
• Reduce surface fuel continuity
• Retain shading to increase snow water equivalent
• Sanitation thin
• Retain Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir component
• Retain 1-2 snags/acre
• Promote a diverse herbaceous composition 
• Maintain CWD

RESILIENCE

allow some change in current conditions, but encourage eventual return to original conditions

Management Goals:

• Increase species, structural diversity, & spatial heterogeneity
• Maintain lodgepole pine as dominant species
• Prevent or reduce establishment of invasives
• Promote water storage and organic soil retention
• Increase resilience to fire and pest
• Retain some wildlife trees/character trees
• Maintain access to roads for recreation & operation
• Maintain Engelmann Spruce & Subalpine Fir to protect goshawk habitat and nesting sites
• Maintain snags for wildlife / cavity nesting
• Protect heritage sites

Strategies & Approaches:

• Variable density thinning (a.k.a 2-cut Group shelterwood)
• Seed cut; removal cut (20-40 yrs.)
• Reserves in clumps for wildlife E.g., spruce, legacy trees, snags, etc.
  • 180-300/100 acres of 8” DBH or greater (1-3/ac)
• 1–5-acre gaps for snow retention; irregularity for edges (curved); 2 or 3 landings per unit based on skidding needs
• Density reduction throughout the matrix: 80-90 ft for tree length
• No harvest on existing spruce and fir
• Regenerate every 10-20 years
• Plant Douglas-fir (matrix & gaps), blister rust-resistant limber pine (gaps), Engelmann spruce - local seed (in gaps & matrix). Genotypes: Drought-tolerant southern seed sources (limber & Douglas-fir)
• Weeding around seedlings for establishment
• Utilize biocontrols for invasive plants

TRANSITION

actively facilitate change to encourage adaptive responses

Management Goals:

• Promote ecological conditions found in Cochetopa Park, a similar high-elevation basin located south of Gunnison, but which is drier and warmer
• As best as possible, simulate year 2100 projected conditions by 2050
• Transition away from a lodgepole pine dominated forest to lower-elevation, dry mixed conifer forest (maintain some lodgepole)
• Increase species, structural diversity, & spatial heterogeneity
• Create large 10-acre openings
• Promote aridification, heat, and fire-adapted species (native and novel)
• Prevent or reduce establishment of invasives
• Maintain access to roads for recreation & operation
• Maintain snags for wildlife / cavity nesting
• Protect heritage sites

Strategies & Approaches:

• Clearcut: Create 10-12.5 acre opening; whole tree skid and scatter throughout
• Site prep: Broadcast burn to prevent lodgepole pine establishment; if cannot burn, whole tree skid and weed
• Plant in openings and matrix
• Variable density thinning in matrix (80-100ft2/ac)
• Planting variety of species throughout, as appropriate across microsites: Douglas fir, blue spruce, ponderosa pine, limber pine, and bristlecone pine
• Use shade cards in openings based on species