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Tin Mountain Conservation Center (TMCC) is working to improve stream habitat and facilitate a diverse forest by favoring future climate-adapted tree species.

Forested wildlife habitat on the Bear Paw lands is being affected by climate change. This includes the loss of tree species due to forest pests and pathogens, reduced cold water fish populations due to warming waters and drought, and shifts in the distribution of avian communities. Tree species of concern include hemlock, beech, birch, aspen, spruce, and balsam fir, and wildlife species of concern include eastern brook trout and a number of avian species. The management team at TMCC will conduct a forest stand improvement to favor future climate-adapted tree species and release tree and shrub species that produce soft and hard mast for native wildlife. The team will also plant future climate-adapted species including white oak, swamp white oak, black birch, and American chestnut on site.
Red oak growing on a good site on the Upper White Lot Brook tract. Red oak is a target species on these properties due to their ability to adapt to our changing climate, along with the fact that there are excellent site indexes for red oak on the property.
An understory of coppice beech regeneration, which will be mechanically disrupted in the spring of 2024. This will be followed by a planting of black birch seed, white and chestnut oak saplings, supplanted by the white pine and red oak seed crop of 2023.
A typical hemlock/hardwood/red oak stand found on the property.

Project Area

The 844-acre project area is made up of diverse forest types ranging from hemlock/hardwood, northern hardwood, red oak/beech, and white pine stands. The area also includes stands with old forest characteristics including trees larger than 24” in diameter and multi-layered canopies. It encompasses 6,700 feet of cold water brook flowage and prime habitat for species of concern such as black bears, moose, accipiters, owls, otters, fisher, and marten. In particular, TMCC staff have engaged in long-term monitoring of bird populations at the site.

Management Goals

Retain and enhance tree canopy species that produce timber products and forage and shelter for wildlife species.

  • Increase beech and softwood seed mast (15 years).
  • Increase diversity of mast tree species and of the timing of seed crop production through the use of assisted migration (20 years).
  • Retain adequate shading and increase forest structural diversity near cold water streams (ongoing).
  • Reduce impacts of forest pathogens (ongoing).

Adjust understory and midstory species composition to favor trees and shrubs projected to be adapted to future climate conditions.

  • Conduct light forest stand improvement in suitable stands (2 years).
  • Reduce invasive plant species in the understory (3+ years).

Provide coarse woody additions to flowing, cold streams to replicate reference conditions and improve trout habitat.

  • Conduct pre- and post-treatment analyses to identify existing habitat, fish populations & conditions (2010-ongoing).
  • Complete coarse woody debris additions to increase pool development and reduce channel incision (completed 2010-2021).

Climate Change Impacts

For this project, the most important anticipated climate change impacts include:
Temperatures in New England are projected to increase 3.5 to 8.5 °F by the end of the century, with the greatest warming expected to occur during the winter.
The winter season will be shorter and milder winters, generally leading to less precipitation falling as snow and reduced snow coverage and seasonal retention.
Forest vegetation may face increased risk of moisture deficit and drought during the growing season.
Intense precipitation events will continue to become more frequent in the Northeast.
Certain insect pests and pathogens will increase in occurrence or become more damaging in the region due to milder winters which may allow some insect pests and pathogens to expand their ranges northward (i.e., beech leaf disease, hemlock woolly adelgid).
Earlier springs and longer growing seasons are expected to cause shifts in phenology for plant species.

Challenges and Opportunities

Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives of this project, including:

Challenges

Warmer temperatures and milder winters may enable pests and pathogens to spread at increased rates affecting the health of softwood and hardwood mast species including beech (i.e., beech leaf disease, hemlock woolly adelgid).
Wetter, heavier snow has already damaged white pine saplings and poles and may cause additional damage to other softwood species.
Shifts in temperature, precipitation, and pathogens may impact the mast production of the northern red oak and beech. This heightens the need for assisted migration of climate-adapted mast trees species.
Extreme events such as windstorms and defoliation events from forest pests threaten the ability to retain adequate shading of cold water streams.
Wind and flood events increase the risk of erosion along the streambank which may make it difficult to maintain structural diversity of streams.

Opportunities

Planting trees at appropriate sites on the property may enable climate-adapted tree species to thrive in future climate conditions (e.g., white oak, swamp white oak, black birch, chestnut oak, American chestnut).
Severe storms or snow/ice loading may result in more woody material deposited in brook bottoms. This could increase structural diversity and pool development in streams.
Warmer temperatures and drier summers may allow for shifts in harvest timing and techniques (i.e., summer harvests).
The decline of hemlock along streams from forest pest outbreaks may provide opportunities to replace them with more future climate-adapted species (southern pines) to maintain stream shading.
Promoting mixed softwood regeneration on site may help reduce white pine damage from snow/ice loading.

Adaptation Actions

Project participants used the Adaptation Workbook to develop several adaptation actions for this project, including:

Area/Topic
Approach
Tactics
Forest ecosystems
9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
9.3. Guide changes in species composition at early stages of stand development.
9.5. Disfavor species that are distinctly maladapted.
Favor future climate-adapted tree species and disfavor maladapted species in harvest operations.
Time harvest cycles to promote successful germination of future climate-adapted and site-appropriate tree species.
Conduct forest stand improvements in young stands to improve tree vigor.
1.4. Reduce competition for moisture, nutrients, and light.
Use heavy mechanical disruption to reduce existing beech saplings in harvest operations and decrease competition with desired regeneration.
Forest carbon storage
5.1 Prioritize low vulnerability sites for maintaining or enhancing carbon stocks
5.2 Establish reserves on sites with high carbon density
Use a relatively hands-off management approach in old forest stands where species compositions are favorable.
Occasionally individual trees of less climate-adapted species can be cut and left on the forest floor to provide more space for crown development of shade-tolerant climax species.

Monitoring

Project participants identified several monitoring items that could help inform future management, including:
Productivity of beech mast and softwood mast (pounds per acre)
Survival of planted future climate-adapted species (Target: % survival greater than or equal to 60%)
Pathogen impacts in project area (frequency or % cover)
Assess sustainability of stream bottom habitat improvements
Changes in stream shading (% cover within 100 ft of streams)

Project Documents

Next Steps

Forest stand improvement and assisted migration plantings will take place during 2024.

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