Oak Communities Meeting Dec 9, 1999

Corvallis Oregon at Siuslaw National Forest Supervisor's Office

Organizations represented:

PNW Research Stations; Corvallis and Olympia Labs

USFS; Rogue River, Mt. Hood, Siskiyou, Siuslaw and Willamette National Forests

BLM; Medford, Eugene and Salem Districts

National Wildlife Refuges; Tualatin River, Finley

US Army Corps of Engineers

Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife

Oregon Dept of Forestry

Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife

Oregon State University

University of Oregon

Benton County Parks

Marion County Parks

City of Eugene Parks

Yamhill County Parks

Willamette Industries

Society of Ecological Restoration

Department of Landscape Architecture

Institute for Sustainable Development

Fauna and Flora

American Bird Conservancy

Salix Association

Defenders of Wildlife

Private Landowners

I. Office Meeting Facilitated by Craig Snider, Siuslaw Natl. Forest

The majority of this discussion was devoted to Oregon white oak; it was acknowledged that the northern limit of California was near Monroe Oregon. South of Monroe both types of oak are found.

Historical distribution of Oregon white oak communities

· Historical distribution of vegetation in the Willamette Valley ecoregion; Ed Alverson, The Nature Conservancy

Ed displayed a presettlement map of the Willamette Valley ecoregion (used Omernik and Bailey boundaries). Information was derived from Cadastral Surveys by the Government Land Office in the early 1850s (1850-1854). Surveys were done within 10 years of early settlement, so reflects presettlement conditions.

Ecological information was contained in the GLO notes. Most of the witness trees were described by species, diameter, and distance and bearing to the corners they referenced. By interpreting these notes they were able to describe vegetative conditions (composition and structure). In addition there were often descriptions of the surrounding vegetationand conditions along mile long transects, and some platte maps showing the vegetation patterns and boundaries between communities (e.g. prairie and woodland). A relational database was developed, and GIS coverage developed.

Oaks (Oregon white and black) were present in all vegetation types, except the wettest ones. The valley floor (approximately 30% of the Willamette Valley; about 1 million acres) was dominated by prairie Of this about 1/3 was wet prairie. The foothills contained savanna (about 16% of ecoregion) in lower portions (which surveyors called openings), consisting of oak or Douglas-fir or ponderosa pine with a grassy understory. The higher elevations of the foothills graded into closed forest. 19% of the ecoregion were woodlands of oak, Douglas-fir, hazel and oakbrush sprouts. This type was not previously described, and is thought to have disappeared with settlement. Within 50 feet of rivers there was a closed canopy forest of Douglas-fir, big leaf maple, and Oregon ash.

Current distribution of Oregon white oak communities/ GIS mapping efforts

· Observations on current Willamette Valley oak stands; Michael Murray, Oregon Natural Heritage Program

Michael used the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 1988 current land cover map to locate 45 sites of over 100 acres in size that were predominately Oregon white oak in the upper canopy. He then visited sites and noted current condition. Most of the 45 sites were dense, closed canopy oak stands less than 100 years old, with exotic species (such as orchard grass) in the understory. He did not observe much regeneration at any site. These are often surrounded by intensely managed agriculture lands and housing. Many of the older oaks are next to old barns or houses.

· Current potential habitat of oak communities in the Willamette Province; Cindy McCain, Willamette and Siuslaw National Forests Ecologist

Cindy described an ongoing spatial modeling effort she's involved in to predict potential forested communities. She focused on the vegetation types where oak is present in late seral stages. This Arc/Info model was developed by Jan Henderson, Area Ecologist for the Olympic and Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forests. The model uses ecoregions, precipitation zones, vegetation series and a topographic index (which incorporates elevation and aspect) to predict which plant associaition group (group of climax plant communities) will occupy each pixel of the coverage. Only a very small percentage of oak habitat occurs in the federal grouping of plant associations (of the over 4000 plots going into the model's input only about 35 contained oak). The dry Douglas-fir and grand fir types have oak in the foothills.

The four plant associations where Oregon white oak is commonly found are

Douglas-fir/Poison Oak

Douglas-fir/California hazel- snowberry/swordfern

Douglas-fir/oceanspray- snowberry

Grand fir/oceanspray- swordfern

· Wildlife habitat mapping of oak communities in Oregon; Tom O'Neil, Northwest Habitat Institute

Tom has been involved with wildlife diversity and mapping for over 10 years. He was involved with a project that mapped vegetation types in the Willamette Valley, using air photo interpretation. From this he estimated that there is approximately 9.6 % oak and dry Douglas-fir types in the valley today (south of the Tualatin River). Accuracy of this mapping effort is about 80% accurate, with most of the error in agricultural areas (oak communities may have been mapped as these types). The coverage is available at www.nwhi.org. It’s in Arc/Info format, and metadata is available as well.

