Preface 

Preface

Ecosystem management aligns different uses of the land with ecological 

parameters and goals of environmental quality. An important USDA Forest 

Service mission is to balance the multiple uses of its lands in an ecologically 

sustainable way. This objective has been particularly challenging for National 

Forests of the Sierra Nevada in the face of heated controversies over the effects 

of even-aged timber harvest on old-growth forests and their associated wildlife, 

such as the California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis). Much of the 

concern stems from loss of habitat attributes—closed-canopied stands, very old 

trees, large snags and downed wood, and multiple structural layers—believed 

to be needed by the owl and other wildlife species. Several of these attributes 

are also believed to be vital for sustaining healthy, productive forests. 

The Kings River Sustainable Forest Ecosystems Project involves a formal 

administrative study and associated research, with joint leadership and 

collaboration among line officers and staff of the Sierra National Forest, the 

Kings River Ranger District, and the Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW). 

District personnel are implementing two landscape-level management options, 

at watershed scales, while researchers study the effects of those options on 

various forest resources and values. Persons involved with the project are 

optimistic that both options, with minimal “zonation” for special needs, will 

sustain all key resources (soil, water, vegetation, and wildlife) and functions of 

the ecosystems involved, while reducing risks of catastrophic fire, restoring fire 

as a forest ecosystem process, promoting forest health, allowing sustainable 

levels of commodity extraction, and supporting recreational use by the public. 

On January 13, 1993, the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region released 

the Decision Notice for an Environmental Assessment (EA) that provided 

interim guidelines largely driven by concerns for the California spotted owl. 

Effective March 1, 1993, this EA amended the Land and Resource Management 

Plans for all National Forests of the Sierra Nevada that have spotted owls, 

markedly changing options for forest management in these National Forests 

for an interim period of 2 years, not only for the owl but also for many other 

resources and values as well. In response to this new direction, and with 

encouragement from the Pacific Southwest Region to initiate an administrative 

study in ecosystem management, a small group of managers and scientists 

from the Sierra National Forest and the Pacific Southwest Research Station’s 

Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Fresno, California, met in mid-February, 1993, 

to discuss opportunities. A coordinating group with members from the Forest, 

the District, and laboratory was formed after this meeting. This group continued 

to meet over the next few weeks and soon agreed on the basic features of a 

study plan that eventually developed into the Kings River Sustainable Forest 

Ecosystems Project. 

Objectives of the Project include implementation of timber harvest that will 

maintain key attributes of late successional forest, provide for wildlife species 

that are closely associated with them, and deal with the growing threats of 

extensive and intensive wildfires as a result of heavy accumulations of surface 

and ladder fuels during the past century. Planning for the Project focused on a 

study area encompassing 64,000 acres and two major watersheds on the Kings 

River District of the Sierra National Forest. A prescribed burning program was 

already underway in the project area; and a demographic study of the spotted 

owl, begun in 1990, already encompassed most of the area. The scope of this 

owl study was enlarged in 1994 to cover the entire project area. Other studies 

were initiated in 1994 and 1995, and the first vegetation treatments were 

initiated in 1997. Results of these efforts are beginning to come in. 

These proceedings comprise an interim report on the various management 

actions and research studies underway in the project area. Some projects and 

USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-183. 2002. iii 
Preface 

studies have been completed, some are still in progress, and others have yet to 

begin. The paper by Verner and Smith provides an overview of the inception, 

objectives, and progress of the overall project; and Fleenor’s paper describes 

the development of the Landscape Analysis Plan required to undertake the 

project. The plan and current updates can be viewed on the internet at 

www.r5.fs.fed.us/sierra/kras. Progress and lessons learned in the implementation 

of an uneven-aged strategy for forest management are described by Smith and 

Exline, and McCandliss reports on methods and progress in the program of 

prescribed burning. By September of 2001, prescribed fire had been applied to 

approximately 15,000 acres in the project area, including some Protected 

Activity Centers of the California spotted owl. Data on historic fire-return 

intervals within the project area are presented in the report by Phillips, and 

Gallegos reports on watershed analyses. 

The paper by Powers details the effects of certain management activities on 

soil properties. Findings accumulating through this study may lead to 

improved soil-based standards of sustainable forestry. An experiment involving 

innovative methods of fuel reduction was established in 2000 as part of planned 

fuel break operations in mixed-conifer sawtimber on the Sierra National Forest 

near Shaver Lake. The aim is to evaluate alternative methods of reducing 

understory fuels on soil properties and the organic carbon cycle. Treatments 

range from a “do-nothing” control, through mechanical mastication, to 

incorporating masticated residues into surface soil. Experience from this helped 

to secure competitive grant funding to extend this study to a broader geographic 

base at the forest/urban interface. Two new installations have been established 

in northern California on Federal and private holdings, and more are planned 

for 2002. 

