Document: DER-3-12-4

Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project: Aiming for adaptive management.

DARROW, DERETHA(DEECEE)* ¹, J.M.KABRICK ¹, J.GRABNER ¹ and R.JENSEN ²

Missouri Dept. of Conservation, Conservation Research Center, 1110 S. College Ave., Columbia MO, 65201 ¹
Missouri Dept. of Conservation, RR 2, Box 198, Ellington, MO 63638 ²

Abstract:
In 1989, the Missouri Department of Conservation initiated a long term research project to examine the impacts of forest management practices. The Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) is a landscape-scale experiment that compares the impacts of even-aged management, uneven-aged management, and no harvesting on a wide array of ecosystem components. With 50 scientists involved on more than 20 individual projects, there is a wealth of scientific and practical management information to be gained. MOFEP's design was selected to allow the most flexibility to practicing forest managers during the implementation phase, while preserving the experimental design. Extensive pre-treatment data was collected to understand the relationship of future results to pre-existing conditions, and the first harvests were in 1996. The ultimate goal is to share this information with forest managers through each step of the long term project, recognizing that results five or ten years after harvest may be different than results at 20 or 25 years after harvest, and may indicate a need for multiple changes in management strategies over time. After 50 or 100 years, our agency and the public may favor forest management based on results found much earlier in the project in order to achieve a particular level of species diversity, or to favor certain ecosystem components over others. Although many investigators on individual projects still are collecting the first round of post-harvest data, we have begun to share minimal results with forest managers, and to work with them to determine the most desirable ways to ensure the information we derive is used in forest management decisions.

Keywords: ecosystem managment, landscape, forest managment

This abstract is being presented at: 2:50 PM in session:
Symposium # 22: Species Diversity at Broad Scales: Linking Science and Management.