Forest Practices: What’s in the Rules?

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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
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Breakout Session Information Objectives!

• Which forest management practices are expected to
  influence forested wetland functions?
• What is known about the effects of management of
  forested wetlands? Which functions are important?
• What questions will address the information
  needs? What is our ability to investigate
  priority questions? What should our priorities
  be?

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Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules
ReviewedWashington State Forest
PracticesWhats in the Wetland Rules?

• Wetland Definition
• Classification and Ranking
• Mapping
• Road Construction
• Timber Harvest
• Ground-based Harvest Systems
• Slash Disposal and Prescribed Burning

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Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules
ReviewedForest Practices Classification
Level of protection determined by rank

• Nonforested means crown closure of lt30
• Type A wetlands associated with open water
• Type B Doesnt meet Type A criteria
• Bogs considered Type A whether forested or not
• Forested Wetlands

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Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules
ReviewedWhats 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

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Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules
ReviewedTimber HarvestWhats allowed in
Forested Wetlands?

• Forested wetlands do not have Wetland Management
  Zones (buffers)
• Logging is permitted within forested wetlands
• Low impact harvest or cable systems only
  ground-based systems in dry season or frozen soil
  only
• Where feasible, at least one end of the log shall
  be suspended during yarding
• Landowners are encouraged to leave 30-70 of
  required wildlife reserve trees within forested
  wetlands

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Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules
ReviewedRoad construction

• No net loss of wetland function
• Keep roads out of wetlands unless alternatives
  are more damaging
• Losses of function must be mitigated
• Delineation not required for projects that fill
  or drain less than one tenth acre
• 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

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Washington State Forest Practices Wetland Rules
ReviewedSpoils in wetlands

• Keep spoils out of wetlands unless alternative
  sites would be more damaging
• Using wetlands for spoil disposal requires
  written approval
• Spoil areas over 0.5 acres not allowed in wetlands

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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.