What are the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of restoring and maintaining late-successional forest ecosystems?
We do not know how to restore functioning late-successional forest ecosystems from a landscape dominated by young stands–it’s never been tried. In addition to the uncertainty about how current old-growth forests developed, and incomplete knowledge of the species and ecosystem functions found within them, we are not sure how forests will develop following different kinds of management. Although general responses of coastal forests to thinning are known, especially growth of overstory trees in response to commercial thinning (Drew and Flewelling 1979, Curtis and Marshall 1993, Bailey 1996), long-term responses of species habitat and ecosystem function are not. For example, development of multi-storied canopy structure in mature forests is not a guaranteed process because of limited seed dispersal and particular microsite requirements for establishment of shade-tolerant conifers like western hemlock (Gray and Spies 1997, Schrader 1998). There is general agreement on the primary goals of
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