Three Decades of Silviculture in Northern Rocky Mountain Forests, USA: Trends, Practices, and Outcomes

Abstract The Northern Rocky Mountains region includes 42 million acres of forest land which is diverse in landownership, management objectives, tree species, site productivities, disturbance regimes, and silvicultural practices resulting in a mosaic landscape. Substantial changes in landownership, management objectives, markets, policy, forest conditions, and silvicultural practices have occurred over the last thirty years. This review provides a synopsis of these changes across different forest types in the region. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service remains the largest forest management entity in the region, encompassing all forest types. Silvicultural practices have largely shifted towards multiple objective management on federal lands, reflecting broad societal values. This includes restoring historical species composition and enhancing resistance and resilience to natural disturbances, with wildfire a dominant disturbance concern across all forest types. Large corporate landownerships remain concentrated on high productivity sites in the region. Many of these companies are now Timber Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). The region has seen an uptick in the establishment of high-yield plantations on their land, dominated by Douglas-fir and western larch. State lands continue to manage to meet their endowment mandates with some examples of increased intensification through plantation establishment. Overall, the region is dynamic, and we expect continued emphasis on fuels reduction, timber production, recreation, wildlife habitat, among others, as meeting these objectives will help ensure the sustainability of forests for years to come.