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00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:05,633
So as we all know,

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00:00:05,633 --> 00:00:09,390
climate change is one of the
bigger threats of our time.

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00:00:09,390 --> 00:00:13,440
And in addition to increasing
or changing our precipitation

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00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:16,680
and temperature patterns,
we're also seeing increases

15
00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,190
in the frequency and the
severity of forest disturbance.

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00:00:20,190 --> 00:00:22,590
So we're all familiar with the increases

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00:00:22,590 --> 00:00:25,860
in wildfires out west, but
we're also seeing increases

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00:00:25,860 --> 00:00:29,250
in insect outbreaks and then disturbances,

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00:00:29,250 --> 00:00:31,773
like wind disturbances
and tornado disturbances.

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00:00:33,780 --> 00:00:36,870
And for foresters, when we
have these disturbances,

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00:00:36,870 --> 00:00:38,190
the common management response

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00:00:38,190 --> 00:00:40,620
is salvage logging and salvage logging,

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00:00:40,620 --> 00:00:41,580
for those of you who don't know

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00:00:41,580 --> 00:00:44,670
is the removal of
commercially valuable wood

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00:00:44,670 --> 00:00:46,410
following a natural disturbance.

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00:00:46,410 --> 00:00:48,180
So this image is a photo

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00:00:48,180 --> 00:00:53,160
of a salvage logged area
following a tornado disturbance.

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00:00:53,160 --> 00:00:54,360
And you can see that there were lots

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00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,050
of stumps remaining from snapped trees

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00:00:58,050 --> 00:01:01,173
and all of the valuable woody
material has been removed.

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00:01:02,940 --> 00:01:05,800
So salvage logging is a
very controversial topic

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00:01:07,230 --> 00:01:09,180
and there's lots of reasons why we do it.

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00:01:09,180 --> 00:01:13,500
The primary reason is to
avoid economic losses.

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00:01:13,500 --> 00:01:14,430
So as you might imagine

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00:01:14,430 --> 00:01:16,770
if you've been growing
a wood lot for 40 years,

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00:01:16,770 --> 00:01:20,340
and then it randomly blows down
in an unexpected wind event,

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00:01:20,340 --> 00:01:22,640
you might wanna salvage
some of that material.

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00:01:23,700 --> 00:01:24,660
So that's the main reason.

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00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:26,430
But there's also some ecological reasons

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00:01:26,430 --> 00:01:28,140
why we might salvage log.

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00:01:28,140 --> 00:01:29,624
So some studies suggest

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00:01:29,624 --> 00:01:32,610
that by salvaging, we can reduce the risk

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00:01:32,610 --> 00:01:34,950
of insect population explosions

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00:01:34,950 --> 00:01:37,170
as bark beetles are often attracted

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00:01:37,170 --> 00:01:39,750
to large amounts of deadwood.

46
00:01:39,750 --> 00:01:41,610
And if those populations get too high,

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00:01:41,610 --> 00:01:43,960
they might start feeding
on live trees as well.

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00:01:45,090 --> 00:01:45,923
And then of course,

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00:01:45,923 --> 00:01:48,720
we might be able to reduce
fire risk through salvaging

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00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:50,520
but this is only really effective

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00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:52,560
if we're moving the
fine weighting material

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00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:56,163
in addition to the larger logs.

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00:01:57,810 --> 00:02:01,500
So there are lots of cons
to salvage logging as well.

54
00:02:01,500 --> 00:02:04,800
And this book kind of looking
at the ecological consequences

55
00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:08,043
of salvage logging kind of
outlines many of those cons.

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00:02:09,150 --> 00:02:12,210
But the issue with salvage
logging is that often,

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00:02:12,210 --> 00:02:15,870
the disturbance is a lot heavier
than a traditional harvest.

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00:02:15,870 --> 00:02:18,000
And you have kind of a
compounded disturbance

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00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,250
where you have this natural
disturbance that occurred

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00:02:20,250 --> 00:02:23,133
and then another management
disturbance on top of that.

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00:02:24,420 --> 00:02:27,150
So some of the risks here
involve damaging soils,

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00:02:27,150 --> 00:02:28,710
which of course, can happen in any sort

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00:02:28,710 --> 00:02:31,290
of forest harvest where
you have compaction

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00:02:31,290 --> 00:02:32,943
and rutting erosion.

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00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:35,940
So that's an issue.

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00:02:35,940 --> 00:02:36,870
And then there's lots

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00:02:36,870 --> 00:02:39,540
of substrate for
deadwood-dependent species.

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00:02:39,540 --> 00:02:40,890
So of course we have a lots

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00:02:40,890 --> 00:02:43,650
of insects and fungi that
kind of rely on deadwood.

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00:02:43,650 --> 00:02:47,013
And when you're removing
that, that substrate is lost.

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00:02:47,910 --> 00:02:50,160
And then finally, it might
impede tree regeneration

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00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:51,330
and forest recovery.

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00:02:51,330 --> 00:02:52,163
And this is the point

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00:02:52,163 --> 00:02:54,300
that I'm really gonna
focus on for this talk.

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00:02:55,500 --> 00:02:57,633
So I had three research questions.

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00:02:58,770 --> 00:02:59,760
My first question is

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00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:02,550
does salvage logging alter
regeneration abundance

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00:03:02,550 --> 00:03:04,500
in species composition?

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00:03:04,500 --> 00:03:06,990
And here this is kind of the question

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00:03:06,990 --> 00:03:08,550
that's guiding this research.

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00:03:08,550 --> 00:03:11,010
So I'm really interested in
seeing how regeneration differs

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00:03:11,010 --> 00:03:13,170
between stands that were salvage logged

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00:03:13,170 --> 00:03:17,613
and stands that just were
impacted by a natural disturbance.

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00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:20,430
And then my second
question is does blowdown

85
00:03:20,430 --> 00:03:23,640
in salvage conditions
influence browse pressure?

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00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:26,700
So as was mentioned in
the first talk today,

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00:03:26,700 --> 00:03:29,730
deer and moose browse is a
big issue in the northeast.

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00:03:29,730 --> 00:03:33,357
So there's, yeah, there's some
differences in how blowdown

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00:03:33,357 --> 00:03:36,423
and salvage conditions
might might influence that.

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00:03:37,740 --> 00:03:39,570
And then my final question is

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00:03:39,570 --> 00:03:42,390
does salvage logging influence
microclimate conditions?

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00:03:42,390 --> 00:03:43,890
And this is actually an element

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00:03:43,890 --> 00:03:45,870
that I'm not going to
talk about much today

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00:03:45,870 --> 00:03:48,393
as these results are
still pending analysis.

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00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:52,410
So I was really lucky I
got to do this research

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00:03:52,410 --> 00:03:55,080
in Baxter State Park, which is known

97
00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:58,380
for being the home to Mount
Katahdin pictured here.

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00:03:58,380 --> 00:04:00,900
Ultimately, however, my
research did not happen

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00:04:00,900 --> 00:04:02,880
on top of Katahdin.

100
00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:06,420
So this is a map of Baxter,
and my research happened

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00:04:06,420 --> 00:04:09,720
in the far northwest
corner where that kind

102
00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:11,580
of red outline is.

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00:04:11,580 --> 00:04:13,860
And that's the scientific
forest management area

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00:04:13,860 --> 00:04:14,693
of the park.

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00:04:14,693 --> 00:04:18,090
So Baxter does have this
one portion set aside

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00:04:18,090 --> 00:04:20,943
to demonstrate sustainable
forest management practices.

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00:04:22,410 --> 00:04:27,000
And there was a tornado that
struck there in July 2013

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00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,903
and it damaged about a 200-hectare
swath of conifer forest.

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00:04:31,770 --> 00:04:32,820
And following that,

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00:04:32,820 --> 00:04:35,970
there was a partial salvage
operation that winter,

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00:04:35,970 --> 00:04:38,610
which kind of created this
perfect study opportunity

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00:04:38,610 --> 00:04:40,890
where you had areas
that had been salvaged,

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00:04:40,890 --> 00:04:44,850
areas that were impacted by
the disturbance and blown down

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00:04:44,850 --> 00:04:47,070
and then some like control areas.

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00:04:47,070 --> 00:04:49,710
So because of that nice setup,

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00:04:49,710 --> 00:04:52,110
there were two papers
published immediately

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00:04:52,110 --> 00:04:55,740
following the salvage
and tornado disturbance.

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00:04:55,740 --> 00:04:57,270
And one of those papers was just looking

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00:04:57,270 --> 00:04:59,580
at the forest structure of these areas.

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00:04:59,580 --> 00:05:00,780
And then the other was looking

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00:05:00,780 --> 00:05:02,733
at that response to bark beetles.

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00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:06,174
But then nine years later,

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00:05:06,174 --> 00:05:09,990
I came back and revisited
these treatments.

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00:05:09,990 --> 00:05:11,790
So we have the control treatments,

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00:05:11,790 --> 00:05:16,740
which are what's undamaged
by the disturbance blowdown,

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00:05:16,740 --> 00:05:17,970
which is what was left

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00:05:17,970 --> 00:05:21,030
from the tornado and then
blowdown and salvage.

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00:05:21,030 --> 00:05:21,863
And as you can see,

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00:05:21,863 --> 00:05:23,910
there's some very clear visual differences

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00:05:23,910 --> 00:05:25,060
pretty much right away.

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00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:28,860
So this summer, our sampling approach,

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00:05:28,860 --> 00:05:33,600
we established 48 plots,
so 16 plots per treatment.

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00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:38,040
And in each of these plots,
we established four subplots

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00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:41,130
and we measured all the saplings in each

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00:05:41,130 --> 00:05:44,910
of these subplots and recorded
diameter, the species,

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00:05:44,910 --> 00:05:48,150
and then did a quick browse
assessment on each sapling.

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00:05:48,150 --> 00:05:51,000
So this is a photo of a red maple sapling

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00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,120
that we would consider browsed
because as you can see,

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00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,663
the top is all kind of
frayed and bitten off.

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00:05:59,370 --> 00:06:02,190
And here we are just
doing a browse, yes or no.

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00:06:02,190 --> 00:06:04,726
So this one would be considered yes.

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00:06:04,726 --> 00:06:05,559
And I'll also mention

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00:06:05,559 --> 00:06:08,010
that we're only looking
for moose browse here.

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00:06:08,010 --> 00:06:09,390
Deer browse is,

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00:06:09,390 --> 00:06:12,720
there just aren't any deer
this far north in Maine.

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00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,380
And then hares are also present
and they do browse saplings

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00:06:16,380 --> 00:06:18,520
but we weren't as concerned about

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00:06:19,740 --> 00:06:22,530
how they might be impacted
by the disturbance.

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00:06:22,530 --> 00:06:24,840
And you can tell apart hare
browse from moose browse

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00:06:24,840 --> 00:06:27,663
because the the cut of their
browse is much more sharp.

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00:06:30,060 --> 00:06:31,950
So we also did a structural assessment.

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00:06:31,950 --> 00:06:36,912
And to do this, we used LiDAR
data to assess canopy closure.

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00:06:36,912 --> 00:06:40,680
And then on the ground, we
did woody debris transects.

154
00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:44,100
So we measured the height of
each piece off the ground.

155
00:06:44,100 --> 00:06:45,540
We measured the diameter,

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00:06:45,540 --> 00:06:48,930
as this research technician
is demonstrating,

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00:06:48,930 --> 00:06:50,610
and then decay class

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00:06:50,610 --> 00:06:54,933
on the five-point scale and
species, if we could tell.

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00:06:57,030 --> 00:06:59,220
So getting into some results here.

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00:06:59,220 --> 00:07:02,040
So all three images
pictured here are examples

161
00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:06,180
of what we're seeing in
an example salvage plot.

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00:07:06,180 --> 00:07:10,470
So this first photo on the left
is a photo of aerial imagery

163
00:07:10,470 --> 00:07:13,800
like immediately following
the salvage operation.

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00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,170
And you can see that there's
these salvage roads kind

165
00:07:16,170 --> 00:07:17,133
of in the center.

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00:07:18,030 --> 00:07:19,620
And then along the outskirts

167
00:07:19,620 --> 00:07:22,413
towards the top, there's
more blowdown area.

