• Start-up
  • Planning
  • Action
  • Evaluation

The Forest Society is working to promote diverse tree species composition and age structure on their property set within a mature forest landscape.

Invasive pests, more variable precipitation, and deer herbivory threaten the health and regeneration of key species in the Peirce Reservation including white ash and softwoods. The Forest Society is conducting a regeneration harvest in one stand on this property to enhance regeneration of desired species, increase tree vigor, and promote a diverse mix of future climate-adapted species.

Project Area

Location of Peirce Reservation and surrounding conservation lands (2022)
The Peirce Reservation is a 3,870-acre reservation located in southwest New Hampshire. It is predominantly encumbered by a restrictive forever wild conservation easement with about 850 acres of the property designated for active forest habitat management.

The Wright Pasture (Stand 14) comprises 142 acres in the southern end of the property and is one of those active management zones. The stand is dominated by hemlock-beech-northern hardwood and sugar maple-beech-yellow birch natural communities. The terrain slopes south-southwesterly. Soils in the stand are a mixture of Tunbridge, Berkshire, and Lyman fine sandy loams, with plenty of stones, boulders, and rocky outcrops. These soils are a mixture of Group IA (productive, rich, moist soils) and Group IIA (soils limited by slope or terrain). Hardwoods are dominant throughout, making up 73% of basal area, but there are just enough softwoods to consider this a mixedwood stand.

As the name indicates, this area is spotted with cellar holes and stone walls indicative of former settled land abandoned around the turn of the 20th century. The forests in the area have seen great disturbances since abandonment, including the hurricane of 1938 which left behind the fuels that fed the great Stoddard/Marlow fire of 1941. The fire burned through much of the areas in and surrounding this stand.

Management Goals

Specific management goals and objectives for the project area include:

Encourage ash seedling recruitment and release young ash trees to recoup losses from emerald ash borer mortality following the 2022 ash seed year

  • Identify areas suitable for white ash regeneration (i.e., areas with mature ash or advance ash regeneration)

  • Regenerate white ash wherever feasible including using regeneration cuts to release existing ash advance regeneration

Increase representation of young forest area to complement the surrounding acres of older forest and land under “forever wild” easement designation

  • Use timber harvests (patch cuts, shelterwood, and seed tree cuts) to establish 50+ acres of young forest

Maintain or increase existing tree species diversity to buffer impacts from pests and pathogens

  • Retain all 12 tree species recorded during 2022 inventory during timber harvest, even if they are of poor quality

  • Focus subsequent harvest entries on enhancing suitable growing conditions and vigor of all species retained and/or recruited (0-20 years)

  • Conduct thinnings to improve tree vigor and health and to favor tree species present in low numbers

Climate Change Impacts

For this project, the most important anticipated climate change impacts include:
Certain insect pests and pathogens (e.g., emerald ash borer, hemlock woolly adelgid) will increase in occurrence or become more damaging in the region due to milder winters which may allow some insect pests and pathogens to expand their ranges northward.
Many northern and boreal tree species will face increasing stress across much of the region (e.g., balsam fir, red spruce, and hemlock).
Across northern latitudes, warmer temperatures are expected to be more favorable to individuals near the northern extent of their species’ range (and less favorable to those near the southern extent).
The winter season will be shorter and milder, generally leading to less precipitation falling as snow and reduced snow cover.
Intense precipitation events will continue to become more frequent in the Northeast.
There is expected to be greater annual variation in streamflow, with increases in both low- and high-flow events throughout the course of the year, with more high streamflow days in winter and spring, and more low streamflow days in summer and fall.
Stream water temperatures have risen over the last century and are projected to continue increasing with warmer ambient air temperatures.
Warmer temperatures and altered precipitation will interact to change soil moisture patterns throughout the year, with the potential for both wetter and drier conditions depending on the location and season.
Many invasive plants will increase in extent or abundance in the region.

Challenges and Opportunities

Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives of this project, including:

Challenges

Increases in temperature, herbivory, and emerald ash borer threaten the health and regeneration of white ash.
Hemlock woolly adelgid presence may increase as winters become more mild, which increases the risk of mortality for eastern hemlock.
Heavy snow and ice loading on saplings due to wetter, warmer winters may damage saplings and make it more difficult to sustain young forest age classes.
Increases in drought, variability in precipitation patterns, and phenological mismatches threaten the regeneration of desired species.
Maintaining the softwood component in the forest may be difficult due to: projected declines in habitat suitability for northern/boreal, spread of hemlock woolly adelgid, and impacts of degraded soils on white pine health.
More frequent/intense storm events present an additional stressor to sustaining forest health.
The discovery of Beech Leaf Disease (BLD) in New Hampshire in 2022 has created concerns that beech may eventually cease to be a component of these northern hardwood stands.

Opportunities

A longer growing season may help to facilitate healthier ash seed trees and may increase tree vigor in the stand overall.
The stand currently contains a diverse mix of tree species enabling a variety of potential disturbance recovery pathways.
Southern tree species may see more suitable habitat on the site, which may enrich the species pool (e.g., black birch, white oak, red oak).
Loss of beech due to beech bark disease and beech leaf disease may reduce competition for other species.
Hemlock woolly adelgid is limited by cold temperatures and drought so there may be a lag in the effects on hemlock in the stand depending on seasonal variability year to year.

Adaptation Actions

Project participants used the Adaptation Workbook to develop several adaptation actions for this project, including:

Area/Topic
Approach
Tactics
Forest ecosystems
Map areas to target for management of desired species.
Use a mix of regenerative harvest techniques (seed tree, patch cut, shelterwood) to promote natural regeneration of desired species.
Tailor silvicultural practices to each desired species to encourage vigorous growth and diverse regeneration of native species.
Plant native tree species that are currently on site or located nearby (assisted population enrichment) that are expected to be adapted to future conditions (e.g., native oak species, hickory, and black birch).
Thin areas of the stand that are currently overstocked, favoring healthy trees of a variety of species.
Create size class diversity across the stand through group selection.
Implement regeneration harvests on about 50 acres to encourage high initial seedling abundance to overwhelm herbivores and help more seedlings overcome herbivory pressure.
Encourage hunting by leaving sufficient infrastructure to access the forest.

Monitoring

Project participants identified several monitoring items that could help inform future management, including:
Post-harvest regeneration surveys (Desired outcome: stocking levels increase for focal species such as ash, oak, fir, spruce, hemlock)
Overstory species diversity and stocking (Timeframe: 15-20 years post-harvest; Desired outcomes: stand density is between the B and C line on mixedwood stocking guide and species richness is maintained or increases from current level)
Ash regeneration success and EAB impact (Timeframe: 15-20 years post-harvest)
Use aerial imagery within 2 years post-harvest to map forest stand structure (Desired outcome: 20-50% of the stand acreage is in regeneration cuts/young forest structure)
Presence of new invasive plant species for early detection and rapid response particularly around harvest landing, main skid roads, and large openings (Timeframe: 5-10 years post-harvest)

Next Steps

The harvest is currently being completed during winter 2023-2024.

Last Updated