OF THE

PACIFIC

NORTHWEST

RESEARCH

STATION

Science Accomplishments Science Accomplishments

2002
Contents

2 STATION DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

3 PNW RESEARCH STATION: THE SETTING

4 GOAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

4 GOAL 1: DEVELOP A FUNDAMENTAL

UNDERSTANDING OF ECOLOGICAL, SOCIAL,

AND ECONOMIC SYSTEMS AND THEIR

INTERACTIONS

22 GOAL 2: ASSESS THE STATUS AND TRENDS OF

ECOSYSTEMS AND NATURAL RESOURCES AND

THEIR USES

32 GOAL 3: DEVELOP SCIENCE-BASED OPTIONS

FOR INFORMED MANAGEMENT

52 GOAL 4: COMMUNICATE SCIENCE FINDINGS AND

ENHANCE THEIR APPLICATION

66 HONORS AND AWARDS

68 PUBLICATIONS

69 FINANCES AND WORKFORCE

70 COOPERATORS WHO RECEIVE FUNDING

71 CLIENTS WHO PROVIDE FUNDING

72 RESEARCH PROGRAMS

MARCH 2003

Contents
Vision 

and Mission

Vision 

and Mission

We are highly sought

for our scientific leadership 

and impartial knowledge.

Our mission is to generate 

and communicate scientific 

knowledge that helps 

people understand and 

make informed choices about 

people, natural resources, 

and the environment.
Citizens of many interests seek to understand forests and

their many values. Land managers need know-how as

they implement public policy or accomplish private or

tribal goals for forests. Policymakers require comprehensive yet

readily understandable information on forest-related issues. In

2002, we renewed our dedication to our varied customers as we

implemented a new strategic plan developed with their help.

We conduct research to help form basic knowledge. For example

this year we found, contrary to popular belief, most summer flow

out of the high Cascade Range does not come from annual snowmelt but from groundwater that emerges as springs. Our description of this water geology provides context for calculating water

budgets and allocation among many important uses.

Our forest and inventory analysis accelerated in the past several

years to provide up-to-date information for all ownerships. In 2002,

one finding, for example, shows that Oregon’s land use program

appears successful at containing urban expansion within areas

zoned for development. We find in Oregon that although many

acres moved in and out of forested status over the last 70 years, 

the total amount of forest land has changed little.

In response to national and regional fire issues from increasing 

fire risk, which brought about the National Fire Plan, the Station’s

overall program in fire research has increased from about $2 million

in 1999 to about $12 million in 2002. Findings about fire produced

in 2002 include:

• A new fire risk model makes 3- to 12-month forecasts of fire

risks for the United States. The model correctly predicted the

fire susceptibility in the Southwest early in the 2002 fire season

and the severe fires in the Pacific Northwest later in the season.

The accuracy of the forecast this year validated the model.

Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Station Director’s Message

• Fire risk is highly variable across regions and changes over time.

Scientific information from federal lands in the interior Columbia

River basin shows the probability that a wildfire will be a standreplacement fire has more than doubled because of fire exclusion,

timber harvest, livestock grazing, and introduction of exotic

species.

• Fires could increase in extent and severity throughout the interior West under global warming. Increased precipitation from

warming could cause forests to expand and increase in density.

Ignitions would spike during dry years.

To enhance the application of our research, we communicate and

develop information. This year, PNW Science Update was launched

as a quarterly publication to succinctly describe scientific information that contributes to natural resource and environmental issues.

The Station works closely with public and private land managers.

For example, as part of an industry research effort called Agenda

2020, we started four studies in 2002 including the effects of soil

and climate on long-term productivity of Douglas-fir. Other studies

from the 5-year partnership have begun to yield information such

as early findings on soil compaction that could help reduce harvest

costs yet protect forest sustainability. This regional effort is a prototype for Forest Service Research and Development as it sponsors the

Sustainable Forestry component of Agenda 2020 across the country.

As the new Director of the Pacific Northwest Research Station, I am

pleased with the Station’s accomplishments. These accomplishments

are the result of work by dedicated Station employees and research

partners. I appreciate the hard work and commitment to science

information and products that will make a difference.

THOMAS M. QUIGLEY

Station Director

Thomas M. Quigley

Station Director’s Message

2
2002 P N W Research Station: The Setting Pacific Northwest Research Station 3

P N W Research Station: The Setting

• 10 laboratories in Alaska, Oregon,

and Washington

• 10 active experimental areas 

(watershed, range, and experimental forests)

• Research also conducted in more 

than 20 research natural areas 

(RNAs)

• Headquarters in Portland, Oregon

• PNW is 1 of 6 research stations in 

the U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Forest Service

• 522 employees (279 permanent, 

243 temporary)
4 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1

Goal Accomplishments

Goal 1: Develop a Fundamental Understanding of Ecological, Social, and Economic Systems 

and Their Interactions

• Although public acceptance is necessary for public resource management

decisions, public judgments are almost

always provisional.

• The geology of source water helps

determine stream temperatures. High

Cascades streams are very cold all

summer long because they originate

from deep groundwater stored for

decades, not from annual snowmelt.

• A new model identifies habitat 

patches for large carnivore species 

such as grizzly bear, wolf, lynx, and

wolverine; and evaluates the landscape characteristics that influence the

movement of large carnivores among

those habitat patches in Washington.

• Geomorphic surface types influence

the amphibians in headwater basins in

unmanaged forest stands. Within the

riparian zone, the slopes closest to the

streams are hotspots for biological

diversity in the central Coast Range 

of Oregon.

• Fires could increase in extent and

severity throughout the interior West

under global warming. Increased precipitation from warming would cause

forests to expand and increase in density. Ignitions would spike during dry

years.

• Climate-change scenarios indicate 

that in the forest sector, those who

own and grow trees would be most at

risk to lose income. The forest sector as

a whole was found to have adjustment

mechanisms that mitigate climatechange effects.

• The dynamics of fuel moisture influence the flammability of forest floor

duff. Data from Florida longleaf pine

forests are helping unlock the complex

duff moisture dynamics of boreal 

forest systems in Alaska.

• Historical fire regimes differed 

among areas in western Oregon and

Washington. Over the past 600 years,

fires tended to be more frequent, less

severe, and smaller in dryer, warmer

areas of the region, such as the

Willamette Valley foothills and 

southern Cascade Range.

Key Findings:

• After wildfires in eastern

Washington forests, more cavities

occurred in ponderosa pine and

Douglas-fir than in other tree

species. Ponderosa pine and

Douglas-fir snags were most likely

to have cavities if they had large

diameters, moderate heights, and

broken tops; were in a “soft decay”

condition; and were located in

burns that occurred more than 

20 years ago.

• In hardwood bottomland forests 

on alluvial flood plains of the

lower Mississippi River, small 

forest openings may enhance bird

and small mammal diversity.

• Red alder is associated with higher

levels of nitrate, a crucial nutrient

for algae, in streams. However, not

all streams with high alder coverage had high nitrate concentrations, suggesting that other factors

also regulate nutrient levels.
Scientists have analyzed the relationships over the past few decades among 

climate variations, management actions, ecological changes, and fuel bed changes

in eastern Oregon and Washington. This analysis enables scientists to develop

computer models that make projections about how effective various management options might be. The models analyze the complex conditions that

enhance or limit tree regeneration, forest productivity, and disturbances such 

as fire.

Contact: Sam Sandberg, dsandberg@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Partners: USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region, University of Washington,

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,Washington Department of Ecology

Accomplishments

Fires in the interior West could increase under 

global warming

In the initial stages of global warming, precipitation is likely to increase and

cause forests to expand and their density to increase throughout most of the

interior West. These resulting forests would have more fuel than today’s forests,

and fires likely would increase in extent and severity. Ignitions would spike in

dry years. Carbon storage may increase with the forest expansion. As temperatures increase further, however, forest expansion and carbon storage would

decline, and drought stress and severe fires would counter increases in net 

primary productivity.

Increased precipitation and snowmelt earlier than occurs currently could

increase flooding in many parts of the West. Runoff could increase from 50 to

100 percent over most of the Pacific Northwest, California, and the Great Basin.

In the Southeast, forests would expand in moderate warming scenarios. In more

severe warming scenarios, forests would decline as catastrophic fires turned

forests into savannas. Over the entire Eastern United States, surface runoff

could range from a slight decrease to a decline of more than 50 percent. In seven

future climate scenarios, the Mississippi drainage averages a 20-percent decline

in runoff.

Contact: Ron Neilson, rneilson@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

More information: Science Findings 44, May 2002. Is Carbon Storage Enough? Can Plants Adapt? 

New Questions in Climate Change Research. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi44.pdf.

Computer models analyze how climate affects tree 

regeneration, forest productivity, and fire

Climate and fire are driving factors in the forest health and productivity of 

eastern Oregon and Washington. Climatic variability is complicated by the area’s

mountain, steppe, and canyon topography, and its mosaic of forests and other

vegetation types. Fire and its effects are largely controlled by the amount and

type of fuels available and weather-related influences while fires are burning.

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station

Global warming would likely change runoff for major water basins in the United States. Map shows the

average percentage of change in runoff across seven general circulation models for major water basins.

5
Tundra plant 

communities 

responded rapidly 

to climate warming, 

potentially decreasing 

biodiversity and 

altering carbon 

storage capacity.

Forest sector has adjustment mechanisms to mitigate 

economic effects of climate change

If global climate change affects forests, the biological responses 

will in turn have economic effects. As part of a national assessment

of climate change, scientists evaluated the potential forest-related

economic effects of four possible climate change scenarios.

The 100-year projections show increased forest growth and thus

more wood, a change of benefit to consumers but not to those who

own and grow trees. In fact, those who own and grow trees would

be most at risk to lose income under the four scenarios because

increased yields would cause the price for trees to go down,

decreasing revenue to landowners.

The forest sector as a whole was found to have adjustment mechanisms that will mitigate the economic effects of climate change.

These mechanisms include adjustments of forest land prices, interregional migration of wood products manufacturing, overall growth

in wood products use as wood is substituted for other materials in

some products, and substitution of pulpwood products for sawtimber in some uses. Finally, forest landowners are projected to

change their management practices, including the intensity of forest management and stand rotation age. Harvest patterns also are

projected to change, with harvest volume shifting among owners

and regions.

Contact: Ralph Alig, ralig@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: Oregon State University,Texas A&M University

Tundra plant communities change under experimental

and natural climate warming

In northern Alaska, the composition of tundra plant communities

changed when the communities were exposed to climate warming.

Station scientists led a group of international partners in research

on more than 10 sites around the circumpolar Arctic, including

northern Canada, Greenland, northern Scandinavia, and northern

Asia. Alpine areas in Colorado and Tibet also were included. The

combined data showed that communities experimentally warmed

about 4 degrees Fahrenheit had a clear and significant shift to

increased woodiness and decreased moss and lichen cover that was

detectable after only 4 to 6 years. Some moss and lichen species

were lost, and no new species were gained in any category. Rare

species became more rare, and some woody species became more

common. Many scientists hypothesized that nutrient limitations

would suppress the ability of these tundra ecosystems to respond

to warming, but that limitation was apparent only in the first few

years. The change is particularly significant because these ecosystems sequester large amounts of carbon, and shifts in plant communities will change the nature of that sequestration.

Perhaps even more significant, some control plots showed similar

changes in plant communities in regions where the growing season

temperatures in fact have increased. In all cases, whether the warming was experimental or natural, biodiversity decreased dramatically

with warming. The results make a compelling argument that tundra plant communities respond rapidly to environmental change,

potentially decreasing biodiversity and altering carbon storage

capacity.

Contact: Marilyn Walker, mdwalker@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

Partner: University of Alaska at Fairbanks

Marginal populations of southeast Alaska trees 

are possible indicators of climate change

Trees at the margins of their species range are potentially early

indicators of climate change. For all tree species studied in southeast Alaska, tree distribution was associated more closely with

topographic slope than with site aspect. This distribution reflects

6 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 
historical fire patterns differed widely from the southern Cascade Range in

Oregon, to the northern Cascade Range in Washington. Over the past 600 years,

fires tended to be more frequent, less severe, and smaller in dryer, warmer areas

of the region, such as the Willamette Valley foothills and southern Cascade

Range. In the central Coast Range of Oregon and the northern Cascade Range,

fires were less frequent but more severe and larger.

Extensive fires occurred throughout the region during the 1500s and 1800s.

During other centuries—the 1600s, 1700s, and 1900s—fires were less extensive

regionally. This pattern is believed to be the result of climatic variations up until

the 1800s. In the second half of the 1800s, European-American settlers were at

least partly responsible for the roughly doubled number of acres burned. But in

the general geomorphology of southeast Alaska, in that most species have core

populations at low elevations and marginal populations at higher elevations

with steeper slopes. In addition, in southeast Alaska, solar radiation is diffuse

during much of the growing season, so that no aspect receives much of an

advantage in terms of light availability or temperature. Results varied for 

individual species.

Contact: Bill van Hees, bvanhees@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Partner: Leeds University

Dynamics of fuels and fires were studied from boreal 

to tropical forests

Forest floor duff is an important fuelbed component, yet its contribution to fire

behavior is not well understood. Scientists are studying fuel moisture dynamics

of duff in the longleaf pine forests of Florida, a simple system hydrologically,

and this information is helping them unlock the extremely complex moisture

dynamics of boreal forest systems in Alaska.

In eastern Oregon, scientists set up a project to measure the effectiveness of prescribed fire in treating fuels and restoring ecosystems changed by past fire suppression. The research team is monitoring atmospheric conditions, ground and

surface fuel moisture dynamics, fire physics especially in the poorly understood

smoldering stage, biomass consumption, and production of smoke and pollutants, before, during, and after prescribed fires. The results will be combined

with similar experiments in other ecosystems ranging from tropical to boreal

forests, and the information will help understanding of fire dynamics 

in all ecosystems.

Contact: Sam Sandberg, dsandberg@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Historical fire regimes differed among areas in western Oregon 

and Washington

Scientists have completed two syntheses of landscape-scale fire history studies

done in 10 areas in western Oregon and Washington. The results show that

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station 7

Roger Ottmar collects fire physics data in Baker City watershed, eastern Oregon.

USDA Forest Service
Even 

management 

decisions and 

actions that are 

supported by 

sound science will

ultimately fail if 

social acceptance 

is lacking.

the 1900s, people worked to suppress fires, and the average area

burned was low in historical terms, even though the 1900s were

generally a warm, dry climate period.

The geographic pattern of fire regimes reveals the broad outline 

of historical forest disturbance. Local landforms also influence fire

regimes, suggesting that simple rules for forest management, such

as fixed-width stream buffers, create unnatural landscape patterns.

Even though no single regime serves as a reference condition for

management options, historical fire patterns can be useful for designing coarse-filter approaches to species protection in areas of active

management.

Contact: Fred Swanson, fswanson@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

More information: Science Findings 46, September 2002. When the Forest Burns:

Making Sense of Fire History. www.fs.fed.us./pnw/sciencef/scifi46.pdf.

People’s judgments about forest practices 

are provisional

Even when people find forest practices acceptable, their judgments

are almost always provisional, never absolute or final. Scientists

evaluated the current state of knowledge regarding the factors that

shape, sustain, and alter public judgments about the acceptability

of various forest management conditions and practices. People

form judgments through a complex of factors, with technical and

scientific information only one of these.

Scientists have found that people’s judgments and their durability

are affected by people’s level of trust in managers, their personal

experiences with place, their ideas about what “natural” is, the

degree of risk seen in management actions, and people’s reliance

on their values or experiential knowledge in addition to scientific

knowledge.

The research suggests that even management decisions and 

actions that are supported by sound science will ultimately fail if

social acceptance is lacking. However, the research also identifies

strategies to gain public acceptance. Suggested strategies include

(1) treat social acceptability as a process rather than an end product, (2) develop organizational capacity to respond to public concerns, (3) approach trust-building as the central long-term goal of

effective public process, (4) provide leadership to develop a shared

understanding of forest conditions and practices, and (5) focus on

the larger context within which forest landscapes are managed,

including uncertainties and risks.

Contact: George H. Stankey, ghstankey@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources 

Interactions Program

Partners: Oregon State University, Utah State University

8 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 

These remnants of old-growth forest in mature forest are the result of historical fire

regimes.

Tom Iraci
the struggle for human rights and self-determination, limited access to resources,

loss of or denial of land ownership, and disproportionate impacts of environmental hazards. Not surprisingly, then, diverse people view various environmental issues very differently.

Contacts for different race, class, and gender perspectives: Ellen Donoghue, edonoghue@fs.fed.us,

Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partner: University of Michigan

High Cascades streams originate from deep groundwater

Contrary to popular belief, most summer streamflow out of the high Cascade

Range does not come from annual snowmelt. The high Cascade Range is a vast

hydrologic sponge that stores many decades worth of water as deep groundwater. This water emerges from springs along both the east and west sides of the

Cascade crest, fed by very large regional aquifers flowing through the young

volcanic rock. These springs and streams have very cold water all summer long

Diverse people view environmental issues differently

Social scientists found that people of color had environmental experiences different from those of middle and working class white people during the 19th and

20th centuries in the United States. The white experience is better known. Some 

middle class white people left cities to focus attention on outdoor explorations,

wilderness, and wildlife issues. Their interests led to the 20th-century environmental movement, which focused on wilderness preservation, wildlife and

habitat protection, and outdoor recreation issues, turning to pollution issues in

the 1960s. Other middle class and working white people took on an urban environmental agenda focused on parks, open spaces, public health, sanitation,

worker rights, pollution abatement, and housing reform.

People of color, however, were driven off their land, corralled on reservations,

and worked as low-wage laborers. They developed an environmental justice

agenda that linked racism and oppression to worker health and safety issues,

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station 9

Tom Iraci

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) firefighting crew, on what is now the Gifford Pinchot

National Forest. The CCC was integrated from 1933 to 1935 and segregated from 1935 to

1942, when the CCC was disbanded.

USDA Forest Service

Deep groundwater emerges in large springs in the Cascade Range, such as here at Jack Creek,

Metolius basin, Oregon.
and discharge rates that are fairly stable compared to streams originating from annual snowmelt. Even during drought years, streams

and rivers fed by deep groundwater flow at virtually constant rates.

The water in these high Cascades streams fell as rain or snow as

long ago as 30 to 40 years.

On the west slope of the Cascade Range in the H.J. Andrews

Experimental Forest, some streams are much colder than other

streams all summer long. The cold streams have greater discharge

than their watershed could supply from annual precipitation and

have water with a higher phosphorus content than recent precipitation. These clues indicate that the water source for these cold streams

is likely deep groundwater. The water source for the other streams

is most likely annual precipitation and snowmelt.

This research provides a context for calculating water budgets and

allocations, establishing stream temperature standards, and interpreting the effects of land use and climate change on water resources

in western Oregon.

Contacts: Sherri Johnson, sherrijohnson@fs.fed.us and Gordon Grant, ggrant@fs.fed.us,

Ecosystem Processes Program

For more information: Science Findings 49, December 2002. Geology as Destiny:

Cold Waters Run Deep in Western Oregon. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi49.pdf.

