Fish response to contemporary timber harvest practices in a second-growth forest from the central Coast Range of Oregon
Introduction
Response of aquatic systems to disturbance (e.g. fire, flood, and timber harvest) is context dependent (Resh et al., 1988, Detenbeck et al., 1992, Gresswell, 1999). Strong linkages between terrestrial and aquatic systems result in a complex pattern of effects related to the interaction among physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of these systems (Gregory et al., 1991), and effects are often propagated downstream (Hicks et al., 1991, Gomi et al., 2002, Richardson and Danehy, 2007). Prior conditions of the system interact with the type, timing, and intensity of the disturbance to alter the system at a variety of spatial scales, and biota respond to these changes (Hartman and Scrivener, 1990, Andrew and Wulder, 2011). For example, the effects of timber harvest are contingent on the bedrock geology and geomorphic characteristics of the system, the stand age, and the methods used to harvest the timber (Hartman et al., 1987, Mellina and Hinch, 2009, Valdal and Quinn, 2010).
Effects of timber harvest on previously unharvested forests have been studied for decades (Murphy and Hall, 1981, Duncan and Brusven, 1985, Bilby and Bisson, 1987). Although biotic responses vary, effects can have substantial negative consequences for aquatic habitat and vertebrates (Hartman et al., 1987, Reeves et al., 1993, Mellina and Hinch, 2009). In some cases, effects related to changes (both negative and positive) in light flux may be apparent at various points in time (Kaylor and Warren, 2017, Connolly and Hall, 1999); however, persistent alterations are often related to the construction of roads and methods used to yard timber (Trombulak and Frissell, 2000, Valdal and Quinn, 2010, Richardson et al., 2012). Indeed, harvests that occurred in the first half of the 20th century included the use of small stream channels as roadbeds and movement corridors for yarding timber (Richardson et al., 2012).
Prior research played an important role in the development of forest management regulations that were intended to safeguard aquatic resources while facilitating timber harvest (Tschaplinski et al., 2004, Stednick, 2008a). Contemporary forest practices have advanced considerably in recent decades (Richardson et al., 2012). Currently timber harvest occurs primarily on private industrial timberlands and has shifted from harvesting old growth or naturally-regenerated mature timber, to logging previously-harvested stands on shorter stand rotation intervals, using pre-existing road networks (Bateman et al., 2016). All of these activities occur in concordance with forest practice regulations (e.g., Oregon Department of Forestry, 2006) developed in response to prior research (Ice et al., 2010, Richardson et al., 2012), and regulations generally require standing tree riparian buffers when timber harvest is adjacent to streams where fish are present (Lee et al., 2004).
Effects of harvest in second-growth forests on fish are not as well-documented (De Groot et al., 2007), but there is some evidence that many of the negative consequences reported with the harvest of previously unharvested forests have not occurred during subsequent logging activities (Mellina and Hinch, 2009). In fact, in some cases the removal of thick closed-canopy, young- to middle-aged forests can increase aquatic productivity by increasing light availability to the stream benthos (Ambrose et al., 2004), and if water temperatures do not exceed recognized optimums, growth and total biomass of stream-dwelling salmonids may increase (Murphy and Hall, 1981, Connolly and Hall, 1999, Wilzbach et al., 2005). Although conceptual models suggest changing trends in fish abundance and forest stand development through time (Warren et al., 2016), the long-term effects of second-growth timber harvests (with standing tree riparian buffers) on persistence of salmonid populations has not been investigated with empirical field studies.
Whether muted responses of aquatic systems to timber harvest of second-growth forests is the result of improved management practices or related to diminished system capacity or some combination of the two is not well understood. For example, the installation of infrastructure (e.g., roads and landings) associated with removal and transport of downed trees often caused press disturbances (Lake, 2000) that persisted long after the harvest of primeval forests (Sedell et al., 1991). Because additional roads and infrastructure development are frequently unnecessary during second-growth harvest, physical alterations of the watershed associated with erosion and subsequent streambed sedimentation may not occur, or may be substantially reduced during these secondary perturbations (Bateman et al., 2016). Furthermore, research focused on reducing the negative consequences of logging have resulted in substantial changes in forest-harvest practices, and contemporary forest practices are intended to reduce the negative effects of harvest. Alternatively, it has been argued that effects on physical and biotic components of some systems following old-growth timber harvest persist. Because these second-growth systems have never fully recovered, they no longer have the capacity to respond to disturbance associated with timber harvest (sensu Frissell et al., 1997).
Second-growth forests now being subjected to harvest (50–60 years of regrowth) provide the opportunity to investigate the effects of logging on fish populations in adjacent channels (De Groot et al., 2007) or in channels downstream of harvest (Bateman et al., 2016). These recent studies provided examples that stream adjacent logging could occur without negatively affecting fish abundance when bank and streambed disturbance was avoided and large wood was left in the channel; however; capacity of these systems prior to logging was unknown.
