Peck, J.E.  1997d.  Supplement to the Moss Harvest Monitoring Plan.  Report to the Siuslaw National Forest, Corvallis, OR.  


    This report supplements the 1996 Moss Harvest Monitoring Plan for the Hebo District, Siuslaw National Forest by describing the year two results of a moss harvest impacts study in  Stewardship Area 1 (SA1) and the monitoring protocol and year one results for Special Forest Products Stewardship Area 2 (SA2).  Although there were notable harvest impacts and treatment effects in SA1 immediately following harvest in 1996, one year later the treatment effects have largely evened out.  While species composition continues to differ among treatments, no differences remain among control, rules (30 lb/acre removal), and no rules (100 lb/acre removal) plots for cover, species richness, or the abundance of harvestable mats.  Monitoring in SA2 includes the landscape-level approach begun in SA1, which will compare the baseline (1997) bryophyte communities (described herein) of SA2 to those present in 2002, after five years of moss harvest.  SA2 also includes an evaluation of moss harvest impacts in upland conifer and hardwood dominated forests, with twenty-four long-term monitoring plots established and pre-harvest baseline data on epiphyte composition and abundance recorded in 1997.  Plots were harvested according to two treatments (control and 100 lbs/acre removal) and then remeasured immediately following harvest.  The immediate harvest impact on harvestable moss diversity was insignificant, but the reductions in abundance and the changes in relative species composition were significant and similar to the No Rules treatment of SA1.  This report includes changes to the Monitoring Plan for SA1, and an Appendix with the 1997 annual interim report on moss recovery on Acer circinatum stems harvested in 1994.

 

PNW Moss Lit