Turbidity “hotspots” affect municipal 

drinking water sources

Many forested watersheds in the Pacific Northwest are sources of

high-quality municipal drinking water. Scientists have found that

the underlying geology of watersheds affects water quality from

those basins. In western Oregon mountain watersheds, certain

clays cause persistent turbidity and thus affect water quality. These

clays are concentrated in distinct landforms and zones within western Oregon mountain watersheds. The “hotspots” deliver high 

concentrations of turbidity-causing clays into streams and rivers

during major storms, but deliver little clay between storms. If activities such as road construction and timber harvest occur near these

turbidity hotspots, they may increase the potential for high turbidity downstream. Further, reservoirs in these watersheds concentrate the clays, and reservoir management, including drawdowns

and dam removals, may cause high-turbidity spikes downstream.

The turbidity spikes can be problems for municipal water suppliers

and aquatic resources.

10 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1

Cougar Reservoir, South Fork of the McKenzie River, Oregon, during drawdown for salmon-related dam improvements in summer 2002.

Gordon Grant
after water flowed 980 feet through a reach with an extensive hyporheic zone,

the daily range in stream temperature was less than 4 degrees. The average

daily temperature was identical in both locations; the range differed.

Temperature oscillations were highly correlated to the travel times of water

flowing from the stream to experimental wells that measured subsurface water,

suggesting that heat exchange with hyporheic sediment and water mixing

dampened the temperature oscillations. Subsurface water flow has the potential

to dampen daily temperature fluctuations in stream water or to create thermal

refugia. With better knowledge about the mechanisms that control stream temperatures, managers have a stronger scientific basis for setting forest practice

rules.

Contact: Steven M.Wondzell, swondzell@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Scientists can identify these turbidity hotspots with analysis of the watershed’s

clay mineralogy, landform mapping, and geographic information system analysis. This information can help land managers evaluate risks attached to forest

land use and reservoir management.

Contact for turbidity and drinking water: Gordon Grant, ggrant@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

Subsurface water flows reduce water temperature 

fluctuation in streams

Water flows below the surface in a mountain stream as well as above ground.

The subsurface, or hyporheic, water enters and leaves a mountain stream many

times. In a small mountain stream in western Oregon, water temperature had a

daily range of 16 degrees Fahrenheit in a stream reach where water flowed in an

unshaded channel scoured to bedrock and no hyporheic exchange occurred. But

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station 11

Stream temperature data, H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon. Over these 8 days, stream water

temperature averaged 60.5 °F at both sites, despite large differences in daily temperature range.
Salmon and other anadromous fish influence 

the productivity of freshwater ecosystems

Salmon are a major food source for predators such as Alaska brown

bears. A new study shows that when brown bears fish for spawning salmon, they preferentially kill salmon that are highest in lipid

content, which are the fish that have been in the stream for the

fewest number of days. The bears also prefer to eat the body parts

with the highest lipid density, such as the salmon skin, brain, and

in females, the roe (eggs).

Social hierarchy (dominance) played a major role in the brown

bears’ choice of fishing place, success rate while fishing, time available for fishing, and distance that salmon were transported from

the stream. The dominant bears were always big, regardless of sex

or reproductive status (i.e., presence of cubs with a sow).

It’s been known for some years that salmon deliver valuable nutrients from marine ecosystems into freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, in the form of salmon carcasses and eggs. Previous studies

have identified distinctive marine isotopes of nitrogen and carbon

present in returning salmon and then traced these isotopes through

freshwater and riparian food webs.

New research documents the influence of these marine nutrients

on productivity and biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems. The

research was done primarily in Alaska, including the Copper River

Delta, Chilkat River drainage near Haines, and Margaret River

drainage near Ketchikan. Current projects are underway near

Juneau, Alaska, and also in the Clackamas and Sandy basins of the

Columbia River basin, with Mount Hood National Forest as partner. Scientists used isotopes to trace the nutrient flow from the

returns of wild runs and, in some cases, hatchery salmon carcasses

placed in watersheds. Scientists found that this marine subsidy

substantially influences stream and riparian food webs and elevates

freshwater productivity. All levels of the food web, including

microscopic animals, invertebrates, and fish, respond to marine

nutrients with increased growth, production, densities, biomass, 

or lipid reserves. Resource managers are using the results in their

management decisions about salmon escapement levels, fish ladder

construction, and nutrient restoration to streams.

Other anadromous fish besides salmon are also important as food

and nutrient sources. Eulachon runs are short-lived but intense,

and can sustain large numbers of predators for a short time. For

one eulachon run at Berner’s Bay, Alaska, an average of over 40,000

gulls, 250 Steller sea lions, and 600 bald eagles fed on the run every

day.

Contact for brown bear feeding and eulachon studies: Scott M. Gende,

sgende@fs.fed.us,Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Contact for marine-derived biomass in food webs: Mark S.Wipfli, mwipfli@fs.fed.us;

Gordon H. Reeves, greeves@fs.fed.us; and Richard T. Edwards, rtedwards@fs.fed.us;Aquatic 

and Land Interactions Program

12 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1

Brown bear catches pink salmon in Alaska.

Scott Gende
Stream reaches on private lands have the most intrinsic 

potential for coho salmon habitat

In the Oregon Coast Range, stream reaches with the highest potential for

coho and chinook salmon habitat occurred on private agricultural and nonindustrial forested lands, whereas those for steelhead and cutthroat trout

habitat occurred farther upstream, often on forested lands under public

ownership.

An evaluation was done as part of the coastal landscape analysis and 

modeling study (CLAMS). Streams, delineated with a newly derived model,

differed in their potential for developing high-quality habitat.

Results can be used in regional prioritization strategies to characterize

watersheds based on their potential to develop high-quality habitat and

their past management influences. Land managers could use results to identify good candidates for conservation (high potential and low past management influence), restoration (high potential but high past management

influence), or intensive management (low potential). Managers also could

use the modeled stream networks to delineate riparian areas and evaluate

the probability of debris-flow transport and deposition.

Contact: Kelly Burnett, kburnett@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Regional model assesses landscape permeability for large carnivores

in Washington

In the Pacific Northwest, threatened and endangered large carnivores exist

in small populations in fragmented habitats. Recent recovery plans for these

animals emphasize the importance of habitat connectivity among these fragmented habitats. Scientists conducted a regional assessment of landscape

permeability for grizzly bears, wolves, lynx, and wolverines in Washington,

southern British Columbia, and adjacent portions of Idaho. Scientists developed models that identified five patches of large carnivore habitat in

Washington and adjacent portions of British Columbia.

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station 13

Intrinsic potential of stream reaches to develop high-quality habitat for salmon and trout for an area in

the Oregon Coast Range.
Landscape permeability—or characteristics that influence the

movement of large carnivores—is critical for their conservation

and recovery. Characteristics include the distribution of roads,

human population density, land cover type, and topography.

The scientists evaluated these characteristics in the four areas

between the patches of habitat. The resulting maps will be useful in guiding field surveys and will contribute to regional

recovery planning for threatened and endangered carnivores.

Contact: Peter Singleton, psingleton@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Partners: Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests,Washington State Department of 

Transportation

Identified factors predict cavity development in snags after

wildfires

Snags are vital wildlife habitats in forests. In 26 burned areas in

eastern Washington, more cavities occurred in ponderosa pine

and Douglas-fir than in other tree species. Few or no cavities

were found in subalpine fir and lodgepole pine snags.

Ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir snags were most likely to have

cavities if they had large diameters, moderate heights, and broken tops; were in a “soft decay” condition; and were located in

burns that had occurred more than 20 years ago. Classification

models developed to predict cavity occurrence were 88 to 97

percent accurate when tested on other burned areas.

14 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 

Landscape permeability for lynx in Washington and adjacent areas of British Columbia and Idaho.
west-side pileated woodpeckers have behaviors

significantly different from those on the east side.

East of the Cascade crest, the birds create cavities

mostly in snags. But in the coastal forests of western Washington, pileated woodpeckers nest

equally in both snags and live trees with dead

tops. In western Washington, 48 percent of the

nests found were in live trees with dead tops,

compared to less than 1 percent in northeastern

Oregon, and 19 percent in western Montana.

If forest managers provide habitat conditions that

maintain pileated woodpeckers, other species are

likely to benefit as well.

Contact: Keith Aubry, kaubry@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem 

Processes Program

Off-road recreation affects elk and mule deer movements

At the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in northeast Oregon, scientists

studied how elk and mule deer responded to people engaged in off-road recreation. For a controlled experiment, scientists established a series of off-road

transects designed to mimic a typical network of off-road trails on a national

forest. People ran the transects on all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), mountain bikes,

horseback, and on foot, as experimental treatments.

The animals’ responses were measured in terms of how far the elk and deer

moved and how much energy they expended before, during, and after the offroad recreational activities on each transect. Eventually, the results will be used

in energy budget models to assess the overall effects of each off-road activity 

on the survival and reproductive potential of deer and elk.

Contacts: Marty Vavra, mvavra@fs.fed.us; Mike Wisdom, mwisdom@fs.fed.us,

Managing Disturbance Regimes 

Partners: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Parks 

and Recreation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation,Wallowa-Whitman National Forest,

USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region

The study suggests that to maintain or restore snags after fires, managers could

target defective trees in nearby green forests to provide immediate postfire

snag habitat, retain those trees for the short term, and retain large snags in the

burned area for long-term snag habitat.

Contact: John Lehmkuhl, jlehmkuhl@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Partners: Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests

West-side pileated woodpeckers choose snags and live trees equally

The pileated woodpecker is a keystone species in Pacific Northwest forests. The

large woodpeckers fill a role as ecological engineers as they excavate nest and

roost cavities in trees. These cavities are later used by a wide array of species,

including the common merganser, silver-haired bat, fisher, and American

marten.

Guidelines for pileated woodpecker management were based on research done

on the east side of the Cascade Range. In the first major research study done on

pileated woodpeckers west of the Cascade crest, the researchers are finding that

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station 15

Classification model predicts cavity occurrence in ponderosa pine snags.

Catherine M. Raley

Male pileated woodpecker wears

“backpack” radio transmitter, in 

first major west-side research on 

the species.
Fish may be 

better indicators 

of site-scale 

stream conditions;

amphibians 

may be better 

indicators of 

landscape-scale 

riparian and 

upland features.

Small forest openings enhance biodiversity in hardwood 

bottomland forests in the South

Old-growth, hardwood bottomland forests are important wildlife

habitat in the Southern United States and contribute substantial

biological diversity to the landscape. New studies completed with

cooperators from the South have provided several insights into the

wildlife ecology of old-growth hardwood bottomland forests in

alluvial flood plains of the lower Mississippi River.

Forest openings create habitat patches with plants that attract 

animals like white-tailed deer, which benefit from forest edges, and

swamp rabbits. Although white-tailed deer substantially influence

forest vegetation structure and composition, neither deer nor swamp

rabbit grazing affected the regeneration of hardwood seedlings or

the biological diversity of regenerating plant communities in windthrow canopy gaps. Because perennial inundation is a major factor

affecting plant communities, small changes in local topography

may be more important than herbivory in influencing the dynamics

of regenerating plant communities.

When compared to second-growth forests, old-growth bottomland

forests had a greater richness of species and greater diversity of

songbirds. Small mammals were both more abundant and more

diverse in old-growth forest than in second-growth forest. Forest

openings smaller than 0.6 acres and composing less than 25 percent

of the total forest area may enhance breeding bird diversity and

habitat for small mammal communities in mature hardwood bottomland forest. The study results have already been incorporated

into the USDA Forest Service Southeast Region’s “best management

practices” and, specifically, are being used by the Delta National

Forest in Mississippi.

Contact: Winston P. Smith, wsmith02@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Amphibian diversity in headwater streams is 

related to specific habitat elements

In the central Coast Range of Oregon, plants and amphibians are

distinctly associated with specific landscape features in unmanaged forest stands. In particular, the first slopes up from streams,

known as the “inner gorge” areas, are hotspots for biological diversity. The upper edge of the inner gorge is demarcated by a change

in slope. The inner gorge is a biodiversity hotspot in managed

forests as well, with distinctive habitat conditions and a greater

diversity of amphibian and arthropod species. Habitats and animals

also are distributed in predictable patterns along the length of the

stream channel from zero-order basins (ephemeral systems, headwater catchment areas, and upstream sections of first-order

streams) to downstream channels.

16 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 

Habitats and fauna are distributed in predictable patterns along the length of streams

and in riparian zones. Inner gorges have the highest amphibian and arthropod diversity

CONTINUE
Riparian oases are ecological hotspots for small mammals 

on Mount St. Helens pumice plains

In Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, scientists have been studying

the responses of small mammals since the major eruption in 1980. Small mammals, including the yellow-pine chipmunk, deer mouse, and Cascade goldenmantled ground squirrel, have been monitored in four distinct volcanic

disturbance zones.

These headwater systems support multiple predators; the concept of “intraguild

predation” may explain this coexistence. The headwater stream ecology work

blends concepts of habitat associations and species interactions, supporting

management of these areas as systems rather than applying species-specific

management criteria.

In another study, scientists learned which habitat features in headwater streams

have the most influence on fish and amphibians in those streams. In general, the

fish were more strongly influenced by instream habitat features such as pools,

riffles, substrate type, and stream gradient. Headwater stream-dwelling

amphibians, however, were influenced more by riparian and landscape variables

such as forest age class, watershed vegetation type, road density, slope, and

elevation. The amphibians generally preferred high-gradient streams with old

riparian and upland forests, and they were less abundant in low-gradient

streams, streams bordered by young forests, and watersheds with high road

densities.

Thus, fish may be better indicators of site-scale stream conditions; amphibians

may be better indicators of landscape-scale riparian and upland features. The

most influential landscape variables were riparian vegetation, hillslope vegetation, and elevation. Moderately influential variables were landslides, average

gradient, watershed area, and road density. The least influential variables were

drainage density and watershed aspect. Of all the variables, forest management

can influence riparian and hillslope vegetation, landslide frequency, and road

density, but management has little influence on the other variables.

Headwater streams are small and potentially may be strongly influenced by

silvicultural treatments near them. A new study will examine the effects of thinning and regeneration harvest on shade, water quality, instream habitat, arthropods and primary production, microclimate, and vegetation.

Contact for ecology of headwater streams: Deanna H. Olson, dedeolson@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land 

Interactions Program

Contact for habitat features, fish, and amphibians in headwater streams: Peter A. Bisson,

pbisson@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Contact for timber harvest influences on headwater streams: Sam Chan, schan@fs.fed.us, Agenda 2020 

program; Charley Peterson, cepeterson@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity Program

Partner for harvest influences on riparian vegetation: Weyerhaeuser Company

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station 17

Small seep creates an oasis and ecological hotspot for

small mammals such as this yellow-pine chipmunk, in

a pumice plain in Mount St. Helens National Volcanic

Monument, Washington.

Charlie M. Crisafulli
Red alder is associated with higher levels 

of stream nutrients

Historically, forest managers regarded red alder as an undesirable

species. Research indicates, however, that red alder has a positive

influence on the productivity and biodiversity of forest ecosystems

in southeast Alaska. Scientists are working to understand the ecological roles of red alder in managed young-growth forests, including relations to stream chemistry, nutrient linkages, effects on productivity of other trees, and influences on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, fish, birds, and deer. The findings are changing the way red alder is managed in Alaska, and they have management implications for other parts of western North America.

In upland headwater zones associated with landslides, alder 

coverage was more extensive in young-growth stands than in oldgrowth forests. Alder increases nitrate, and the alder coverage is

significantly related to the amount of nitrate, a crucial nutrient for

algae and thus stream productivity, in streams. The highest nitrate

concentrations occurred in streams within alder-dominated younggrowth forest. However, not all streams with high alder coverage

had high nitrate concentrations. The streams that had high alder

coverage but low nitrate levels were larger and originated within

alpine zones on ridge tops, suggesting that landform and source

area also may be important factors regulating nutrient levels.

Red alder appears to influence the productivity of young-growth

conifer forests. When red alder is present in the regenerating stand,

it may mitigate some effects of clearcutting and may increase total

wood production from the forest. Red alder may have potential as

a tool for restoring ecosystem functions in southeast Alaska.

Contacts for effects of red alder on stream nutrients: Mark Wipfli, mwipfli@fs.fed.us,

Richard T. Edwards, rtedwards@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Contacts for effects of red alder on young conifer forests: Robert Deal,

rdeal@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: Oregon State University, University of British Columbia, USDA Forest 

Service Alaska Region

After the big eruption in 1980, small mammal survival ranged from

high survival in areas where cool pumice and ash fell to loss of all

species close to the volcano. In the first years after the eruption,

small mammal populations were limited in numbers and associated

with patches of surviving vegetation. Riparian plant communities

grew in small oases and created ecological hotspots within the

landscape. These hotspots supported the greatest number of mammal species and the highest mammal abundances.

Twenty years after the eruption, species assemblages in the disturbance zones generally are not converging with those in undisturbed

sites. This suggests that establishment of late-seral mammal assemblages will take many decades. The scientists also identified roles

that small mammals play in plant succession and assessed the factors influencing biological reassembly and colonization after the

catastrophic volcanic eruption.

Contact: Charlie Crisafulli, ccrisafulli@fs.fed.us,Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

More information: Science Findings 34, May 2001. The Rule of Time and Chance:

Mount St. Helens and Its Legacy of Knowledge. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi34.pdf.

Progress was made toward understanding the ecology 

of the Columbia spotted frog

The Columbia spotted frog is a species of concern in northeastern

Oregon. Frogs at some sites are significantly smaller than frogs at

other sites. To find out why, scientists are studying the frogs at six

pond and stream sites in Union and Wallowa Counties. Stomach

flushing will show what the frogs are eating, and sticky traps, dip

nets, and aerial sweeps should reveal the types and abundance of

prey available for the frogs. The scientists will also determine what

predators are eating the Columbia spotted frogs and how abundant

the predators are. Research results should provide better information to forest managers about habitat needs of this species.

Contacts for Columbia spotted frog ecology: Jane Hayes, jlhayes@fs.fed.us, Evelyn Bull,

ebull@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

18 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1
2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station 19

Western hemlock seedlings may depend on down wood substrate

Western hemlock is a key part of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. As

a moderately shade-tolerant tree, hemlock typically adds trees of different ages

to the forest and layers to the forest canopy. A significant association was found

between large down wood on the forest floor and hemlock establishment at the

microsite, but the association does not seem to depend on the total amount of

down wood in the stand. The implication is that western hemlock seedlings

depend on down wood as a substrate and have difficulty surviving on other

substrates. The presence of large down wood can be used to predict the presence of western hemlock saplings in a stand.

Contact: Vicente MonLeon, vmonleon@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Scientists improve understanding of forest gaps

Small forest gaps are places where new plant species, including some that need

specialized habitats, get started, and plants grow faster in gaps than under

canopy shade. In mature Douglas-fir forests, canopy gaps of different sizes have

distinct combinations of light, temperature, and soil moisture, with strong gradients of each occurring within individual gaps. In gaps of all sizes, soil moisture levels increased when gaps formed. In small gaps, low light levels were the

primary constraint holding back plant growth.

Contact: Andy Gray, agray01@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Partner: Colorado State University

More information: Science Findings 43,April 2002. Canopy Gaps and Dead Tree Dynamics:

Poking Holes in the Forest. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi43.pdf.

Water movement through trees may be governed by universal rules

When it comes to studying basic processes over the long term, large trees are

much more difficult to study than saplings, and the lifetime of a large Douglasfir is longer than the lifetime of a scientist.

With the Wind River canopy crane in the Wind River Experimental Forest, scientists are now measuring the same physiological processes in mature trees that

they have measured previously in seedlings and saplings. Comparable work

is being done on tropical forest canopy trees at the Smithsonian canopy crane

in Panama. The results are beginning to reveal patterns in tree physiology and

function.

