Liesel, I've been thinking about your request for National Forest ecological health indicators. To me, it would seem obvious that many could be related to the old Forest Service multiple use mission, e.g., water, timber, wildlife, minerals, and recreation. So you would have indicators such as high water quality maintained in streams and lakes, stable production of timber and other forest products, productive and stable populations of utilized wildlife, etc. Then there are factors such as keystone species, indicator species, ecosystem engineers, biodiversity (particularly species and structural diversity), complexity and stability, listed or sensitive species, etc. These would support a more holistic evaluation.
I wonder if you've considered two particularly practical approaches to defining and selecting ecological health indicators? One is to try looking at what the National Forest ecosystem looked like pre-settlement. Another is to ask the National Forest managers to describe what they would like the forest ecosystems to look like in 100 years -- what they would hope to see if they could visit the forest 100 years from now and see some results of their management. In either case, you could then select indicators that would portray that condition. And, of course, you could use both of these approaches since they can be seen as complementary. There is a practical advantage for involving National Forest managers -- it gives them some ownership in your research and its results. Warren W. Aney Senior Wildlife Ecologist 9403 SW 74th Ave Tigard, OR 97223 (503) 246-8613 phone (504) 539-1009 mobile (503) 246-2605 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Liesel Turner Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:26 PM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Question: Ecological indicators for National Forest Health I am doing research on forest level policy outcomes and am wondering if anyone is aware of, or can suggest any, long term outcome measures for ecological health indicators of national forests (as close to 100 years as possible). I am looking for actual ecological outcome measures versus management application measures. Any input would be appreciated. Liesel Turner Ph.D. Applicant Drexel University Philadelphia, PA
