Southern Forest Resource Assessment Report - Experts Meeting to Define Questions

Initial Sorting Of Questions Sorting the questions to define the preliminary assessment questions. Landscape/Terrestrial Ecosystems Questions 1. What are the status, trends, and distribution of terrestrial habitats? A2. What is the status , trends, and distribution of terrestrial habitats stratified according to land ownership, ecological units, states, and across the South? What conditions are needed to sustain plant and animal habitat associations? A3. What ecosystem conditions and management activities are needed to sustain habitats for the selected plant and animal habitat associates? How have roads influenced habitats, plants, and animals? A8. What are effects of road density on habitat and selected plant and animal species? C34. What practices are available to re-seed roads for wildlife use? A9. What are the effects of road maintenance on selected species? What are the effects of expanding human populations and urbanization affect habitats, animals and plants? A12. How do human population changes influence plant and animal diversity? A13. What are the effects of urban development on plant and animal habitats? How has forest management shaped terrestrial ecosystems? A25. Has intensive forest management resulted in adverse impacts to t&e species? A27. Has intensive forest management resulted in adverse impacts to game species? A28. Has intensive forest management resulted in beneficial effects to select species? Social and Economic Systems Questions How has land use changed over the past and how might it change in the future? 1 A5. What is the historic land use changes in the South? [NRI data (state level): 1982-present] 1 A6. What are the projected land use changes? 1 B7. Where is urbanization most likely to occur during the next 10 years? 1 E4. What are trends in land use and ownership pattern changes by county? 1 E5. Has urbanization caused a decline in forest land area? (data?, timeframe?) What is the demographic profile and preferences of southern citizens and how has it changed? 2 A18. What are the trends and driving factors for land ownership changes? 2 A35. What are the public perceptions? 2 A36. How the changing public perceptions and attitudes affecting public policy and forest management? 2 B9. What are public opinions about the use of fire, pesticides, old growth, forest dynamics, etc.? 2 B11. How has public sentiment affected sustainability and management practices? 2 B12. What are the demographics of the people or groups who express public opinion related to forest management? 2 D19. How does proximity to urban areas affect the kind of forest management? 2 E1. What are population demographic trends for rural and urban counties? 2 E6. How is urban growth and attitudes (data? timeframe?) changing management practices? 2 E15. How do we determine if the grass roots opinion of natural resource management is the same as the leaders opinions of their respective organizations? (data?) 3. What are current policies, regulations, and laws, and how do they affect natural resource management? 3 A32. What barriers exist to the use of prescribed burning? 3 A34. What are the tools necessary to address this issue? 3 B13. What are the specific legal and political ramifications that are currently in place or proposed? 3 B14. Who influences the establishment of legal and political actions? 3 B15. Which policies and laws have conflicting objectives? 3 B17. What are the current and proposed regulations that have potential effects? 3 B18. How would policies affect the amount, type, and timing of prescribed fire treatments in fire-adapted/fire-dependent systems? 3 C2. What are the actual compliance rates with BMPs? 3 C3. Why do landowners choose to (or not) implement BMPs? 3 C4. What factors influence implementation of BMPs? 3 C5. What measures are in place currently to enforce or encourage or provide incentives to implement BMP? 3 C9. How well are loggers trained to implement BMPs? 3 C23. What measures are available to reduce excessive sediment loads and associated erosion rates? 3 C24. How can we ensure that available measures are utilized? 3 D1. What are the current legal precedents (laws, regulations at National, State & local) and interpretations that impact how private forest they use land? 3 D2. What are the restrictions on timber harvest? on use? 3 D3. Are these laws & regulations being complied with? 3 D4. How do these laws and regulations affect forest sustainability? 3 D5. What laws are established or proposed for sustainable forest management? "Right to practice forestry" laws? 3 D14. What are the current landowner incentive programs? 3 E10. How to improve coordination of resource planning and management 3 E12. How to catalyze strategic planning both within and between counties? (data?) 3 E13. What are the impacts of federal, state and local laws on the practice of natural resource management in the south? 3 E14. What are the non-regulatory tools (incentives, tax structures, ...) for addressing private property rights issues? 3 E17. What are the variety and scope of resources, incentives, programs, etc. for landowner resource management (all resource management options)? What are the current mechanisms for informing the public regarding resources and their management? 