The results suggest that water movement through different tree species may 

be governed in a universal manner by features of hydraulic architecture—the

plumbing system—of trees. Scientists are extending this work from the hydraulic

properties of single water-conducting cells to the hydraulic properties of whole

trees and, they hope, eventually to the hydraulic properties of the whole canopy.

If universal rules can be established, scientists would be able to predict such 

forest processes as water use by vegetation, ecosystem discharge of water to

streams, and carbon uptake and storage across broad landscapes and over long

periods. This knowledge will be a valuable tool for assessing the effects of management options on key forest processes.

Contact: Rick Meinzer, fmeinzer@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

Partners: University of Washington, Oregon State University, Smithsonian Institution
exhibited by dying yellow-cedar trees indicate they may be suffering

from freezing injury or soil toxicity. Another clue is that cedar

decline is concentrated on saturated soils.

In 2002, scientists collected data on soil temperature, soil chemistry,

and hydrology at different sites, to find potential risk factors that

might relate to yellow-cedar mortality. Currently, scientists are

evaluating the data for risk factors such as soil toxicity, soil freezing, and soil saturation, hoping to find relations that may reveal

causes for cedar decline. Soil toxicity is determined through chemical analyses for potentially toxic substances such as aluminum and

manganese.

Scientists also are concerned about the possible effects of the dying

cedars on slope stability. Landslides are more likely to occur when

tree roots, a major factor in soil cohesion, die. Another risk factor

for landslides is high soil pore pressure. When soil becomes saturated with water, pore pressure increases, soil can liquefy, and

landslides can occur. A slope stability model was used to compare

the relative influence of yellow-cedar root decay and soil pore 

pressure on hillslope stability in southeast Alaska.

Results indicate that for shallow soil less than 2 feet deep, slope

stability is influenced more by root deterioration than by soil saturation. For soil deeper than 2 feet, soil saturation has a greater

effect on slope stability than does root deterioration. Landslides are

most likely 50 years or more after tree death, when most cedar

root strength has been lost and root strength from young trees has

not yet fully developed. These results are relevant to any forested

slopes with shallow soil, not just for slopes with yellow-cedars; roots

deteriorate after any tree death. Study results may help managers

predict the effects of tree death on erosion and sedimentation patterns.

Contact for yellow-cedar decline: Mike McClellan, mmcclellan@fs.fed.us, Resource 

Management and Productivity Program

Contact for yellow-cedar and slope stability: Adelaide Johnson, ajohnson03@fs.fed.us,

Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Piperidine alkaloid concentrations are not correlated with

Sitka spruce resistance to white pine weevil damage

In the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, forest managers are

interested in growing Sitka spruce in its historical range, but the

white pine weevil is damaging young Sitka spruce trees extensively.

White pine weevils deposit eggs in the terminal shoots of young

trees, and weevil larvae consume the phloem, often killing tree

leaders, deforming stems, reducing the growth rate, and reducing

eventual wood quality.

Sitka spruce seedlings from six resistant and six susceptible families were planted in field trials in the Oregon Coast Range. Scientists

looked for differences that distinguished resistant from susceptible

trees.

Six piperidine alkaloids were tracked; these are a class of secondary

compounds produced by some spruce and pine species that may

influence the trees’ chemical resistance to insects or pathogens.

Although clear differences in alkaloid concentrations were observed

among families, none of the compounds were associated with topkill. Therefore, the alkaloids are not useful indicators of tree resistance to white pine weevil attack.

Contact: Rick Kelsey, rkelsey@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Yellow-cedar decline in Alaska affects slope stability

Yellow-cedar (or Alaska-cedar) has great ecological, social, and

economic value. But a phenomenon known as yellow-cedar decline

is killing large numbers of these valuable trees on over 494,000

acres in southeast Alaska. The decline is a mystery to forest managers. Yellow-cedars are dying in unmanaged stands as well as

managed stands, and the mortality does not appear to be caused by

viruses, bacteria, fungi, or other biological agents. The symptoms

Genetic mapping

data are providing

estimates of how 

much genetic 

divergence 

exists between 

geographically 

distinct populations 

of plants, and how

much genetic 

variation exists in

seed-based natural

populations.

20 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 
2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 1 Pacific Northwest Research Station 21

Genetic mapping approaches were adapted 

for forest resource management

Many techniques used in human and plant genome mapping are speciesspecific, limiting their application to a few key species of economic importance,

and providing minimal benefit to less-studied organisms. One technique—

single-strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis—is unique in that

it requires minimal preliminary genetic information, yet it is able to identify

DNA sequences differing by only a single mutation. In SSCP, double-stranded

DNA is reduced to single strands, which are then separated on the basis of their

size and charge. Strands differing by a single mutation can be resolved, allowing one to screen rapidly for differences between individuals and populations.

SSCP is very similar to the techniques used in human forensics but is used more

frequently in screening for unknown mutations related to human disease. The

approach permits simultaneous evaluation of genetic variation across many

different genes in the cell nucleus, mitochondrial, and chloroplast genomes.

Scientists adapted the SSCP approach to screen genetic variation in a variety 

of plants, including Brewer’s shorthair reedgrass, a rare species; antelope bitterbrush, a shrub used in restoration; sulfur cinquefoil, an invasive weed; and

conifers. With the SSCP approach, scientists can screen 192 samples in one day.

Traditional methods would screen about 60 samples per day but reveal less than

a third of the total mutations uncovered by the SSCP approach. SSCP data are

providing estimates of how much genetic divergence exists between geographically distinct populations of plants, and how much genetic variation exists in

seed-based natural populations.

Contact: Rich Cronn, rcronn@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity Program
22 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 

Goal 2: Assess the Status and Trends of Ecosystems and Natural Resources and Their Uses

• A positive correlation exists between

the number of juvenile coho salmon in

a stream reach and the amount of large

wood in the reach. The number of

juvenile coho salmon also increased as

the number of pools increased. The

improved monitoring protocols can be

used to measure the quality of stream

habitat across the Pacific Northwest.

• On forest lands of all ownerships in

Oregon and Washington, the presence

of snags was closely related to patterns

of forest succession and timber harvest.

Down wood, however, was more

closely associated with a stand’s longterm history and site productivity than

with timber harvest.

• Southeast Alaska inventory data provided significant improvements to the

Alaska vegetation classification system.

Site index values are now available for

forested types. Seven forest types and

one nonforest type not shown in the

original system have been described.

• Satellite images provide a cost-effective

technique for the stratification phase of

forest inventory. The least expensive

satellite image-based method cost only

5 percent as much as traditional aerial

photo interpretation, with only a slight

decrease in accuracy.

• Private forests will play an increasingly larger role in the forest sector

both as providers of wood and other

environmental services, as timber harvest levels stay low on federal and

other public lands. More intensive

management on more acres of private

forest land will increase wood supply

from these lands.

• Oregon’s land use program appears

successful in reducing the overall rate

of conversion of forest and farm lands

to more developed uses and has been

successful at containing urban expansion within areas zoned for more

development.

• Projections suggest that future population growth in western Oregon will

lead to significant expansion of lowdensity and urban development over

the next 50 years, bringing more people living closer to western Oregon’s

forest lands.

• Long-term monitoring of northern

spotted owls suggests that populations

are declining in six out of eight longterm study areas, and populations are

stable or close to stable in the other

two areas.

Key Findings:
started just before the latter period, but the slowing conversion rate also could

have been caused by the decline in population growth and personal income

growth that happened during those years.

However, the new research finds that in 1994-2000, both population and personal income increased rapidly in western Oregon. Despite these changes, the

conversion rate for forest and farm lands remained low, suggesting that land

use planning was the cause. As of 2000, most western Oregon communities

seemed to have significant space within their designated urban growth boundaries to accommodate development. In western Oregon, 65 percent of private

forest land is still free of the effects that population or development might have

on forest management.

Contact: Dave Azuma, dazuma@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Partner: Oregon Department of Forestry

Accomplishments

Fewer acres of private forest land are projected to produce 

more wood

Scientists project that for the entire United States, the total amount of forest land

area will decrease by 3 percent, or 23.2 million acres, by 2050. Half of the forest

area loss is in the Pacific coast region and one-third of the loss in the South. The

losses will occur mainly because of growing cities and related land uses as the

country’s population increases by another 126 million people. Forest cover types

will shift on remaining forest lands. In the South, projections suggest that the

area in upland hardwoods will decrease, and pine plantations will increase by

14 million acres. Many pine plantations will be managed to produce sawtimber

and wood fiber on short rotations; investment and management often will be at

high levels. Some people have raised concerns that Southern forests will lose

diversity in both forest types and forest structures as a result.

Yet even as total forest land area decreases, private forests are projected to be

the main source of increased wood supply in the United States. This result can

happen only through more intensive management of more acres of private forest land. But at the same time, society also expects environmental services from

private forest lands. The concentration of timber production is already underway, but its effects on biodiversity and other ecological issues are still evolving.

Contacts: Richard Haynes, rhaynes@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: Oregon State University, Ohio State University, Northeast Research Station, and Forest Products Lab

Conversion rate for Oregon forest and farm lands stays low during

economic boom of 1990s

New research suggests that Oregon’s land use planning program is successful in

reducing the overall rate of conversion of forest and farm lands to development,

and the program is containing most urban expansion within areas zoned for

development. Previous research had shown that in western Oregon, the conversion of forest and farm lands to residential and urban uses declined dramatically

from the 1973-1982 period to the 1982-1994 period. Land use planning had

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 Pacific Northwest Research Station

Columbia Gorge, Oregon.

Tom Iraci

23
Spotted owl 

populations are 

declining in six out 

of eight long-term

study areas, and 

populations are 

stable or close 

to stable in 

the other 

two areas.

More people will live near forests in 

western Oregon

In western Oregon, the proportion of land in low-density and urban

developed uses is projected to nearly double by 2055, according to

new projections from the coastal landscape analysis and modeling

study (CLAMS). Although the majority of new development is projected to occur near existing cities, development will occur also in

forested areas. This projection suggests that more people will live

near forests in western Oregon in the future.

Additional research done with the Oregon Department of Forestry

suggests that low density and urban development near forests is

correlated with a decreased likelihood that forest owners will have

tree planting and precommercial thinning done after timber harvest, and with reduced forest stocking on private forest lands.

Contacts: Jeffrey Kline, jkline@fs.fed.us, Ralph Alig, ralig@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural 

Resources Interactions Program

Partners: Oregon Department of Forestry, CLAMS collaborators

More Information: Science Findings 45, July 2002. Changing the Scale of Our Thinking:

Landscape-Level Learning. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi45.pdf.

Some Oregon forest communities have low adaptability 

to changing economic conditions

The Montréal Process for Sustainable Forest Management, an international process, recognizes that forest-dependent communities

must be healthy for forest management to be truly sustainable. The

Montréal Process calls for evaluation of the “viability and adaptability to changing economic conditions, of forest-dependent communities, including indigenous communities,” as an indicator of

well-being. Sustainability, as defined in this process, means meeting

the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future

generations to meet their own needs. In a viable, well-adapted forest

24 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 

Projected building density categories in western Oregon.

Oregon communities of concern.
Long-term monitoring shows northern spotted owl populations

declining in some areas

Spotted owl populations are declining in six out of eight long-term study areas,

and populations are stable or close to stable in the other two areas. To learn

more about owl population dynamics, scientists studied the birds’ success in

different habitats.

Spotted owls usually select older forests

for foraging, roosting, and nesting when

those forests are available. If owls are

living in young forest areas, they tend to

select the oldest part of the forest. Other

studies indicate that corridors of deciduous riparian forest may be good foraging

habitat for spotted owls. In the north

Coast Range of Oregon where little old

forest is available, owls forage extensively in young forest and riparian hardwoods. However, the north Coast Range

owls have very large home ranges and

their population is dwindling, suggesting they are struggling to survive in that environment. Two recent studies suggest that spotted owls may survive or reproduce best in areas that include a

mixture of older forests and openings.

Spotted owl management has become increasingly complex as a result of the

invasion of the barred owl and the need to integrate habitat management for

owls with long-term goals for biodiversity and forest management. The status

of the northern spotted owl was last assessed across its entire range 4 years ago.

The next range-wide assessment of the owl’s status is scheduled to occur in

winter 2003, at which time researchers from all the long-term study areas in

Washington, Oregon, and California will convene to conduct a meta-analysis 

of the data.

Contact: Eric Forsman, eforsman@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

community, forest management sustains a flow of timber and other benefits that

promote the well-being of the community and its forest industries.

Several hundred rural communities in Oregon were assessed in terms of their

socioeconomic well-being, with measures including jobs, connections to service

centers, and proximity to public lands. For all characteristics combined, 54

Oregon communities rated low and were considered less adaptable to changing

socioeconomic conditions.

Contacts: Ellen Donoghue, edonoghue@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources 

Interactions Program

Partners: Oregon Department of Forestry, Sustainable Roundtable, Oregon State University

More information: Science Findings 37, September 2001. Absorbing the Shock: Helping 

Communities When Change Erupts. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi37.pdf.

Trends in western Oregon forests: amount of forest land 

has changed little in the last 70 years

About 80 percent of western Oregon is forested. The total amount of forest land

has changed little in western Oregon since the first inventory was done in 1930.

Many acres have changed into or out of forested status over the past 70 years,

but the total amount has been fairly stable.

About 52 percent of western Oregon forest land is managed by the USDA Forest

Service, USDI Bureau of Land Management, and other federal agencies. Another

41 percent is privately owned, and the remaining 7 percent is managed by the

Oregon Department of Forestry and other nonfederal public agencies.

On nonfederal forest lands, the average annual growth of trees is almost twice

the annual amount dying through harvest and natural mortality. One-third of

the inventory plots on nonfederal lands have one or more noxious weeds, with

Himalayan blackberry, thistle, and Scotch broom the three most common species.

As for insects and diseases, dwarf mistletoes, root diseases, bark beetles, and

insect defoliations were recorded on many acres. Monitoring for ozone injury

began in 1998 on several ozone-sensitive tree species such as ponderosa pine

and red alder, but so far no injury has been detected in western Oregon forests.

Contact: Sally Campbell, scampbell01@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Partner: Oregon Department of Forestry

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 Pacific Northwest Research Station 25 Gila Fox

Northern spotted owl, Cascade Range, Oregon.
can die from unfavorable ocean conditions, it is difficult for managers to identify the influence of nesting habitat conservation on

population trends. New research shows that the number of marbled

murrelets flying into large drainages during the nesting season can

be predicted from the amount of potential nesting habitat within

those drainages.

For 3 years in a row, as the amount of habitat increased, the number of marbled murrelets increased also, in a strong positive correlation. The linear relationship suggests that murrelets are territorial

and that their numbers are limited by available nesting habitat. This

finding provides the missing link that will allow managers to relate

population trends to management of murrelet habitat.

Contact for red tree vole and marbled murrelet: Martin Raphael, mraphael@fs.fed.us,

Ecosystem Processes Program

More information: Science Findings 39, November 2001. Under the Radar:Advances in 

Murrelet Monitoring. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi39.pdf.

Juvenile coho salmon numbers increase as large wood 

and pools increase in streams

Scientists developed improved monitoring protocols for juvenile

coho salmon and their freshwater stream habitat. The protocols are

objective, consistent, repeatable, and effective at detecting changes

in habitat conditions. Using the protocols, scientists found a positive relation between the number of juvenile coho salmon in a

stream reach, and the amount of large wood in the reach. The number of juvenile coho salmon also increased as the number of pools

increased.

These procedures can be used to measure the quality of stream

channel habitat and the response of stream habitat to land use

across the Pacific Northwest landscape, in both managed and

unmanaged areas. The protocols are effective in a range of landscape types and over timeframes of different lengths. National 

New information was obtained about habitat for two 

elusive species, the red tree vole and marbled murrelet

Information is limited about some wildlife species managed under

the Northwest Forest Plan. Scientists have learned more about two

species difficult to observe.

The red tree vole is an important prey for the northern spotted owl

in parts of its range. The Northwest Forest Plan calls for management of high-priority sites for the red tree vole, but until recently,

it was not known to what extent the late-successional reserves and

other management provisions were providing adequate habitat

for red tree voles in coastal forests.

Surveys for red tree voles have now been completed in over 4,000

locations, covering more than 140,000 acres. The results indicate

that red tree vole abundance differs significantly among locations

in western Oregon. In 70 percent of sites, no red tree vole nests

were detected and, in locations where voles were detected, most

sites had only a single vole nest. The results suggest that not all

late-successional reserves are equally suitable for all late-successional species and that, in fact, most high-elevation forests in

reserves are of little value as red tree vole habitat. The likelihood of

red tree vole occurrence begins to decline near 3,500 feet elevation

in most late-successional reserves, although in the southern Oregon

Cascades, some tree vole locations do occur as high as 5,400 feet.

These results improve knowledge about red tree vole ecology and

suggest new management considerations for tree vole habitat.

The marbled murrelet, a seabird that nests in forests, is listed as

threatened throughout its range in Washington, Oregon, and

California, primarily from loss of nesting habitat. The Northwest

Forest Plan calls for murrelet nesting habitat to be retained in a

system of reserves throughout the bird’s range. Because murrelets

Total carbon 

storage was greatest

on national forest

lands, intermediate 

on other public 

and forest 

industry lands, 

and lowest on 

private nonindustrial lands.

26 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2
2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 Pacific Northwest Research Station 27

forest managers are using the protocols to assess 

the status and trends of stream habitat used by

anadromous salmonids and to assess the effects of

land management on aquatic and riparian habitats.

Also, the monitoring protocols are being used to

identify streams and watersheds that could benefit

from restoration programs. Finally, the protocols can

be used to evaluate restoration success.

Contacts: Richard D.Woodsmith, rwoodsmith@fs.fed.us; Mason D.

Bryant, mdbryant@fs.fed.us; Gordon H. Reeves, greeves@fs.fed.us;

and Richard T. Edwards, rtedwards@fs.fed.us,Aquatic and Land 

Interactions Program

Down wood levels are more closely associated with long-term forest histories

Dead wood is a crucial component of healthy, biologically diverse forests. But little information has

been available about the distribution and characteristics of snags and down trees in Pacific Northwest

forests. Scientists compiled data on dead wood

across about 49 million acres of east- and west-side

forests in Oregon and Washington. The results,

based on over 16,000 field plots, are the most comprehensive study yet of dead wood across both

managed and unmanaged forests of all ownerships

in Oregon and Washington.

For snags at least 10 inches in diameter, the average

density ranged from 3 to 91 trees per acre. For down

wood at least 5 inches in diameter, the average

density ranged from 47 to 670 pieces per acre. The

presence of snags was closely related to patterns of

forest succession and timber harvest. For example,

large snags were more than twice as dense in forests

that had never been harvested than in forests that

have had any kind of harvest in the past.

Down wood, however, was more closely associated

with a stand’s long-term history and site productivity than with timber harvest. The amounts of

large down wood were similar in harvested and

unharvested stands, except in high-elevation forests

where down wood volume was greater in harvested

stands than in unharvested stands.

Total carbon storage was greatest on national 

forest lands, intermediate on other public and forest

industry lands, and lowest on private nonindustrial

lands. The studies have greatly improved scientists’

ability to answer more specific questions on the density, size, and decay class of dead wood needed to

maintain wildlife habitat and ecosystem functions,

and on how much carbon is being stored in snags

and down wood in the Pacific Northwest.

