Elmore, Andrew: UMCES Appalachian Laboratory (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2017 - 2020
NRA: 2016 NASA: Ecological Forecasting
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
There is wide recognition that sustainable forest management of eastern temperate forests requires a thoughtful and deliberate approach that seeks to balance various uses, resources, and values such as wildlife and aesthetic beauty, timber products, water purification, gas extraction, and a variety of recreational opportunities. In particular, we now know that the dual goals of timber production and the maintenance of high quality wildlife habitat, can be complementary because many measures of biodiversity and the abundance of key rare species (particularly forest-dwelling birds) requires forests of diverse age and structural characteristics. For example, recent research has shown that fledgling habitat use and survival for species such as Golden-winged warbler, Cerulean warbler, and Wood thrush is enhanced by the availability of a range of forest age-classes, with diverse structure, interspersed throughout local landscapes. However, managing for such characteristics is difficult without data providing the spatial characteristics of forest structure and models estimating how birds use this structure. This proposal puts forth a plan for the use of Earth observations of forest disturbance history and forest structure combined with connectivity modeling between forests of diverse structure to model the distribution of 3 key bird species across 16.7 million acres of forest in Pennsylvania, USA. Observational data and models will be used to develop a state-of-the-art decision support tool used for guiding the placement of forest harvest activities conducted by each of our project partners: (1) the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry, (2) the United States Forest Service at Allegheny National Forest, (3) the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and (4) the American Bird Conservancy. Maps of forest structure and connectivity will highlight how past forest management activities on federal, state, and private land have influenced bird habitat throughout the state. We will quantify these management impacts to bird habitat and compare them to impacts expected from alternative harvest scenarios that are guided by the new tool, thus defining tool effectiveness. The decision support tool will be well documented and its effectiveness reported to our end users. If the tool is proven successful, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry will assist with making the final products available to users. Our project partners collectively manage 4.2 million acres of forest and are eager to attempt this new approach to large area conservation and incorporate it within their existing decision support systems.
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
