FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fairbanks, Alaska - A new U.S.D.A. Forest Service program aimed at improving timber harvesting methods and ecosystem sustainability is providing grant money to a local forester. Tricia Wurtz, a research ecologist and affiliate assistant professor with UAF's School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management, will receive research dollars from the Natural Resources Agenda Grants program for her study on an alternative to clearcutting forests for timber harvesting.

The national forest service evaluated more than 900 grant proposals from local, state and private timber units whose projects focus on sustainable forest ecosystem management and watershed health and recreation. A total of 115 projects nationwide were selected.

Wurtz's study focuses on two locations 25 miles south of Fairbanks in and near Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest. Her project compares shelterwood harvesting, which leaves a portion of the dominant trees standing, to clearcutting. The study is believed to represent the longest and best-documented record of the effects of shelterwood harvesting in the boreal forest in the northernmost U.S.

According to Wurtz, there are many advantages to using shelterwood harvesting instead of clearcut logging.

"A primary advantage to shelterwood harvesting is appearance," Wurtz said. "Shelterwoods are aesthetically more pleasing than clearcuts and at a distance can be hard to distinguish from undisturbed forest," she added. Other advantages to shelterwood harvesting include top soil retention and reduced impact of habitat removal on some species of wildlife.

There are drawbacks to shelterwood harvesting, however- added costs, vulnerability of remaining trees to insect infestation, and soil temperature problems that may slow the regeneration of the stand.

Wurtz will continue work begun in the 1970s by John Zasada, now a researcher with the North Central Forest Experiment Station in Rhinelander, Wisc.

"John's approach of including shelterwood harvesting in the research was truly ahead of its time," Wurtz said. "There is lots of public opposition to clearcutting now and lots of interest in finding alternatives, but John was working on this 27 years ago."

This summer, researchers will continue the study, comparing regeneration of white spruce and other vegetation as well as soil temperature dynamics at the two sites. The results will be monitored by local forestry units and shared among local communities. Several organizations have cooperated in Wurtz's research, including: the forest service's Pacific Northwest Research Station, Tanana Chiefs Conference, the UAF Long-Term Ecological Research program, the State of Alaska Division of Forestry, and the Alaska Boreal Forest Council.

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