Contact: Karen Waddell, kwaddell@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and 

Analysis Program

More information: Science Findings 42, March 2002. Dead Wood All 

Around Us:Think Regionally to Manage Locally. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/

sciencef/scifi42.pdf.

The presence of snags is closely related to patterns

of forest succession and timber harvest.

Tom Iraci
Contact for AVCS inventory in southeast Alaska: Bert Mead, bmead@fs.fed.us,

Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Contact for survey of Tongass research natural areas: Winston P. Smith,

wsmith02@fs.fed.us,Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Inventories and surveys extend plant and forest 

knowledge in southeast Alaska

A systematic inventory was done in southeast Alaska on both

forested and nonforested land. Scientists used the data to make 

significant improvements to the Alaska vegetation classification

system. They added descriptions for seven forest types and one

nonforest type not in the original classification system, and they

added site index values for all forest types. The inventory also

improved knowledge about the extent of some forest types. For

example, the closed-canopy mixed-conifer forest type was believed

to be uncommon in the Stikine area. The new data shows that this

type covers about 6.5 percent of the unreserved forest area of the

Petersburg and Wrangell Ranger Districts, a substantial proportion

for one vegetation type. Also, the new inventory extended the

known ranges for plants such as blue-pod lupine, false Solomon’s

seal, and red mountain heather, among others.

Crews surveyed the bird, mammal, and vegetation communities 

in seven research natural areas (RNAs) in southeast Alaska. These

natural areas represent a broad cross section of the region’s pristine

biotic communities and will be left in natural, or unmanaged, conditions.

Results provide the first baseline description of biotic communities

in the seven RNAs. They also contribute information about regional

biodiversity and species distributions in pristine forests of southeast Alaska. Scientists found 31 species of vascular plants previously unconfirmed in RNAs for the region. Data were collected on

the abundance and breeding status of 65 bird species. A total of 331

small mammals representing 6 species were captured, and an additional 5 species were documented from visual observations or

physical evidence.

28 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 

New data give the first ecological picture of seven research natural areas in southeast

Alaska.

Bob Szaro
2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 Pacific Northwest Research Station 29

Baseline condition was established for whitebark pine 

in the Umpqua National Forest

Whitebark pine usually lives at high elevations and is seen more often from

hiking trails than from roads. Its seeds are an important food for high-country

animals, but the five-needled pine has been hit hard by white pine blister rust.

A survey was done to evaluate the distribution, condition, and health of whitebark pines along the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail on the Umpqua National

Forest in Oregon. In general, whitebark pine was found in stands with lower

overall densities and fewer late-seral species. The proportion of pines ranged

from less than 1 up to 24 percent of the trees on transect plots. Most whitebark

pines were less than 15 feet tall.

Forty-four percent of the trees were alive and healthy, 46 percent were alive but

infected by white pine blister rust, and 10 percent were dead. Two-thirds of the

mortality was due to white pine blister rust, 13 percent was due to mountain

pine beetle, and 18 percent to a combination of the two. White pine blister rust

affected trees in all but the largest size class. No cones were observed on whitebark pine in any of the survey plots. The species was common in laminated root

rot areas where that disease had created large canopy openings. The survey

results establish a reference condition for whitebark pine in this part of southwest Oregon.

Contact for whitebark pine: Sally Campbell, scampbell01@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Partner: USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region

Satellite images provide cost-effective technique for two-phased 

forest inventory

Aerial photographs are traditionally used in forest inventories to stratify expensive field plots. The stratification, or division of the inventory area into types so

sampling is representative, increases the accuracy of inventory estimates of forest land area and forest volume. With satellite images readily available, scientists have looked into the cost-effectiveness of using the satellite images instead

of aerial photos for the stratification phase of the inventory.

Scientists used a 2.5-million-acre study area in northern California to test new

techniques. Three satellite image-based geographic information system layers

were evaluated as alternatives to conventional photo interpretation, and accuracy as well as cost of the two methods were compared. Photo stratification was

still more precise, with a standard error of 2.9 percent per million acres, compared to a standard error between 3.5 and 4.2 percent for satellite image-based

stratification. However, the least expensive satellite image-based method cost

only 5 percent as much as traditional aerial photo interpretation, a considerable

savings.

Contact: Jeremy Fried, jsfried@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Partner: University of Helsinki
Manitoba). The scientists developed separate equations to predict

biomass in each of the three different forests, and then developed a

general equation for all three sites. The general equation predicted

biomass essentially as accurately as the three individual equations.

Results so far show the lidar data can be very accurate, even in

heavily forested areas, and that canopy density has little effect on

the accuracy.

This simplified method to estimate aboveground biomass could

reduce the effort and expense required to develop global biomass

estimates from satellite lidar data, leading directly to improved

estimates of global carbon storage.

Contact: Warren Cohen, wcohen@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

Partner: Oregon State University

Gradient-nearest-neighbor mapping method 

gives rich details of forest conditions across the 

Oregon Coast Range

Scientists developed a new method to map forest conditions across

an entire region, with a richness of detail never before available at

that scale. The gradient-nearest-neighbor method was developed as

part of the CLAMS for the Oregon Coast Range.

The gradient-nearest-neighbor method uses statistical techniques 

to ascribe detailed data to each pixel in a digital landscape map.

Thus each pixel (dot) on the map contains detailed information

such as a tree species list and stand structure. The digital maps can

show information such as tree species richness, forest structure,

potential vegetation types, large dead wood abundance, and broadleaf vegetation distribution, over forest land of all ownerships in

the Oregon Coast Range.

Airborne laser scanning measures forest canopies 

and provides data on forest biomass

Lidar (light detection and ranging) is the technology of airborne

laser scanning. Lidar instruments can be used to measure the vertical structure of forests and thus hold great promise for estimating

the amount of forest biomass, key information for estimating the

amount of carbon stored in forests. The lidar sensing, currently

done from aircraft, provides information about the presence or

absence of tree canopies at the given location. It is accurate enough

to detect the difference between, for example, an old-growth forest

and a second-growth stand with limited vertical structure. Field

measurements confirm the accuracy of the lidar data.

Scientists compared the relation between lidar-measured forest

canopies and field measurements of aboveground biomass at sites

in temperate deciduous forest (Maryland), temperate coniferous

forest (western Oregon), and boreal coniferous forest (northern

30 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 

Airborne laser scanning measures forest biomass accurately, even in dense

forests.
2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 2 Pacific Northwest Research Station 31

The province-wide yet finely detailed maps are far more accurate and revealing than

piecemeal analysis of some forest lands. Thus the maps can be used to evaluate the

effects of forest policies on biodiversity, socioeconomic values, and forest sustainability.

CLAMS is using the maps for simulations of future landscapes under policy alternatives

and to assess potential effects on wildlife, aquatic habitat, and timber production.

Contact: Janet Ohmann, johmann@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

Partners: Oregon State University, Oregon Department of Forestry

New method creates finely detailed regional maps, such as this map showing the presence of old-growth habitat

characteristics such as large, old trees; large snags; down wood; and tree diameter diversity, in the Oregon Coast

Range. Areas that rate highest are most likely to be old-growth forests.

HydroDB, a central database, coordinates data 

from ecological research sites

More scientists are putting databases on Web sites, and the volume of

data is growing all the time at ecological research sites around the world.

PNW scientists led the development of a system to “harvest” data from

participating ecological research sites into a central database where the

data is accessible to other scientists through a common Web interface.

Participating sites keep local control over their climate and streamflow

data, while allowing data to be regularly collected and incorporated into

the central database.

The Web harvester system, known as HydroDB, makes available hydrologic and climatic summary reports, daily data for user download, and

interactive graphical displays. HydroDB also collects common descriptive

information at each site to assure that harvested data are accurately interpreted and integrated. The central database makes it easier for scientists

to use data from a number of different research projects.

Contact: Don Henshaw, dhenshaw@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

Partners: National Science Foundation, USDA Forest Service Fire Evaluation Monitoring 

and Forest Health Monitoring
The MC1 

model accurately 

predicted the fire 

susceptibility in the

Southwest early in 

the season and the

severe fires in the

Pacific Northwest

later in the 

2002 season.

32 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3

• Silvicultural treatments to reduce fire

hazard can be compatible with management to restore old-growth habitats. New analysis tools can be used to

design prescriptions that increase management efficiency, reduce fire hazard,

and maintain habitat values.

• Elk, mule deer, and cattle changed

their patterns of habitat use in response to fuel-reduction treatments in

northeastern Oregon. The fuel-reduction treatments reduced fire risk and

at the same time increased the forage

available for elk, mule deer, and cattle.

• Commercial wood products can 

be made from small-diameter trees

removed in thinning and fuel-reduction projects and also from some tree

species not used commercially in the

past. Some existing wood products 

can be recycled. Opportunities exist

throughout the West.

• The BioSum planning tool can be used

to identify the economic feasibility of

using low-value wood removed in firehazard reduction in a biomass power

plant. In a pilot analysis in southwest

Oregon, only about 17 percent of acres

• A new fire risk model accurately predicted the 2002 fire season, one of the

worst fire seasons in decades. The

model correctly predicted the fire susceptibility in the Southwest early in

the season and the severe fires in the

Pacific Northwest later in the 

season.

• People’s attitudes about fire-hazardreduction programs are remarkably

similar across diverse regions of the

country. Fire managers are most likely

to get community support if they

inform people about expected outcomes, risks, mitigation and contingency measures, and cost effectiveness.

• On federal forest lands in the interior

Columbia basin, the probability has

more than doubled that a wildfire will

be a stand-replacement fire, because of

fire exclusion, timber harvest, livestock

grazing, and the introduction of exotic

plant species. Middle-aged forests less

than 100 years old are more common,

and old, single-layer forests are less

abundant than they were historically.

available for treatment would

return a net revenue of zero or

greater.

• Simulated chronologies have been

developed of vegetation and disturbance patterns for four landscapes: northeast Oregon, central

Idaho, east-central Idaho, and

northwest Montana. The chronologies describe the historical range

and variability of landscape patterns for these areas.

• Restoration of sagebrush-steppe

ecosystems will require substantial

investment. The sagebrush-steppe

restoration is fundamental to

improving landscape conditions for

sagebrush-dependent species such

as the sage grouse.

• In northeastern Oregon, patch cuts

seem to provide the best snowshoe

hare habitat out of several experimental treatments. Dense hiding

cover from overstory trees was

close to small openings, which

served as vantage points where

hares can watch for predators in

winter.

Key Findings and Products:

Goal 3: Develop Science-Based Options for Informed Management
2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 33

• Native plant diversity increased 

by 50 percent over the original

level in variable-density thinned

stands, compared to evenly

spaced thinning. Exotic plant

species did not increase in the

variable-density stands, but they

did increase in the evenly-spaced

stands.

• Watershed restoration in western

Oregon and Washington could

focus on maximizing the positive

effects of floods and landslides

for streams, and storm-proofing

roads and other spots where

landslide effects would benegative. This approach is a shift

from trying to buffer streams

from all natural changes.

Accomplishments

MC1 fire risk model accurately predicted the 

2002 fire season

The severity of a fire season is determined partly by weather, such as drought,

extended heat waves, and winds. If fire managers know in spring that the

coming summer is likely to be a severe fire season, they can prepare accordingly.

Scientists developed a model, called MC1, that makes fire season forecasts. 

MC1 links weather conditions and fire occurrence from 1895 to the most recent

month and produces 3- to 12-month forecasts of possible fire risks for the continental United States. In 2002, one of the worst fire seasons in decades, the model

accurately predicted the fire susceptibility in the Southwest early in the season

and the severe fires in the Pacific Northwest later in the season. The accuracy of

the forecast validated the model, proving it could be a useful planning tool for

fire managers.

Contact: Ron Neilson, rneilson@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Partners: Oregon State University, Desert Research Institute, Scripps Institute of Oceanography

Ventilation model was used in the Biscuit Fire to assess smoke 

hazards for communities in the region

The ventilation climate information system, a computer model, was used during

the Biscuit Fire in 2002, the largest wildfire in Oregon’s recorded history. The

fire’s heavy smoke affected communities many miles away. The incident command team at the fire used the ventilation model, based on 40 years of data, to

estimate continuing smoke impacts and issue smoke hazard warnings to the

region around the fire.

• Improved survey techniques provide rigorous, quantitative methods for gathering field data about

survey-and-manage species such

as rare fungi in the range of the

northern spotted owl. A new tool

can be used to analyze the field

data to determine if the species

are indeed rare.

• Potassium fertilizer may not 

protect Douglas-fir seedlings

from laminated root rot.
Across the country, people have common concerns 

about fire hazard reduction programs

Before land managers can treat fuels and reduce fire hazard, they

must have support from local communities. But many residents of

the wildland-urban interface do not support specific fuel management strategies, and many people do not have fire-safe landscaping

and defensible space around their homes, making it difficult and

dangerous for firefighters to protect those homes. Scientists worked

with people in four places across the country to find out what their

concerns are and what they would need to know to support firehazard-reduction programs. The four regions had different situations of land ownership, forest resource uses, and recent fire

history.

The results showed that people’s attitudes about fuel treatments,

and the reasons for their attitudes, are remarkably similar across

diverse regions. Attitudes are linked most closely to expected outcomes, suggesting that people are more likely to accept management plans if they learn more about the plans, the expected

outcomes, and the risks.

Based on this study, scientists recommend that fire managers cover

specific issues when they present alternatives to people. For prescribed burning, the specific issues that should be covered are

technical competence of the agency personnel, environmental conditions addressed in the plans, availability of resources, mitigation

and contingency measures, and cost effectiveness. For mechanical

treatment, the specific issues that should be covered are planning

and preparation, mitigation to reduce aesthetic impacts, and cost

effectiveness. For defensible space, the issues are “how-to” instructions tailored to local conditions, mitigation measures to reduce

aesthetic impacts, and regulation and enforcement of ordinances.

Contact: Jeremy Fried, jsfried@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Partners: Paul Schissler Associates, Michigan State University

The ventilation model can be used at local, regional, or national

scales to assess smoke risks to air quality and visibility. Because

the model can be used at different scales and covers the entire continental United States, fire managers all over the country are using

the model as a tool both in planning prescribed fire programs and

in forest-level planning.

Contact: Sam Sandberg, dsandberg@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Partner: Joint Fire Science Program

34 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 

The Biscuit Fire burned nearly 500,000 acres in southwest Oregon in summer 2002.

Tom Iraci
High-intensity wildfires are more likely in many parts of the 

interior Columbia basin

Station scientists have provided extensive support for management planning in

the interior Columbia basin. Much of this work was completed in 2002.

On federal forest lands in the interior Columbia basin, the probability has more

than doubled that a wildfire will be a stand-replacement fire, because of fire

exclusion, timber harvest, livestock grazing, and the introduction of exotic plant

species. Middle-aged forests are substantially more common than they were

historically. Mature forests of large, widely spaced trees have declined by twothirds or more from historical levels on federal lands in the interior Columbia

basin.

Landscape health is estimated at low to moderate on the majority of federal

lands within eastern Oregon and Washington. For this analysis, scientists

defined landscape health as the best fit of high land use values, high condition

rating for native species habitats, low risks to ecological values, and low departure from the historical range of conditions.

The new landscape patterns are becoming apparent across large areas. These

changes, set in motion partially by changed fire regimes, are creating a momentum that will be difficult to overcome. Current land management practices are

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station

New landscape patterns have been created across rangelands and forests of the interior Columbia basin.

Tom Iraci

35

not likely to reverse trends of increasing middle-aged, increasingly dense

forests, or declining landscape health.

Salmon, steelhead, and native trout have lost significant amounts of habitat, 

and many populations are declining. Strong salmonid populations inhabit only

between 0.1 and 33 percent of their historical habitat within the interior Columbia

basin. Wildlife species that are declining are those associated with old forests,

shrublands, and grasslands. Scientists also assessed socioeconomic conditions

and found that across the interior Columbia basin, communities differ widely 

in their degree of resiliency and dependency on natural resources from federal

lands.

The coordinated research program built a comprehensive picture of the current

socioeconomic, ecological, and biophysical environments in the interior

Columbia basin, a picture that was not available before. This body of research

provides a sound basis for land- management decisions, insight on the largescale consequences of site-specific decisions, and findings related to the management of risks and opportunities.

Contacts for key issues and landscape health: Becky Gravenmier, bgravenmier@fs.fed.us,

Miles Hemstrom, mhemstrom@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Contacts for socioeconomic issues: Richard Haynes, rhaynes@fs.fed.us, Becky Gravenmier,

bgravenmier@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program
communities. To reduce fire hazard and yet maintain spotted owl

habitat, many small trees would have to be removed at a high cost

and with low market value.

Various silvicultural options were analyzed for the Gotchen LateSuccessional Reserve, in the Cascade Range in eastern Washington.

The analysis integrated information on landscape patterns, key

habitats and species, and economics. The results suggest that silvicultural treatments used to reduce fire hazard east of the Cascade

crest may not conflict with management designed to maintain or

Fuel-reduction treatments can reduce fire risk and increase forage.

John Lehmkuhl

Compatible options exist to both reduce fire hazard and

maintain spotted owl habitat

The range of the northern spotted owl extends east of the Cascade

Range crest where dense multilayered canopies and down wood

create suitable habitat. These structural characteristics increase susceptibility to fire and insects such as the western spruce budworm.

Stand-replacement fires are increasingly likely to burn in these

forests and are a risk to the habitat, streams, and possibly human

36 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3
restore old-growth habitats. Forest managers could use the same analysis tools

to increase the efficiency of management actions, reduce fire hazard, and maintain habitat values.

Contact: Susan Stevens Hummel, shummel@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources 

Interactions Program

Partners: University of Washington, University of Montana, Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Fuel-reduction treatments in northeastern Oregon reduce 

fire hazard and increase available forage

A study in northeastern Oregon focused on the effects of fuel-reduction treatments on grazing patterns of wild elk and mule deer and domestic cattle. On

the Starkey Experimental Forest, fuels have been reduced in overstocked stands

of true fir and Douglas-fir where many trees died during the spruce budworm

outbreak in the late 1980s. Both native and domestic ungulates changed their

patterns of habitat use in response to the fuel-reduction treatments. The changes

in animal distribution, in turn, caused shifts in grazing and browsing pressure,

thereby changing how the forest stands develop. The fuel-reduction treatments

reduced the risk of catastrophic fires in the areas treated and, at the same time,

they increased the forage available for elk, mule deer, and cattle.

In another grazing study, scientists found that cow age affected the grazing

patterns of cattle on forested rangelands. Heifers (2-year-old cows) preferred

riparian habitats and did not travel as far from water as mature cows. This

effect was most pronounced during mornings, with little difference in where

the cows grazed from noon to early evening. Mature cows ate more because

they were larger than heifers, but the mature cows ate less per pound than did

heifers. Also, the mature cows selected diets of greater botanical diversity and

higher nutritional quality than did the heifers.

Contact for fuel reduction, cow age, and grazing effects studies: Marty Vavra, mvavra@fs.fed.us,

Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 37

New tools can be used in developing plans to reduce fire risk

The interior Northwest landscape analysis system (INLAS) is a set of computerbased models that simulate the long-term consequences of current or proposed

forest management actions intended to reduce fire risk. As its name suggests,

the models are designed for the Pacific Northwest east of the Cascade Range

crest. Modules within the model are being developed to predict how different

management policies would affect streams and forests, how much wood could

be used for products, and how communities would be affected by wildfires,

insect outbreaks, tree diseases, and grazing. In 2002, the utilization module was
area in summer 2002. The pilot analysis prior to the fire predicted

that only about 17 percent of the acres available for treatment

would have returned a positive net revenue.

