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:

RESISTANCE

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 

RESILIENCE

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)

TRANSITION

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) 

Adaptation Treatment Canopy Densities at the Cutfoot Experimental Forest: