Flathead National Forest/Coram Experimental Forest

Flathead National Forest and Coram Experimental Forest staff are collaborating in a nation-wide study called Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC). The goal of this project is to test different silvicultural approaches to climate change adaptation that will also serve as useful examples across the country.

The Flathead National Forest/Coram Experimental Forest is located in northwestern Montana. This Northern Rockies ASCC site is influenced by the warm, wet maritime airflows from the Pacific Ocean and the cooler, drier airflows from Canada. The study site consists of second-growth western larch-mixed conifer forests that regenerated after clearcutting in the 1960s, and provides habitat for lynx, grizzly bear, and many bird species. The Flathead/Coram ASCC site is part of the “Crown of the Continent,” a unique and diverse ecosystem whose rivers feed the Pacific Ocean, Hudson Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Learn more about stewardship of western larch forests in an era of uncertainty here.

Key Projected

Climate Change Impacts

Key projected climate change impacts that the project team considered in developing treatments for the Flathead National Forest/Coram Experimental Forest include:

  • Uncertain precipitation patterns; expect drier in the summer and wetter in winter and spring
  • Earlier snowpack melts
    Longer fire seasons with higher fire frequencies and severities
  • Increase in insect and disease outbreaks

Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives of the Flathead National Forest including:

Challenges

  • Possible increase of wildfire in ecosystems where fire exclusion has led to an abundance of forest fuels and high crown fire hazard
  • Western larch may decline in areas with lower water availability and declining groundwater flows

Opportunities

  • Growth rates in western larch may increase if warmer temperatures coincide with more growing season precipitation
  • Possible changes in species distribution due to an increase in the number of frost-free days and warmer conditions

Management Goals & Treatments

Resistance

Resilience

Transition

Implementation

Treatment operations were completed in 2024. While mechanized harvesting began in 2019, the majority of the units were cut in the winter of 2021-2022. Slash piles of submerchantable activity fuels were created in the Resilience and Transition units, then pile-burned in spring of 2023. Midstory hardwoods were slashed immediately prior to planting, which was completed in May 2024.

Monitoring

Monitoring is an essential component of the ASCC study. Research partners are working together to investigate the effectiveness of different silvicultural treatments aimed at creating adaptive ecosystems. Some of the monitoring items include:

  • Natural regeneration survival and growth 
  • Growth of tree improvement seed of western larch and ponderosa pine from high and low elevations 
  • Inventories of fuels and understory plants

Progress & Next Steps

The Flathead National Forest/Coram Experimental Forest ASCC workshop took place in June 2016. Pre-treatment measurement plots were installed and pre-treatment data collected to develop a baseline database for the site. Treatments were fully completed in 2024 after which a post-treatment inventory of residual trees, forest regeneration, understory composition, and forest fuels was completed. Future sampling will continue to monitor these forest attributes to help characterize a full suite of short- and long-term forest dynamics in response to treatment.

Site Leads & Partners

Justin Crotteau (USDA Rocky Mountain Research Station) is the site lead for the Northern Rockies ASCC site, whose team currently includes David Wright (USDA Rocky Mountain Research Station) and Elliott Meyer (USDA Flathead National Forest). Past team members include Elaine Kennedy Sutherland, Terrie Jain, Chris Keyes, Melissa Jenkins, and Amanda Rollwage.

Justin Crotteau
Site Lead

Research Forester Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service Missoula Forestry Sciences Lab 800 East Beckwith Ave Missoula, MT 59801 Phone: 406-542-4169 [email protected]

David WRight
Manager

Ecologist, Manager Coram Experimental Forest Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service Missoula Forestry Sciences Lab 800 East Beckwith Ave Missoula, MT 59801 Phone: 406-542-4181 [email protected]