NCASI to Sponsor Inventory of Pacific Northwest Forest Productivity Studies
One of the central concepts of sustainable forestry relates to the effects
of forest management on soil properties and long-term site productivity.
This concept remains difficult to address, however, due to costs associated
with implementing and monitoring management impact studies over long time
periods. An alternative approach is to utilize data from existing plots
subjected to differing management regimes in the past, or to include such
plots as part of new site productivity investigations. This task can be
challenging, since plot data are not always obtainable from the published
literature, and many plots and studies have been abandoned or are difficult
to access for a variety of reasons. To address this issue in the Pacific
Northwest, NCASI is sponsoring an inventory of long-term forest productivity
plots, databases, and experiments in the region.
The inventory will include past and current studies established by industry,
government agencies, and universities in western Oregon, Washington, and
British Columbia. Plots and databases will be evaluated with respect to
location, original and current principal investigators, data availability,
treatments, location, and data format (e.g, variables, measurement
frequencies and duration). Each database or set of plots will then be
evaluated with respect to (1) its suitability for evaluating management
effects on site productivity and (2) its potential for being used as part of
new investigations on this topic. Dr. Richard E. Miller of USDA Forest
Service will develop the inventory, which will be used to help design a
research strategy for the region.
To contribute information on long-term productivity/management plots or
databases that could potentially be included in the inventory, contact Dr.
Miller at the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, 3625
93rd Ave., S.W., Olympia, WA 98512-9193, tel. (360) 753-7684, fax (360)
956-2346, or Dr. Eric Vance at NCASI's Southern Regional Center, P.O. Box
141020, Gainesville, FL, 32614-1020, tel. (352) 377-4708 ext.228, fax (352)
371-6557, email E_Vance@src-ncasi.org.
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