Status and trends monitoring of riparian and aquatic habitat in the OESF

• Project goal: Characterize the changes of riparian and aquatic habitat conditions across the OESF as the 1997 Habitat Conservation Plan is implemented
• Project Lead: Teodora Minkova (DNR)
• Funding provided by DNR
• Cooperators: U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
• Start date: August 2012
• First round of sampling (10 habitat attributes in all 54 monitored watersheds) was completed in November 2015
• First status report is expected in April 2016
• Project documents:
  • Monitoring Protocols (2017) NEW
  • First Habitat Status Report (2016) 
  • Hydrology report on developing rating curves for 14 gaged streams
  • Quality control report on 33 habitat metrics
  • Progress reports for 2012, 2013 and 2014
  • Study Plan (2012) 

Mind the Gap: Developing ecologically based guidelines for creating gaps in forest thinning on the Olympic Peninsula

• Project goal: Better match silvicultural gap treatments with the late-successional forests they aim to emulate
• Principal Investigator: Daniel Donato
• Funding provided by DNR
• Start date: April 2014
• Project status: Data collection for Phase 1 (of 3) has been completed; Phases 2 and 3 are ongoing.
• Project summary

Influence of repeated alternative biodiversity thinning treatments on coastal forests

• Project goal: Quantify the effects of alternative pre-commercial thinning treatments and subsequent thinning on stand complexity and growth. Information gained from this project will inform agency decisions about the value of different treatment options in meeting multiple management objectives under the biodiversity pathway approach.
• Principal Investigator: Richard Bigley
• Funding provided by DNR
• Start date: April 2014
• Project status: Data collection for Phase 1 (of 2) has been completed
• Project summary

Riparian validation monitoring on the OESF

• Project goal: Develop and implement a salmonid monitoring program for the OESF that can determine cause and effect relationships between as described in the 1997 Habitat Conservation Plan.
• Project Lead: Kyle Martens (DNR)
• Funding provided by DNR
• Cooperators: USGS, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, and NOAA Fisheries
• Project status: Pilot fish survey conducted in 2015; development of study plan is ongoing with expected release in the summer of 2016; field work expected to start in the summer 2016
• Project documents:
  • Progress report for 2017 NEW
  • Progress report for 2016 
  • OESF Riparian Validation Monitoring of Salmonids: Study Plan (2016)  
  • Presentation to DNR Olympic Region in February 2016

Developing improved methods for forest land planning on the Olympic Experimental State Forest

• Project goal: Provide integer programming techniques (formulating and solving techniques) that will improve forest estate models used in forest land planning for DNR-managed state lands in the OESF.  
• Principal investigators: Weikko S. Jaross (PI, DNR), Dr. Sandor Toth (Co-PI, UW), Kai Ross (Co-PI, UW), and Erin Crosland (IT Developer, DNR)
• Resources provided by: DNR
• Start date: September 2012
• Project status: Investigation of mathematical programming formulations and solution strategies. Ongoing software development.
• Project Summary

Forest structural development following severe windstorm damage on the Olympic Peninsula

• Project goal: Understand how late-successional forest structure develops from even-aged hemlock stands that are generated by the most common natural disturbance in the region.
• Principal Investigators: Robert Van Pelt Pelt (University of Washington), Daniel Donato (DNR)
• DNR coordinator: Daniel Donato
• Funding provided by University of Washington and DNR
• Start date: May 2009
• Project status: Six 1921-origin stands have been sampled with permanent plots. Establishment of plots in 2007, 1990s, and other origin-year stands is ongoing. Periodic mortality checks in existing plots are occurring every ~2 years.
• Study plan is forthcoming; establishment report

Experiment in long-term ecosystem productivity

• Project goal: Evaluate the effects of harvesting, woody-debris retention levels, and plant species on tree and soil productivity; soil carbon, nutrients, and structure; and plant species diversity.
• Principal investigators: Bernard Bormann (University of Washington), Peter Homann (Western Washington University), Richard Bigley (DNR); Tom Deluca (University of Washington)
• DNR coordinator: Richard Bigley
• Resources provided by: U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, University of Washington, and DNR
• Start date: 1995
• Project status: Field installations, pre-harvest and postharvest measurements and analyses were completed in 1996-1998; 10-year postharvest measurements and analyses are underway
• Study plan and project summary

Is DNR’s habitat conservation plan increasing forest complexity?

• The purpose of this project is two-fold: 1) To examine trends in forest height, canopy cover, and structural complexity across several large, managed landscapes, and 2) To determine if broad-scale trends in the above parameters over time appear to be meeting Habitat Conservation Plan's intent.
• Principal investigators: Joshua Halofsky (PI, DNR), Dan Donato (Co-PI, DNR), Jake Kleinknecht (Co-PI, DNR), Richard Bigley (Co-PI, DNR)
• Resources provided by: DNR
• Start date: August 2014
• Project status: Analyzing and validating output
• Project summary