About OpenKnowledge@NAU | For NAU Authors

Rapid assessment report: Upper Rocky Arroyo restoration project

Greco, Bruce and Sensibaugh, Mark (2014) Rapid assessment report: Upper Rocky Arroyo restoration project. Technical Report. NAU Ecological Restoration Institute, Flagstaff, United States.

[img]
Preview
Text
Greco_B_etal_2014_URARPReport(1).pdf

Download (5MB) | Preview
Publisher’s or external URL: http://nau.edu/eri/

Abstract

The Upper Rocky Arroyo Restoration Project (URAR) is located on the Lakeside Ranger District, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest (ASNF). The URAR project area covers a landscape of approximately 30,860 acres and is one of the ASNF's "Bridge the Gap" Projects identified in 2013 to help accelerate restoration treatments, to: continue to provide restoration treatments on large, "at risk" landscapes, provide wood fiber from tree thinning activities for wood-products industries in the White Mountain area, help "bridge the gap" of treating large landscapes to reduce the threat of unwanted wildfire or other disturbances, while the larger 4FRI analysis is being completed, and ensure watershed function and integrity is not adversely affected. The project area is dominated primarily by ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), with Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii), alligator juniper (Juniperus deppeana), Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma), one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma), pinon pine (Pinus edulis), white fir (Abies concolor), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), and aspen (Populus tremuloides) present as lesser species. The landscape is predominately relatively flat terrain interrupted by distinctive ephemeral drainages generally flowing northward in the Silver Creek Watershed with several volcanic cinder cones across the area. Generally, three Potential Natural Vegetation Types (PNV) are represented on the URA area, which include ponderosa pine, Madrean pine-oak, and pinon-juniper. The Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) was invited by the ASNF to collect site-specific historical ecological data for the URAR Project area to establish site-specific reference conditions (forest conditions that were in place 130-140 years ago when frequent fire was still a dominant component of the ecological system). These reference conditions would be used by the interdisciplinary team (IDT) as a point of reference for forest restoration project planning. To meet this need, ERI worked with the Lakeside Ranger District Ranger and staff to identify priority areas where data would be collected to establish reference conditions. ERI placed 49 individual study plots within the project area (Figure 1). The entire plot data collection was completed through a Rapid Assessment process and is documented in Appendix C of this report (Plot Data Summary Appendix C). Data on other ecological conditions were not collected as part of this effort; however, some of these data, such as fire history, are available from other sources (see Historical Context, Appendix A) and included in this report.

Item Type: Monograph (Technical Report)
Related URLs:
Keywords: ERI Library, report, restoration, Assessment, Apache-Sitegraves National Forest
Subjects: S Agriculture > SD Forestry
Department/Unit: Research Centers > Ecological Restoration Institute
Date Deposited: 20 Oct 2016 17:11
URI: http://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/2580

Actions (login required)

IR Staff Record View IR Staff Record View

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year