HomeMy WebLinkAbout113023 Fall 2023 Update on the T3 Watershed ExperimentALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Greetings,
We are reaching out to share progress on the T3 Watershed Experiment. This collaborative project aims to inform state and other land managers how alternative forest management practices
compare to the current practices in providing environmental, economic, and social benefits. It is a large-scale management experiment which takes place in the Olympic Experimental State
Forest <https://www.dnr.wa.gov/oesf> (OESF) on the western Olympic Peninsula of Washington state.
Project Overview
A team led by Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and University of Washington’s Olympic Natural Resources Center (ONRC) developed a landscape-scale experiment in 2018 to
identify and compare forest management strategies that take into consideration the balance of ecological, social, and economic objectives. They were later joined by researchers from
University of Washington, NOAA Fisheries, Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, Oregon State University, Washington State University, Yale University, University of California
San Diego, and Omfishient Consulting.
The study takes place on 20,000 acres of forested state trust lands across 16 watersheds in the OESF, mainly in the Clearwater River and Hoh River drainages in Jefferson County. Study
watersheds are between 500-2000 acres, draining into Type-3 (a.k.a. “T3”) fish-bearing streams and are managed primarily by DNR. The treatments are implemented as part of DNR’s Olympic
Region timber sale and silviculture programs on about 13% of each of the 12 treated watersheds. Four watersheds are designated as no-entry controls. This harvest rate is consistent
with the current decadal sustainable harvest calculation for all OESF watersheds.
Using a randomized block design with 4 replicates, current DNR management practices (Variable Retention Harvest, Variable Density Thinning, and default riparian buffers) are contrasted
with several novel upland and riparian treatments (management prescriptions). Examples of new treatments include small gaps and thinning to increase riparian forest structural diversity
and improve salmon habitat, alder-redcedar polyculture to increase cultural and economic benefits, and regeneration practices to create complex early-seral habitat. The novel treatments
were developed by incorporating input from far-ranging discussions with stakeholders, managers, and scientists in 2017-2021. The experiment is implemented at an operational scale. If
proven useful, the new prescriptions may expand the forest management toolbox of DNR and other land managers.
Many pre-treatment conditions have been monitored since 2020. Changes in these conditions and differences between treatments will provide response data. Data are collected at multiple
scales, including forest stands, stream reaches, sub-catchments, and entire watersheds. The observed responses, modeling, and trade-off analyses will inform future land management decisions.
Furthermore, DNR and ONRC are committed to ongoing partnerships with local communities, tribes, regional stakeholders, and research partners. Our stakeholder engagement strategy, called
Learning-based Collaboration, includes several Learning Groups that facilitate rich engagement with subject matter experts, local community members, and other interested parties on
sustainable forest management topics such as invasive species, western redcedar regeneration and growth, carbon analysis, and the regional impacts of historical forest management.
We are exploring bringing other related learning groups co-led by ONRC focused on Swiss needle cast and red alder.
Recognizing the value of this research to local communities and statewide priorities, the Washington State Legislature has committed funding to this project since 2019. Multiple grants
and in-kind support from the participating organizations also help to fund this research.
You can read more about the T3 Watershed Experiment on the ONRC website <https://www.onrc.washington.edu/t3-watershed-experiment/> .
Project Updates
In 2023, we made significant progress in 7 areas:
1. All 13 timber sales implementing the T3 Watershed Experiment, have been purchased at auction. They include more than 2,000 acres in the study watersheds and are managed by the DNR
Coast District Timber Sale Program. This is a milestone for the project and a significant achievement given the complexities of a management experiment of this scale. Road work and
timber harvest have started in several timber sales. The contracts require all experimental units be logged by the summer of 2026.
2. Silviculture planning including seedling orders and treatment schedules for all experimental prescriptions is underway. The T3 researchers discussed with DNR practitioners the implementation
aspects of planting, vegetation control, and monitoring on a field tour to the T3 study area in November.
3. Two major modeling efforts were completed or are near completion.
1. A food web model has been developed to simulate short- and long-term stream responses of fish, invertebrates and algae to each riparian treatment. We will use the model outputs to
generate testable hypotheses and to compare with monitoring data.
