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Author(s):
Colin C. Hardy, Robert E. Keane, Catherine A. Stewart
Year Published:

Cataloging Information

Topic(s):
Fire Effects
Ecological - Second Order
Vegetation
Fuels
Fuel Treatments & Effects
Mechanical treatments
Ecosystem(s):
Subalpine wet spruce-fir forest, Subalpine dry spruce-fir forest

NRFSN number: 10963
FRAMES RCS number: 2442
Record updated:

The significant geographic extent of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) in the interior West and the large proportion within the mixed-severity fire regime has led to efforts for more ecologically based management of lodgepole pine. New research and demonstration activities are presented that may provide knowledge and techniques to manage lodgepole pine forests in the interior West. First, at the stand and watershed levels, a current application of a suite of restoration treatments to lodgepole pine stands within a watershed in central Montana is discussed. Second, a Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project (BEMRP) study is presented that characterized landscape and patch dynamics in lodgepole pine forests at a coarser spatial resolution. Various landscape metrics for quantification of the range of variation in aerial extent of cover type and structural stage categories were used, and the implications for ecosystem management are discussed.

Citation

Hardy, Colin C.; Keane, Robert E.; Stewart, Catherine A. 2000. Ecosystem-based management in the lodgepole pine zone. In: Smith, Helen Y., ed. The Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project: what have we learned, symposium proceedings; 1999 May 18-20; Missoula, MT; Proceedings RMRS-P-17. Ogden, UT: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 31-35.