168
00:07:23,370 --> 00:07:25,290
And then this middle photo is an example

169
00:07:25,290 --> 00:07:27,720
of the LiDAR imagery that we used.

170
00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:28,890
So this was data taken

171
00:07:28,890 --> 00:07:32,730
in 2017 from like the USGS national map.

172
00:07:32,730 --> 00:07:33,563
And you can see

173
00:07:33,563 --> 00:07:36,510
that it shows the structure of
the salvage plot really well.

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00:07:36,510 --> 00:07:38,850
So there's some kind of
roughness around the surface

175
00:07:38,850 --> 00:07:42,060
and then a few standing
live trees and snags.

176
00:07:42,060 --> 00:07:44,130
And then this photo on the
left is what we are seeing

177
00:07:44,130 --> 00:07:46,650
or on the far right I
guess is what we are seeing

178
00:07:46,650 --> 00:07:49,080
in our plots this summer
where there's a lot of,

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00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:53,790
it's very open, a lot of herbs
and ferns in the understory

180
00:07:53,790 --> 00:07:56,523
and just like a few remaining
snags and live trees.

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00:07:58,470 --> 00:08:00,450
So the conclusion from this, we found

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00:08:00,450 --> 00:08:04,230
that canopy closure did differ
between all three treatments.

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00:08:04,230 --> 00:08:05,820
So the control, as you might imagine,

184
00:08:05,820 --> 00:08:07,830
is completely closed canopy.

185
00:08:07,830 --> 00:08:09,420
Blowdown is somewhere in the middle

186
00:08:09,420 --> 00:08:11,970
and then salvage is the most open.

187
00:08:11,970 --> 00:08:15,690
Salvage logging, often they
will cut live trees as well.

188
00:08:15,690 --> 00:08:17,670
So that's why this is
a little bit more open

189
00:08:17,670 --> 00:08:19,143
than the the blowdown area.

190
00:08:21,300 --> 00:08:23,940
So getting into the results
on tree regeneration,

191
00:08:23,940 --> 00:08:25,350
this was a little bit surprising.

192
00:08:25,350 --> 00:08:27,780
We found that the
blowdown in salvage areas

193
00:08:27,780 --> 00:08:30,870
tended to have very similar
regeneration patterns.

194
00:08:30,870 --> 00:08:33,300
So the control is the one outlier here.

195
00:08:33,300 --> 00:08:35,970
There were not very many
saplings regenerating

196
00:08:35,970 --> 00:08:36,810
as you might expect.

197
00:08:36,810 --> 00:08:39,060
There was no disturbance
that happened there.

198
00:08:39,990 --> 00:08:42,900
But then the blowdown in
salvage areas had a lot

199
00:08:42,900 --> 00:08:47,250
of regeneration, especially
in these smaller size classes.

200
00:08:47,250 --> 00:08:48,960
So on this graph, there's size class

201
00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:52,710
on the x-axis and then the
total saplings on the y-axis.

202
00:08:52,710 --> 00:08:53,970
And you can see that there's a lot

203
00:08:53,970 --> 00:08:56,580
of hardwoods in the
blowdown in salvage area

204
00:08:56,580 --> 00:08:58,290
whereas the control is
more dominated still

205
00:08:58,290 --> 00:09:00,753
by balsam fir, red spruce.

206
00:09:03,450 --> 00:09:05,790
So the primary interesting
thing that we found

207
00:09:05,790 --> 00:09:08,185
was this evidence of a caging effect.

208
00:09:08,185 --> 00:09:13,080
So often to prevent moose or
deer from browsing saplings,

209
00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:15,450
we might construct a cage around gaps

210
00:09:15,450 --> 00:09:18,000
if we have enough money to do that.

211
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,250
And yeah, this is what
that might look like.

212
00:09:20,250 --> 00:09:23,880
They are very expensive and
not incredibly practical

213
00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:26,640
for a lot of forest managers,
but they are effective

214
00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:29,940
at keeping moose and deer out
and letting the saplings grow

215
00:09:29,940 --> 00:09:32,223
to maturity before they get browsed.