4 B10. What are the sources of information that the public uses to formulate their opinions? 4 C31. What educational materials are available for road construction/maintenance? 4 D13. What are the current mechanisms for providing management information to NIPFs 4 D16. What information is available to the landowner for management for wood products, for other resource benefits, and for a mix? 4 E11. between public and private organizations/landowners? (data?) What motivates private forest landowners and how are their objectives formed? 5 A15. What percentage of non-industrial private land owners are actively managing their lands? 5 A16. What are the natural resource objectives of non-industrial private landowners? 5 A17. What are the trends and driving factors influencing non-industrial private landowner objectives? 5 A19. How does land ownership affect forest management and resource sustainability? 5 B8. How changes in land ownership affect the management of forestlands and what are those ownership changes? What are the critical tradeoffs to various forest management strategies? 6 B5. What are the socio-economic tradeoffs to different strategies associated with managing the integrity of wildlands? (e.g. prescribed versus wildland fires, pesticide use, silviculture, recreation) 6 C28. What are the economic implications of sedimentation of aquatic ecosystems due to silviculture? 6 D22. What are joint production relationships among forest uses. (e.g., timber harvesting vs. recreational use) How does resource management influence economic structure and health? 7 E2. What role does the forest resource play in local/county level economy? (Limited resource landowners, minority populations, ...) 7 E3. What are other economic potentials/opportunities of rural areas? 8. What are the demands for and supplies of recreation and other nonconsumptive uses of forests in the South? 8 E7. What are the trends in recreational demands? (Feasibility ok) 8 E8. How are the trends in recreation demand impacting forest management? (data?) 8 E18. What is the supply and demand for non-timber uses? (data????, time?, scale?) Timber Markets / Forest Management Core Area Questions What are the demands for and supplies of wood products in the South? 1 D17. What are the supplies of and demands for wood products in the South? 1 D24. How is NIPF wood being merchandised? 1 D25. What are the spatial relationship in the price of small roundwood products to sawlog products? 1 D26. What are the trends in competing forest product prices? 1 E19. What are the projected supplies and areas of short-rotation woody crops? (data?) 1 E9. What is the accessibility and availability of forest resources, by county? (data?, scale?) What are the status and the trends of timber harvesting in the South? 2 D27. What harvest methods are being used by NIPF owners? 2 D33. What percent of harvest sites is actually disturbed enough to affect productivity? 2 D34. What equipment is being used and what are their impacts? 2 D35. What silvicultural practices are being used for harvest? for stand tending practices? What are the status and trends of forest management activities in the South? 3 A30. What is the management regime on pine plantations? 3 A31. What are the trends in fire management activities (prescribed fire, fire suppression, etc.)? 3 B19. What are the economic and ecological trade-offs of implementing prescribed fire management? 3 D28. What forest management practices are being used in the South? 3 D37. What proportion of harvest sites are prepared mechanically, chemically, manually? How might new technologies influence timber harvesting and conditions of forests? 4 E20. What opportunities exist for extending the forest resource through new technology? (data? scale?) 4 E21. What are the trends in new forest harvesting technology and markets? And how are they affecting the forest resource? (data?) What are the management strategies of different forest ownerships in the South? 5 D6. Are private land owners establishing sustainable forest management as part of their land management objective? 5 D8. Are private landowners using acceptable forest management practices to provide timber while protecting the environment? 5 D9. To what degree are private landowners reforesting harvested land in acceptable manner. 5 D10. How are private land being reforested after harvest? 5 D21. What information is available concerning joint production relationships for timber products? What are the ecological implications of different forest management regimes? 6 D31. What is the science basis - theoretical, conceptual and experimental - for silviculture for forest disturbance and ecological response to disturbance? 6 D32. What is the current state of knowledge and science basis of disturbance ecology? Forest Extent, Conditions, and Health Questions What are the status and distribution of forest area and how has it changed? 1 A14. What is the distribution of land ownership by tract size? 1 C37. What is the rate of permanent loss of forested land and what are the reasons? 1 D11. How much forest land is being converted to non-forest uses? 1 D12. How have land ownership changed over time? What are the status, trends, and potential future changes to the structure of forests in the South? 2 A11. How have land use changes affected forest composition and structure? 2 A14. What is the forest composition and age class distribution of those ownerships? 