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Late Successional Old-Growth Forest Conditions: Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project
From page 1 of report:
"Late successional old-growth forests of middle elevations (west-side mixed conifer, red fir, white fir, east-side mixed conifer, and east-side pine types) at present constitute 7%–30% of the forest cover, depending on forest type. On average, national forests have about 25% the amount of the national parks, which is an approximate benchmark for pre-contact forest conditions. East-side pine forests have been especially altered.
The primary impact of 150 years of forestry on middle-elevation conifer forests has been to simplify structure (including large trees, snags, woody debris of large diameter, canopies of multiple heights and closures, and complex spatial mosaics of vegetation), and presumably function, of these forests.
Four Sierran national parks, Lassen Volcanic, Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon, provide most of the remaining large contiguous areas of late successional forests in middle-elevation conifer types.
Much of the best of the accessible pine forest was cut before the national forests were created. Many national forest lands were created from the leavings: cutover lands, steep canyon walls, high montane forests, and relatively inaccessible
timberlands.
Continuous Forest Cover Despite 150 years of Euro-American timber harvest activity in the Sierra Nevada, clear-cut blocks larger than 5–10 acres are at present uncommon in the conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada, and tree cover is relatively continuous.
Over the past decade, as they have many times in the past, Sierra Nevada conifer forests have experienced widespread, locally severe mortality caused principally by bark beetles infesting trees stressed by drought, overdense stands, and pathogens.most of the remaining large contiguous areas of late successional forests in middle-elevation conifer types."
forest-successional old-growth, status of current late successional old-growth forests, forest simplification, distribution of late successional forests, historic conditions of federal lands, forest-continuous cover, forest mortality, forest type distribution map, dominant trees, forest spatial patterning, forests-middle elevation, logging in the sierra nevada, map of areas of late successional emphasis, distributed forest conditions, burning for fuel reduction, el dorado national forest map, forest conditions strategies
red fir, white fir, foothill pine, ponderosa pine, blue oak, live oak, Douglass fir, sugar pine, incense cedar, black oak, tan oak, giant sequoia, Jeffrey pine, lodgepole pine, western white pine, mountain hemlock, Western juniper, black cottonwood, aspen, piñon
June 01, 1996 02:00 AM
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Modoc National Forest (NF), Lassen Volcanic National Park (NP), Lassen NF, Plumas NF, Tahoe NF, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, Reno, El Dorado NF, Toiyabe NF, Yosemite NP, Stanislaus NF, Sierra NF, Inyo NF, Sequoia and Kings Canyon NPs, Sequoia NF
Sacramento, California; Fresno, California; South Lake Tahoe, California; Reno, Nevada
Lake Tahoe Management Basin