Restoration of Forested Ecosystems on the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia

The focus of resource management on National Forests is slowly changing to restoration of ecosystems and habitats. In West Virginia, the revised Land and Resource Management Plan for the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) guides resource management on the MNF. The MNF revised Forest Plan restructured management areas and goals toward restoration of red spruce dominated forests and oak and oak-pine forests in two separate management prescriptions that cover approximately 48% of the MNF. Incorporating ecosystem restoration in forest management may be guided by goals and objectives based on known previous conditions and the range of natural variability of those conditions. The research presented here addresses: 1) the historical distribution and site-species relationships of tree species through the analysis of witness trees from the MNF, 2) stand dynamics of oak-dominated forest types in response to three disturbances, and 3) landscape patterns resulting after simulated restoration actions in high-elevation red spruce-dominated forest types.;A database of witness trees taken from land grants or deeds of what was to become the MNF was analyzed for species patterns of occurrence at the time of European settlement. Across the study area, white oak was the most frequent witness tree, followed by sugar maple, American beech, and American chestnut, however none of these were evenly distributed. Red spruce, hemlock, birch, American beech, magnolia, basswood, sugar maple, ash, northern red oak, and black cherry were all associated with higher elevations. Moderate elevations supported maple, pine, white pine, American chestnut, chestnut oak, and scarlet oak. Low elevation sites with high moisture were more likely to support black walnut, white oak, elm, and sycamore.;Three disturbance factors thought to influence the development of seedling and sapling layers of oak dominated hardwood forests were applied alone and in combination on experimental plots in a second-growth forest in eastern West Virginia. In all, eight treatments were applied: Fire, Fence, Gap, Control, Fire+Fence, Fire+Gap, Fence+Gap, and Fire+Gap+Fence. Oak seedlings were not affected by any factor other than time; oak saplings were negatively affected by fire and positively affected by fences. Red and striped maple seedlings and saplings were reduced by fire treatments however sugar maple seedlings and saplings were not. Black birch seedlings increased as fire stimulated germination of the seed bank. Creating gaps alone did not increase the seedling relative abundance or importance value of any of the species assessed here, although gaps when combined with other factors did increase black birch and yellow-poplar seedling relative abundances and sapling importance values.;An existing landscape-sale model (LANDIS-II) was used to create management scenarios that implement possible red spruce restoration actions consistent with the MNF Forest Plan. Three harvest scenarios and one succession only scenario were simulated for 100 years. Harvests for all three scenarios were patch cuts of 1 ha with partial removal of selected species and cohorts. Harvest scenarios modeled were: allowing harvest in all areas (S1), restrict harvest to areas of low to moderate probability of Virginia northern flying squirrel habitat only (S2), and allow harvest in all areas but exclude stands with 30% or greater red spruce 80 years or greater in age (S3); scenario 4 (S4) is succession only. The resulting stands were summarized by age classes and forest types used in the MNF Forest Plan and compared to age class goals. All scenarios resulted in the percentage of 1-19 year age class below the Forest Plan goal; however S3 was the closest at about 2% in the third decade. At year 30, the three harvest scenarios result in greater area in 20-39 year age class compared to succession only. Scenario 3 meets or slightly exceeds the lower limit of the MNF Forest Plan goal for this age class in years 40 through 70. For the 40-79 year age class, S1 and S3 remained well above S2 and the succession-only scenario in years 30 through 90. At the end of the model period, S1, S2, and S4 meet the MNF Forest Plan goal for this age class. During decades three through nine, S1 and S3 resulted in a consistent 40% of the area in the 80-119 year age class. All scenarios result in a landscape with much higher percentages of this age class than the MNF Forest Plan goal. For the last two decades of the model, the succession-only scenario results in greater amounts of area in the oldest age class (120 or greater years) as compared to the harvest scenarios