2 A20. Has intensive forest management resulted in younger forest? 2 A22. Has intensive forest management resulted in changes in species composition? 2 A24. Has intensive forest management resulted in less complex forest structure? 2 A29. What are the trends in annual timber harvest (acres) and reforestation? 2 B6. What is the extent and distribution of forest fragmentation during the past two decades? 2 B21. What do the forests currently look like and what changes or trends are occurring? 2 B23. What are the tree and other plant species that are changing? 2 D15. What age class distributions for the NIPF? Trend over time? What factors have and could continue to influence the overall health of the South's forests? 3 A10. What are the impacts of environmental stressors (drought, ozone, acid rain) on forest structure, composition, and function? 3 A21. Has intensive forest management resulted in reduction in soil productivity? 3 A23. Has intensive forest management resulted in increased soil erosion? 3 B1. What are the most important native and invasive/exotic species and where do they occur (now and in the future)? 3 B2. What the are the effects of these species on forest conditions? 3 B3. What are the factors that will influence future rates of spread of native and exotic species? 3 B4. What are the factors that will influence future introductions of invasive exotic species? 3 B24. What species and communities are at risk? Water/Aquatic Ecosystems Questions What are the status and trends of Best Management Practices and how have they affected water quality? 1 C1. Do BMPs work in protecting water quality? Are they adequate? Are they implemented? 1 C6. What effect do BMPs have on aquatic systems, habitats, species? 1 C7. Are there standardized methods for monitoring compliance rates among states? 1 C8. Is there variation among forest ownership classes, areas of the South? (industrial/PNIF) 1 C10. Is there monitoring system for BMPs? Is monitoring adequate? 1 C41. Are present land management regulations (CWA 404, ESA, NPDES) adequate to recover listed species? What are the status and trends of water quality in forested watersheds? 2 C12. What baseline data are available to detect changes in stream conditions? 2 C14. Can we separate past land-use practices from current land use practices? 2 C15. Can cumulative (aquatic) impacts from land uses be accurately assessed? 2 C22. What portion of the total sediment load is attributed to each land use? 2 C25. Are water quality parameters, such as turbidity, improving or degrading over time? What are the status and trends of forested wetlands in the South? 3 C20. Are current wetland inventories accurate and thorough? 3 C49. What are the effects of greentree reservoir management on forested wetlands? How have forest management activities influenced water quality and aquatic ecosystems? 4 A26. Has intensive forest management resulted in adverse impacts to water quality? 4 C11. What aquatic habitat conditions are effected by forest management? 4 C13. What are the relative levels of the adverse impacts to aquatic systems from roads, silviculture, recreation? 4 C17. What water quality/quantity parameters are effected by forest management practices? 4 C18. Are there accurate methods for determining whether silvicultural practices are impacting aquatic species? 4 C19. Can we use indicator species to evaluate forest management impacts to aquatic species? 4 C26. What types of silvicultural activities induce the greatest soil erosion and sedimentation ? 4 C27. How do excessive sediment loads from forest practices in interact with other activities? 4 C29. How does sedimentation from forest management practices impacts streams /aquatic systems downstream? 4 C30. What is the science involved with proper road construction/maintenance to minimize impacts to water quality? 4 C32. Can we separate the effects of poor road design from poor road maintenance? 4 C35. What road maintenance activities cause water quality degradation? 4 C36. Is sedimentation from roads a local or regional problem? 4 C40. What aquatic species have been impacted by forest management activities? What are the status and trends of aquatic habitats and species in the South? 5 C16. Where are the data gaps for locations and habitat requirements for aquatic species of concern? 5 C21. For what species do we have adequate baseline data? 5 C38. Do changes in land uses/land cover adversely impact threatened and endangered aquatic listed species? 5 C39. What changes adversely impact listed (aquatic) species? How has outdoor recreation affected water quality and aquatic ecosystems? 6 C43. How does recreation increase risk of invasion by exotic species? 6 C44. How do various recreational uses impact the aquatic resources ? Compare horse use, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, etc. 6 C45. How do recreational flows affect aquatic systems? 6 C46. What effect do trout stocking programs have upon native aquatic communities? 6 C47. How much recreation occurs in or near water resources? 6 C48. Is the growth of water-based recreation sustainable? 6 C42. What effect do changes in forest cover (pine to hardwood) have on threatened and endangered species? ...Previous Next... Table of Contents | Assessment Home | SRS Home

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