2. The growth and yield of forest stands in response to upland experimental prescriptions is modeled using the Forest Vegetation Simulator. A number of calibrations and adjustments
were implemented to capture the new growing environments and species mixtures. The model outputs are expected by the end of 2023 and will be used to calculate projected net present
value at the end of stand rotations.
4. We are well into a fourth year of pre-harvest monitoring in aquatic, riparian, and upland areas. Aquatic and riparian indicators include stream habitat, water quality, leaf litter,
riparian vegetation, light to the stream, macroinvertebrates, and fish. Upland indicators include soils, forest structure, understory composition, habitat surveys, and acoustic monitoring
<https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/lm_oesf_pac_sp.pdf> of indicator songbird species.
5. Data analyses of the drone LiDAR flights and associated ground plots completed in 2021 and 2022 are underway with major progress in linking lidar to individual trees measured on the
ground, tree species identification, growth and yield measures, and scaling individual tree data to entire management units. New work with our partners at Westfork Environmental is
exploring adding multi-spectral imagery to lidar to aide in species identification and individual tree health.
6. Databases and data management procedures were developed for all field-based environmental monitoring data and associated metadata including field and laboratory protocols. This is
critical to ensure long-term sustainability of the project.
7. A suite of Learning Groups (LGs) were established in June 2022. Major 2023 activities include:
1. The Cedar LG developed a comprehensive sub-study plan <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VgpMXhItXAbO7B-7FnNJls6BOaqTJUdY/view?usp=sharing> to find methods of preventing over-browsing
of cedar seedlings by ungulate species. Five treatments will soon be implemented in this 33-acre study. This group has added a new MS-student-led study centered on working with the
Quileute Tribe’s Natural Resources Department to better map redcedar presence and tree health using drone lidar and multispectral imagery.
2. The History LG collated and mapped data from a variety of sources about conditions and events in the T3 watersheds and surrounding areas from the 1950s onward. Combined with pre-treatment
monitoring efforts, this information will help inform future analyses.
3. The Invasive Species LG continues to explore ways to monitor Scotch Broom within the OESF using remote sensing techniques. In addition, this group is developing studies to examine
the efficacy and economics of using biochar kilns to control invasive species.
4. Members of the Carbon LG were instrumental in submitting a grant to the National Science Foundation with the goal of learning how to converge the healing powers of early-seral, post-disturbance
species assemblages and ecosystem processes with the healing power of nature-human interactions in the workforce. Multiple collaborators joined to write this proposal including several
veterans’ groups. The study would fund a veteran workforce to implement aspects of T3 and to evaluate the physical and social healing benefits of forest work for veterans.
What’s Next?
* The main and immediate focus of our team is to ensure that the logging in the 13 timber sales properly implements the T3 research designs. An on-site DNR T3 coordinator communicates
daily with DNR foresters, purchasers and loggers and relays information to and from T3 researchers.
* Pre-harvest monitoring will continue until all scheduled timber harvest treatments are completed. Oxygen meters will be installed in streams to track changes in aquatic metabolism.
Monitoring of amphibian response to upland treatments has been proposed.
* Post-harvest monitoring in the stream sample reaches and adjacent riparian buffers will begin immediately after logging. The silviculture, habitat and biota post-harvest monitoring
in the uplands is being coordinated.
* Analyses of field and remote-sensing data collected pre-harvest will continue. The outputs of the aquatic food web model and the forest growth & yield model will be used in environmental
and economic analyses.
* The Learning Groups will continue periodic meetings through the winter. Check the calendar <https://www.onrc.washington.edu/learning-groups/> on the ONRC web page for times and zoom
links. Everybody is welcome to join in.
Contact
For questions, to be added to our future updates list, please reach out to the T3Team@uw.edu <mailto:T3Team@uw.edu> or directly to the project leads: Dr. Teodora Minkova and Dr. Bernard
Bormann.
Thank you for your interest,
Teodora Minkova
Research and Monitoring Manager for Olympic Experimental State Forest
Forest Resources Division
Washington State Department of Natural Resources
teodora.minkova@dnr.wa.gov <mailto:teodora.minkova@dnr.wa.gov>
Bernard Bormann
Professor of Forest Ecosystems and Director Olympic Natural Resources Center
School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment
University of Washington
bormann@uw.edu <mailto:bormann@uw.edu>