Predicting Post-Fire Change in West Virginia, USA from Remotely-Sensed Data

Prescribed burning is used in West Virginia, USA to return the important disturbance process of fire to oak and oak-pine forests. Species composition and structure are often the main goals for re-establishing fire with less emphasis on fuel reduction or reducing catastrophic wildfire. In planning prescribed fires land managers could benefit from the ability to predict mortality to overstory trees. In this study, wildfires and prescribed fires in West Virginia were examined to determine if specific landscape and terrain characteristics were associated with patches of high/moderate post-fire change. Using the ensemble machine learning approach of Random Forest, we determined that linear aspect was the most important variable associated with high/moderate post-fire change patches, followed by hillshade, aspect as class, heat load index, slope/aspect ratio (sine transformed), average roughness, and slope in degrees. These findings were then applied to a statewide spatial model for predicting post-fire change. Our results will help land managers contemplating the use of prescribed fire to spatially target landscape planning and restoration sites and better estimate potential post-fire effects

Wildfire and Prescribed Fire Effects on Forest Floor Properties and Erosion Potential in the Central Appalachian Region, USA

Short- and long-term impacts of wildland fires on forest floor properties and erosion potential were examined at three locations in the Central Appalachian region, U.S.A. In 2018, two wildfires were investigated within six months of burning on the George Washington–Jefferson National Forest (GWJNF) in Bland County, Virginia and the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) in Grant County, West Virginia. An additional wildfire was studied eight years post-fire on the Fishburn Forest (FF) in Montgomery County, Virginia. A 2018 prescribed fire was also studied within six months of burning on the MNF in Pendleton County, West Virginia. Litter and duff consumption were examined to evaluate fire severity and char heights were measured to better understand fire intensity. The Universal Soil Loss Equation for forestlands (USLE-Forest) was utilized to estimate potential erosion values. For the 2018 comparisons, litter depth was least as a result of the wildfires on both the MNF and GWJNF (p < 0.001). Wildfire burned duff depths in 2018 did not differ from unburned duff depths on either the MNF or GWJNF. Eight years after the FF wildfire, post-fire litter depth was less than that of an adjacent non-burned forest (p = 0.29) and duff depth was greater than that of an adjacent non-burned forest (p = 0.76). Mean GWJNF wildfire char heights were greatest of all disturbance regimes at 10.0 m, indicating high fire intensity, followed by the MNF wildfire and then the MNF prescribed fire. USLE-Forest potential erosion estimates were greatest on the MNF wildfire at 21.6 Mg soil ha−1 year−1 due to slope steepness. The next largest USLE-Forest value was 6.9 Mg soil ha−1 year−1 on the GWJNF wildfire. Both the prescribed fire and the 2010 wildfire USLE-Forest values were approximately 0.00 Mg soil ha−1 year−1. Implications for potential long-term soil erosion resulting from similar wildfires in Central Appalachian forests appeared to be minimal given the 2010 wildfire results

Reference Curves for Central Appalachian Red Spruce

Red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) was a prized timber species in West Virginia during the era of resource exploitation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. As a result, central Appalachian red spruce comprise a much smaller component of high-elevation stand composition and a greatly constricted presence across the region. Widespread restoration efforts are underway to re-establish red spruce across this landscape. However, without benchmarks to gauge growth rates and stand developmental patterns, it is unclear whether these efforts are successful. Our goal was to develop reference curves predicting centile height growth for understory red spruce (≤7.6 m) across the region. We reconstructed the height growth patterns of over 250 randomly selected red spruce seedlings and saplings from 22 high-elevation stands in West Virginia. We also harvested 24 mature red spruce from the same stands to develop juvenile growth curves up to 7.6 m to compare understory growth rates of historical to contemporary rates from the reference curves. Our constructed reference curves showed height growth tended to peak between 10 and 30 years of age. Total heights ranged from 0.95 m to 6.85 m after 50 years. We identified two demographic populations in the mature red spruce trees. All the mature red spruce trees that established after 1890 exceeded the 97% growth centile by age 80. By contrast, only two trees from the pre-1890 population reached the same level by age 80. This work highlights the varied ascension pathways to the overstory for red spruce