J2 - Silv prescriptions.doc

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Healthy Forest & Fuels Reduction Project Implementation: Marking, Cruising and Layout Attachment A – Silvicultural Prescriptions for Units to be Marked and Cruised

Silvicultural Prescription for Units to be Marked and Cruised

Bid Item 1 (Burgo Timber Sale)

Bid Item 2 (Stub Timber Sale)

Bid Item 3 (Rookie Timber Sale)

The following guidelines apply to ALL payment units listed above

Treatment Objective:

To regenerate the units under contract.

Implementation Treatment:

Harvest Method: Clearcut with Reserves; PC30 (aka coppice cut with high reserves), or seed tree methods.

Marking guidelines: Designate quaking aspen, paper birch, balsam fir, red maple, white spruce, and black spruce for harvest (all remainder species, especially red and white pines, are to be left uncut).

General guidelines for residual trees:

· Reserve trees will include all non-designated species as well as the full variety of designated tree species found in each unit to provide within stand diversity and structural diversity.

· In general, retain a minimum of 6-12 live designated trees species left uncut per acre (minimum diameter is 6” dbh)

Legacy Patch requirements:

· Retain a minimum of 5% of the stand in legacy patches of live trees where no ground disturbing activities or harvest occurs.

· Legacy patches should vary in size with a minimum of 1/4 acre per patch, scattered throughout the unit. Patches should be at least two acres in size whenever possible.

· Legacy patches should represent the community type being harvested, including some high quality trees.

· When designating the legacy patch consider including important habitat features such as wetland inclusions, seasonal (vernal) ponds, den trees, cavity trees, or trees with stick nests, large mature white pine, rare plant locations, rare native plant communities, or areas that provide landscape connectivity or travel corridors between adjacent forest cover patches.

· Generally, when two or more adjacent stands are clearcut and have a combined acreage of greater than 20 acres, the legacy patch design features will apply.

Stand Boundary designation:

1) When laying out unit boundaries be aware of foresttype and follow stand boundaries accordingly (maps may contain some stand boundaries errors).

2) ELT 18 occurs along the edge of these units. Exclude these areas from harvests.

(The soil type ELT 18 is upland, droughty loam, and sandy loam soils, less than 8” deep over bedrock, with bedrock outcrops occurring on 5 to 30 percent of the ground surface. Soils are susceptible to nutrient loss due to the thinner surface organic layer and shallow soil depth.)

The following guidelines apply only to the Jack pine and Spruce-fir units (Burgo Payment Unit 1-3) Include these additional marking guidelines for the jack pine and spruce fir units only:

· Retain 6-10 jack pine per acre either scattered or in clumps where ecologically appropriate, to provide foraging habitat for three-toed woodpeckers. Where not enough jack pine occurs, upland black spruce may be substituted. (The rest of the leave trees can be other species as identified above) The following guidelines apply only to the Paper birch Seedtree units (all of the Stub Timber Sale units, and Rookie Payment Units 3-2, 3-3, and 3-5) Include these additional marking guidelines for the paper birch units only:

Marking guidelines: Designate quaking aspen, paper birch, balsam fir, red maple, white spruce, and black spruce for harvest.

· Mark paper birch as seed trees throughout the above units. Wherever possible avoid single marked paper birch seed trees. Mark clumps (group of single trees) of 2 and 3 seed trees. This will help the stems to protect each other and slow down any potential sun-scald related mortality.

· Mark single large white spruce as next preferred seed tree where there is no birch available for seed trees.

· Mark single aspen if no spruce present.

· In areas almost pure to birch mark most of the scattered single aspens as leave trees so suckering doesn’t reach maximum levels.

· Total minimum number of seed trees per acre should be between 5-10.

IF SITE CONDITIONS PERMIT:

· For even distribution space the single or clumped seed trees approximately 99 ft. apart (one and a half chains).

· No multiple stemmed paper birch to be retained in the stands as seed trees.

Treatment Codes and Definitions