Biodiversity in the Forests of Maine: Guidelines for Land Management

Authors: Gro Flatebo, Ash Cove Consulting; Carol R. Foss, Consulting Biologist; Steven K. Pelletier, Woodlot Alternatives, Inc.

Editor: Catherine A. Elliott, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

UMCE Bulletin #7147

Overview: Introduction By Catherine A. Elliott, Gro Flatebo, Carol R. Foss, and Philip Gerard

The effects of forest management practices on both site-specific and landscape-level characteristics influence biological diversity in Maine’s managed forest. This manual provides descriptions of those characteristics and recommends voluntary forest practices that can help maintain forest biodiversity in Maine. The recommendations apply to private and public forestlands that are actively managed to produce timber and other forest products. The suggested practices are intended to maintain current biodiversity, but they can also be used to enhance components of biodiversity that have become locally or regionally uncommon. These recommendations contribute to the growing body of knowledge about managing forest resources but are not intended to be considered a comprehensive guide to forest management. Best Management Practices (BMPs) for erosion control and protection of water quality, silvicultural guidelines, species-specific habitat management practices, and techniques for addressing aesthetics, recreational, and non-timber income-producing activities are addressed in other publications.

By focusing on the potential influences of forest management on biological diversity this publication complements and expands on, “A Forester’s Guide to Managing Wildlife Habitats in Maine” (Elliott 1988), while adding a set of broad, landscape-level considerations and recommendations that have been absent from most previously published guidelines. The manual is primarily intended for use by foresters, biologists, loggers, forestland owners, and forestland managers; educators, land-use planners, and others interested in forest biodiversity will also find it useful.

Overview: Key Concepts by Gro Flatebo

Maintaining biodiversity in Maine’s managed forest is an important challenge as we move into the next millennium. The chapters in this manual detail goals, background information, and management recommendations for 22 characteristics critical to maintaining forest biodiversity. Fore those faced with the task of incorporating the recommendations into on-the-ground management plans, it is important to keep in mind two factors:

1. A single recommended practice may serve multiple purposes; and

2. Not all practices can, or should, be implemented on every acre.

To further assist readers with synthesizing this material, six key concepts have been drawn from the chapters to provide a starting point:

· Thing of individual stands as part of the landscape in which they are embedded. Forest managers can consider the interconnectedness of ecosystems, the proportions of stand types and successional stages, and the spatial pattern of stand types, sizes and successional stages on the landscape. Planning at the landscape level provides continuity of ecosystem types over time, enabling species to disperse and colonize. Landowners with small holdings can manage their lands with an eye on the characteristics of the surrounding forests.

· Within the mosaic of stand types, sizes, and age classes on the landscape, maintain a component of mature and overmature forest. Maintaining complexity across the landscape enhances biodiversity and dampens the effects of natural disturbances. Late-successional stands that are functional in terms of size and structure host an array of species that are less abundant in younger forests, as well as some species that depend on late-successional conditions.

· Consider what natural disturbance processes have taught us about tools and mechanisms to maintain biodiversity. Natural disturbances, including fire, wind, ice, insects, and pathogens, produced the landscape patterns in which native plants and animals evolved and continue to contribute to the heterogeneity of our forests. Most natural disturbances leave complex patterns of stand shapes, sizes, and ages, as well as complex structures including woody debris and remnant live patches.

· Maintain biological legacies within stands. Biological legacies are the threads of continuity passing from old to new stands. Examples of biological legacies are large, dead wood left on site after a harvest; large, live overstory trees; patches of older forest; multiple canopy layers; and soil structural characteristics of the forest floor. Biological legacies maintain processes, habitats, and linkages within the stand.

· Consider what is left behind during a harvest, as well as what is removed. Maintaining biodiversity and forest sustainability requires attention to the structure and processes that persist after the harvest has been completed.

· Understand the importance of special habitats and features on your land and adapt your management to maintain them. Many special habitats and features are critical for certain species at some point in their life cycle. They are often rare or especially vulnerable to alteration or disturbance and require special consideration during forest management activities.