216
00:09:33,060 --> 00:09:34,890
But we hypothesize that the blowdown

217
00:09:34,890 --> 00:09:37,893
might kind of create a
similar sort of caging effect.

218
00:09:39,450 --> 00:09:42,750
So this is what we are seeing
on the ground this summer,

219
00:09:42,750 --> 00:09:45,570
and immediately following
the tornado, there's just all

220
00:09:45,570 --> 00:09:48,750
of this deadwood that kind
of acts as a natural cage.

221
00:09:48,750 --> 00:09:50,820
So it might be a little
similar to like a slash pile

222
00:09:50,820 --> 00:09:53,190
that you would put up around a gap

223
00:09:53,190 --> 00:09:56,970
but this blowdown kind of
created a natural slash pile.

224
00:09:56,970 --> 00:09:58,860
So our hypothesis was that in areas

225
00:09:58,860 --> 00:10:01,380
where you have greater woody debris volume

226
00:10:01,380 --> 00:10:04,470
and maybe greater heights of
woody debris off the ground,

227
00:10:04,470 --> 00:10:06,273
we might see reduced browse.

228
00:10:08,070 --> 00:10:08,903
And to show that,

229
00:10:08,903 --> 00:10:11,964
we first had to measure
the woody debris volume

230
00:10:11,964 --> 00:10:15,120
and this statement at the
bottom should be no surprise.

231
00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:16,980
Of course there is more
woody debris volume

232
00:10:16,980 --> 00:10:19,500
in the blowdown area
where there was a tornado

233
00:10:19,500 --> 00:10:21,540
and those trees were not salvaged.

234
00:10:21,540 --> 00:10:24,930
So that's very clearly
shown in this chart.

235
00:10:24,930 --> 00:10:27,090
The blowdown area has
about like five times

236
00:10:27,090 --> 00:10:29,850
as much woody debris as the
salvage and the control,

237
00:10:29,850 --> 00:10:31,300
which are more or less equal.

238
00:10:34,170 --> 00:10:35,003
But we also found

239
00:10:35,003 --> 00:10:37,230
that there was more elevated
woody debris in the blowdown.

240
00:10:37,230 --> 00:10:40,170
So again, this is nine
years following the tornado

241
00:10:40,170 --> 00:10:43,683
and the elevation of the
witty debris is still there.

242
00:10:45,450 --> 00:10:48,510
And you can see that in the
control and the salvage areas

243
00:10:48,510 --> 00:10:51,270
most of the woody debris
is along the bottom still

244
00:10:51,270 --> 00:10:52,173
on the ground.

245
00:10:55,500 --> 00:10:57,480
So putting this together, we did determine

246
00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,000
that there was evidence
of a caging effect.

247
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,930
So this chart shows the woody
debris volume along the x-axis

248
00:11:03,930 --> 00:11:07,080
and then the proportion of
browse saplings on the y-axis.

249
00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:09,540
And you can see that where there are more,

250
00:11:09,540 --> 00:11:11,820
where there's more woody
debris volume, most of these

251
00:11:11,820 --> 00:11:16,710
like blue dots, there's also
a lower proportion of browse.

252
00:11:16,710 --> 00:11:19,410
And where we have less
woody debris volume,

253
00:11:19,410 --> 00:11:21,540
we're seeing higher proportion of browse.

254
00:11:21,540 --> 00:11:23,010
And we're also observing kind

255
00:11:23,010 --> 00:11:25,260
of a difference here in treatment.

256
00:11:25,260 --> 00:11:27,240
So the blowdown plots
are all kind of grouped

257
00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:29,850
in this side where you have
more woody debris volume,

258
00:11:29,850 --> 00:11:33,060
less browse control is the green areas

259
00:11:33,060 --> 00:11:35,790
where you have less woody debris volume

260
00:11:35,790 --> 00:11:37,530
and also less browse.

261
00:11:37,530 --> 00:11:40,410
And then sap and then salvage
areas have the most browse

262
00:11:40,410 --> 00:11:43,053
and also the lower amounts
of woody debris volume.

263
00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:47,910
And we're seeing a similar
trend with woody debris height.

264
00:11:47,910 --> 00:11:50,280
So again, where you have
higher woody debris height,

265
00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:52,233
you're also having lower browse.

