Results of a large-scale experiment assessing the ecological and economic aspects of novel forest management techniques aimed at developing old-growth characteristics

Background/Question/Methods The Managed Old-growth Silviculture Study (MOSS) began in 2003 and is designed to assess the effectiveness of new and modified silvicultural prescriptions at accelerating the development of old-growth characteristics in northern hardwood forests.  There are 4 main components to this project including silviculture, wildlife, economics and sociology.  Restoration activities were implemented during the winter of 2007-2008 and focused on mimicking natural disturbances by increasing levels of large down wood and snags, maintaining and growing large trees, creating variable-sized gaps, and increasing tree species diversity.  We have nine 55-hectare treatment stands and three 55-hectare control stands located in northern Wisconsin on the Flambeau and Northern Highland American Legion State Forests and the US Forest Service Argonne Experimental Forest.  Pretreatment avian surveys using standard point count techniques and territory mapping have been conducted from 2003-2007 and will be compared to postreatment surveys from 2008.  The ultimate goal of this project is to compare and quantify the effectiveness of these novel silvicultural treatments at creating old-growth forest characteristics in hardwood forests and to develop restoration prescriptions that can be used by natural resource professionals and private landowners  Results/Conclusions The addition of 5 large (>25 cm dbh) coarse woody debris trees per ha and 5 large snag trees per ha along with maintaining the 12 largest trees per ha (>55 cm dbh) as part of the treatment aimed at developing old-growth characteristics did not significantly reduce the economic viability of implementing these restoration treatments.  Pretreatment avian point count data were divided into nesting guilds that included canopy, cavity, shrub, and ground nesting birds.  Pretreatment bird data showed more canopy nesting birds than either shub or ground nesting birds.  We will present comparisons of the pretreatment data with post treatment data from 2008 and we predict that the treatments will result in significant changes in the distribution of birds by nesting guild.  Results from this research will provide natural resource planners, scientists, landowners, and managers with sound quantitative information on the economic and ecological responses to these new silvicultural prescriptions aimed at restoring characteristics associated with old-growth forested ecosystems.