Research
View
the
1999
Final Report
PNW
Funded Projects
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
NW Project Overview 1999
Cumulative Impact Estimation for Landscape Scale Forest Planning
Principal
Investigator:
Peter
Scheiss, University of Washington, College of Forest Resources
Awarded: $37,682
Project
Description:
This
project is designed to develop, evaluate, and document a GIS-based
approach to estimating cumulative impact for landscape scale forest
planning.
The necessary components already exist, including software (ArcGrid
and Arc Macro Language), models (especially those in the Watershed
Analysis manual) and data sets (topography, soils, stand data, etc.).
This project will assemble existing models of forest management
impacts into a framework that estimates relative cumulative environmental
impacts of alternative plans.
The final software package will input roads, harvests and schedules
of alternative landscape level management plans, and it will output maps,
charts and total estimates of cumulative impact.
Investigators plan to compare a long-span road-minimizing
alternative to a conventional skyline alternative for a portion of the DNR
Hood Canal district along the Hamma Hamma River.
Project Status:
During the Spring of 1999, the senior class of Forest
Engineering undergraduates of the University of Washington, under
the direction of Dr. Peter Schiess, developed a harvest plan for
10,000 acres of the North portion of the Hoodsport planning area
(T24N R03W, WM, north of the Jorsted Road. After months of
preparation and three weeks of fieldwork, a final report and
presentation were submitted to interested officials of the
Department of Natural Resources in June of 1999.
The final report included a 25 year management and
transportation plan created using SNAP, a Scheduling and Network
Analysis Program. The analysis included trade-off of road
closures-road maintenance issues. A detailed sediment budget was
prepared that could be used for road maintenance and closure
decisions to minimize salmonid habitat degradation.
1300 acres were analyzed using helicopter and long span
yarding as alternatives. Five
miles of detailed road design, including two bypasses of
existing slides. A
landscape management plan and a transportation plan for the
North Hoodsport Block were created. Map deliverables include a
set of base maps and SNAP input and output maps, along with all
of the working maps used throughout the project.
A leave-tree strategy was formulated that combined
biological/silvicultural design parameters with skyline setting
design parameters. The strategy was applied to a proposed sale
to demonstrate its use.
The
final
report is available online.