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Questions often asked by landowners who wish to restore their property include: What is restoration? Where do we start? How much will it cost?
Forest restoration can be defined as the direct manipulation of ecosystems through tree planting, prescribed burning, seeding native plants and/or cutting small diameter trees. It is often the best approach on sites that have altered plant communities that will not return to a desired condition through natural processes.
In many degraded forest habitats throughout the west, active management is needed to restore these habitats to the desired structure and function.
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Successful restoration projects require:
- Clear goals and objectives;
- Interdisciplinary site assessment;
- Examination of treatment alternatives;
- Implementation of treatments;
- Site monitoring;
- Follow-up treatments; and
- A commitment to adaptive management.
As restoration practitioners, IRM has led restoration efforts on over 9,000 acres of forest habitats.
Our staff and associates are on the cutting edge of implementing "state-of-the-science" treatments throughout the Pacific Northwest. |
Services
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Restoration Planning and Implementation for all PNW forest types
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Habitat Restoration Plans
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Low-Impact Thinning/Brush Systems
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Snag Creation
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Noxious Weed Control
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Native Understory Restoration
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Vegetation/Habitat Typing
Rowena Wilds Oak Restoration and Fuel Reduction
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Rowena Wilds is a planned rural housing development that was designed around strict ecological covenants. The 200 acre community located at the eastern edge of the Columbia Gorge, southeast of Mosier, Oregon contains high-quality remnant pine and oak habitats that have been encroached with fir and oak regeneration.
IRM was hired to work with Rowena Wilds' landowners to design forest restoration prescriptions to reduce forest fuels and restore savanna habitats. Funding was provided by a fuels reduction grant from the Oregon Department of Forestry. |
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IRM designed silvicultural prescriptions that achieved oak habitat and preserved the visual qualities of the forest using a technique called "mosaic thinning.
Restorative treatments were tailored to the specific needs of each landowner to maintain a desired aesthetic. IRM completed thinnings, removed slash, and re-seeded burn piles. |
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Gill Oak Restoration
The Gill property consists of 200 acres of remnant oak woodland and savanna near Oakland, Oregon. The land has high habitat potential due to remnant native grass populations and large oaks. Yet years of neglect, overgrazing, and tree harvest by the previous owner had left the property choked with noxious weeds and overstocked with young oaks.
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IRM was hired to work with the landowner to develop a management plan that stresses restoration of remnant high value oak habitats while allowing limited grazing and future tree cutting. Funding was secured through USFW grants to cover the cost of much of this work.
A host of experimental treatments were implemented on the tract to reduce English hawthorne in oak savannas, expand native grasslands, and restore riparian vegetation function along Oldham Creek.
This project restored habitat for a number of at-risk species including the Columbia white-tailed deer, white-breasted nuthatch, and western pond turtle. |
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Klickitat Oak Habitat Sampling and Restoration
IRM was hired by the Forest Restoration Partnership in partnership with the Columbia Land Trust to survey Dillacourt and Logging Camp Preserves. Data was collected on existing conditions including botanical and wildlife surveys, and a forest and road inventory.
IRM installed a network of 170 permanent GPS referenced vegetation sampling and digital photo points and collected data on trees, understory vegetation including noxious weeds, snags, and down wood resources. This information was used to produce an existing conditions report, a baseline of natural resources on the property.
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In the summer of 2004, 130 acres were thinned using a "mosaic" approach where retained trees were variably distributed. A combination of hand falling and piling, and mechanical sheering with the LightfootTM, a low impact rubber-tracked machine, was utilized. As part of this treatment, an experimental thinning approach was implemented around identified western gray squirrel nests. This thinning prescription reduced fuels and fire risk, and released oak and pine from competition with neighboring trees while maintaining aerial "escape corridors" radiating out from nest trees.
Down wood levels were increased by leaving coarse woodpiles, while fine fuels ("kindling" sized pieces), which contribute to high intensity fire behavior, were reduced. The above treatments were the initial steps in a multi-year plan to restore mature oak structure, native understory cover, and reduce fire danger on Columbia Land Trust properties within the Klickitat drainage. |
Before "mosaic" thinning |
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Subsequent treatments will include prescribed burning, use of goats, native grass seeding, herbicide control of noxious grasses, and re-establishment of native bunchgrasses. Monitoring will include repeat photography and remeasurement of permanent inventory plots. Burn pile will be monitored for noxious weeds. Follow-up squirrel surveys are also planned.
In summary, restorative prescriptions across the ownership were designed as a compromise between the desire to increase tree vigor and reduce fire risk while minimizing burn pile impacts, managing light levels to understory, and maintaining habitat for focal species. |
After "mosaic" thinning |
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