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Project ID: 05-2-1-29

Year: 2005

Date Started: 05/12/2005

Date Completed: 05/10/2008

Title: Fuel Reduction and Restoration of Pine/Hardwood Ecosystems Severely Impacted By the Recent Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus Frontalis ) Epidemic in the Southern Appalachians

Project Proposal Abstract: In the southern Appalachians and Cumberland Plateau, a total of over one million acres (with a timber value loss of 1.5 billion dollars) have been impacted by the recent southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmerman (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)) outbreak from 1999-2003. These pine/hardwood ecosystems occupy dry to xeric sites (south/west aspects on upper slopes and ridges) that are typically comprised of pitch pine (Pinus rigida), Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana), and/or shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) and a mixture of hardwoods. Increased fire hazard from dead trees (fuel for fires) especially in areas with a dense evergreen shrub midstory (fuel ladders) provides an unprecedented potential for wildfires. Federal, state, and private land managers are now challenged with large-scale implementation of management activities that: (1) reduce the increased fire risk to widespread dead, fallen and dying trees, particularly in the wildland-urban interface, (2) restore forests destroyed by the beetle, and (3) reduce the potential for development of stand conditions that promote SPB outbreaks and other stand conditions and subsequent future wildfire risk. On pine/hardwood sites that have been severely impacted by the recent southern pine beetle epidemic, we propose to conduct watershed scale studies on the effects of fuel reduction and restoration treatments on ecosystem processes such as net primary production, nutrient and carbon cycling, and vegetation dynamics (regeneration, compositional changes, mortality, diversity). Although a few studies provide evidence of the potential ecosystems effects of fire, little information is available on the use of fire in southern Appalachian ecosystems where fire has been excluded for almost a century. Our research approach will combine watershed-scale (water quality and quantity) and within watershed scale (plot level changes in nutrient and carbon cycling, vegetation dynamics) assessment of ecosystem responses to restoration treatments. The objectives of the proposed research are: (1) to compare and quantify fuel load reduction methods (pine overstory felling, material left on site followed by prescribed fire; pine overstory felling, partial removal of material from the site followed by prescribed fire; prescribed fire only; and no treatment) in pine/hardwood forests heavily impacted by southern pine beetle induced tree mortality, and (2) to evaluate the effects of further restoration treatments including planting yellow pine and seeding native grasses on ecosystem structure and function in these pine-hardwood ecosystems in the southern Appalachian region.

Principal Investigator: James M. Vose

Agency/Organization: Forest Service

Branch or Dept: SRS-Coweeta Hydrologic Lab

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Katherine J. Elliott	Forest Service	SRS-Coweeta Hydrologic Lab
Federal Cooperator	James M. Vose	Forest Service	SRS-Coweeta Hydrologic Lab

Project Locations

Consortium

Appalachian

Oak Woodlands

South

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

	ID	Type	Title
	6915	Refereed Publication	Effects of Restoration Burns on Macroinvertebrates in Southern Applachian Pine-Oak Forests
	6910	NonRefereed Publication	Effects of Prescribed Fire on Southern Appalachian Ecosystems
	6911	NonRefereed Publication	Fire Effects on Water Quality: A Synthesis of Response Regulating Factors Among Contrasting Ecosystems
	7488	Invited Paper/Presentation	Pine Regeneration Following Wildland Fire
	9340	Invited Paper/Presentation	Fire in the Southern Appalachians: Restoration of Pine-Hardwood Ecosystems
	9338	Invited Paper/Presentation	Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems
	9343	Invited Paper/Presentation	Effects of Prescribed Fire on Southern Appalachian Ecosystems
	9339	Invited Paper/Presentation	Prescribed Fire to Restore Shortleaf Pine/Bluestem Grass Ecosystems Severely Impacted by Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis)
	9337	Invited Paper/Presentation	Effects of Fire on Watersheds
	3825	Invited Paper/Presentation	Watershed Responses to Fire
	8871	Invited Paper/Presentation	Using Fire to Restore Shortleaf Pine (Pinus echinata) Ecosystems Severely Impacted by Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis)
	9345	Conference/Symposia/Workshop	2006 Fire Ecology & Management Congress Proceedings, Special Sessions
	9344	Conference/Symposia/Workshop	Second Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds, 05/16-18/2006
	9336	Poster	Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems
	9342	Poster	Using Fire to Restore Pine/Hardwood Ecosystems Severely Impacted by Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) in the Southern Appalachians
	9341	Poster	Using Fire to Restore Pine/Hardwood Ecosystems Severely Impacted by Southern Pine Beetle: First Year Results
	7485	Poster	Using Fire to Restore Pine/Hardwood Ecosystems Severely Impacted by Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) in the Southern Appalachians

Supporting Documents

The following supporting documents are available for this project.

Brief

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