Contact for BioSum: Jeremy Fried, jsfried@fs.fed.us, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

Partner: Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program, Focused Science Delivery 

Program

Small wood and old wood have use for commercial 

wood products

The wood available for wood products is changing. Large Douglasfir logs are less available than in the past. What are available are

small-diameter trees removed in thinning and fuel-reduction projects,

used in northeastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains region to analyze

the potential timber volumes and financial return, by county, that

would be generated from hazardous fuel treatments.

The community action prioritization system (CAPS) is an evalation

system that compares forest conditions, human needs, and fire

threat, among national forest regions such as the Pacific Northwest

Region, Rocky Mountain Region, and so forth. This decision-support model produces numerical rankings that also can be displayed

in maps. The Forest Service will use this system as it makes the initial distributions of economic action plan funds to Forest Service

regions in 2003.

Contacts for INLAS and CAPS: Jamie Barbour, jbarbour01@fs.fed.us, Focused Science 

Delivery Program; Jane Hayes, jlhayes@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Partners: Managing Disturbance Regimes Program, North Central and Rocky Mountain 

Research Stations

BioSum model estimates the cost-effectiveness of biomass

power from fuels-reduction projects

Most fire-hazard-reduction work involves cutting small-diameter

trees, and many questions are raised about which areas are highest

priority, the possibility of wood products, and treatment effectiveness. The BioSum model is a strategic planning tool that can be used

to determine which sites are the most important for fire-hazardreduction work, and if it is economically feasible to use the otherwise low-value wood for a biomass cogeneration plant. BioSum

uses off-the-shelf data and methods to rapidly identify the best

locations for a biomass power plant, assess the likely effect of treatments on the fire hazard, estimate how long biomass feedstocks

would last, and estimate cost-effectiveness for a power plant.

Scientists from several Station programs collaborated on the model.

A BioSum prototype had already been developed for southwest

Oregon before the Biscuit Fire burned almost 500,000 acres of the

38 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 

BioSum can identify the best locations for siting biomass plants

that produce power.
tree species once neglected for commercial uses, and existing wood products

that can be recycled. Scientists are finding ways to use these wood sources for

commercial wood products.

Many small-diameter trees will be cut in fuel-reduction and thinning projects.

If the work can pay for itself, these stewardship activities are more likely to get

done. A new database indicates that the infrastructure is currently not in place

to economically use all the small-diameter timber and wood biomass that would

result from fire-hazard-reduction operations.

However, at least some of the work can be funded by the sale of small-diameter

trees for wood products. Scientists worked with one small-roundwood manufacturer as a case study. They developed a model of log recovery and value

from the manufacturer’s working knowledge of the business. This model helps

to identify the best use of logs with different characteristics and the amount that

can be paid for logs, considering the end uses.

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 39

Old utility poles can be recycled into high-value wood products.

Dean Parry

Scientists found that old western redcedar and Douglas-fir utility poles can be

recycled into high-value wood products. The Bonneville Power Administration

replaces 1 to 3 percent of its 80,000 wood utility poles every year. The retired

poles are either western redcedar with creosote-treated butts, which were

installed in the late 1940s, or newer, penta-treated Douglas-fir. The western redcedar poles can be turned into split-rail fencing and siding boards. Douglas-fir

poles are being tested for their suitability for structural wood uses.

Contacts for wood products from small-diameter trees: Eini Lowell, elowell@fs.fed.us, Human 

and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: Southern Research Station, Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership, Northern Arizona University

Contact for small log economics: Roger Fight, rfight@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources 

Interactions Program

Partners: Northern Arizona University, Alpine Trucking and Specialty Woods

Contacts for recycling utility poles: Dean Parry, dparry@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources 

Interactions Program

Partners: Bonneville Power Administration, Oregon State University, Rediscovered Wood Products

Simulation sawing program can be used to evaluate 

wood product possibilities

Scientists developed a computer program that tests different ways of sawing

logs. The AUTOSAW program can simulate sawing logs in a mill by using data

on log diameters at both ends, position and size of knots, the sawing procedure

to be used, and board dimensions desired. An operator can use the program to

“saw” the same logs over and over again, trying different patterns to minimize

knot defects and evaluate wood product options. The program was recently

used to estimate the volume of clear lumber in the butt logs of pruned trees. A

study found that AUTOSAW had a good ability to re-create sawing volumes 

but is still limited in its assessment of defect.

Contacts: Dean Parry, dparry@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: Forest Research New Zealand, University of Oregon, Northeast Research Station

Specialty products and improved wood recovery offer 

opportunities in Alaska wood products

Alaska is often a special case for wood products manufacturing, because the

distance from forest to market is immense. Several projects are finding good CONTINUE
density of cavity-nesting birds, particularly those that are attracted

to recently burned forests. Also, postfire logging may reduce the

probability that insects such as bark beetles will have population

explosions and infest nearby green trees, killing them and potentially creating new fire hazards.

Contact: Jane Hayes, jlhayes@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

More information: Science Findings 47, October 2002. Postfire Logging: Is It Beneficial 

to a Forest? www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi47.pdf.

Models helped develop chronologies of the 

historical range and variation of landscape patterns 

and dynamics

In the interior Pacific Northwest, landscape patterns mostly are

shaped by the interactions of fire and vegetation succession.

Vegetation patterns, in turn, influence fire dynamics and plant 

colonization after fires.

Scientists used computer models to simulate chronologies of 

landscape vegetation and disturbance over four landscapes in the

Northwestern United States: Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon,

Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in central Idaho, east-central Idaho,

and northwest Montana. The chronologies described the historical

(ca. 1800-1900) range and variability of landscape patterns. Results

indicated that to account for fire immigration, simulation landscapes

should be 8 to 10 times the area of the analysis landscape and landscapes should be simulated for long periods (1,000 years).

The maps produced can be used to (1) describe variation in patterns

over time, (2) develop limits of acceptable landscape change, and

(3) design landscape treatment guidelines for ecosystem management. Forest managers can use knowledge of historical landscape

pattern dynamics to assess current landscape conditions and to

develop future landscape pattern scenarios.

Contact: Paul Hessburg, phessburg@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Wood 

recovery could 

be improved 

at nearly every

sawmill in 

Alaska.

opportunities for the wood products industry in Alaska. Consumers

are willing to pay significant price premiums for made-in-Alaska

and character-marked birch products. Birch products with commercial potential include kitchen cabinets, utensils, bowls, baskets, and

high-grade birch lumber. Scientists found that for birch lumber to

be commercially successful, log supplies must be dependable, and

moisture content must be controlled consistently. For birch lumber,

a specialty product, appearance variations from small knots and

heartwood-sapwood color variations are desirable.

Research results released in 2002 found that wood recovery could

be improved at nearly every sawmill in Alaska. The two best ways

to improve recovery of wood products per unit of log volume are

(1) reduce target thickness to eliminate oversizing, and (2) reduce

sawing variation, with bandsaws found to be more effective than

circular saws. Finally, in another project, scientists are developing

ways to compost wood and fish wastes together. Currently they are

examining the effects of moisture conditions, wood size, and wood

porosity on the composting process.

Contacts for Alaska wood products projects: Ken Kilborn, kakilborn@fs.fed.us,

Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: University of Alaska Southeast, Iowa State University, University of 

Washington/CINTRAFOR, Oregon State University

Report summarizes science about the environmental

effects of postfire logging

A new report summarized many studies on the environmental

effects of postfire logging. The immediate effects of postfire logging

depend on the severity of the burn, slope, soil texture and composition, the presence of roads or road construction done, type of log

retrieval system used, and postfire weather conditions.

Postfire logging can cause a number of ecological effects. These

effects include significant changes in the abundance and nest 

40 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 
sharp-tailed grouse, which were widespread historically and are declining now.

Of the four sagebrush types, Wyoming and basin big sagebrush types offer the

greatest restoration challenge, but their restoration may be the best way to

ensure the viability of greater sage grouse in the region.

The feasibility was high for restoring the mountain big sagebrush-mesic west

with juniper type where juniper was in the early stages of woodland development, but less feasible for sites that had advanced to later woodland stages. In

general, obstacles for rangeland restoration include the availability of native

seed sources, ability to suppress wildfire, limited availability of rangeland

expertise, conflicting management priorities relative to other ecosystems, and

funding for restoration work.

Contact for rangeland restoration: Becky Gravenmier, bgravenmier@fs.fed.us, Focused Science 

Delivery Program; Miles Hemstrom, mhemstrom@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Partner: University of Idaho

Of several thinning treatments, small patch cuts provide the 

best snowshoe hare habitat

In the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon, small patch cuts appeared to 

be the best of several experimental thinning treatments in providing snowshoe

hare habitat. The patch cuts were only 32 feet across and were surrounded by

unthinned patches of trees. Dense hiding cover from overstory trees was close

to the small openings, which served as vantage points where hares could watch

for predators in winter. The openings were small enough that raptors could not

fly through, and bobcats and coyotes could not see from one opening to the

next.

Snowshoe hare density increased in areas where stands were thinned in the

small patch cuts but decreased in areas where stands were thinned in corridors.

Coarse down wood was also an important habitat feature, providing hiding

cover in summer and sheltered spaces under the snow in winter. Overall, snowshoe hare survival was only 13 percent after 18 months, with the majority of

mortality attributed to bobcats and coyotes in the fall.

Contact: Evelyn L. Bull, ebull@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 41

Snowshoe hare in northeast Oregon.

Evelyn L. Bull

Sagebrush-steppe restoration is fundamental to improving landscape

conditions for sage grouse

Livestock grazing, invasive species, and changed fire regimes, among other 

factors, have changed rangeland ecosystems in the interior Columbia basin. The

magnitude of change is sufficient to have altered ecosystem processes such as

natural succession and disturbance regimes. These altered regimes have created

a momentum of uncharacteristic events that makes it difficult to restore rangeland conditions. Of 17 potential rangeland types, the most seriously affected are

salt desert shrub, wheatgrass grassland, and four big sagebrush types.

Substantial investment will be required just to slow down or reverse the decline

of conditions in sagebrush-steppe ecosystems. Restoration is likely to require

integrated wildfire policies, prescribed fire, chemical and mechanical treatments,

and reduced livestock grazing to restore native plant communities, stabilize

ecosystem processes, reduce the spread of invasive species, and conserve native

species.

Restoration of sagebrush steppe over vast areas is fundamental to improving

landscape conditions for species such as the sage grouse and Columbian
Since the 1995

and 1996 floods, 

scientists have worked

with managers to

focus on ways to 

maximize the benefits

of natural events such

as landslides for 

streams, and at the

same time to 

storm-proof roads 

and other 

vulnerable spots.

Silvicultural approaches were developed from 

principles of disturbance ecology

For the Douglas-fir-western hemlock forests of the Pacific

Northwest, new models of stand development incorporate knowledge about disturbance regimes and their biological legacies such

as live trees, snags, and logs; the complexity of stand structures

and forest development; and the development of later stages in

long-lived forests. Scientists are using the principles of disturbance

ecology and natural stand development to create silvicultural

approaches designed to be aligned with natural processes. Such

approaches provide for abundant standing dead and down wood

and large old trees. This may reduce short-term commercial productivity but ultimately enhances wildlife habitat, biodiversity, 

and ecosystem function, including soil protection and nutrient

retention.

Contact: Thomas Spies, tspies@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

Partner: Oregon State University

Variable-density thinning increases the diversity of native

plants in the understory

Most reforested areas in the Pacific Northwest are even-aged

stands dominated by a single species and lack the structural

complexity of older forests. Scientists are examining how variabledensity thinning changes these stands. The immediate effect is

obvious—variable-density thinning changes stand structure dramatically, introducing spatial heterogeneity. Less obvious are the

effects on understory plants. Studies show that native plant diversity increased by 50 percent over the original level under the more

complex canopy of the variable-density stands, compared to evenlyspaced thinning. Exotic plant species did not increase in the variable-density stands, but they did increase in the evenly-spaced

stands. The diversity

and abundance of

small mammals also

increased in the variable-density stands.

Variable-density thinning shows promise

as a technique to

restore vegetative

complexity to closedcanopy secondgrowth forests. When combined with long rotations, legacy

retention, and management for snags and down wood, variabledensity thinning is a promising technique for enhancing biodiversity in managed Douglas-fir forests across the Pacific Northwest.

Contact: Andrew Carey, acarey@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

More information: Science Findings 38, October 2001. Invasion of the Exotics:

The Siege of Western Washington. www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi38.pdf.

Techniques are being developed to favor native plants

over invasive plants after prescribed burning

Invasive plants are becoming more dominant on both disturbed

and undisturbed sites in the Pacific Northwest, causing native

plant communities to lose biodiversity, ecosystem functions to

change, and plant succession patterns to change. Little is known

about how overstory removal and fire, both wild and prescribed,

influence the establishment and persistence of invasive plant

species.

Scientists are studying two ecosystems that historically had frequent fires and are in transition zones between forests and grasslands, two factors making them highly weed-prone. In wilderness

42 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 

Joe Kraft

Variable-density thinning increases native plant diversity

in second-growth forests, encouraging species such as

this red huckleberry in western Washington.
Scientists are developing tools to monitor 

sustainable management strategies

Large-scale plans, such as the Northwest Forest Plan and interior Columbia

basin planning, have aimed at sustainable management for federal lands in the

Pacific Northwest. Scientists are developing tools to monitor how effective plan

strategies are, improve the success of adaptive management, and provide methods

for multiscale assessments. Managers can use these tools to define sustainability

for various resources and areas, measure resource trends, and develop new

strategies as needed.

For sustainable management research in support of the Northwest Forest Plan, 

5 projects were completed in 2002 and 15 projects are continuing through 2003.

Sustainable management research also is being completed for the interior

Columbia basin.

Contact: Becky Gravenmier, bgravenmier@fs.fed.us, Focused Science Delivery Program

Watershed restoration focuses on maximizing positive effects of

landslides and minimizing the downside, in western Oregon and

Washington

The Northwest Forest Plan guidelines for stream buffers can result in 40 to 90

percent of a watershed being in riparian reserves, with much of this area in

intermittent stream buffers. Further research confirms that intermittent streams

are indeed important sources for wood, boulders, and gravel that build habitat

in fish-bearing streams and that the materials are generally transported by landslides. However, the research indicates that about one-third or less of the intermittent streams have a high potential to initiate a landslide, and even fewer are

located where slides will reach larger streams. Scientists learned a tremendous

amount quickly from the floods and landslides of late 1995 and early 1996. Since

the floods, scientists have worked with managers to focus on ways to maximize

the benefits of natural events such as landslides for streams, and at the same

time to storm-proof roads and other vulnerable spots, where any landslides

generally had negative effects on soils and streams.

Contact: Gordon H. Reeves, greeves@fs.fed.us,Aquatic and Land Interactions Program;

Fred Swanson, fswanson@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

areas of the Salmon River weed management project in Idaho, scientists are

examining the effects of wild and prescribed fires on the ecological dynamics

of invasive and native plant species.

At Fort Hoskins Historical Park in the Willamette Valley, scientists are studying

native and invasive weed dynamics after overstory removal and prescribed fire.

They also are developing techniques to favor native grasses and forbs over invasive plants, by seeding the native plants after the prescribed burn. The project

aims to restore the oak savanna that existed in the 1850s, with a focus on native

plant species of historical importance to Native American peoples of the Willamette

Valley. Results are being shared with park managers, tribal representatives, and

other partners in this community project.

Contact: Nan Vance, nvance@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity Program

Partner: Joint Fire Science Program

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 43 Nan Vance

Researchers measure density of two invasive plants, sulfur cinquefoil and cheatgrass, near the Salmon

River in Idaho.
The Station 

took the lead in 

establishing a 

regional program 

of research for 

sustainable forestry,

Agenda 2020.

Improved survey techniques are available for some 

survey-and-manage species

The survey-and-manage program assesses the distribution and

habitat requirements of rare and little-known species of animals,

plants, fungi, lichens, and invertebrates in the range of the northern

spotted owl. The success of the program depends on robust survey

techniques and a rigorous analytical framework, in order to comply

with the requirements of the Northwest Forest Plan.

However, most species covered under the program are difficult to

survey. Scientists have found that some of the covered fungi produce mushrooms, by which they are identified, only at irregular

intervals. Research indicates that surveys for these fungi must

occur for several years as well as over a large area to get reliable

data on the fungi. Scientists also developed a tool that forest managers can use to analyze the field data, to determine if the species

are indeed rare. The analysis tool is based on a Bayesian belief network, a structured framework that considers both biology with its

associated uncertainties, and criteria from the legally binding record

of decision for the Northwest Forest Plan. This new tool will speed

the analysis of survey-and-manage field data and should lead to

consistent, objective decisions.

Contacts for survey-and-manage techniques: Jane Smith, jsmith01@fs.fed.us,

Tina Dreisbach, tdreisbach@fs.fed.us, and Bruce Marcot, bmarcot@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem

Processes Program

Partners: USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region, USDI Bureau of Land 

Management

Research information helps in managing rare clustered

lady’s slipper orchid and Siskiyou Mountains salamander

The clustered lady’s slipper is a rare orchid that grows under forest

shrubs and other protective cover. Although small populations are

found in eight Western states, the orchid’s main populations are 

in the Siskiyou-Klamath region of southern Oregon, the southern

Cascade Range, and the east Cascade Range in Washington. The

flower is listed as a species of concern by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service, indicating that it may warrant listing under the Threatened

and Endangered Species Act, but more information is needed.

The orchid is listed as a survey-and-manage species under the

Northwest Forest Plan. Scientists have learned that the clustered

lady’s slipper does not reward its pollinators with either pollen or

nectar. Instead, the orchid tricks the pollinators into visiting it, possibly through mimicry. Success of its “trickery” affords the orchid 

a high rate of seed production. The flower can recover from lowintensity fires, and the scattered populations do show genetic variation. This information has been used in the 2002 annual review of

species and to update management recommendations.

The Siskiyou Mountains salamander is listed as a survey-and-manage species under the Northwest Forest Plan and is listed as a state

threatened species in Oregon and California. It is found south of

Ashland, Oregon, and in northern California, in rock talus habitat

44 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 

This coral fungus is a survey-and-manage species.

Daniel Powell
management purposes. The genetic findings will be used in the development of

a conservation plan for Brewer’s shorthair reedgrass.

Contact: Rich Cronn, rcronn@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity Program

Agenda 2020 strengthens the program 

for sustainable forestry research

The Station took the lead in establishing a regional program of research for 

sustainable forestry, as part of a timber industry initiative, Agenda 2020. The

research aims to ensure substantial forest resources and sustainable forest 

management.

The Station initiated four new 3-year studies in 2002 as Agenda 2020 research.

Two studies look at ecological processes. They are (1) the effects of soil and

climatic factors on long-term productivity of Douglas-fir (see page 47), and 

(2) timber harvest influence on headwater streams in western Oregon, including

riparian vegetation dynamics, shade, aquatic communities, and water quality

(see page 48). The other two studies funded under Agenda 2020 focus on specific

management challenges. One study continues work on strategies to control

laminated root rot in Douglas-fir (see following story).

