223 



SOUTHEAST 

 ALAS KA 



FIGURE 1 . Map of southeast Alaska. 



dominate the site, competing with other 

 plants for sunlighL By twenty to twenty- 

 five years, young trees have shaded out 

 most other plants. For another century or 

 more the environment within the dark 

 even-aged second-growth forest (Figure 

 3) remains unproductive for many other 

 plants and animals (Wallmo and Schoen 

 1980, Alaback 1982). Though timber 

 production is high in second growth, 

 species richness (the number of different 

 plant and animal species) is low. Because 

 it takes centuries to develop the 

 ecological characteristics of old growth, 

 stands that are clearcut every ICX) years 

 will never again regain the unique 



characteristics of old growth (Schoen et 

 al. 1981, Wallmo 1982). 



Old-growth forest is highly variable. It 

 consists of a mosaic of different stands 

 ranging from riparian spruce stands to 

 poorly drained muskeg-bog commun- 

 ities. On productive sites we find tall 

 large-diameter spruce and hemlock trees 

 (Figure 2). These forests contain a large 

 volume of wood per hectare and are 

 termed "high-volume" stands (stands 

 with greater than 74,000 bf/ha). In 

 contrast, trees are smaller and grow more 

 sparsely on low-quality sites. These 

 forests are termed "low-volume" stands. 



Though Tongass National Forest is the 

 largest national forest in the United 

 States, most of the Tongass is either 

 nonforest or scrub forest (e.g., small, 

 scattered trees of no commercial value). 

 Only one-third of the Tongass land base 

 is classified as commercial forest land, 

 most of which is low-volume timber 

 (U.S. Forest Service 1978) (Figure 4). 

 Signincantly, only 4 percent of the entire 

 Tongass land base is composed of high- 

 volume old growth. 



WILDLIFE — FOREST 

 RELATIONSHIPS 



The Sitka Black-Tailed Deer 



For many years deer were thought to be a 

 species adapted to early stages of forest 

 development and thus were believed to 

 benefit from logging (Leopold 1950). In 

 the states of Washington and Oregon, for 

 example, deer are abundant in areas of 

 recent clearcutling (Brown 1961). There, 

 where most lowland old growth is long 

 gone and snow on the winter range is 

 rare, a patchwork of young clearcuts 

 provides more deer forage than the 

 second-growth forests that now cover 

 much of the landscape. 



In southeastern Alaska, however, the 

 situation is different Here, winter snow 

 accumulation and the availability of 

 high-quality winter range are the most 

 important factors influencing deer . 

 populations (Klein and Olson 1960, 

 Wallmo and Schoen 1979, Hanley and 

 McKendrick 1985). The best winter deer 

 habitat is found in old growth where food 

 production is high and snow 

 accumulation is low (Wallmo and 

 Schoen 1980, Kirchhoff etal. 1983,Rose 

 1984). Though recent cleareuts, from 

 three to twenty years of age, pnxluce an 

 abundance of potential deer forage, this is 

 often unavailable because of deep snow 

 (Kirchhoff and Schoen 1987). Regardless 

 of snow conditions, however, deer forage 

 is virtually nonexislant in even-aged, 

 second-growth stands (Wallmo and 

 Schoen 1980, Alaback 1982). These 

 stands persist from about twenty-five 

 years after clearcutling until they are cut 



Volume 8 (3), 1988 



Natural Areas Journal 139 



