Variable-Retention Harvesting as a Silvicultural Option for Lodgepole Pine

Bark beetle-induced mortality in forested landscapes of structurally uniform, even-aged lodgepole pine stands has inspired a growing interest in the potential of silvicultural treatments to enhance resilience by increasing spatial and vertical complexity. Silvicultural treatments can simulate mixed-severity disturbances that create multiaged lodgepole pine stands, which, along with heterogeneous forest landscapes, can play a role in mitigating susceptibility to primary disturbance agents (bark beetles and wildfire). With this article, we review multiaged lodgepole pine stand dynamics and discuss variable-retention harvesting as a silvicultural option for lodgepole pine. We describe the establishment and initial outcomes of an experimental variable-retention harvesting project established at the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (Montana) in 1999–2003 and the objectives of a collaborative multiagency effort that is presently revisiting and analyzing that experiment.

uneven-aged management, forest stand dynamics, silviculture, forest restoration, mountain pine beetle