Restoring Nature’s Complexity: How We Return to Ecologically Resilient Forests

BY LAUREL BAUM, SENIOR COORDINATOR, CENTERAL CASCADES WATERSHED

In North Seattle, there’s a forest park I enjoy walking through. The forest began regrowing naturally after a clearcut in the early 1900s. While the surrounding city developed, this greenspace stayed wild. 

It has a mix of mature trees like conifers and big leaf maples. The plant communities are diverse. There are sword ferns in the understory, salmonberry and beaked hazelnut in sunny spots, and strong cedar and yew trees in the shade. There’s also an area with alders that grew after a clearing decades ago. Towering 100-year-old Douglas firs create the tallest canopy level with mature big leaf maples below. Broken and fallen trees create homes for animals like owls and small mammals. 

This urban forest is different from federal working forests, which were heavily managed for timber. They were clearcut, sprayed with herbicides, and replanted with dense rows of conifers. These plantation stands look and function quite differently from an unmanaged forest. Younger age stands have trees that are overcrowded, some are suppressed, stunted, or have died off from the lack of light. These trees are being outcompeted for resources by their neighbors; they live in a model designed to be thinned, like a gardener that thins their carrots when they become overcrowded, they are essentially over simplified tree farms. Quite simply, we’ve altered the forests with our past management practices. 

Now, we’re realizing the importance of restoring forests to their natural complexity. Federal forest management has changed over time, evolving to have more focus on preserving old-growth trees and restoring diverse ecosystems. Research shows that forests support a wide variety of life, including animals, fungi, and plants. Healthy forests also help clean water and air. 

To restore forests, we need to create diverse habitats with different tree ages and types. This includes leaving snags and fallen logs, as well as creating openings for sunlight to reach the forest floor. Ecological thinning is one way to achieve this, by reducing overcrowding and adding diversity to the forest. 

Across the seven million acres of forest we work on, the Forest Field Team advocates for management practices based on ecosystem function that help promote more complex habitats to support a broader diversity of birds and wildlife. We do this by tracking and analyzing USFS projects, promoting ecologically sound practices, building collaboratives to bolster the voices of forest users, and direct engagement with land managers to move forward sound treatments on the landscape. 

Examples of success include creating a monitoring program after discovering heavy-handed logging in the Mission Ridge Restoration Project in the Okanogan-Wenatchee, completing mapping to facilitate a native re-planting program in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, coordinating scientific reviews of Forest Restoration Strategies, and advocacy to ensure mature and old-growth forests are protected in Forest Service timbers sales.