• Start-up
  • Planning
  • Action
  • Evaluation

The Chippewa NF has worked with partners to design and implement a silvicultural study for climate change adaptation on the Cutfoot Experimental Forest.

The Chippewa National Forest (CNF) is participating in a study called the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) Network. The goals of this project are to test different silvicultural approaches to climate change and forest health adaptation that will also serve as useful examples across the U.S. and Canada.
Map of all the on-going and proposed ASCC sites, project leaders, and partners.
Panel of photos showing four treatments on Cutfoot EF in MN, a) no-action control, b) resistance, c) resilience (with gap on left-hand side of photo, thinned matrix on right-hand side), and d) transition treatments. (Photos courtesy of Molly Roske and Eli Sagor)
Natural-origin red pine stand at the ASCC study site, prior to treatment.
Thinning treatment applied to the Resistance stands.
One of the 0.5-acre gaps installed over 15-20% of the stand as part of the Resilience treatment.
Ponderosa pine planted in the ASCC Transition treatment.
One of the larger gaps installed in the Transition treatment, along with a heavier thinning of the surrounding matrix.

Project Area

ASCC Project Investigators Chris Swanston, Brian Palik, and Linda Nagel
The National ASCC Network leads worked with the Chippewa National Forest and local partners to design and implement a silvicultural study for climate change adaptation on the Cutfoot Experimental Forest in Minnesota.

The installation on the Chippewa National Forest Cutfoot Experimental Forest was the first project site to be planned and implemented. The Cutfoot Experimental Forest covers approximately 3,000 acres, the majority which consists of natural-origin red pine stands. The stands identified for this project are dominated by red pine regenerated from a fire roughly 100 years ago. Learn more about the Cutfoot Experimental Forest here: www.nrs.fs.fed.us/ef/locations/mn/cutfoot/.

Management Goals

A team of natural resource specialists from the CNF and researchers familiar with the Cutfoot Experimental Forest participated in a three-day workshop in July 2013 to develop the study design for the CNF ASCC project site. The team developed a set of Desired Future Condition statements, Objectives, and Tactics for each major climate adaptation trajectory (resistance, resilience, transition). These three trajectories are summarized briefly below:

Resistance: 

  • Life boat red pine into a drier future by increasing soil moisture availability during drought
  • Maintain red pine dominance (90% basal area) while increasing soil moisture availability during drought
  • Productivity remains high and disturbance remains low, but there may be variability within an acceptable range
  • Reduce stocking closer to woodland structure

Resilience: 

  • Red pine remains dominant (50-75% basal area)
  • Increase heterogeneity and structural complexity
  • Increase native future-adapted species
  • Productivity remains high and disturbance remains low, but there may be variability within an acceptable range

Transition: 

  • Reduce red pine dominance to 20 – 50%
  • Increase future-adapted species
  • Productivity and disturbance occur within slightly wider acceptable ranges
  • Increase heterogeneity and structural complexity

Climate Change Impacts

Key climate change impacts that the project team considered for the Cutfoot Experimental Forest included:
Increasing drought stress, leading to more damage from pests and diseases
Increased risk of wildfire

Challenges and Opportunities

Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives for red pine ecosystems, like those on the Cutfoot Experimental Forest, including:

Challenges

Red pine, the dominant tree species in these stands, is projected to have reduced habitat suitability under future climate scenarios
Other northern species on site are expected to have reduced habitat suitability under climate change: quaking aspen, balsam fir, paper birch, jack pine, white spruce

Opportunities

Some tree species found locally are expected to have increased habitat suitability under climate change: bur oak, red maple, bitternut hickory, black cherry, white oak
Habitat suitability for eastern white pine and northern red oak is not expected to change substantially in north-central Minnesota

Adaptation Actions

The ASCC project was designed to explicitly test three different adaptation options: resistance, resilience, and transition. A detailed silvicultural prescription was designed for each adaptation option, which was replicated several times across the study site.  The study site also includes several no-action "control" stands for comparison. Some of the adaptation tactics employed in this project include: (numbers refer to the menu of Adaptation Strategies and Approaches from the Adaptation Workbook)

Area/Topic
Approach
Tactics
Resistance
1.4. Reduce competition for moisture, nutrients, and light.
Uniform (free) thin (100 ft2/acre) removing red pine and jack pine to maintain species diversity
Maintain red pine dominance
Resilience
1.4. Reduce competition for moisture, nutrients, and light.
5.2. Maintain and restore diversity of native species.
Site preparation in gaps with harrow disk
Variable density thin (20% in gaps, 20% in reserves, matrix thinned to 110 ft2/acre)
Maintain red pine dominance
Plant future-adapted native species in gaps (eastern white pine, jack pine, red oak, bur oak, and red maple)
Transition
5.1. Promote diverse age classes.
9.7. Introduce species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
Site preparation in gaps with harrow disk
Irregular shelterwood (20% in gaps, thin matrix to 70 ft2/acre)
Increase future-adapted species in gaps and matrix, including native and new species (eastern white pine, red oak, bur oak, white oak, red maple, bitternut hickory, black cherry, and ponderosa pine)

Monitoring

Monitoring is an essential component of the ASCC study site. Research partners from many institutions are working together to investigate the effects of the different silvicultural treatments. Some of the monitoring items include:
Residual tree survival and growth
Songbird community responses
Planted seedling survival and growth
Natural tree regeneration

Project Documents

Next Steps

The Cutfoot Experimental Forest ASCC project site will be tended and monitored into the future. This includes vegetation control around planted seedlings and deer browse protection on pine seedlings. A second entry into the resistance treatment will likely be planned to keep the residual basal area at 90-100 ft2/ac. Team members are using the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) to model forest growth and survival to assess how well each treatment meets it’s associated DFCs under climate change scenarios.

Learn More

Keywords

Assisted migration
Research
Upland conifers

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