Plans to commercially harvest portions of the Alsea watershed in the Coast Range of western Oregon provided a unique opportunity to revisit an area where a paired-watershed study conducted in the 1950s–1960s documented the influence of the harvest of mature forests on headwater watersheds and the populations of coastal cutthroat trout and coho salmon in those systems (Stednick, 2008a). This seminal study was a primary impetus for changes in forest practices throughout the Pacific Northwest. We took advantage of this opportunity to revisit the Alsea Watershed Study during timber harvest of second-growth coniferous forest using contemporary forest practices, including standing tree buffers in the fish bearing portions of the logged catchment. Our goal was to document the effects of the harvest on stream physical habitat and stream salmonids using the paired-watershed approach and to compare these effects to those documented in the original Alsea Paired Watershed Study (Moring and Lantz, 1975, Stednick, 2008a.
Examining the effects of contemporary forest harvest in paired catchments of the Alsea River watershed allows us to place current research in an important historical context because the Alsea Watershed Study, initiated in 1959, also used this approach and provides some indication of the pre-harvest capacity of Needle Branch. Given documented sensitivity to historic forest management, this system was ideal for evaluating the response of fish populations to harvest of second-growth forest under contemporary regulations. Although replication would be required to assess the influence the relative proportion of response related to diminished capacity or improved logging practices, Needle Branch provides a unique opportunity to observe the response of a previously harvested system to a subsequent harvest after water quality and fish abundance parameters have returned pre-logging conditions. Furthermore, an evaluation of fish response to upslope clearcut logging in the presence of a standing tree buffer has not been conducted in the Pacific Northwest since the Alsea Watershed Study, but recent studies evaluating effects of contemporary logging practices on fish under a range of logging treatments (De Groot et al., 2007, Olson et al., 2013, Bateman et al., 2016) have not documented negative effects on headwater fish populations. We hypothesized that in the presence of a standing tree buffer and contemporary upslope clearcut logging, effects in parameters commonly used to evaluate the status of fish populations and habitat quality would not be biologically significant.
Section snippets
Study location and background
Needle Branch and Flynn Creek are small headwater catchments (85 and 212 ha respectively) that flow into Drift Creek, approximately 16 km inland from the Pacific Ocean in the Alsea River watershed of the Oregon Coast Range (Fig. 1). Elevations range from 140 to 590 m (Hall and Stednick, 2008). The maritime climate is characterized by mild wet winters and dry summers. Most of the annual precipitation (mean = 250 cm) occurs as rain falling between October and March (Hall and Stednick, 2008).
Stream habitat
Stream habitat surveys were conducted annually (2006–2014) in late July to early August over the entire fish-bearing portions of both Needle Branch and Flynn Creek. Prior to the initial surveys, catchments were divided into stream segments based on barriers to upstream fish movement and junctions with major fish-bearing tributaries (Moore et al., 1997). Channel-unit types (pool, riffle-rapid, cascade, and vertical step) were classified in each stream segment (Bisson et al., 1982), except for
Data analysis
Because the effects of logging may vary with proximity to the harvest unit, stream habitat and fish population response variables were analyzed at two different spatial scales: (1) the entire catchment (i.e., main stem and tributaries combined); and (2) the headwaters alone (i.e., upstream from tributary 1 in Needle and upstream of tributary 4 in Flynn (Table 1)).
Stream habitat response variables included channel-unit substrate composition (e.g., percent fines), channel-unit composition (e.g.,
Results
During the study period, pools composed a mean of 33% of the 2078 m of fish-bearing stream channel (range 16–42%) in Needle Branch. Minimum pool habitat occurred in 2006 during late summer drought conditions, when 1249 m of the channel of Needle Branch was dry. In other years, dry channel ranged from 0 to 34 m. In Flynn Creek, a mean of 20% of the 4276 m of fish-bearing stream channel was classified as pools (range 16–29%) during the study period. The maximum length of dry channel in Flynn
Discussion
In this study, we evaluated the effects of timber harvest in a second-growth forest conducted with contemporary forest management techniques. Specifically we evaluated a clearcut logging treatment with a standing tree riparian buffer in the fish bearing portion of the logged catchment. Our approach incorporated both sampling intensity and spatial and temporal extent in order to maximize inference at the catchment scale (Gresswell et al., 2006, Bateman et al., 2016). The Alsea Watershed Study
Acknowledgements
We thank E. Schilling, R.E. Bilby, R.J. Danehy and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript, M. Meleason for field assistance and intellectual input, J. Dunham for in kind and intellectual input, A. Muldoon for statistical advice, and more than 30 seasonal research technicians for their valuable field assistance. Funding was provided by the National Council of Air and Stream Improvement; Plum Creek Timber Company; Oregon Forest and Industries
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2021, Forest Ecology and ManagementCitation Excerpt :The potential effects of successive clearcuts in second growth forests, including the response of fish populations in lower-order streams, have not been reported. Here, we evaluated survival, relative biomass, movement, and distribution of coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii), and three physical habitat characteristics (pool area, pool depth, and water temperature) after a secondary clearcut harvest occurred in the Coast Range, Oregon immediately after “green up” requirements were met following the initial harvest (Bateman et al., 2018). Specifically, the harvest occurred in Needle Branch, a watershed that was clearcut harvested during the original Alsea Watershed Study in 1966.
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