The fourth study examines how Swiss needle cast, a foliage disease that affects

Douglas-fir, affects wood formation and wood quality. The disease slows tree

growth and changes wood properties. However, it is not clear how these

changes affect suitability of the wood for different end products. Scientists are

learning how growth ring width affects wood strength, not just density. Called

GRINCH (growth rings per inch), the study also will compare wood quality

from trees with Swiss needle cast and trees from Swiss needle cast-tolerant

families. Eventually the research will produce a model of the relations between

growth rings per inch and the properties of structural timber and veneer.

Contact for Agenda 2020 program: Charley Peterson, cepeterson@fs.fed.us, Resource Management 

and Productivity Program

Contact for GRINCH: Randy Johnson, randyjohnson@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity 

Program

Partners for GRINCH: Swiss Needle Cast Cooperative, Northwest Tree Improvement Cooperative,

Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pine Conservation Association, Oregon State University

in old-growth forests with a high level of canopy closure. Scientists have

assisted with the development of a conservation plan for the salamander, an

uncommon species endemic to a specific area.

The conservation plan for the Siskiyou Mountains salamander builds on existing reserves, including late-successional reserves, riparian reserves, and core

habitat areas for spotted owls. Scientists have helped to identify additional 

habitat areas. The conservation plan is expected to result in a high likelihood 

of species persistence, and at the same time allow areas within the range of the

species to be managed for other objectives, including fireproofing communities

and commodity output. Thus scientific information on salamander ecology is

contributing to an effective conservation approach that includes habitat-based

reserves within a managed forest landscape.

Contact for clustered lady’s slipper orchid: Nan Vance, nvance@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and 

Productivity Program

Contact for Siskiyou Mountains salamander: Deanna Olson, dedeolson@fs.fed.us, Aquatic and Land 

Interactions Program

Genetic evidence shows Oregon population of rare 

grass may be a separate species

Brewer’s shorthair reedgrass is an alpine grass found mostly in central to 

northern California, with two isolated, disjunct populations in Oregon at Mount

Jefferson and Mount Hood. Because the shorthair reedgrass is rare, it has been

designated a sensitive plant in the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest

Region. Genetic research has shown that northern populations of this grass have

a chloroplast DNA variation that is distinctly different from that found in the

southern populations.

Along with other evidence, this finding supports the classification of the plant

into two species, with one a rare species found in only a few locations in Oregon

and the Trinity region of California, the other a widespread species native to the

central Sierra Nevada Range south of Lake Tahoe. Genetic testing shows the

two Oregon populations to be genetically similar, which is evidence that they

share a recent common origin and may be considered a single population for

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 45
Potassium fertilizer may not protect seedlings from 

laminated root rot

Laminated root rot is widespread throughout the range of Douglasfir. When infected trees are cut, the fungus continues to live in the

stumps and old roots and then infects tree roots in the new stand.

Potassium fertilizer is known to increase tree resistance to Armillaria,

another type of root rot. Scientists experimented with this technique as a strategy to protect Douglas-fir seedlings from laminated

root rot. After four growing seasons, more seedlings died from

laminated root rot in the potassium fertilizer-treated plots than in

the untreated plots. Mortality was low in all plots, but the early

results certainly do not indicate that potassium fertilizer protects

Douglas-fir seedlings from laminated root rot.

Contact: Rick Kelsey, rkelsey@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Alternative silviculture studies test how well Douglas-fir

grows in small openings and in partial shade

Forest managers are using silvicultural systems other than clearcutting, yet much is unknown about how Douglas-fir, western redcedar, and western hemlock regenerate and develop under these

alternative systems. Two studies address these questions.

The silvicultural options for managing young-growth production

forests study is a large, long-term study, with replications in western Washington and British Columbia. This study will examine

how Douglas-fir grows in a range of opening sizes and stand structures, how birds use young forests of different structures, how the

public perceives different forest treatments, and how soils are

affected. Study treatments test a range of canopy cover options

and varying levels of disturbance intensity and frequency.

On Capitol State Forest near Olympia, Washington, the overstory

retention levels study shown in the photo, is examining how western hemlock, western red cedar, and 25 genetic varieties of Douglasfir seedlings grow under different densities of overstory retention.

Past tree genetics programs assumed that seedlings would be planted

in an open-light environment. In this study, scientists will examine

46 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 

Douglas-fir growth is being tested under overstory density levels ranging from 0 to 40

percent, at Capitol State Forest, Washington.

USDA Forest Service
The Fall River long-term study produces early results 

on tree growth

The Fall River long-term site productivity study, in western Washington, is producing early results. Scientists are investigating the long-term effects of organic

matter levels, site disturbance, and postplanting management activities on

Douglas-fir seedling growth, other plant growth, and soil properties. Research

topics include relations between soil and air microclimate and seedling water

uptake and growth, soil physical characteristics, soil mineralization rates, nutrient movement in soil water, soil and plant nutrient budgets, and comparison of

seedling growth for different treatments and forest floor conditions.

Second-year results indicate that Douglas-fir seedlings had greater growth when

competing vegetation was controlled or when the level of woody material left

on the site was reduced. Also, no detrimental effects are evident yet from soil

compaction. 

In an additional study, scientists from the Rocky Mountain Research Station 

and Michigan Technological University are studying decomposition of wooden

stakes at this and several other locations, as a possible index for decomposition

of roots and buried wood.

The long-term productivity research is being expanded under the Agenda 202

program to new study sites on forest industry land in western Washington and

western Oregon.

Contact for Fall River long-term productivity study: Connie Harrington, charrington@fs.fed.us,

Resource Management and Productivity Program

Contact for long-term productivity studies on other sites: Tim Harrington, tharrington@fs.fed.us,

Resource Management and Productivity Program

Contact for Agenda 2020 program: Charley Peterson, cepeterson@fs.fed.us, Resource Management 

and Productivity Program

Partners: Boise Cascade Corporation, Port Blakely Tree Farms, Rayonier Simpson Timber Company,

Weyerhauser Company, Oregon State University, University of Washington

how the planted seedlings grow in the varying levels of shade and different

environmental conditions (soil temperature, moisture, and light) created by 

the range of overstory densities. 

Contact for silvicultural options for young-growth production forests:

Dave Marshall, dmarshall@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity Program

Partners: Washington Department of Natural Resources, University of Washington,

University of Idaho, Southern Research Station.

Contacts for overstory retention levels study: Brad St. Clair, bstclair@fs.fed.us; Leslie Brodie,

lbrodie@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity Program

Partner: Washington State Department of Natural Resources

New studies on invertebrates were added to DEMO research

Scientists are learning how effective different green-tree-retention levels are for

retaining or accelerating the recovery of species and characteristics of mature

and old-growth forests in western Oregon and Washington. The first posttreatment results will be available soon from the demonstration of ecosystem management options (DEMO) study.

DEMO research was expanded in 2002 to include a new study on forest-floor

invertebrates. Scientists will evaluate how forest-floor invertebrates such as millipedes, mollusks, and carabid beetles respond under the six treatments and the

corresponding changes in sunlight, temperature, and moisture. The study will

evaluate the effects on the abundances and community structure of these forestfloor invertebrates. In turn, the forest-floor invertebrate study will be the basis

for a new integrated study of DEMO treatment effects on the interrelations of

birds and forest-floor invertebrates.

A major international symposium is planned in the Pacific Northwest for 2004

on large-scale silvicultural experiments, including DEMO, the silvicultural

options study on Capitol State Forest, and the alternatives-to-clearcutting study,

among others.

Contact for DEMO and 2004 symposium: Charley Peterson, cepeterson@fs.fed.us, Resource 

Management and Productivity Program

Contact for forest-floor invertebrate study: Keith Aubry, kaubry@fs.fed.us, Resource Management 

and Productivity Program

Partners: Washington State Department of Natural Resources, University of Washington, Oregon State 

University, University of Oregon

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 47
Most 

microclimate 

changes associated

with riparian 

areas occurred 

within the first 

100 feet from 

the stream.

Effects of thinning were

measured for riparian

and forest floor habitats

Scientists are studying the

effects of thinning in 40- 

to 70-year-old stands in

riparian buffers of western

Oregon. In 2002, posttreatment data on microclimate

was available for the first

time. For both the thinned and unthinned forests, the greatest

changes in temperature and relative humidity occurred within the

first 45 feet from the streamsides into the forest. Most microclimate

changes associated with riparian areas occurred within the first 100

feet from the stream.

Thinning can have profound immediate effects on soil and litter

microarthropod communities, but these communities would likely

change as the thinned stands develop into successive forest structures. Scientists studied the mite and springtail faunas in thinned

stands and compared them to the faunas found in old-growth

forests.

In the litter layer of the forest floor, the total abundances of oribatid

mites, mesostigmatid mites, and to a marginal extent, prostigmatid

mites, were reduced in thinned stands compared to unthinned

stands. No differences were found for total springtails in the litter,

or for any major group within the top 2 inches of mineral soil.

Forest thinning had little influence on the composition or relative

abundance of these microarthropod communities.

Contact for thinning and microclimate in riparian buffers: Sam Chan,

schan@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity Program

Contacts for microarthropod studies: Rick Kelsey, rkelsey@fs.fed.us,

Chris Niwa, scientist, cniwa@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

Approaches that explore the meanings of places have

potential to resolve resource conflicts

A landscape becomes a place through the meanings it is given by

people who know it over time. People grow to love familiar places

and develop norms for appropriate behavior for that place—but

different people have different norms about what is appropriate.

Conflicts about natural resources can be considered struggles over

place meanings. Resource managers may want to consider public

involvement approaches that give people a chance to explore the

meanings of places, learn what other people value in places, and

negotiate the range of meanings assigned to particular places.

These place-based approaches include field trips, meetings with

discussions (not just hearings or listening posts), and opportunities

48 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 

Turtle oribatid mite, a forest floor microarthropod. Actual size is about 1 millimeter.

Andy Moldenke

Much of what people value about a place is invisible to the eye.

Tom Iraci
come online, but until recently, no analytical systems have been available to

integrate the data with landscape evaluation and planning protocols, for the

large, complex questions now typically posed by ecosystem management.

The new ecosystem management decision support system (EMDS 3.0) is 

supported by the Natural Resource Information System as a primary tool for

nationwide application. EMDS 3.0 provides integrated, multiscale decision support for landscape evaluation and planning. For example, EMDS 3.0 has been

used for evaluations of habitat suitability, classification of sites for most suitable

tree species, and designation of biodiversity reserves. In a watershed analysis,

EMDS can help answer questions such as: Does current watershed condition

provide adequate fish habitat? Which watersheds need protection or restoration? What kinds of management activities would be most beneficial?

Contact: Keith M. Reynolds, kreynolds@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Natural Resource Information System Tools Group,

InfoHarvest, Inc., Rules of Thumb, Inc.

for dialogue and mutual learning. Methods of gathering information might

include oral histories and ethnographic interviews, and also conventional 

surveys.

Place-based approaches require managers to use social processes such as multiparty negotiation and collaboration, to give people the chance to express, negotiate, and transform meanings about places. These approaches take considerable

time and energy, but the reward can be the resolution of conflicts over resource

management.

Contact: Linda Kruger, lkruger@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: Colorado State University, Utah State University

Knowledge-base models offer a framework for integrating 

social, biological, and economic factors

Natural resource managers are faced with making decisions that are not only

biologically possible and economically feasible, but also socially acceptable.

Knowledge-base models offer considerable potential for integrating social, biological, and economic factors. A knowledge base can be considered a mental

map for problem solving. Many diverse topics can be combined in one analysis,

and the analysis can include uncertainties about the probability of events.

The knowledge-base models can be used to analyze the factors that shape, alter,

and sustain people’s judgments about forest management, and facilitate discussion about the links among social, biological, and economic factors.

Contact for knowledge-base models: Keith Reynolds, kreynolds@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural 

Resources Interactions Program

Partner: Oregon State University

Decision-support software helps answer questions posed 

by ecosystem management

The Natural Resource Information System, a group within the Forest Service,

develops and manages large, agency-wide databases to support the Forest

Service’s resource management needs. The large databases are beginning to

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 49
Scientists are working to improve management tools 

available to private landowners

Private landowners want to sustain the productivity of their forest

lands, and often these landowners do not have access to the information and resources available to federal and state agencies that

manage forests.

In a first step to change this, scientists will improve the tools available to private landowners for estimating stand growth and structural conditions. Scientists evaluated six groups of forest growth

models for their usefulness in answering forest sustainability questions. Structural shortcomings were identified in several classes of

models, especially traditional yield models. Hybrid models merge

the growth yield models with process-based models that measure

environmental changes, and these hybrids hold the greatest promise, because they are designed to yield operational results for 

managers.

Contact: Jamie Barbour, jbarbour01@fs.fed.us, Focused Science Delivery Program

Partner: Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Scientists are developing ways to help manage 

recreation and tourism

More and more people are going to national forests for recreation.

Scientists are investigating the values of national forests for recreation and tourism, and the effects these uses can have on ecosystems

and communities. They plan to produce a synthesis of management experience and scientific research on the concepts and techniques for managing recreation and tourism. Results will include

programs designed to enhance the agency’s capacity to manage

recreation and tourism, and to integrate recreation with other

resource management programs.

Researchers are developing ways to help recreation managers

access research information more easily. Scientists also are asking

managers what problems need additional research. A workshop

was held, attended by representatives from recreation and tourism

organizations, staff from state and federal agencies, and other interested people. For recreation and tourism in the Pacific Northwest,

the participants identified the top two research needs as (1) understanding social, recreational, and traditional values of public lands

(social mapping), and (2) finding alternative ways to involve the

public in collaborative planning.

Contact: Sue Alexander, salexander@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources 

Interactions Program

Partner: Focused Science Delivery Program

50 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 

More and more people are going to national forests for recreation, such as this group on

the Skagit River, Washington.

Tom Iraci
In 2002, scientists prepared a synthesis of research 

results to date and presented the results at a symposium

in Ketchikan, Alaska. The research synthesis also will 

be published in a special issue of Landscape and Urban

Planning. The synthesis will provide scientific information

for future forest planning in southeast Alaska and should

be helpful for project-level planning as well.

The alternatives-to-clearcutting research is a long-term

study that began in the old-growth forests of southeast

Alaska. Earlier forest assessments were done before treatments yielded insights into the structure and disturbance

regimes of old-growth rain forests of southeast Alaska.

Scientists found that wind did not kill as many trees in

these forests as had been thought. Most trees died standing, and wind broke or toppled the trees after they died.

The reconstructed annual mortality rates had been fairly

stable through the past century, averaging 0.3 to 0.5 percent per year for overstory trees. Also, the number of dead

trees, basal area of dead trees, annual mortality rates, and

percentage of uprooted trees did not differ significantly

among areas in different classes of wind exposure, as

determined by a recently developed wind model.

The alternatives-to-clearcutting study includes both evenand uneven-age silvicultural systems. It also has a major

focus on the interaction of aquatic communities and silvicultural actions, an aspect missing in some silvicultural

studies. Comprehensive postharvest sampling, scheduled

for 5 years after treatment on each block, was done in 2002

for the first block, which was harvested in 1997.

Contact: Mike McClellan, mmcclellan@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and 

Productivity Program

Synthesis of southeast Alaska silvicultural research was 

presented at symposium

In the past few years, Station scientists began a group of studies on silvicultural options for younggrowth and old-growth forests in southeast Alaska. The studies, designed to support planning

needs, included alternatives to clearcutting, the effects of silvicultural treatments on young-growth

wood quality and wildlife habitat, and evaluation of a stand-growth model. Many studies will 

continue for some years yet.

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 3 Pacific Northwest Research Station 51

Scientists are studying the interactions of stream communities and silvicultural actions in southeast Alaska forests.

Bob Szaro
Single-species

focus alone is 

not enough 

to ensure 

ecosystem

sustainability. 

52 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 

Goal 4: Communicate Science Findings and Enhance Their Application

• Over 800 references have been compiled in a bibliography on the ecology

and management of Oregon white oak

and other closely related oak species.

Much of the information was difficult

to find before.

• The Sitka Wood Utilization Center is

getting research results to the forest

products industry in Alaska through 

a newsletter, expanded Web site, and

briefing papers.

• The Station’s fire research received

extensive media coverage during the

severe fire season of 2002. Media stories covered changes from historical

fire conditions in fire regimes and

ecosystems, fire management, climate

change factors, and the costs of reducing fire hazard in forests.

• A synthesis of findings was published

on the wood compatibility research

program. The report describes the

extent to which timber harvest can be

compatible with sustainably managing

other forest values and discusses compatibility at four geographic scales.

• A synthesis was published of research

done in support of implementing the

Northwest Forest Plan. Research

addressed conservation and management strategies, ecosystem sustainability, and adaptive management in the

Northwest Forest Plan area.

• A new publication series, PNW Science

Update, was launched. Each issue of

the 12-page, color, quarterly publication deals with a topic describing scientific information that contributes 

to pressing decisions about natural

resource and environmental issues.

• Interior Columbia basin science findings are available on a set of five

compact disks (CD-ROM set). The 

set includes all maps, databases, and

metadata compiled during the

Columbia basin research.

Key Products:
the extent to which compatibility can be judged at four geographic scales in the

Pacific Northwest. They also summarize the progress toward understanding

compatibility around four questions: (1) To what degree can wood production

occur? (2) How can the links between management actions and stand-level outputs of goods and services be developed? (3) What are the methodological problems in developing broad-scale measures of ecosystem condition and performance?

(4) Can broad-scale measures be developed to illustrate compatibility or tradeoffs between biophysical and socioeconomic systems at the ecoregion and

national scales?

Contacts: Richard Haynes, rhaynes@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program

Partners: University of Washington, Campbell Group

Synthesis of Northwest Forest Plan

research suggests a broader focus on

species groups and ecosystem dynamics

is desirable

Station scientists completed a synthesis of

research done in support of implementing 

the Northwest Forest Plan (PNW-GTR-498).

Although the Northwest Forest Plan was 

developed to address old-growth-related

species such as the northern spotted owl and

marbled murrelet, scientists found that singlespecies focus alone was not enough to ensure ecosystem sustainability. The

functional roles of certain plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, and fungi influence

the diversity, productivity, and sustainability of ecosystems. These roles are not

fully addressed by focusing on rare or threatened terrestrial vertebrates. A single

conservation strategy for the Northwest Forest Plan area is not likely to succeed.

Contact: Richard Haynes, rhaynes@fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions 

and Becky Gravenmier, bgravenmier@fs.fed.us, Focused Science Delivery Programs

Accomplishments

Synthesis was published on producing wood commodities and other

forest values sustainably

The relations between the environment and society are constantly evolving, 

but in the last decade they have often been seen in stark black-and-white terms.

Some people see technological development and economic growth as the enemy

of a healthy environment, and other people see economic development as the

best way to solve the ecological crisis of the developed world. These divergent

views were the context for the wood compatibility initiative, a short-term research

program that examined the central question: Can we as a society produce wood

commodities and other forest values in an environmentally acceptable and

sustainable manner?

The research findings were summarized in “A Basis for Understanding Compatibility Among Wood Production and Other Forest Values” (PNW-GTR-529)

and will reach an international audience in a book published by Kluwer

Academic Publishers in 2003. In the general technical report, the authors show

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Pacific Northwest Research Station 53

Scientists found that timber harvest can be compatible with managing other forest values sustainably.

Tom Iraci

The cauliflower mushroom is a surveyand-manage fungus under the Northwest

Forest Plan.

