Chippewa National Forest: Laurentian Vegetation Management Project
The inter-disciplinary project planning team used the Adaptation Workbook in the spring of 2014, and a final Environmental Assessment for the project was released in June 2015. The project is now moving forward with implementation.
Project Area
Management Goals
The overall goal for this project is to move the area closer to the Chippewa National Forest's existing goals for vegetation composition within the different Landscape Ecosystems. Management activities on approximately 3,200 acreas are specifically designed to:
- Increase acres of upland white pine and spruce/fir forest types
- Decrease acres of upland aspen forest types
- Maintain and increase structural and species diversity in young and old stands.
Climate Change Impacts
Adaptation Actions
Project participants used the Adaptation Workbook to develop several adaptation actions for this project, and also identified many ways that "business-as-usual" forest management on the Chippewa NF aslo supports climate adaptation. Some of these ideas included:
Area/Topic | Approach | Tactics |
---|---|---|
Project-wide considerations | 1.2. Maintain or restore hydrology. | Removing the Jingo Lake Impoundment to improve watershed and stream habitat Removing roads that are identified as unnecessary, and only building temporary roads |
Aspen stands | 2.3. Manage herbivory to promote regeneration of desired species. 5.1. Promote diverse age classes. | Create patches of young aspen (0-9 age class) by clearcutting approximately 800 acres. Clearcut bigger patches of aspen, which keeps deer away from the interior of the cut. |
9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions. | Convert aspen stands to other forest types that are better suited to future climate conditions, focusing on stands were oak and paper birch (40 acres) or white pine (250 acres) are present. | |
5.2. Maintain and restore diversity of native species. | Reserve long-lived conifers oaks, and cedar in managed aspen stands. | |
Red pine | 1.4. Reduce competition for moisture, nutrients, and light. | Thinning will occur on 660 acres of red pine stands |
5.1. Promote diverse age classes. | Trees from all size classes will be cut in red pine stands to maintain structural diversity | |
5.2. Maintain and restore diversity of native species. 9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions. | Species other than red pine will be retained during thinning operations. | |
Black ash | 9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions. 9.2. Establish or encourage new mixes of native species. | Diversity planting after harvest in black ash stands would occur on about 13 acres (black spruce, tamarack, white spruce, yellow birch, white pine, hackberry, and other suitable species) |