Science (Attachment)

Science Process
Science Home
Science Framework
State-of-the-Science Reviews
Science Advisory Team
Science Team Members
Science Forum
Science Forum Videos

State-of-the-Science Syntheses - February 20, 2006

The BLM has established cooperative agreements with PNW, OSU, and USGS to conduct “State-of-the science” syntheses for selected major issues and questions. The purpose of these reviews is to assess the state of the knowledge and identify areas of agreement and areas uncertainty for complex issues central to the RMP revisions. These reviews will help focus and support the analysis of planning team specialists, and identify potential tools to help conduct resource analyses. Reviews will include a survey and synthesis of the existing literature, identify questions that are the subject of ongoing scientific investigations, and suggest a range of reasonable assumptions and interpretations relevant for RMP revisions. In some cases these syntheses will produce models and analytical techniques the BLM can employ to build and evaluate alternatives. Reports will be prepared in a format suitable for review and use by the RMP planning team, and, if suitable, may be further developed for publication. Results will also be presented in a public workshop in June of 2006.

1. Wildlife use of dead wood

The objective is to synthesize and interpret existing information regarding wildlife use of dead wood habitat to help managers develop and assess a reasonable range of objectives for dead wood habitat. Variables to be assessed include the size (diameter), decay stage, density (number/acre), and spatial and temporal distribution of dead wood. Interpretations will be placed in a successional and landscape context. Additional topics include the trade-offs and considerations of snag creation, and the potential for application of coarse-filter, habitat based, multi-species management strategies.

Joan Hagar - USGS

2. Forest management effects on peak stream flows

Synthesize existing information and identify areas of agreement and reasonable ranges of interpretation with respect to peak flows and forest management in western Oregon. The scope of the report includes both potential storm flow and channel morphology effects, the significance of potential changes, and likely effects from the range of contemporary vegetation management practices in western Oregon. The process includes an initial workshop to define management questions, and a second workshop to critique and clarify a draft manuscript.

Gordon Grant - PNW
Jeff McDonnell - OSU
Fred Swanson - PNW

3. Aquatic habitat management strategies

The goal is to assess the potential for alternative watershed management strategies to provide and maintain stream habitat materials, especially large wood, and to describe how the relative importance of riparian versus upslope source areas vary across western Oregon. Methods for determining the importance of source areas and their potential linkage to fish-bearing streams will bee assessed and placed in context. Conservation biology and landscape dynamics concepts will be reviewed and interpreted in terms of their potential applicability to meet BLM objectives in fragmented ownership patterns. A second component of this effort involves mapping high intrinsic potential habitat for salmon and steelhead throughout the planning area. This work builds on results from the Coastal Landscape Assessment and Modeling System (CLAMS) and extends it across western Oregon.

Gordie Reeves - PNW
Lee Benda - Earth Systems Institute (ESI)
Dan Miller - ESI
Jason Dunham - USGS

4. Human community resiliency

Synthesize existing information to describe the ongoing shift in perspective from a focus on community stability to an emphasis on community resiliency. In our contemporary world of rapid change in markets and technology, community stability may be an outdated concept. Instead, successful communities appear to be those that are more resilient to periodic change. Recent and ongoing scientific investigations have identified factors that appear to confer greater resiliency to some communities than others. This paper will summarize these ongoing shifts and provide context for assessing the effects of RMP alternatives on communities in western Oregon.

Ellen Donoghue - PNW
Richard Haynes - PNW

5. Application of landscape dynamics concepts

Research ecologists and professionals have embraced concepts that recognize that our forest landscapes have been and continue to be shaped by dynamic processes such as fire, wind, flood, and pathogens. These concepts have been articulated in the science literature, and it has been frequently suggested that forest management strategies that emulate key aspects of natural disturbance regimes may pose less risk to the values society seeks from the forest than do traditional management regimes which have often been focused on one dominant use. Examples of various applications will be reviewed and evaluated in this synthesis, with a particular focus on the Blue River Landscape Study where application and evaluation of these ideas on a landscape scale is well developed.

Fred Swanson - PNW

NOTE: this project is funded by Region 6 of the Forest Service

6. Young stand management

Several young stand field experiments have been initiated in western Oregon and Washington in the last 15 years to evaluate the effects of alternative management strategies on stand development, wildlife habitat, and many other factors. While these studies each contain design elements that are unique to the individual study, they also contain common elements that may help discern important relationships that structure stand and habitat responses across a wide range of stand and landscape conditions. The purpose of this project is to synthesize the lessons learned from these studies over the last 15 years, and to place them in the context of regional environmental gradients.

Paul Anderson - PNW
Klaus Puettmann - OSU

NOTE: this project is funded by Region 6 of the Forest Service