Daniel Powell
PNW Station launches a new publication series,

the PNW Science Update

The Station launched a new publication this year, the PNW Science

Update. Each issue of this 12-page, color, quarterly publication deals

with a topic likely to be in the news and where the Station has scientific information to contribute. The first issue, on restoring complexity and habitat diversity in second-growth forests, was used by

scientists as a teaching tool in workshops. The second issue, on fire

risk in east-side forests, brought objective scientific information

into the debates about what caused the devastating fire season in

Oregon and other Western states in 2002.

The Station’s popular publication, PNW Science Findings, continued

with 10 issues during fiscal year 2002. Each issue of this six-page,

newsletter-style publication focuses on a particular research topic

of interest to the general public. This past year, issues included the

ecological roles of canopy gaps and dead wood in forests, computer models of Oregon Coast Range forests, and climate change

research, among others. The two publication series, PNW Science

Update and PNW Science Findings, reached thousands of people.

Individual publications or free subscriptions to PNW Science

Findings or PNW Science Update can be requested by calling (503)

808-2138 or e-mailing pnw_ pnwpubs@fs.fed.us.

Contact:Valerie Rapp, vrapp@fs.fed.us, Communications Group

Research products on interior Columbia basin are now

available for managers and scientists in a CD-ROM set

and on the Internet

Interior Columbia basin science findings were pulled together in

some final products. One product is a set of five compact disks

(CD-ROM set) for computers that include all the maps, databases,

and metadata compiled for the Columbia basin research. The CDROM set includes over 300 geographic information system (GIS)

data layers and databases. It is available to the public; databases

are also available on the Internet at www.icbemp.gov. The data can

be used for regional analyses, new research studies, and midscale

land-use planning projects.

A comprehensive bibliography of all the interior Columbia basin

publications is also available on the Internet at www.icbemp.

gov/science. The bibliography will be updated as the final publications are completed.

Contact: Becky Gravenmier, bgravenmier@fs.fed.us, Focused Science Delivery Program

54 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 

John Day River and Sheep Rock, eastern Oregon.

Tom Iraci
available both in print and as a searchable database on the Internet. Along with

Oregon white oak references, the bibliography includes references on other oak

species growing within its range; eastern white oak, a closely related species;

and general references on the genus. The electronic bibliography can be

searched by almost any part of the citation, including author, year of publication, journal, title words, or keywords. This reference database pulls together

information that was difficult to find before and should be a valuable resource

for everyone working on oak restoration.

Contact for Oregon white oak: Connie Harrington, charrington@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and 

Productivity Program

New approach to writing environmental analysis documents 

was developed in the Five Rivers landscape project

Station scientists worked with managers from the Siuslaw National Forest to

release a final environmental impact statement and record of decision implementing the largest replicated management experiment in the Pacific Northwest

(16,000 acres). In the course of the project, a new approach was developed for

writing environmental analysis documents to meet the requirements of the

National Environmental Policy Act.

The management experiment will compare three pathways (with four replications of each): passive management, continuous management (thinning stands

lightly and repeatedly), and pulsed management (thinning stands heavily at 30-

year intervals).

A streamlined approach was used for the environmental analysis that reduced

the analysis time dramatically. This approach replaced the traditional practice—

often criticized as “analysis paralysis”—that would have included up to eight

environmental assessments over the next 10 years. The new approach made

clear connections between resource knowledge and the decision, acknowledged

the uncertainties for all management approaches, and included a rigorous adaptive-management approach.

Contact: Bernard Bormann, bbormann@fs.fed.us, Ecosystem Processes Program

Special issue of Northwest Science focused on forest health and 

productivity in eastern Oregon and Washington

The Station’s forest health and productivity initiative was a project to assess 

the combined effects of human and ecological factors over the past century on

disturbance regimes and, consequently, the ecological integrity of forests in eastern Oregon and Washington. In eastern Oregon and Washington, the forests and

rangelands evolved with disturbance events such as wildfire and insect and

disease outbreaks. Ecological and human factors have combined to change the

historical disturbance regimes and ecosystem structures, and the result has been

declining health and productivity in many ecosystems.

The initiative work culminated in 2002 with the publication of a special issue of

Northwest Science. The 25 chapters describe the key issues, disturbance regimes,

and a conceptual framework of the relationships, ecological processes, and outcomes of management options for east-side ecosystems. This framework is the

basis for the interior Northwest landscape analysis system currently under

development.

Contact for special journal issue on east-side forest health: Jane Hayes, jlhayes@fs.fed.us, Managing 

Disturbance Regimes Program

Scientific information on Oregon white oak was compiled 

in a bibliography

Oregon white oak, also known as Garry oak, was once common in oak woodlands, savannas, and prairies in western Washington and Oregon. However, the

fire-dependent species has been shaded out by conifers owing to fire suppression, or woodland areas have been converted to other tree species or nonforest

uses. In the past, researchers and managers interested in Oregon white oak have

had difficulty locating information on the species, as many references were not

available in computerized databases owing to their age or publication as a university thesis or technical work.

Now a comprehensive bibliography is available of all work on the biology and

management of Oregon white oak. The bibliography of over 800 references is

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Pacific Northwest Research Station 55
The Station 

developed the 

Focused Science

Delivery Program 

in 2002 to work 

intensively on 

several issues 

of focus.

Testimony was provided on scientific information 

concerning fish passage at road crossings in the 

Pacific Northwest

Station scientist Peter Bisson testified at a House Interior

Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on a General Accounting

Office (GAO) report that identified 3,000 fish passage blockages on

Forest Service roads in the Pacific Northwest. The GAO report estimated that correcting these culverts would cost about $375 million.

Bisson placed fish passage problems in context with other environmental challenges faced by threatened or endangered Pacific

salmon. Restoring fish passage at road crossings may be an effective recovery strategy, but only if blockages elsewhere in the river

system are adequately addressed.

Thus, fixing culverts is most effective when integrated into a 

comprehensive fish restoration program that protects all habitats

needed by salmon, during their life-cycle migration from freshwater streams to oceans and back. The Appropriations Committee

will use the scientific testimony to make decisions about allocating

supplemental funds for culvert replacement to correct fish passage

problems.

Contact: Peter A. Bisson, pbisson@fs.fed.us,Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

Information on Alaska wood products gets 

to people faster

The Sitka Wood Utilization Center finds ways to make the forest

products industry in Alaska more viable. This past year the center

started a newsletter, expanded their Web site, and developed a

series of one-page briefings, all to speed the research results to people who can use them. Currently, research projects are underway

on birch resources of interior Alaska, birch craft marketing, madein-Alaska red alder furniture, wood and fish waste composting,

wood waste energy generation, lumber 

recovery in sawmills, and lumber drying methods. Responses have been

overwhelmingly positive to the new

communications. The center’s Web site

is www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sitka. It is also

linked to the Station’s Web site.

Contacts: Bridget Kauffman, bridgetkauffman@ 

fs.fed.us, Human and Natural Resources Interactions

Program

Partners: University of Alaska Southeast, Iowa State 

University, University of Washington/CINTRAFOR,

Oregon State University

Enhanced EnVision software now shows effects 

on forest fuels and fire severity

The Station’s stand visualization system and EnVision software

packages depict present and future stand conditions. Forest managers use the visualization software to see what would happen 

to forests under different alternatives. Recent enhancements to

EnVision allow users to portray down-fuel conditions and fireinduced mortality, through the fire and fuel effects extension to the

software. The images show the effects that management activities

would have on standing trees and down fuels, and the effects of

prescribed and wild fires. Images have sufficient detail to represent

fuels from fine branches to large trees. Changes in forests and fuels

can be linked to changes in expected fire severity and behavior.

EnVision uses special tree models to portray fire-killed trees so

they can be distinguished from natural mortality. The resulting

simulations show stands that appear to have been burned, including effects on standing trees, consumed down fuels, and scorched

56 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 

Alaska birch craft products.

Counter-clockwise: birch bowl,

salad utensil, birch bark basket,

kitchen cabinet made from character-marked birch lumber.

Dave Nicholls
several issues of focus. Accomplishments for these issues are described under

Goals 1, 2, and 3. The new program will work intensively on five issues of focus

during the next several years. These are listed below.

• Reducing fire risk to people and resources (see pages 37-38).

• Recreation and tourism (see page 50).

• Sustainable wood production (see page 50).

• Planning, assessment, and science delivery methods (see interior Columbia

basin (ICB) increased wildfire risk on page 35, ICB rangeland restoration on

page 41, Northwest Forest Plan research synthesis on page 53, and ICB CDROM set on page 54).

• Biodiversity

Contact: Jamie Barbour, jbarbour01@fs.fed.us, Focused Science Delivery Program

Media coverage gets science information related 

to fire into the news

The Station’s research activities were covered by national and international

media in fiscal year 2002, and the coverage helped to get solid, relevant scientific information into the news.

In particular, our fire research was highlighted during the severe fire season of

2002. The Oregonian, the major newspaper for Oregon and southwest Washington,

featured the Station’s fire research in front-page stories on July 24 and August 4.

The stories covered changes from historical conditions, fire management, policy,

and the costs of thinning forests to reduce fire hazard.

Other newspaper articles included the Tacoma News-Tribune on wildland-urban

interface fire safety, and the Eugene Register-Guard on fuel loads in forests, prescribed fire research, and its implications. The Associated Press released a story

about Ron Neilson’s global climate change research and his statistics surrounding increased forest undergrowth and wildfires in the West. Neilson also was

interviewed by radio show host Tatiana Martushev for “The Round House

Show” on COHO-Radio in Leavenworth, Washington. Jeremy Fried discussed

ground. These visualizations give managers a better way to communicate to the

public the need for fuels treatments. Additional information about this research

is available at: www.fs.fed.us/pnw/envision.

Contact for stand- and landscape-scale visualization: Robert J. McGaughey,

bmcgaughey@fs.fed.us, Resource Management and Productivity Program

Historical fisheries data for Alaska streams are now 

available in a database

Decades of research have produced large amounts of data on fish ecology and

management. The data were not readily accessible, however, because of the varied formats and storage locations. Access to this historical data is essential for

scientists working to understand long-term changes that affect fish. Scientists

formed a partnership with the Alaska Region of the Forest Service to develop 

a user-friendly database accessible within the region.

The new database includes fish data from more than 140 Alaska streams collected over the past 21 years. Available on CD-ROM, the database provides

information on fish species, length, and number caught. Some data sets include

weight measurements or age data derived from scales, and many data sets have

related habitat data available. Information is also included on who collected

which data, and where, when, and how the data were collected. The data can

be used in the corporate databases maintained by the Natural Resource

Information System. An annotated bibliography is included of various publications where the data have been used. Forest managers could use the database to

discover long-term trends in fish abundance and distribution.

Contact: Brenda Wright, bwright01@fs.fed.us,Aquatic and Land Interactions Program

New program was initiated to deliver policy-related findings

The PNW Research Station has short-term efforts that integrate research and

development to address specific policy issues. These issues of focus produce

findings related to the policy questions rather than fundamental research. The

Station developed the Focused Science Delivery Program in 2002 to work on

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Pacific Northwest Research Station 57
The Station’s 

fire research 

received national

media coverage 

during the severe 

fire season 

of 2002.

his research on thinning costs and the feasibility of biomass plants

on “Oregon Considered,” the state-wide radio evening news show

of Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Several TV reporters also turned to Station scientists for their fire

science expertise. The national TV program “Nova” included interviews with scientists Sam Sandberg and Roger Ottmar in their 

2-hour special, “Fire Wars,” which aired in late July. MSNBC, the

online news magazine produced by Microsoft and NBC-TV, created

an interactive video story about the politics, ecology, and economics

of wildland fire policy. Produced by Jon Bonne, the story included

interviews with John Lehmkuhl and Paul Hessburg at a fire research

site in eastern Washington. In MSNBC’s online story, videos and fact

files could be clicked and opened for additional information on the

subject.

The media also covered other Station research in fiscal year 2002. A

number of local and national news outlets produced stories on the

current status of spotted owls, barred owls, red tree voles, and forest management. National Geographic Television filmed a segment

on “Revisiting Mount St. Helens” and included Station research on

the recovery of small mammal populations in the blast zone. The

History Channel produced a segment on the 250-foot-tall Wind

River canopy crane for their “Modern Marvels” show. Also, the Los

Angeles Times had an article on lynx research and another article on

how marine nutrients that salmon bring into freshwater ecosystems

fuel freshwater and riparian food web productivity.

Contact: Sherri Richardson-Dodge, srichardsondodge@fs.fed.us, Communications Group

58 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 

Station scientists were front-page news in The Oregonian in July 2002, when people

were curious about the story behind the West’s record-breaking fire season.

Tom Iraci
The Web site also offers directories of people, with listings of scientists by their

field of expertise and listings of employees and contact information. Also, the

Station Web site has links to sites for individual research teams, laboratories,

and experimental forests. The wealth of scientific information now available

through the Web site would total up to many thousands of pages, if all printed.

Over 25,000 visits were made to the Station Web site during fiscal year 2002. The

Station does not track visitors at all, other than the number of “hits” on the Web

site, but some visitors follow up by calling us. These visitors included a college

professor looking for additional course material, people from citizens’ groups

looking for information, and newspaper reporters researching articles.

Contact: Diane Smith, desmith@fs.fed.us, Communications Group

Presentation on “nonnative invasive plants of eastern Oregon:

an economic and ecological call to action” is viewed widely

This PowerPoint presentation, developed as an educational tool, explains the

ecological and economic problems caused by invasive plants. Federal and state

agency staff have used it in presentations to over 1,000 people throughout

Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, including cattlemen’s associations, university

classes, and residents of weed management areas. The presentation focuses on

the dozen weed species that are causing the most damage to rangelands and

forest lands, including yellow starthistle, spotted knapweed, rush skeletonweed,

and whitetop.

Contact: Catherine Parks, cparks01@fs.fed.us, Managing Disturbance Regimes Program

The PNW Research Station Web site 

improves search capabilities

The Station redesigned its Web site during 2002. Search capabilities are significantly improved, allowing users a number of options. Users can search a database that has nearly 6,000 publications from seven research stations, or they can

search only the PNW publications. Searches can be simple or can use advanced

filters. Many PNW publications are available online at:

http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw.

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Pacific Northwest Research Station 59

Tom Iraci

The PNW Research Station Web site allows people to search for scientists by their field of expertise. 

A search for a “research botanist” will list Randy Molina and other experts.
Cutthroat trout presence/absence pilot study. About 50 people from

Mary’s River Watershed Council and natural resource managers

attended this seminar in Corvallis, Oregon.

Density management studies field tours. Eighty people attended two

field trips in the Oregon Cascade Range on alternative silvicultural

treatments and riparian buffer widths in managed forest stands

30 to 50 years old, and riparian thinning.

Fall River long-term site productivity study tours. Scientists

led three tours with a total of

60 people to the Fall River

study site, near Olympia,

Washington.

Fire and aquatic ecosystems

symposium. Station scientists

presented work on experiences, emerging theories, and

issues related to fire management and aquatic ecosystems.

PNW Research Station, Rocky

Mountain Research Station,

and the American Fisheries

Society were sponsors of the

workshop, attended by about

110 people in Boise, Idaho.

60 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Mike McClellan

Soil scientist Dave D’Amore examines a soil

pit at the Fall River study site near Olympia,

Washington.

Symposia, Workshops, and Tours

Station scientists participate in many forums. Highlights from

2002 are listed below.

American Fisheries Society, Oregon Chapter, and USDA Forest Service

fish passage workshop. PNW Research Station was a cosponsor of 

the American Fisheries Society watershed restoration workshop,

attended by about 250 people, and the USDA Forest Service fish

passage workshop, attended by about 100 people, both held in

Eugene, Oregon. Station scientists did presentations on lessons

learned from past instream fish habitat projects, design of invisible

stream crossings, design of road-stream crossings, and aquatic 

ecology.

Annual Levels-of-Growing-Stock (LOGS) tour. The LOGS tour was

attended by about 35 people in July 2002. People visited current

and historical silvicultural research sites on the Wind River

Experimental Forest, near Stevenson, Washington.

Capitol Forest tours. Over the year scientists hosted over 120 people

on eight tours of the silvicultural options and overstory density

studies on the Capitol Forest near Chehalis, Washington.

Changing the Scale of Our Thinking. This symposium presented the

initial results from the coastal landscape analysis and modeling

study (CLAMS) on broad-scale assessments of Oregon Coast Range

ecosystems. Over 200 people attended the June 10, 2002, symposium at Oregon State University. The next day 80 people attended 

a workshop on using, improving, and evaluating CLAMS.
H.J.Andrews Experimental Forest. More than 30 tours and workshops were conducted at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in the Oregon Cascade Range,

attended by over 1,000 people from many countries. Topics included watershed

and airshed research, development of old-growth Douglas-fir forests along the

Pacific coast, long-term changes in landscape structures, and dynamic landscape

management.

Hidden Forest Values:Alaskan nontimber forest products conference. About 175

people attended this conference and field trips, cosponsored by PNW Research

Station, in Anchorage and Talkeetna, Alaska.

International visitors to PNW Research Station. Scientists from other countries 

visited Station scientists and went on field trips to research sites. The International

Union of Forestry Research Organizations executive board toured the Capitol

Forest silvicultural options study. Chinese forest geneticists visited tree improvement sites in the Pacific Northwest, and also scientists and managers from both

China and Taiwan visited sites for research on stand management for structural

diversity.

National fire plan symposia and workshops. Station scientists gave presentations

related to national fire plan research at several meetings, including the Joint Fire

Science Program meeting in San Antonio, Texas; a related meeting in Salt Lake

City, Utah; and the National Advanced Resource Technology Center outside

Tucson, Arizona. Over 250 people attended the various meetings. Presentations

included altered fire regime patterns, spread of invasive plants after fuel treatments, consequences of fuel-reduction treatments, and restoration of sagebrush

steppe ecosystems.

New Metaphors for Ecosystem Restoration. A small group of scientists, writers,

and philosophers convened in Oregon from September 12 through 15, 2002, 

to discuss new metaphors for ecosystems and their restoration.

Forest Inventory and Analysis results and strategies. Scientists from the Forest

Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program met with clients from Washington,

Oregon, and California to share status and results of the program’s work. The

clients presented results from research they had done with the inventory data.

The FIA scientists also met with representatives from the five states where the

Station does inventories, tribal representatives, national forest representatives,

and other interested people to review results and plan next year’s program. 

A total of 50 people attended the three meetings.

Fort Lewis oak release study tour. A total of 30 people attended two tours of the

oak habitat restoration study at Fort Lewis, Washington.

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Pacific Northwest Research Station

People learn about airshed and plant respiration research at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest.

Tom Iraci

61
Recreation and tourism workshop. Scientists met with people from

recreation and tourism organizations, agency staff, and others. The

24 participants identified research needs for recreation and tourism

issues.

Restoring ecosystems: fire ecology, planning, and application in western

Oregon. About 200 people met in Eugene, Oregon, in May 2002, to

learn about historical wildfire, prescribed fire, and forest management with fire in mind, in forests of western Oregon.

Silvicultural strategies for riparian management. A seminar and field

trip were held in Roseburg, Oregon, about managing forests near

streams and sensitive aquatic environments. Twenty-four smallwoodland owners, watershed council representatives, and others

attended the session, which was a partnership between PNW

Research Station and Oregon State University’s Sea Grant program.

