In the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon, prescribed fire and mechanical harvesting economics were investigated for fuels reduction and forest restoration. Using a cut-to-length harvesting system, three single-grip harvesters and three forwarders produced significantly different production rates. For the harvesters, significant variables that affected production rates were found to be:...
Before the arrival of Euro-Americans, the inland Pacific Northwest was settled by native
people whose frequent intentional burning of the landscape promoted open stands
dominated by large fire-resistant ponderosa pine. Fire suppression for nearly a century,
livestock grazing, and logging of the largest trees has resulted in forests characterized by...
This study describes streams in the Blue Mountains and Wallowa Mountains of Northeastern Oregon in order to characterize the interactions between the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and to determine how logging affects those relationships. Five stream reach pairs, each consisting of an undisturbed reach and a similar reach flowing through...
Forests in the Blue Mountains region of eastern Oregon and Washington are facing a large-scale forest health crisis. Poor forest conditions have greatly increased the risk of catastrophic wildfire. Resource managers in the Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla, and Malheur National Forests are utilizing prescribed fire and mechanized thinning treatments to reduce hazardous...
In the 1980s, resource managers were increasingly concerned about effects of timber harvest on ungulates in National Forests. Land and resource management plans incorporated restrictions on timber harvest to maintain cover for Rocky Mountain elk
(CeNus e/aphus ne/soni V. Bailey) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus RafinesqueJ, and habitat models...
Secondary plant succession and the accumulation of biomass and nutrients were documented at seven ruminant exclosures in Abies and Pseudotsuga forests variously disturbed by logging, burning, and grass seeding. Long-term (25 or more years) foraging by Rocky Mountain mule deer (Odocolleus hemionus) and Rocky Mountain elk (Genius elaphus) suppressed the...
Contemporary fire effects are raising concerns about the resistance and resilience of dry mixed-conifer forests to large wildfires. Fire refugia – unburned or low-severity patches within fire perimeters – are understudied components of post-fire mosaics that may be key drivers of forest recovery following high-severity fire. Little is known about...
Improved monitoring of forest biomass is needed to quantify natural and anthropogenic effects on the terrestrial carbon cycle. Landsat's temporal and spatial coverage, fine spatial grain, and long history of earth observations provide a unique opportunity for measuring biophysical properties of vegetation across large areas and long time scales. However,...
Fire exclusion in the western U.S.A. has caused fuel loads to build up and overall forest health to decline. Managers are now looking for ways to reduce these fuel loads while reintroducing some of the desired effects of natural wildfire. One method to do this is thinning using mechanical harvesting...
The forest health of the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon and Washington has sustained great impacts primarily caused by disease and insect epidemics. In order to restore forest health and reduce fuel loads, management tools like prescribed fire and mechanical chinning are being tested by forest managers in the region'...