From the Director, David Briggs
SMC Fall Meeting September 22-24,
1999
The Fall meeting of the Policy Committee will be held in Victoria,
BC. In addition to the regular meeting previously announced for the
23rd and 24th, we have added an optional day on the 22nd for a field
trip to visit some interesting plantations, including mixed species
trials at Sooke, and western hemlock trials at Jordan River.
We will have our usual business meeting on the morning of the 23rd
when we will vote on the dues assessments for 2000 and have an election
for President of the Policy Committee.
Researchers at FORINTEK and PAPRICAN are finishing a study on second-growth
western hemlock. In the afternoon of the 23rd, three scientists will
present results on lumber, veneer, and pulping characteristics. After
their presentations, we plan to have concurrent sessions of the SMC
Technical Advisory Committees. On the 24th, we will get reports from
the Project Leaders and updates on the six research projects that the
SMC funded in 1998. Our plan is to adjourn after lunch on the 24th.
We will be sending additional details on dues assessments, request
for nominations for Policy Committee President, agenda, accommodations,
and sign-ups for the field trip and meals.
SMC Spring Meeting
We had a very successful meeting at McMenamin’s in Troutdale,
Oregon on March 15-16 with 43 attending and representing 22 member organizations.
The 15th was devoted to TAC meetings and on the 16th project leaders
summarized their meetings of the previous day. We then had a good discussion
on the budget and appointed a Finance Committee to examine recent trends
in dues and expenditures and develop some recommendations to cope with
some potential shortfalls that may occur in the future. The rest of
the meeting was devoted to discussion of future directions of the SMC.
A draft copy of the minutes has been recently mailed to all who attended
and to the members of the Policy Committee.
New External Funding
ONRC Funding
The Olympic Natural Resources Center has contributed $10,000 to the
SMC in support of the carry-over effects research program.
SMC is Funded by DOE as a Carbon Center
This project brings $70,000 over three years from Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (U.S. Dept. of Energy) to the SMC to estimate the effects
of forest management on C sequestration, particularly on how fertilization
on glacial till and volcanic-origin soils change the C cycle and C pools.
The SMC will house the Western Regional site for the National C Sequestration
Center (a new DOE Center), and this will almost certainly bring additional
funding to SMC over time
Articles in This
Issue
This issue contains five articles of interest. The first one is an
update on the Carryover Effects of Nitrogen
Fertilization on Douglas-Fir Stands. The aim of this study is to
provide a better understanding of the long term implications of Nitrogen
fertilization of forest plantations on subsequent stand growth. The
specific objectives of the study are to determine: 1) whether N-fertilization
increases the growth of subsequent stands, and after harvesting, and
2) any beneficial or antagonistic secondary effects of N-fertilization.
The second is a report on the Advanced Technology Initiative, which was
funded by the Washington State Legislature. The precision forestry initiative,
which includes the full scope of forestry activities from management
to wood processing and products manufacturing, will address the issue
of urban-rural income disparity in the state. The third report is by
graduate student Jeremy Wilson, Wind
Stability of Douglas-fir Plantations. This work is part of an analysis
that evaluated changing wind risk at the stand, landscape, and regional
scales. The analysis was supported by the Landscape Management Project,
a cooperative efforts between the University of Washington and the USFS
PNW Research Station. The fourth article is an update on the research
project examining the Effects
of Organic Matter Retention and Other Soil Management Practices on Long-term
Productivity of a Pacific Northwest Coastal Douglas-fir Site. This
study was initiated to investigate the long-term effects of common industry
practices on forest productivity and should begin to fill a critical
data gap that exists in the Pacific Northwest Region for Douglas-fir
management. The project is in the process of harvesting the study site,
and installing the experimental treatments. Following the treatment
installations will be another round of summer fieldwork, which will
involve assessing the extent of soil disturbance by mapping the treatment
plots and assigning visual disturbance classes. Lastly, Dr.
Joerg Prietzel a visiting scholar from Germany, discusses his research
on selected SMC installations.
Field Notes
Kudos
The members in the Stand Management Cooperative provide support to the
project in more ways than just paying their yearly dues. One such way
is each year, companies who have field installations on their lands
that have reached a "treatment trigger" are required to thin
and/or prune those plots to our specifications.
