FERP: Designing and Understanding Silviculture Systems for the Future.

Department of Forest Ecosystem Science

University of Maine, Orono

The Forest Ecosystem Research Program (FERP) was initiated in 1993 on the Penobscot Experiment Forest in Bradley, Maine, as a collaborative effort between the University of Maine and the U.S. Forest Service. The Focus of FERP has been understanding the ecological relationships within the Acadian forest as harvested using two versions of a gap silvicultural system, which is loosely based on the famous German "Femelschlag" system and incorporates many aspects of ecological forestry. Differences between pre-harvest, baseline data collected in 1995-1997 and post-harvest data collected in 1998-2002 are being used to compare this system with forest structure developed by both natural tree-fall gaps and by more traditional harvesting regimes of this region (i.e., selection cutting). Current areas of investigation include: 1) the relationship between herbaceous cover for various species and light intensity both in man-made and natural gaps. 2) the effects of harvesting on type and decay of downed woody material (DWD). 3) the spatial distribution of DWD within harvested gaps and the surrounding matrix. New studies are investigating how the characteristics of canopy gaps and DWD influence understory vegetation communities, arthropod communities, and amphibian populations.