North Quabbin MA Timber Harvesting Study
HF046 EML Publications ArchiveData
- hf046-01: timber harvest
Overview
- Lead: David Kittredge, David Foster
- Investigators: John Burk
- Contact: David Kittredge
- Start date: 1984-01-01
- End date: 2001-12-31
- Location: North Central Massachusetts
- Latitude:
- Longitude:
- Elevation:
- Taxa:
- Research topic: conservation, historical, regional
- Study type: historical
- LTER core area: disturbance
- Keywords: conservation, private land, timber harvest
- Release date: 2006
- EML version: knb-lter-hfr.46.8
- Revisions:
- Related links:
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Abstract:
Although the northeastern U.S. includes extensive areas of aggrading forest, uncertainty regarding the intensity and pattern of forest harvesting hampers an understanding of important ecological processes and characteristics such as carbon and nitrogen storage, habitat quality, and forest dynamics, and impedes regional conservation and management planning. Due to the complex ownership pattern dominated by thousands of non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners and the difficulty of detecting selective logging using remote sensing, details of the harvesting regime remain largely unknown to the scientific and policy communities. To examine the value of statewide regulatory data for Massachusetts as a unique source of this critical information, we analyzed 17 years of timber harvest data gathered for regulatory purposes for a 168,000-ha forested landscape in Massachusetts that is the focus of concerted conservation planning and intensive study of landscape and ecosystem pattern and process. The North Quabbin Region is heavily wooded with a complicated ownership pattern dominated by over 2,500 NIPF owners, three state agencies, and diverse conservation and municipal holdings.
The extent and intensity of harvesting were surprising, with an annual disturbance rate of 1.5% and a mean intensity of 44.7 m3 ha-1 (approximately one-fourth of average stand volume). The predominant form of harvesting was selective removal of commercially valuable tree sizes, grades and species (e.g., Quercus rubra and Pinus strobus). The spatial pattern of logging was random with regards to major physical, biological, or cultural factors. However, logging was strongly related to landowner class. NIPF owners control 60% of the forest area and were responsible for 64.1% of harvest area, but the highest logging intensity (volume per area harvested; 69.3 m3 ha-1) among major landowners was conducted by the state agency responsible for managing southern New England's largest conservation property, the watershed of Boston's drinking reservoir.
This regime of chronic disturbance is occurring over the entire landscape and exerting a major influence on forest composition, dynamics, and habitat quality. However, dispersed selective harvesting is largely unnoticed by residents, is routinely overlooked by ecologists and conservationists, and would remain unrecognized in the absence of this previously unused regulatory data. These results identify the value of regional regulatory spatial information to estimate ecological trends and to assist in conservation planning. Given similarities among ownership and forest patterns for much of the northeastern U.S., we expect that the broad findings of this study to have regional application.
- Methods:
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Use:
This dataset is released to the public and may be freely downloaded. Please keep the designated Contact person informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation or collaboration with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset must include proper acknowledgement. For more information on LTER Network data access and use policies, please see: http://www.lternet.edu/data/netpolicy.html.
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Citation:
Kittredge D, Foster D. 2006. North Quabbin MA Timber Harvesting Study. Harvard Forest Data Archive: HF046.
Detailed Metadata
hf046-01: timber harvest
- FY: fiscal year in which forest cutting plan (FCP) was received by Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management (DEM) (YYYY)
- Date: date on which FCP was received by DEM (YYYYMMDD)
- County: county
- FR: Franklin
- WO: Worcester
- HS: Hampshire
- Town1: name of town where forest harvest occurred
- Town2: name of second town if forest harvest overlapped town boundary
- Polygons: number of separate polygons in FCP (number )
- Acres: harvest area in acres (acre )
- Mbf: estimated volume to be removed in thousand board feet (cubicInch )
- Cds: estimated volume to be removed in cords (cord )
- Tons: estimated volume to be removed in tons (ton )
- Wetlands: presence of wetlands on harvest site
- N: no
- Y: yes
- Obj: primary objective of harvest
- NA: NA
- 1: wood production
- 2: short-term income
- 3: wildlife habitat
- 4: aesthetics & recreation
- 5: soil & water management
- 6: other
- Obj2: second objective of harvest
- NA: NA
- 1: wood production
- 2: short-term income
- 3: wildlife habitat
- 6: other
- Obj3: third objective of harvest
- NA: NA
- 1: wood production
- 2: short-term income
- 3: wildlife habitat
- 4: aesthetics & recreation
- 5: soil & water management
- 6: other
- Owner: owner type
- 1: DEM or other Mass agencies
- 2: MDC (Massachusetts District Commission)
- 3: local agencies
- 4: nonprofits
- 5: private owners
- 6: sawmill companies
- 7: federal agencies
- Public: public land
- N: no
- Y: yes
- Area-m2: harvest area in square meters calculated with ArcView (squareMeter )
- Area-ha: harvest area in hectares calculated with ArcView (hectare )
- Area-acres: harvest area in acres calculated with ArcView (acre )
- Tcords: total volume in cords calculated from Cds and Tons. Tcords = Cds + (Tons/2.5). (cord )
- Tmbf: total volume in thousand board feet calculated from Tcords and Mbf. Tmbf = Mbf + (Tcords/2). (cubicInch )
- Tvol-m3: total volume in cubic meters calculated from Tmbf. Tvol-m3 = 3.4804*Tmbf. (cubicMeter )
- HI-m3/ha: harvest intensity in cubic meters removed per hectare (cubicMetersPerHectare )
- HF-mbf/acre: harvest intensity in thousand board feet removed per acre (thousandBoardFeetPerAcre )