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Project ID: 09-1-08-31

Year: 2009

Date Started: 07/01/2009

Ending Date:  06/30/2013

Title: Assessing the Compatibility of Fuel Treatments, Wildfire Risk, and Conservation of Northern Spotted Owl Habitats and Populations in the Eastern Cascades: A Multi-Sale Analysis

Project Proposal Abstract: Land managers are faced with a conundrum when tasked with maintaining threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina, NSO) populations, while reducing wildfire risk in dry, fire-prone forests of the Inland Northwest. The recently-released USDI Fish and Wildlife Service Final Recovery Plan (FRP) for the Northern Spotted Owl augments the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) late-successional reserve structure and calls for development of dynamic and shifting mosaics in the dry forests, and retention of late successional reserves in moist forests of eastern Cascades of Oregon and Washington, to address NSO habitat and wildfire concerns. However, the spatial allocation and temporal dynamics of these forests has not been determined, nor is it described by the FRP. We propose to develop and evaluate several key management approaches intended to conserve NSO habitat, and reduce fire risk, at stand and landscape scales, throughout a large portion of the east-side NSO range (10 MM ac) in dry, fire-prone forests of the Inland Northwest, to characterize NSO habitat dynamics and assess risk of NSO habitat loss and related population viability. Our intent is to discover and show effective ways that wildfire, fuels, and vegetation management objectives may be attained in dry forests, along with objectives for conserving and restoring late successional-older forest and the NSO. Our study, situated in the Okanogan-Wenatchee and Deschutes National Forests in eastern Washington and Oregon, is unique in that it will focus not only on fire and fuels management effects on NSO habitat, but also on NSO population viability, and influences of the Barred Owl (BDOW) on NSO population viability. Our objectives are to: (1) quantify and map current large wildfire risk to NSO habitat, and the spatial pattern of risk with respect to existing forest structure, habitat reserves, and forest plan management objectives, at stand and landscape scales; (2) determine the short-term (10 yr) change in risk from management activities (e.g. treatment intensities and patterns) that are compatible with the NWFP and local forest plan standards and guidelines; and (3) characterize long-term (50-100 yrs) potential change in distribution of NSO habitat and populations under different fuel management and conservation design scenarios (i.e., NWFP and FRP). The study will address two major information needs: (1) immediate needs of land managers for information on how to mitigate wildfire impacts to NSO habitat and other key resources, and (2) strategic information needs of policy makers and managers for evaluating long term, large landscape approaches to conservation of NSO habitat and population viability. Our work will produce modeling results and clearly defined maps showing the current areas most prone to large wildfires, clear examples of stand and landscape vegetation and fuels management prescriptions to minimize likelihood of the largest fires, and maps and modeling predictions that show the habitat dynamics and the likelihood of NSO persistence under different scenarios. Work will be conducted using a set of fire and vegetation dynamics models and a population viability model. Products will include refereed and non-refereed scientific publications, manager and policy maker workshops, datasets, and a website. Products of our research will be useful to policymakers and managers of forests within the range of the NSO.

Principal Investigator: Martin G. Raphael

Agency/Organization: Forest Service

Branch or Dept: PNW-EPF-Ecological Process & Function-Olympia

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Paul F. Hessburg	Forest Service	PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Wenatchee
Co-Principal Investigator	John F. Lehmkuhl	Forest Service	PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Wenatchee
Co-Principal Investigator	Bruce G. Marcot	Forest Service	PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Portland
Co-Principal Investigator	Peter H Singleton	Forest Service	PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Wenatchee
Co-Principal Investigator	Thomas A. Spies	Forest Service	PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Corvallis
Federal Cooperator	Rebecca S.H. Kennedy	Forest Service	PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Corvallis
Federal Fiscal Representative	Tamatha S. Verhunc	Forest Service	PNW-Pacific Northwest Research Station
Technical Contact	Laura L. Burris	Forest Service	PNW-Pacific Northwest Research Station

Project Locations

Consortium

Northwest

Level	State	Agency	Unit
STATE	WA	FS	Wenatchee National Forest
STATE	WA	FS	Okanogan National Forest
STATE	OR	FS	Deschutes National Forest

Project Deliverables

There is no final report available for this project.
There are no deliverables available for this project.

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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