&-6 



Table 3 



State Forested Lands Gladstone & French Creek - 1990 



'1 = seedling/sapling, 8 = pole size 5" - 9" d.b.h., 9 = sawlog size >9" d.b.h. 



The majority of the existing even aged seedling/sapling stands resulted from wildfire and a 

 trespass (?) logging operation, both in Section 23. These disturbances happened about 25-30 

 years ago. The polesize and mature size even aged stands are all approximately the same ages. 

 Sizes vary as a result of stocking level, suppression and other site factors. The LP stands tend to 

 be in the higher elevation reaches of the analysis area (Sec. 28 and 34) while the P or D stands of 

 even aged pole and mature trees are at mid- to lower-slope positions, generally speaking. The 

 existing seedling/sapling stands would have been part of this group if they had not been 

 interrupted previously. 



It would appear that most of these even aged stands would have been initiated during a narrow 

 time frame, possibly from only one or a few large wildfires. It would appear that the natural 

 process for these even aged areas would be for stand initiation by total or near total stand 

 replacing fire, followed by an extended fire free period of stand regeneration and development. 

 The geographic scale of the stand replacing fires seems to be larger than this analysis area. 



The uneven aged stands would have been swept by the same large scale fires, but due to lower 

 fuel loadings the fires would not have been as catastrophic and many of the larger D&P would 

 have survived. The lower fuel loadings would have been due to more frequent nonlethal 

 underburns, possible due to slope position, aspect, etc. 



Large areas of even aged interior forest classic old growth conditions do not appear to be 

 historical for this area. Most likely, small patches, streamside stringers and park edges would 

 have been expected to survive the larger fires. In the uneven aged areas, there would have been 

 some old large trees scattered over the whole area, this represents a different type of old growth 

 conditions. 



Management Proposals 



To maintain a semblance of the historical biological processes, it would be desirable to treat all 

 of the forested lands within this analysis area within the next 0-50 years. The large scale 

 treatments would include clear cutting, and seed tree cutting in the even aged areas, taking 

 special care to reserve from cutting many of the draw bottom stringers, park edge clumps, etc., 

 which would simulate survival of old growth patches. The uneven aged areas would be managed 

 to perpetuate the uneven aged condition, but would also maintain some of the large trees, 

 especially those with rot, cavities, broken tops,etc., to simulate that type of old growth. The 

 uneven aged areas would then need more frequent treatments to prevent rapid restocking, 

 possibly on 15-20 year cycles. 