This requires a considerable commitment of time and money that does
not show up in the project budget. The SMC field crew in particular
would like to thank those companies and individuals that during the
1998-1999 field season worked with us to complete this work in an accurate
and timely way.
Special thanks to; Champion International (Jeff Madsen), Oregon Dept.
of Forestry (Bill Voelker), Olympic Resources Management (Rod Burns),
Pope Resources (Brian Schulz), Rayonier Timberlands (Larry Raynes),
Simpson Timber Company (Paul Wing, Gary Schuypen, and Fred Wedman),
The Timber Company (John Trobaugh, Steve Wickham), U.W. Pack Forest
(Mason McKinley), Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources (Norm
Anderson, George McFadden), Weyerhaeuser Company (Rod Meade, Rick Leon),
and Willamette Industries (Dennis St. Clair). Thank You!
Also, we would like to thank Ken Eimer and Coastal St. Helens Chemical
for donating this years fertilizer (UREA) for our plots.
New Plots
As schedule, two new Type IIIp's were installed this year. One in the
Skagit Valley and one on the Kitsap peninsula. The one on the peninsula
had room for 2 additional plots (Type IIIpa's) in each of the 6 spacings
(a total of 18 plots at that site). None were ready for treatments yet.
Also, three Type IIIpa's were established this spring. New plots in
the 3 widest spacings were pruned at all sites (total of 9 plots) and
4 plots had reached their first thinning trigger and were thinned.
Database Update
The database grows in size almost daily over the measurement season.
As of this writing, we have data from 435 installations containing 4,427
plots. In aggregate, these plots have been measured 24,380 times and
have received 4,232 individual treatments. There is data on 243,719
trees with 1,233,067 distinct measurements.
The life cycle of the current database has reached it’s end and
the database design is currently being reassessed. It is expected to
migrate the database from the current ACCESS 2.0 driver to ACCESS 2000
over the summer of 1999. ACCESS 2000 was selected as the least cost/highest
utility package available that meets our current and anticipated needs.
As before, this revised database design should have an effective operational
life of approximately four years before a new reassessment is necessary.
The only event that may require a shortening of the lifecycle is a drastic
increase in the dataflow. Under current conditions, the database software
should handle the expected growth of the database for a decade, although
it is expected that we will start to experience slight performance problems
primarily in retrieval speed after three more field seasons.
30th Anniversary of the Regional Forest Nutrition
Research Program
On June 16, 1969, RFNRP was formally created. This highly successful
program was the forerunner of the SMC and merged into the SMC in 1991
as the SMC’s Nutrition Project.
Carryover Effects of Nitrogen Fertilization
on Douglas fir Stands
The nitrogen carryover project is designed to examine the long-term
effects of additional organic matter produced in fertilized Douglas
fir plots versus control (non-fertilized) plots on subsequent plantations.
A synopsis of this project is available in the 1st quarter 1999 edition
of the SMC Quarterly.
Update
Site 134, Pack forest has had total elemental and C-H-N analysis finished
on foliage and understory plant samples, with soil analysis scheduled
to be completed in late spring. Site 156 Coyle has had C-H-N and total
elemental analysis finished for foliage samples with soil and forest
floor samples to be collected summer 1999. Foliage samples have been
taken, dried and ground for sites 168 Simpson’s log yard, 167 Hanks
lake and 177 Lookout . These will be analyzed for C-H-N and total elemental
content by late spring.
Work scheduled for summer 1999 includes soil sample collection, understory
plant characterization, for sites 17 Little Ohop, 156 Coyle, 167 Hanks
Lake, 168 Simpson log yard, and 177 Lookout with accompanying lab analysis.
The Stand Management Cooperative Home Page is provided by the College
of Forest Resources. To find the contact you need, please check the
Members or contact David
Briggs, SMC Director, or
Megan O'Shea, SMC Program Manager, SMC Cooperative, University of
Washington Box 352100 Seattle, WA 98195, 206-206.543.1581. © 2000-2001,
University of Washington, Stand Management Cooperative, including all
photographs and images unless otherwise noted.
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