Tom also discussed the GAP wildlife diversity project he’s been involved with. This project is a landscape scale, coarse resolution mapping of vegetation types as they relate to wildlife habitat. They looked at vegetation associations and wildlfife species interactions, and came up with 26 wildlife types. Maps of these types are available for Oregon and Washington. There is also a book and CD available.

· Thematic mapping vegetative classification for the Willamette Basin; Doug Oetter, OSU Forest Sciences Lab.

Doug spoke about a satellite mapping effort he was involved with for the PNW Ecosystem Consortium. They used a 1992 scene to map land cover of the Willamette Valley. The coverage has 23 land cover types. 6.8% of the area is in closed hardwood (includes oak and alder). Doug said oak savanna was not possible to find by 30 meter satellite imagery because the spatial resolution was too coarse. Since oaks are scattered, imagery would be difficult to classify, with some pixels being grass, some with trees. The coverage can be accessed at the following website: http//www.fsl.orst.edu/larse/wrb/wrb.html

· Modeling hardwoods in the Coast Range; Janet Ohmann, PNW Corvallis Lab

Janet described an ongoing modeling and mapping project of the Coastal Province she's involved in for the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling study (CLAMS). She focused on hardwoods, especially oak species for this discussion. She is developing a relationship between plot level data which is rich in stand level information, and satellite imagery which contains spatial data. Direct gradient analyses showed climate and geography best explained species composition, and landscape imagery best explained stand structure. She then developed a nearest neighbor approach that used climatic, topographic, geologic and spatial variables to populate areas without data and assign appropriate plot level data to that area. She can then look at the distribution of individual species (like Oregon white oak and California black oak) and predict where that species will be found. She found 96% accuracy with this method, although it might be overestimating, since those species are not found ove most of the Coast Province.

This mapping method is best suited to examine broad, regional scale patterns. Janet has a wealth of databases: spatial, plot level (17,000 plots throughout Oregon and 1700 oak plots) she'd be happy to share with folks.

· Oak habitat mapping for Columbian white-tailed deer restoration; Marnie Albritten, ODFW Roseburg

There are 2 major populations of Columbian white tailed deer in Oregon; one in the Columbia Gorge and another one near Roseburg. They were listed as endangered, both state and federally. The state delisted them in 1996, and they are now being federallly delisted (by 2000). Monitoring of existing poulations and protecting and maintain suitable habitat is still needed. The preferred habitat of this species is oak and Pacific madrone savanna below 1500 feet elevation within 200 feet of a riparian woodland. US Fish and Wildlife needed information on suitable habitat for monitoring purposes, and for evaluating the probalility of establishing new populations. The goals of this soon to be completed project is to develop a habitat database and produce a usable map of preferred habitat. Marnie queried Roseburn BLM's classified imagery (WODIP-Western Oregon Digiital Image Project) to come up with potential habitat. She is now ground truthing, and will produce final maps in January???

A member of the audience spoke up that there was a small population near Yamhill. These deer are just beginning to come back from endangered levels. Marnie said there was about 500 deer in the Roseburg population.

· Oak woodland management in the Applegate Valley of southern Oregon; Paul Hostens, BLM Medford District

Paul talked about oak savanna restoration in the Applegate valley. They have an area in the Siskiyou Mountains touching the California border named the Cascade/Siskiyou Ecological Area. There are several Research Natural Areas (RNAs) and Areas of Critical Ecological Concern (ACECs) scattered about that they are doing oak restoration in. Oregon white oak is a dominant component of the rosaceae chaparral, for example; a rare community exisiting in this area. The Applegate Valley is very suitable habitat for people, as well as oak communities. Oregon white oak, black oak, manzanita and madrone savanna types are decreasing in size, with a loss of large trees most alarming,

Resotation acitivites include the use of a combination of mechanical and prescribed fire. Initially silvicultural prescriptions significantly reduced the canopy, but increased the number and cover of weedy species that outcompeted native grasses. Now, care is given to leave more cnaopy cover to save the understory. The reintroduction to fire is a slow process, mostly because people object to its effects (air quality), but the BLM is moving forward on that treatment as well.

· Dennis Martinez, The Indigenous People's Restoration Network (founder ) and Oak Working Group (chair), Society of Ecological Restoration

Dennis is doing oak restoration in southern Oregon. He is a Native American Ecologist who combines traditional traditions for restoration with modern science based management. He mentionned the need to put culture back into our view of nature. We had highly anthropogenic landscapes historically. Hisorically, tribes burned extensively. Burning for cultural needs and wildlife habitat health overlapped. The conservation of biodiversity also benefitted from this practice.

