A Restoration Framework for Federal Forests in the Pacific Northwest

We outline elements of a forest restoration strategy designed to produce ecological and economic benefits on federal forests in Oregon and Washington, along with some of their policy and management implications. Implementation of this restoration strategy has begun on 11 projects (at scales from hundreds to thousands of acres) on federal lands. On Moist Forest sites (MF), the strategy calls for reserving older forest stands, thinning plantations to accelerate development of structural complexity, and implementing variable retention harvests in younger forests to help provide diverse early seral ecosystems. On Dry Forest (DF) sites, the strategy calls for silvicultural treatments that retain and release older trees, reduce stand densities, shift composition toward fire- and drought-tolerant tree species, and incorporate spatial heterogeneity at multiple spatial scales. Immediate goals of this restoration framework include increased ecological integrity and resilience in DFs, increased diversity and complexity of successional stages in MFs, and provision of wood products to local communities. Over the long run, we believe this program can provide an acceptable pathway to sustained yield on federal forestlands in the Pacific Northwest.