FIGURE C-2 - COMPARISON OF CURRENT 

 AGE-CLASS DISTRIBUTION IN THE ANALYIS 

 AREA AND AGE -CLASS DISTRIBUTION FROM 

 HISTORIC UPPER FLATHEAD VALLEY DATA 



O Current Age Class 

 U Historic Age Class 



Historic Age Class 

 Current Age Class 



(Note: Old Stands for age-class 

 comparison are stands with a dominant 

 overs tory of 150 years or older or in 

 the case of lodgepole 14 years or 



TABLE C-2 - CURRENT AGE -CLASS 

 DISTRIBUTION IN THE PROPOSED HARVEST 

 UNITS 



OLD -GROWTH DISTRIBUTION 



Old growth, for this analysis, is 

 defined as stands that meet the 

 minimum criteria (number of trees 

 per acre that have a minimum dbh and 

 a minimum age) for a given site 

 (old-growth group from habitat 

 type) . These criteria can be found 

 in the Green, et al. Old Growth 

 Forest Types of the Northern Region, 

 R-1 SES 4/92, USDA Forest Service, 

 Northern Region, Missoula, MT. The 

 SLI indicates that timber stands 

 that are estimated to meet the old- 

 growth definition total 

 approximately 8,070.4 acres, or 12.3 

 percent of the analysis area. For 

 comparison, in the FNF Forest Plan 

 Amendment 21, the amount of old 

 growth on FNF historically was 

 estimated to be between 15 and 60 

 percent (FNF Plan Amendment #21, 

 1998) . The percentage is highly 



variable by forest type. This 

 historic estimate is based on 

 various information sources, 

 including historic data, aerial 

 photography comparison, and computer 

 modeling. FIGURE C-3 - CURRENT 

 COVERTYPE DISTRIBUTION WITHIN OLD- 

 GROWTH STANDS IN THE ANALYSIS AREA 

 is displayed below. 



FIGURE C-3 - CURRENT COVERTYPE 

 DISTRIBUTION WITHIN OLD -GROWTH 

 STANDS IN THE ANALYSIS AREA 



OLD GROWTH BY COVERTYPE 



Western white pine -140^ 



Western larch/ 40% 

 Douglas-fir 



26% Subalpine fir 



0°^ Trace Douglas-fir 

 1% Lodgepole pine 



19% Mixed conifer 



Subalpine fir and western larch/ 

 Douglas-fir are the 2 dominant old- 

 growth covertypes in the analysis 

 area. The Dog/Meadow Timber Sale 

 Project was designed to not harvest 

 in old-growth stands. The old 

 stands that are proposed for harvest 

 entry with the Dog/Meadow Timber 

 Sale Project have, for the most 

 part, been entered previously with 

 timber harvesting and do not 

 currently meet minimum criteria for 

 old-growth definition. The mature 

 overstory component in these timber 

 stands is distributed in a 

 scattered, clumpy distribution with 

 less than the minimum number of 

 large old trees per acre than are 

 required to be considered old growth 

 in this analysis. 



FIGURE C-4 - OLD -GROWTH STAND 

 LOCATIONS ACROSS THE ANALYSIS AREA 

 is displayed on the following map. 



Appendix C-Vegetation Analysis 



Page C-3 



