Forested Wetlands and Silvicultural Practices Breakout Sessions Sponsored

Forested Wetlands and Silvicultural Practices: Breakout Sessions Sponsored by the Cooperative Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research Committee (CMER) of the Timber, Fish, and Wildlife (TFW) Agreement November 1, 2002 Lacey, Washington

Breakout Session Information Objectives! 1. Which forest management practices are expected to influence forested wetland functions? 2. What is known about the effects of management of forested wetlands? Which functions are important? 3. What questions will address the information needs? What is our ability to investigate priority questions? What should our priorities be?

Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules Reviewed: Washington State Forest Practices: What’s in the Wetland Rules? • • Wetland Definition Classification and Ranking Mapping Road Construction Timber Harvest Ground-based Harvest Systems Slash Disposal and Prescribed Burning

Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules Reviewed: Forest Practices Classification: Level of protection determined by rank • “Nonforested” means crown closure of <30% – Type A= wetlands associated with open water – Type B= Doesn’t meet Type A criteria • Bogs considered Type A whether forested or not • Forested Wetlands

Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules Reviewed: What’s a Forested Wetland? “Any wetland or portion thereof that has, or if the trees were mature would have, a crown closure of 30% or more”

Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules Reviewed: Timber Harvest: What’s allowed in Forested Wetlands? ü Forested wetlands do not have Wetland Management Zones (buffers) ü Logging is permitted within forested wetlands ü Low impact harvest or cable systems only; ground -based systems in dry season or frozen soil only ü Where feasible, at least one end of the log shall be suspended during yarding ü Landowners are encouraged to leave 30 -70% of required wildlife reserve trees within forested wetlands

Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules Reviewed: Road construction ü No net loss of wetland function ü Keep roads out of wetlands unless alternatives are more damaging ü Losses of function must be “mitigated” ü Delineation not required for projects that fill or drain less than one tenth acre ü Filling or draining of more than 0. 5 acres requires replacement of lost area on a two-for-one basis, “generally” on site and in kind

Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules Reviewed: Spoils in wetlands ü Keep spoils out of wetlands unless alternative sites would be more damaging ü Using wetlands for spoil disposal requires written approval ü Spoil areas over 0. 5 acres not allowed in wetlands

How to prioritize based on risk and uncertainty? Conceptual model for information priorities. The amount of monitoring/research should increase as the degrees of risk or certainty increases. In this model “uncertainty” is undefined uncertainty or ignorance. “Risk” is based on defined uncertainty, I. e. , the probability that an adverse event will occur.