Silviculture and biodiversity in second-growth forests in Alaska. Station

scientists led workshops and field trips to discuss upland youngstand management in Alaska forests and active management to

promote wildlife habitat and wood quality values. Sixty-two people,

representing the state of Alaska, national forests, Alaska Native

Corporation, timber industry, and universities, attended the workshops.

Silviculture and biodiversity in second-growth forests in Oregon and

Washington. Station scientists gave presentations and led field trips

for many groups on managing second-growth forests for multiple

values including biodiversity, stand dynamics, canopy dynamics,

and other silvicultural topics. Groups included the Oregon State

Forester and senior staff; forest leadership teams for the Olympic,

Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, and Gifford Pinchot National Forests;

Bureau of Land Management silviculturists; congressional staff;

county commissioners; tribal representatives; and natural resource

managers. Field trip locations included forests in central Oregon,

coastal Oregon, Puget Sound area, and Olympic Peninsula. A total

of 242 people attended the various field trips and meetings.

Small-diameter timber: resource management, manufacturing and markets.

About 500 people attended this symposium in Spokane, Washington,

in February 2002. Station research presented included the creating

62 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 
Watershed stewardship education program. This program trains local landowners

and other interested people on the ecology, physics, biology, and sociology of

watershed functions, processes, and management. After 80 hours of classroom

and field training, those who pass are certified as “master watershed stewards,”

and are then local experts who can work with landowners and watershed councils in identifying watershed issues and carrying out restoration projects. PNW

Research Station scientists led the riparian ecology and management module of

the course in Tillamook County, for a class of about 30 people. This program was

a partnership between the Station and Oregon State University’s Sea Grant program. The training guide developed for this first session will be further tested

and produced on CD-ROMs in 2003.

Wind River canopy crane. About 30 environmental journalists, who were at a 

conference in Portland, took a field trip to the canopy crane on Wind River

Experimental Forest in Washington, on October 18, 2001.

opportunities project, related to management and use of small-diameter, densely

stocked forest stands; insect and disease considerations; wildlife considerations; and economic and ecological consequences of prescribed fire and fuelreduction treatments. The symposium was sponsored by PNW Research

Station and Washington State University.

Starkey Experimental Forest. Over 500 people, including tribal foresters, agency staff,

Society of American Foresters, and international visitors, attended tours and

workshops on Starkey Experimental Forest outside La Grande, Oregon. Topics

included management of elk, deer, and cattle in forests; nongame wildlife management; fuels reduction; and invasive plants.

Survey and manage salamander training workshops. Over 100 people attended 

two workshops in Hood River, Oregon, in April 2002. One session was on the

general ecology, management, and survey protocols of rare and uncommon

salamander species within the range of the Northwest Forest Plan. The other

session was on the ecology of the Larch Mountain and Van Dyke’s salamanders.

Technology transfer at universities. Station scientists gave guest lectures at graduate and undergraduate levels at many universities. Scientists also advised students, advised on the development of new graduate programs, and mentored

students on senior projects. The universities included the University of

Washington, Central Washington University, Washington State University,

Oregon State University, Eastern Oregon University, and Virginia Technical

Institute. Topics included flying squirrel and chipmunk ecology, amphibian

ecology, general ecology, old-growth ecology, vertebrate ecology, whitebark pine

ecology, invasive plants, species conservation strategies, wildlife habitat and

transportation networks, fisheries topics, culvert passage for aquatic species,

freshwater ecology of anadromous salmonids, and vegetation responses to 

climate change.

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Pacific Northwest Research Station 63
Conservation Education M any scientists chose their work for a reason as simple as a childhood love for salmon, mushrooms, or

volcanoes. If they can share their work with children, scientists get a chance to remember why they went into the

field and to help children discover how exciting science can be.

PNW Research Station scientists make time to share their expert

knowledge with children and teenagers in a variety of programs 

in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington.

Minorities in agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences 

(MANRRS). The 2002 national conference was held in Portland and

attracted about 800 people. Station employees helped to plan and

staff the career fair, which is designed to attract more minorities to

the fields of agriculture and natural resources.

Discovering New Horizons. This career workshop for middle school

and high school girls reaches about 300 students and is sponsored

by the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Education Service District. Station staff

talked about science and natural resource careers at the workshop,

held in Corvallis, Oregon.

Forest Camp Outdoor School. Six Station staff taught modules on

“the web of life” and “conservation detective” to over 120 sixthgrade students from the Corvallis area, at the Forest Camp Outdoor

School for environmental education. At the Fall Creek fish hatchery

in Alsea, Oregon, and other locations, the students learned to read

ecological processes in the outdoors, understand ecological relationships, and see how forests are managed.

Inner-City Youth Institute. The institute encourages inner-city young

people to learn about the environment and related careers. PNW

Research Station staff continued to support this program through

ecology clubs in inner-city

middle and high schools. 

The Station also sponsored a

summer camp program for

middle-school students; 

camp sessions were held in

Corvallis, Oregon, and at the

H.J. Andrews Experimental

Forest, outside Blue River,

Oregon. At the Andrews,

young people talked with 

scientists and saw science 

in action out in the forest.

Station staff helped with another summer program called Alberta

Nature Teams, designed for elementary school children. The institute is a partnership among the USDA Forest Service, Oregon State

University, Audubon Society of Portland, Oregon, and Bureau of

Land Management.

Nature talks. These summer weekend programs are a partnership

among the Cascade Center for Ecosystem Management, H.J.

Andrews Experimental Forest, and McKenzie River Ranger

District. A total of about 110 people attended the talks in national

forest campgrounds. The topics were spotted owl research, aquatic

insects, forest-floor arthropods, and forestry, politics, and common

myths.

Northwest Science Expo science awards. PNW Research Station

sponsored awards for middle school and high school students at

the 2002 Northwest Science Expo, which took place in March at

Portland State University. The plaques were for “Outstanding

Science Project About Forests.”

64 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Young student learns about trees and science.

Edna Mo
Tour guides and winter ecology. Station scientists provided information to winterlife snowshoe tour guides in Leavenworth, Washington, about winter ecology

and snow tracking. The guides used the information when they led snowshoe

tours for a total of 380 people. The snowshoe tours are an interpretive activity

sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Leavenworth Fish Hatchery,

and Wenatchee National Forest.

Training volunteer naturalists. Station staff helped train 25 volunteers for the summer naturalist corps at the Creamers Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, near

Fairbanks, Alaska.

Wolftree. Station employees served as mentors for about 100 young people, in

ecology programs with Portland and Vancouver middle school and high school

students. Programs are sponsored by Wolftree, Inc., and about half the young

people are from low-income inner-city and rural communities that have little

access to high-quality science or outdoor programs.

Yachats Mushroom Festival. Station scientists gave a presentation on “Crouching

scientists, hidden fungi: detecting forest fungi,” and led a guided walk at the

Yachats Mushroom Festival on the Oregon Coast.

Old-growth forest poster. PNW Research Station provided expert information and

Goodnature Publishing provided artwork and printing, in a partnership that

produced large posters of the “Pacific Northwest Old-Growth Forest.” Station

staff developed a student activity guide for teachers to go with the poster.

Outdoor forest camp. Station staff taught environmental education topics to

about 120 sixth-grade students from rural schools in Linn and Benton Counties.

The outdoor forest camp took place near Sweet Home, Oregon.

Outdoor schools. Station scientists taught stream ecology and environmental

education to about 120 fifth- and sixth-grade students at outdoor schools in

Corvallis, Lebanon, and Astoria, Oregon.

Salmon Watch. Oregon Trout developed the Salmon Watch program to give middle school and high school students the chance to see spawning wild salmon in

Oregon rivers and learn about wild salmon through related hands-on activities.

In partnership with the program, Station staff led field trips for a total of about

500 students to streams near Alsea and Sweet Home, Oregon. Along with introducing young people to the joy of watching wild salmon, staff taught the students about salmon, their habitats, and relations between aquatic ecology and

watersheds.

School presentations and mentoring. Station scientists gave many presentations 

to and helped with science projects for students from first grade through high

school. The scientists reached about 500 students in Alaska, Oregon, and

Washington. Just three examples of the many topics covered are “belly-button

botany” for second-graders in Alaska, “fungi in our forests” for sixth-graders 

in Oregon, and “carnivore ecology and snow tracking” for sixth-graders in

Washington.

Snakes! Station scientists taught the ecology and biology of snakes to a Girl Scout

troop in Corvallis, Oregon, in cooperation with Oregon State University.

2002 Goal Accomplishments • Goal 4 Pacific Northwest Research Station 65

High school students learn about wild salmon and water quality through the Salmon

Watch program. Middle Fork of the John Day River, eastern Oregon.

Courtesy Oregon Trout
Honors and Awards

Chief’s Superior Science Award

Thomas A. Spies, research forester, received this award from the

Forest Service Chief. Spies was cited for his contributions to forest

ecology, including the structure and dynamics of forests, especially

old growth, and for his contributions to the ecological basis of 

forest management and policy.

New Century of Service 

David Pilz, botanist, received this award from the Forest Service

Washington Office, for innovation and public service in leading the

team for productivity and sustainable harvest of edible forest

mushrooms.

Toward a Multicultural Organization Award

Cynthia L. Miner, general biologist, received this award for creating a diverse workforce and helping to make scientific work accessible to a diverse audience.

Todd Wilson, wildlife biologist, received this award from the

Forest Service Chief. Wilson was cited for developing a backpack

training program for the Girl Scouts, teaching ecosystem concepts

to girls of all ages through games and outdoor activities, and hiring

and working with physically challenged and minority employees

and students.

Frederick T. Haley Writing Award

Yasmeen Sands, student communications specialist, received this

award from the University of Washington at Tacoma, for the best

long analytical research paper.

Certificate of Merit 

Martin G. Raphael, supervisory research wildlife biologist, received

this award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was cited

for his exceptional effort in helping to prepare a new concept to

meet National Forest Management Act diversity requirements for

forest planning rules.

Best Scientific Publication for 2001, Rocky Mountain

Research Station 

Keith Aubry, research wildlife biologist, received this award as one

of the authors of RMRS-GTR-30WWW, “Ecology and Conservation

of Lynx in the United States.”

Award of Excellence,Western Division of the American

Fisheries Society 

Peter A. Bisson, research fishery biologist, received the highest 

lifetime achievement award given by the Western Division. He 

was cited “in recognition of outstanding professional achievements, exceptional competence, and numerous contributions to

fishery science within the Western Division.”

66 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Honors and Awards
Best Web site 

Dan White, audiovisual specialist, received this award from the Joint Fire

Sciences Program. The award recognized the Web site he designed, on the fire

and fire surrogate study, as the best out of 110 current Joint Fire Sciences

Projects.

Most responsive principal investigator 

Roger D. Ottmar, research forester, received this award from the Joint Fire

Science Program Board of Governors, in recognition of his work.

Certificate of Appreciation

David L. Peterson, research ecologist, received the certificate from the city of

Lake Forest Park, Washington, in recognition of his serving as chair of the city’s

Environmental Quality Commission from 1999 to 2002. The commission assisted

the city with Endangered Species Act compliance, wetland restoration, open

space protection, and natural resource education.

O. C.Wallmo Award for excellence in deer research

John Kie, wildlife biologist, received this award in recognition of his 

outstanding contributions to knowledge and improved management of 

mule deer and black-tailed deer. The award is given biennially by the Western

Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Silviculturist of the Year for the Alaska Region

Robert Deal, research forester, received this award from the Forest Service

Alaska Region. The award is given to the silviculturist or silvicultural technician

who is recognized by her/his peer silviculturists in the region as providing 

outstanding leadership and/or innovation in the field of silviculture.

Rise to the Future 

Peter A. Bisson, Gordon Reeves, and James Sedell, received this award from

the Forest Service Washington Office. They were cited for their professional

excellence in research.

Certificate of Appreciation 

Deanna J. Stouder received this award from the Forest Service Washington

Office. She was cited for “outstanding professional support and advice to the

Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment.”

Chief’s Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer

Michael Furniss received this award from the Forest Service Washington Office.

He was cited for his work on the water-road technology series, which included

publications, software, and nationwide training.

Savery Outstanding Master’s Student Award

David Rundio, biological science technician, received this award from the

Oregon State University College of Agriculture, in recognition of his public

service, leadership, research capability, and research that benefits Oregon 

agriculture and natural resources.

T.G. Scott Award, Master’s Student

David Rundio, biological science technician, received this award from the

Oregon State University Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, in recognition 

of his research excellence and potential.

Certificate of Appreciation

Bruce Hansen received this certificate from the Forest Service Northeast

Research Station, in recognition of his assistance with information technology

procurement.

2002 Honors and Awards Pacific Northwest Research Station 67
Publications

• 493 publications total

• 160,000 copies of Station series publications distributed 

in response to requests

• 8,000-12,000 journal article reprints distributed by scientists 

in response to requests

• About 400 publications available online; all new Station 

publications are placed online

• 9 issues of PNW Science Findings published; about 10,000 

copies distributed each issue

• 2 issues of PNW Science Update published; about 5,000 copies

distributed each issue

• 5-disk CD-ROM set published, “The Interior Columbia Basin 

Ecosystem Management Project: Project Data”

• 1 CD-ROM published, forest inventory data for state of Oregon

68 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002Publications

Total Publications

Types of

Publications
Finances and Workforce

T he PNW Research Station is supported by two funding sources. 

The largest part of our funding comes from federal appropriations. 

Our other funding source is direct client support, which comes from

various organizations needing scientific information.

2002: PNW Research Station Finances and Workforce, 

by the Numbers

Fiscal year 2002: October 1, 2001 to September 30, 2002

Funding Sources

• Federal appropriations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $37.1 million

• Direct client support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12.1 million

• Total funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $49.2 million

Distribution of Funds

• Employee costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 percent

• Support and operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 percent

• Distributed to cooperators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 percent

• Of $6.8 million to cooperator . . . . 85 percent went to educational institutions

Workforce Statistics

• Permanent workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 employees

• Of the permanent workforce . . . . 32 percent or 89 employees are scientists

• Temporary workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 employees

• Station total workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522 employees

2002Finances and Workforce Pacific Northwest Research Station

Incoming

Funds

Distribution

of Funds

Employees

Types of

Positions

69
I n 2002, the PNW Research Station distributed about $6.8

million to its cooperators. Some funds originally budgeted for distribution were borrowed for the emergency fire

situation in summer 2002, resulting in a lower total distribution

than in the previous year.

The list below includes all cooperators who currently have agreements and partnerships with the Station.

Educational Institutions

Central Washington University

Eastern Oregon University

Johns Hopkins University

Michigan State University

Northern Arizona University

Oregon State University

Portland State University

Saint Louis University

University of Alaska (Fairbanks and Sitka)

University of Arizona

University of Brasilia (Brazil)

University of British Columbia

University of California (Berkeley)

University of Idaho

University of Maine

University of Minnesota

University of Montana

University of New Mexico

University of Notre Dame

University of Oregon

University of Tennessee

University of Waikato (New Zealand)

University of Washington

Washington State University

West Virginia University

Other Federal Agencies

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service 

(Northwest Irrigation)

U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Wildlife Research 

Center

U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management

U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey

U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service

State Agencies

Oregon Department of Agriculture

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Oregon Department of Forestry

Government Agencies in Other Countries

Fundcao Para O Desenvolvimiento Cientifico E Technologico

INPE (Brazilian Space Agency)

Nongovernment Organizations

Alaska Manufacturers Association

American Fisheries Society

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

Earth Systems Institute

Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership

Institute for Applied Ecology

Institute for Culture and Ecology

Wildlife Conservation Society

Private Industry

National Council for Air and Stream Improvement

70 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Cooperators Who Receive Funding for Studies

Cooperators Who Receive Funding for Studies

from the P N W Research Station
Nongovernment Organizations

Center for Invasive Plant Management

Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Federation

Institute for Culture and Ecology

Private Industry

American Forest and Paper Association

Boise Cascade Corporation

Campbell Group

Cascade Timber Consultants

Miami Corporation

NW Natural Gas

Plum Creek Timber Company

Simpson Timber Company

Starker Forests

Weyerhaeuser Corporation

I n 2002, the PNW Research Station received about $2.2 million in 

support from clients other than the National Forest System, State and

Private Forestry, and other research stations. The list below includes

all clients who currently have agreements and partnerships with the Station.

Educational Institutions

Auburn University

Oregon State University

University of Alaska

University of Maine

University of Montana

Other Federal Agencies

Environmental Protection Agency

National Aeronautic & Space Administration (NASA)

Natural Resources Conservation Service

Northwest Power Planning Council

U.S. Agency for International Development

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

State Agencies

Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation

Oregon Department of Agriculture

Oregon Department of Forestry

Washington Department of Natural Resources

2002 Clients Who Provide Funding for Studies Pacific Northwest Research Station

Clients Who Provide Funding for Studies

to the P N W Research Station

71
Aquatic and Land Interactions

Program Manager:

Deanna J. Stouder

Forestry Sciences Laboratory

3625 93rd Ave. SW

Olympia, WA 98512

Phone: 360-753-7652

E-mail: dstouder@fs.fed.us

Ecosystem Processes

Program Manager:

John A. Laurence

Forestry Sciences Laboratory

3200 SW Jefferson Way

Corvallis, OR 97331

Phone: 541-750-7357

E-mail: jalaurence@fs.fed.us

Focused Science Delivery

Program Manager: 

R. James Barbour

Pacific Northwest Research Station

P.O. Box 3890

Portland, OR 97208-3890

Phone: 503-808-2542

E-mail: jbarbour01@fs.fed.us

Forest Inventory and Analysis

Program Manager: 

Susan A. Willits

Forestry Sciences Laboratory

P.O. Box 3890

Portland, OR 97208-3890

Phone: 503-808-2066

E-mail: swillits@fs.fed.us

Human and Natural Resources Interactions

Program Manager:

Richard W. Haynes

Forestry Sciences Laboratory

P.O. Box 3890

Portland, OR 97208-3890

Phone: 503-808-2002

E-mail: rhaynes@fs.fed.us

Managing Disturbance Regimes

Program Manager:

Edward J. DePuit

Forestry Sciences Laboratory

1133 N Western Avenue

Wenatchee, WA 98801

Phone: 509-662-4315, ext. 222

E-mail: ejdepuit@fs.fed.us

Resource Management and Productivity

Program Manager:

Charles E. Peterson

Forestry Sciences Laboratory

P.O. Box 3890

Portland, OR 97208-3890

Phone: 503-808-2026

E-mail: cepeterson@fs.fed.us

72 Pacific Northwest Research Station 2002 Research Programs

Research Programs
If you are interested in more information about the PNW Research Station,would like to

receive copies of publications, software, or videos mentioned in this report, or would like 

to receive a quarterly list of publications written by Station scientists, please contact:

Cynthia L. Miner

Communications and Applications Director

Pacific Northwest Research Station

P.O. Box 3890

Portland, OR 97208-3890

(503) 808-2135

clminer@fs.fed.us

or

browse PNW Research Station on the Web at:

http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on 

the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or

marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require

alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should

contact USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write

USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW,

Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider

and employer.

Credits:

Writer - Valerie Rapp

Editor - Lynn Starr

Design and layout - Jenny Beranek

Art direction and production - Frank Vanni

Photographs - credits with photos

All unaccredited photos - USDA Forest Service, Tom Iraci, Bob Szaro, or other Forest Service staff 
USDA Forest Service

Science Accomplishments

of the Pacific Northwest Research Station