Dennis spoke about thinning for structure. In their restoration work they were economically self sufficient because they were doing restoration with commercial timber sales. They used prescribed fire along with logging and seeded in native grasses after the burns. Dennis advocated a ``go easy'' approach taking several steps that might be 5 to 7 years apart to get desired structures. Extreme treatments may have negative effects on the oak communities you’re trying to restore. Undesired understories, and conifer encroachment may overtop existing oaks and replace them, for example

9. Where to from here; background of interest that led us to today’s meeting and beyond; Allan Branscomb, Institute for Sustainable Development

Allan is on the organizing committee for today’s meeting. He has been interested in oak issues for decades. Allan chronicled the steps taken by the Oak Group's development thus far. There were a couple of informal meetings over a year ago, a 6-30-99 meeting at Eugene BLM and the 9-16-99 Salem District Silviculture Working Group meeting that led to the Dec. 9 meeting.

Currently there is no statewide organization in Oregon (unlike California, Washington and British Columbia) that provides an institutionalized presence with goals to provide information on species, habitats, creation and restoration efforts in oak communities. A horizontal organization, loosely structured, may faciltate these goals. Five working groups were proposed:

1. Information Needs: develops and maintains a largely web based source of information that interested persons from a wide range of backgrounds could consult to find literature, agencies, programs, funding sources and activities. This would include links to digital maps and tabular data and a physical repository of printed materials. (Interrim coordinator: Patti Haggerty)

2. Outreach and Education, the Advocacy Arm: takes the messages we think are essential to schools, serviece organizaitons, media, councils, agencies, law makers and others. It also helps organize field trips, meeting and conferences. (Interrim coordinator: Peg Boulay)

3. Research and Restoration: persons with experience and expertise in the history, biology or ecology or restoration of oak communities. This group would make itself available to talk to others who are interested in getting to know about oak ecosystems, and work with folks on restoration and creation of oak habitat. (Interrim coordinator: Jane Kertis)

4. Funding Opportunities: finds information about agencies, programs and foundations who may provide dunfing for restoration and research and passes it to the information resources group; assists others in developing grant applicaions; and has a major responsibility in getting support to establish and operate the organization. (Interrim coordinator: Chris Melotti)

5. Administration and Organization: developing and running the organization (Interrim Coordinator: Allan Branscomb)

There were signup sheets for the proposed groups. If folks are interested insigning up in the future they can contact the interrim coordinator for their group(s) of interest.

There was limited discussion of organizational options. Suggestions were made to align with the Society of Ecological Restoration since they are already functioning, have a working Oak Group and have a web page. Others recommended linking with other groups, but maintaining some independence to keep things local, and less political. No real consensus was reached at this meeting.

There will be another quarterly meeting this spring, with a date to be announced. This will probably be in Eugene and will have an indoor meeting as well as field trip looking at oak restoration. Recommendations for topics, field trip sites and meeting format are welcome. Contact the organizing committee (Jane Kertis, Peg Boulay, Allan Branscomb, Chris Melotti, Sally Sovey or Patti Haggerty)

Meeting notes taken by Jane Kertis and Floyd Freeman

II. Field Trip to Finley National Wildlife Refuge

Notes from Floyd Freeman

We met at the entrance and were given a short introduction to the Refuge and the kinds of management activities done at Finley.

Walking Tour

Stop 1. This was a dense Oregon white oak pole stand. These oaks were 6 to 8 inches dbh and about 50 feet tall and thought to be from 50 to about 80 years old. Dennis Martinez (a Native American Ecologist from Southern Oregon) said that this site needed thinning. In the background were a couple of old oaks of 20 to 36 inches dbh and about 100 to 120 feet tall. There was an understory of snowberry and trailing blackberry.

According to Dave Peter (PNW Olympia) and Jane Kertis (Siuslaw NF) these younger oaks are the result of root sprouting, which is the major method of oak propagation.

About half way from the ground to the tops of the young stand the boles were covered in moss, the upper portions of the boles were colonized with lichens.

Stop 2. This was an observation platform on a slope. The surrounding area had been burned this fall. Across a draw there was a large open hill that had been burned. From what was visible I would estimate something over 100 acres had been burned.

Poison oak was sprouting back since the burns. Refuge personnel had mowed the poison oak sometime before burning to lessen exposure to it for those who ignited the burns. It took many days to burn this area because of smoke management constraints.

Large areas (up to 1/4 acre) of blackberries had been mechanically cut down prior to burning.

According to Jane Kertis (Jane is a fire Ecologist) fire intervals of 10 to 30 years were normal although there were many low intensity ground fires that had not left any evidence.

Fire reintroduction was being done in some areas of Eugene BLM and some of the south part of Salem BLM.

Stop 3. This stop was described as an ash swale although all I saw was oak and Douglas-fir.

The principal message was that Douglas-fir had the capacity to rapidly overtake Oregon oak in a short period of time (as little as 15 years). Douglas-fir was present at Stop 1 also as saplings.