The Teakettle Experiment (http://teakettle.ucdavis.edu) described by 

North is particularly complex and involves a rigorous experimental design. All 

thinning treatments were completed by August, 200l, and the prescribed burn 

was completed in November of 2001. All of the Teakettle studies have collected 

2-3 years of pretreatment data at mapped sample points, and researchers began 

collecting response data in May, 2002, at these sample points to assess 

immediate effects of fire and thinning treatments on different ecosystem 

functions. The Experiment now includes 27 studies, 17 institutions, and funding 

from 20 different sources. Some of the new studies include the use of isotope 

ecology to investigate water and nutrient transfer between shrubs and trees, 

ground-piercing radar to investigate the influence of soil depth on vegetation 

composition, modeling of ecosystem energy and mass flow with water- and 

shade-manipulation experiments, and establishing Teakettle as a demonstration 

site and community outreach for information on fire and thinning efforts to 

reduce fuels. Several of the associated doctoral students are completing their 

projects, and new students and research projects have joined the experiment. 

Hypogeous (underground) fungi play a key role in the establishment, 

nutrient uptake, and water uptake of trees in forest ecosystems. Fundamental 

research on their abundance and species composition, and response to fire, is 

described in North’s paper on truffles and the paper by Bruns and his coauthors. 

Three reports—by Munton and others, Steger and others, and North— 

describe results of various aspects of the general biology, ecology, and 

demography of the California spotted owl. The demographic work and studies 

of owl diets are continuing, with conclusions about the status of the owl 

population in the study area through 2001 essentially unchanged from those 

described here in the paper by Steger and others. 

Purcell describes results of a labor-intensive study of forest songbirds in 

ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), mixed-conifer, red fir (Abies magnifica), and 

lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests. With additional years of data since the 

iv USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-183. 2002. 
Preface 

symposium, some results of this study have changed, possibly related, at least 

in part, to annual variation in weather. 

The paper by Laudenslayer and Fargo describes a study of small mammal 

populations and ecology in the project area, and Boroski and others report on 

research on the fishers (Martes pennanti). The fisher population in the study 

area is especially important, as apparently this medium-sized furbearer has 

been extirpated from the Sierra Nevada north of Yosemite National Park. 

Although Dr. Boroski has left the USDA Forest Service, the fisher research is 

continuing under the direction of Dr. Kathryn Purcell. 

Two key studies have been added to the Kings River Project since the 

symposium: the first involving the use of new development in remote sensing 

of vegetation, and the second involving an intended long-term study of the 

effects of forest management actions on stream ecosystems. 

A collaborative study, “Forest Structure from Remotely Sensed Imagery,” 

by Dr. Carolyn Hunsaker of the Pacific Southwest Research Station, Dr. JoAnn 

Fites of Adaptive Management Services in Nevada City, California, and 

scientists from the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland, and the 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began with a planning 

workshop in 1998. Key initial objectives include compiling structural attributes 

desired by ecologists and proposing actions needed to more effectively measure 

forest structural attributes across the entire Sierra Nevada. NASA committed to 

obtain radar and lidar (laser altimetry) data with flights over the Kings River 

Project area, the Teakettle Experimental Forest, and field study sites in the 

northern Sierra Nevada. The remotely sensed data will be compared with 

ground data from 290 1-ha plots in the southern Sierra Nevada and 300 plots in 

the northern Sierra Nevada to allow calibration of remote-imagery classifiers. 

Attributes of interest include canopy cover, life-form diversity, large-tree 

density, tree size distribution, vertical diversity of tree crowns, biomass, crown 

volume, height to live crown, tree decadence, surface dead material, and 

moisture content. Development of map products is expected to begin in 2002. 

In 2000, under the direction of Dr. Hunsaker of the station’s Forestry 

Sciences Laboratory in Fresno, California, the Kings River Experimental 

Watershed was added to the Kings River Project to address issues regarding 

stream systems. This well-funded project is being developed to quantify the 

variability in attributes of stream ecosystems and their associated watersheds 

in the southern Sierra Nevada and to evaluate the effects of forest management 

(prescribed fire and uneven-aged, small-group tree selection) on those 

ecosystems. Instrumentation of the eight headwater watersheds, in mixedconifer forest at 5,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation, will be completed by 2002. The 

study will investigate physical attributes (upland erosion, stream flow, channel 

characteristics, and weather conditions), chemical characteristics (nutrients, 

chloride, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, pH, electrical 

conductivity, and acid neutralizing capacity), and biological features (stream 

invertebrates and possibly algae, along with some riparian and upland 

vegetation). 

The vision of the original coordinating group for the Kings River 

Sustainable Forest Ecosystems Project was open-ended. Members of the group 

knew that the process of converting the existing, highly modified forest into an 

uneven-aged structure by a process of small-group selection would take many 

years. They also knew that studies of the effects of this conversion on certain 

ecosystem values and processes, on spotted owls, on fishers, and on certain 

other resources would take years—even decades. This will require much effort 

and vigilance to maintain a strong commitment by the USDA Forest Service to 

continue this project, to maintain adequate funding, and to assure that 

dedicated personnel are continuously in place. 

USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-183. 2002. v