Landscape Evaluation for Restoration Planning on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, USA

Paul F. Hessburg, Keith M. Reynolds, R. Brion Salter, James D. Dickinson, William L. Gaines and Richy J. Harrod
Additional contact information
Paul F. Hessburg: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 1133 North Western Ave., Wenatchee, WA 98801, USA
Keith M. Reynolds: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
R. Brion Salter: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 1133 North Western Ave., Wenatchee, WA 98801, USA
James D. Dickinson: USDA Forest Service, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Wenatchee, WA 98801, USA
William L. Gaines: USDA Forest Service, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Wenatchee, WA 98801, USA
Richy J. Harrod: USDA Forest Service, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Wenatchee, WA 98801, USA

Sustainability, 2013, vol. 5, issue 3, 1-36

Abstract: Land managers in the western US are beginning to understand that early 20th century forests displayed complex patterns of composition and structure at several different spatial scales, that there was interplay between patterns and processes within and across scales, and that these conditions have been radically altered by management. Further, they know that restoring integrity (see Definition of Terms) of these conditions has broad implications for the future sustainability (see Definition of Terms) of native species, ecosystem services, and ecological processes. Many are looking for methods to restore (see Definition of Terms) more natural landscape patterns of habitats and more naturally functioning disturbance regimes; all in the context of a warming climate. Attention is turning to evaluating whole landscapes at local and regional scales, deciphering recent changes in trajectories, and formulating landscape prescriptions that can restore ecological functionality and improve landscape resilience (see Definition of Terms). The business of landscape evaluation and developing landscape prescriptions is inherently complex, but with the advent of decision support systems, software applications are now available to conduct and document these evaluations. Here, we review several published landscape evaluation and planning applications designed with the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) software, and present an evaluation we developed in support of a landscape restoration project. We discuss the goals and design of the project, its methods and utilities, what worked well, what could be improved and related research opportunities. For readability and compactness, fine and broad-scale landscape evaluations that could be a part of multi-scale restoration planning, are not further developed here.

Keywords: wildland fire; insect outbreaks; sustainability; landscape restoration; landscape planning; EMDS system; climate change; ecological patterns; ecological processes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/3/805/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/3/805/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:3:p:805-840:d:23787

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().