Maintaining both multi-faceted, biodiverse forest ecosystems and thriving forest-based human communities is challenging given the combination of past disturbances and future projected changes to forests. The accelerating pace of socioeconomic and ecological changes is particularly evident in northwestern North American moist coniferous forests. For example, over part of the northwest moist forest landscape, broad ecosystem management has been trialed for two decades, and its efficacy is beginning to emerge as resource patterns and ecological processes are monitored. A pulse of scientific advances also have emerged over the last 20-30 years, addressing novel forest management approaches and effects on forest productivity, carbon in the forest sector, biodiversity, aquatic-riparian zones, and forest ecosystems at large spatial scales. This wealth of new knowledge from northwest moist coniferous forests has been distilled to key lessons learned, presented here to provide a framework for future research and adaptive forest management decisions.
Results/Conclusions
Northwest forests are dynamic systems where natural and anthropogenic disturbances create a mosaic of conditions. A bimodal forest landscape is evident from over a century of timber harvest activities and wildfires, where older forests cover about half the area today – anchored by an archipelago of reserves. Science-based advances for management of dynamic northwest forests include: forest planning at multiple scales; maintaining and restoring heterogeneity; managing for carbon; providing dead wood for habitat; reducing ground disturbance; and designing novel approaches to address provincial adaptive capacity. Forest biodiversity research and management advances address hundreds of sensitive species, genetic diversity, and key ecological functions. Risks to some at-risk taxa are emerging due to habitat loss or fragmentation; a more knitted forest landscape across all lands, including both fine- and coarse-scale habitat management approaches, merits consideration. Aquatic-riparian ecosystems within these forests are multi-state, where application of mixed-width riparian buffers from headwaters to the sea are effective in protecting species, ecological processes, and water quality. To retain key resources, heterogeneity, and to anticipate future stressors, integrated watershed-scale management is under development for provision of economic and ecological services.