266
00:11:53,490 --> 00:11:55,140
And so taking this together,

267
00:11:55,140 --> 00:11:58,000
we are seeing less browse
in the blowdown plots

268
00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:00,573
or rather more browse
on the salvage plots,

269
00:12:01,770 --> 00:12:04,113
which is pretty clear by this chart.

270
00:12:06,870 --> 00:12:09,420
So to conclude, for regeneration,

271
00:12:09,420 --> 00:12:13,080
we are not seeing super clear
differences in abundance

272
00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:16,683
or composition between the
salvage and the blowdown plots.

273
00:12:17,550 --> 00:12:19,200
Structurally, we are finding

274
00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:20,760
that there is still a big difference

275
00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:21,930
between blowdown and salvage.

276
00:12:21,930 --> 00:12:23,970
So blowdown does have much greater

277
00:12:23,970 --> 00:12:25,593
woody debris volume and height.

278
00:12:26,700 --> 00:12:27,960
And then looking at browse,

279
00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:30,600
we are finding that browse
damage is far more severe

280
00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:32,103
in the salvaged areas.

281
00:12:33,510 --> 00:12:35,280
And then, of course,
our microclimate results

282
00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:36,933
are still pending analysis.

283
00:12:37,980 --> 00:12:40,667
So the overarching conclusion
here is that woody debris,

284
00:12:40,667 --> 00:12:43,313
it's impeding access

285
00:12:43,313 --> 00:12:46,143
by moose and therefore reducing browse.

286
00:12:47,130 --> 00:12:50,430
And I'd just like to quickly
thank my collaborators,

287
00:12:50,430 --> 00:12:52,710
my funding sources, the folks

288
00:12:52,710 --> 00:12:55,830
at the SMFA who really
helped provide housing

289
00:12:55,830 --> 00:12:58,950
and like allowed this
project to get started.

290
00:12:58,950 --> 00:13:01,680
Statistical help, LiDAR
assistance I've received

291
00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:05,013
and then all of my wonderful
volunteer field assistants.

292
00:13:06,030 --> 00:13:07,533
All right. Any questions?

293
00:13:09,304 --> 00:13:12,304
(audience clapping)

294
00:13:16,742 --> 00:13:18,270
(audience member speaking indistinctly)

295
00:13:18,270 --> 00:13:20,580
Yeah, yeah, so that's a great question.

296
00:13:20,580 --> 00:13:22,410
So yeah, there was a
paper published that kind

297
00:13:22,410 --> 00:13:25,500
of just looked at that
structural differences

298
00:13:25,500 --> 00:13:26,790
immediately following the tornado.

299
00:13:26,790 --> 00:13:28,260
So we do have some data there.

300
00:13:28,260 --> 00:13:31,070
The plots are not in the
same place as those plots

301
00:13:31,070 --> 00:13:35,793
so we can't like track the
specific areas very closely.

302
00:13:37,290 --> 00:13:39,300
But yeah, I mean I think
the interesting thing

303
00:13:39,300 --> 00:13:42,030
we found this past summer
is that there is still

304
00:13:42,030 --> 00:13:45,330
a significant height to
a lot of this deadwood

305
00:13:45,330 --> 00:13:48,990
and we're not seeing very
fast like decay rates.

306
00:13:48,990 --> 00:13:50,910
Most of the species were
still in like the decay,

307
00:13:50,910 --> 00:13:55,083
like class one or two category,
which is fairly undecayed.

308
00:13:56,670 --> 00:13:58,590
So yeah, I mean, it has been

309
00:13:58,590 --> 00:14:00,540
like nine years since the tornado

310
00:14:00,540 --> 00:14:02,880
and I can't really
project how it will change

311
00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:06,090
into the future, but it does
seem like that structure

312
00:14:06,090 --> 00:14:10,470
of the blowdown is
remaining pretty solidly,

313
00:14:10,470 --> 00:14:13,170
whereas the salvage is the
main area that's changed.

314
00:14:13,170 --> 00:14:14,400
It's just like far more open

315
00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:16,590
and it has a lot of understory growth

316
00:14:16,590 --> 00:14:19,863
in ferns and like
raspberry and blackberry.

