Pacific Northwest Research Station

Title: Spruce reproduction dynamics on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, 1987-2000.

Author: van Hees, Willem W.S.

Date: 2005

Source: Res. Pap. PNW-RP-563. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 18 p

Station ID: RP-PNW-563

Description: During the past 30 years, spruce forests of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula have undergone dramatic changes resulting from widespread spruce bark beetle(Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby)) infestation. In 1987 and again in 2000, the Pacific Northwest Research Station's Forest Inventory and Analysis Program conducted initial and remeasurement inventories to assess broad-scale impacts of this infestation.

Changes in regeneration of Sitka spruce(Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) and white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) are examined by using data collected on 130 plots. Regeneration of Sitka and white spruce in terms of mean number of seedlings per plot is not significantly different from the 1987 findings. The number of plots where seedling stocking remained at previous levels or increased, slightly exceeded the number of locations where seedling stocking declined. Almost half the plots (49 percent) had decreased numbers of seedlings, and almost 72 percent of the plots fell in the less-than-fully-stocked category in both inventories. Also, the distribution of the seedlings over the plot was not uniform. No plots had seedlings on all plot cluster sample points in either inventory.

Keywords: Forest surveys, timber resources, reproduction (spruce), Alaska (Kenai Peninsula)

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Citation

van Hees, Willem W.S.  2005.  Spruce reproduction dynamics on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, 1987-2000..   Res. Pap. PNW-RP-563. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 18 p.