Management Objectives Overview

 

Introduction

The Landscape planning process treats values, constraints, and other possible goals collectively treated as management objectives - that is, things to achieve or avoid. The Pack Forest Landscape Plan derives its objectives from several sources, including the Pack Forest Comprehensive Management Plan, state Forest Practices Rules and the Montreal Process Criteria for Sustainable Forestry. Some of the objectives are fundamental components of Pack Forest's Comprehensive Management Plan and must be included in a successful plan. Other objectives may only be considerations and will not be considered requirements of a acceptable management alternative.

The Pack Forest Landscape Plan objectives address stand and landscape-scale forest management. They do not address management of the road network, the Campus area, or the operational details of individual silvicultural interventions.

Factors which Contribute to Landscape Objectives

Forest operations are primarily guided by the Pack Forest Comprehensive Management and Development Plan, drafted in 1981. Though some of the specific content of the plan is outdated, its fundamental structure in relation to forest operations is still highly relevant. Presently, the entire plan is not available in digital format, but pertinent excerpts can be found on-line by following the link above.

Operations in the forest must also follow the forest practices rules of the state of Washington. The link to the right will provide more details and describe how legal requirements were addressed during the landscape plan development.

Pack Forest recognizes the global importance of sustainability as an important guide for its forest practices. The Montreal Process Criteria for Sustainable Forestry has been chosen by the CFR Silviculture Lab as a effective foundation for evaluating a landscape plan for sustainability issues. However, many of the criteria are geared towards the regional or global-scale and do not make sense when applied to the small scale of operations at Pack Forest. For example, fluctuations in harvest rates at Pack Forest are not going to drive local economies, nor be the breaking point for companies to stay in business.

Objectives Summary

For heuristic purposes a large number of objectives are analyzed for Pack Forest. The objectives are listed in the order prescribed by the Montreal Process format. (The criteria listed below that are followed by an asterisk (*) were considered in this management plan, but were not directly analyzed at the stand/landscape-scale. Many topics are best addressed at the annual operations level.) In addition, not all objectives can or should be achieved completely. Each of these generalized management objectives are described in detail by following the links; descriptions include specific management goals and measurable criteria.

Pack Forest Management Plan
Fiscally self-sustaining
Providing forest structures to support outreach, education and research
Tree species diversification*
Retention of "hands-off" successional reserves
Practice of innovative management activities*

Protecting biodiversity
Maintaining amounts of all habitats at all times
Maintaining critical habitats for key species
Maintaining reserve areas
Old forest reserves
All forest reserves
Quiet areas*
Corridors for species movement * Providing the "fair share" of commodity production
Providing a "fair share" of commodities
Ensuring that forests are growing sustainably
Ensuring that the wood quality is sustained Protecting forest health (protecting against fire, insects, and diseases)
Maintaining low wind and fire risk Protecting water quality and soil productivity
Maintaining soil structure and texture*
Maintaining soil nutrient productivity*
Protecting riparian areas
Protecting road/stream interfaces*
Protecting from soil and stream degradation through catastrophic fires