317
00:14:21,690 --> 00:14:24,420
So yeah, I don't know
if that answers that.

318
00:14:24,420 --> 00:14:27,237
Yeah. Question in the back.

319
00:14:27,237 --> 00:14:28,725
[Audience Member] I have two questions.

320
00:14:28,725 --> 00:14:30,510
First is (indistinct).

321
00:14:30,510 --> 00:14:32,520
Yeah, yeah, that's a good question.

322
00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:34,830
So this was actually a
unique salvage operation

323
00:14:34,830 --> 00:14:37,080
because they had a protocol

324
00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:40,080
in place before the storm happened.

325
00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:42,750
So they did have a salvage plan

326
00:14:42,750 --> 00:14:46,380
and I don't think it was
too much based on access.

327
00:14:46,380 --> 00:14:48,900
I think they salvaged a portion of it

328
00:14:48,900 --> 00:14:51,510
and then they did
intentionally leave some areas

329
00:14:51,510 --> 00:14:54,727
that were left in blowdown.

330
00:14:54,727 --> 00:14:55,560
But I don't know too much

331
00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,260
on the details on why they
salvaged where they did.

332
00:14:58,260 --> 00:15:00,150
But yes, generally on the fields,

333
00:15:00,150 --> 00:15:03,840
the blowdown in salvage
areas were very intermixed.

334
00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:07,140
I actually do have, this
is kind of like a rough map

335
00:15:07,140 --> 00:15:09,780
of the locations, so the
salvage areas are in red

336
00:15:09,780 --> 00:15:11,160
and you'll see that the
blowdown areas are kind

337
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:12,903
of like surrounding that in blue.

338
00:15:14,874 --> 00:15:17,610
So yeah, that's kind of the distribution

339
00:15:17,610 --> 00:15:18,910
of where that's happening.

340
00:15:20,580 --> 00:15:22,800
Yeah. Remind me your first question.

341
00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:24,237
[Audience Member] What was the plot?

342
00:15:24,237 --> 00:15:26,430
Oh, yeah, yeah, they were fixed variable

343
00:15:26,430 --> 00:15:28,080
radius sapling plots.

344
00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:29,640
Yeah. Or fixed radius.

345
00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:30,473
Yeah. Yeah.

346
00:15:30,473 --> 00:15:31,715
[Audience Member] How big?

347
00:15:31,715 --> 00:15:36,715
They were 2.8 meter radius subplots.

348
00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:40,110
Yeah, four-foot plot.

349
00:15:40,110 --> 00:15:43,140
And then we did 100-meter
woody debris transects.

350
00:15:43,140 --> 00:15:46,500
Yeah. Yeah.

351
00:15:46,500 --> 00:15:47,400
[Audience Member] So volume

352
00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:50,200
but slow down, we expect that,
but also be (indistinct).

353
00:15:51,362 --> 00:15:52,440
Yes. Yeah, that's a great question.

354
00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:54,720
That's actually what we're
working on right now.

355
00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:57,360
We're kind of we're
working on a model to show

356
00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:00,213
what is the most influential factor.

357
00:16:01,650 --> 00:16:05,550
And yeah, right now it seems
like volume might be the more,

358
00:16:05,550 --> 00:16:08,043
like a better determinant of browse.

359
00:16:09,210 --> 00:16:11,610
But yeah, we're still
trying to figure that out.

360
00:16:12,540 --> 00:16:14,160
[Audience Member] There's
a separate question.

361
00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:15,990
Is there any interest in
looking at the different types

362
00:16:15,990 --> 00:16:19,170
of communities that (indistinct)
versus the (indistinct)?

363
00:16:21,330 --> 00:16:25,290
Yeah. Yeah, that would
be a great question.

364
00:16:25,290 --> 00:16:26,880
We haven't looked at that.

365
00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,820
I mean, there is the insect
study done, but yeah,

366
00:16:29,820 --> 00:16:31,500
nothing into birds yet.

367
00:16:31,500 --> 00:16:32,644


368
00:16:32,644 --> 00:16:33,477
All right. Thank you.

369
00:16:33,477 --> 00:16:36,477
(audience clapping)