Map of the Coastal Temperate Rain Forests

Image courtesy of: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Temperate_rainforest_map.svg/2000px-Temperate_rainforest_map.svg.png

This map represents the current global spatial scale of Temperate Rain Forests. However this blog is going to be paying special attention to the forests of the Olympic National Park, and a map of this particular region can be found below.

Image courtesy of: http://yourforever.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/map.gif

Images of the Ecosystem: Present

Images taken by: Samantha Robbins

Images of the Ecosystem: Past

Images courtesy of:

Freewebs, "Olympic National Park History."Last modified July 31, 2011. Accessed November 20, 2011. http://www.freewebs.com/elderbob/ELDER/ONP_HISTORY.html.

Historical State of the Coastal Temperate Rain Forests

The definition of a Coastal Temperate Rain Forest is a coniferous biome with cool weather, dense fog, and high precipitation. I am going to be focusing on the Coastal Temperate Rain Forests of the Olympic National Forest. This forest is located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Historically these forests were found on almost every continent. However, today only about half of these forests are still in existence, and a majority of them are found in the Pacific North West. Historical characteristics of these forests include the following:

• Average rainfall from 200 to 380 cm (80 to 152 in), cool summers, mild winters, average temperatures ranging from 4° to 12° Celsius (39° to 54° Fahrenheit), and infrequent fires.
• Dominant vegetation includes large evergreen trees like the Western Hemlock, Douglas Fir, and Sikta Spruce. These trees provide a closed canopy that blocks out about 70% of the sunlight. Additionally, tree species in this forest do not need fire for regeneration because their seeds are able to grow under shade in natural openings.
• The soil in these forests are lacking in nutrients because cool temperature slow the activity of bacterial and fungal decomposers. Furthermore, lots of needles, large fallen branches, and trunks fill the forest floor and this litter takes a long time to decay and release nutrients into the soil.
• These forests are rich in epiphytes, which are plants that grow on tree trunks and branches, usually just receiving physical support from the tree and getting nutrients from air, rain, and debris. Although some epiphytes can damage their host. Common species include mosses, lichens, and ferns.
• Common animals include squirrels, wood rats, mule deer, elk, numerous bird species, and many amphibians and reptiles

Images courtesy of: Ecotrust, "Inforain." Accessed November 20, 2011. http://www.inforain.org/index.html

Current Human Impact

The Olympic Mountain range consists of an extremely steep and rugged terrain. These mountains also have some of the most picturesque and pristine forests in North America. So naturally tourists, hikers, fishermen, and outdoor enthusiasts from all over the world want access to these beautiful forests. However this access comes with a heavy price. From a road management perspective, the only viable way to build roads into these otherwise inaccessible areas is to construct them along valley bottoms near streams, rivers, and lakes. Traditional methods of constructing these roads so close to these waterways include bank hardening and revetment construction; yet, these techniques have lately proved harmful to the ecosystem's streams and rivers.

Road-stream interaction in the Olympic National Forest has been a large problem. Take for instance the Dosewallips River washout in January of 2002. This watershed is home to many high-value salmon fisheries, including a threatened run of Chinook Salmon. So in the winter of 2002 a 100 m section of Forest Road 2610, used for access to campgrounds and trail heads, was washed out after a flooding of the river. Since that winter the washout has continued to grow, threatening the downstream salmon runs. A lot of controversy has developed over what to do with the washed out road. Various solutions have been proposed and the three most popular include: the reconstruction of the washed out section of the road, a re-routing of the road through a section of centuries old trees, or a conversion of the last five miles of the road above the washout into a non-motorized hiking trail.

The Future Prospects

The previously mentioned controversy is between local landowners and environmental preservation groups. Each of which have conflicting concerns about the future of the Dosewallips River washout.

The city of Brinnon, Washington believe that access to the area needs to be restored in order to preserve the crucial economic and cultural health of the local community. They claim that converting the remaining 5 miles of the road into a trail would discourage handicapped, elderly, and adolescent tourists from visiting the park. They also highlight those environmental groups and young athletic hikers who are against the road being built are not from the area and therefore do not have enough experience to know what is best for the region.

On the other hand, numerous environmental groups have strongly advocated against rebuilding the road because of the risk to the environment. If another road was built above the previously washed out section it would violate the Northwest Foreign Plan by degrading spotted owl habitat, protected under the Endangered Species Act. This habitat consists of thousands of centuries old trees, which would have to be mowed down. Most importantly, construction at the site would send even more sediment down stream and cause the degradation of Chinook Salmon habitat. High levels of sediment moving down the Dosewallips river would cloud the water and bury the breeding grounds that salmon return to every time they reproduce.

Presently it looks like the road will not be rebuilt, and a temporary trail has been set up around the washout. Yet, the Forest Service confirmed in 2010 that it would be willing to construct a new motor vehicle only roadway up hill of the wash out, at a cost of $3.96 million dollars. Despite the fact that the Temperate Rain Forests of the Pacific Northwest are considered to be some of the best preserved in the world, human development in the form of forest roads, for example, are threatening the ecosystem and it's native inhabitants.

Despite the controversy with the forest road-river interactions, the human impact on this particular ecosystem seems rather good!

Improvements To Be Made

I believe that in order to maintain the ecosystem of the Olympic National Forest, road construction in the forests needs to be more restricted, or halted altogether.  Additionally, existing roads need to be maintained and preserved in accordance with the unique characteristics of the streams and rivers they boarder, in order to prevent devastating wash outs. These regions receive massive amounts of precipitation every year (see map and data below), and this rainfall is slowly and continuously eroding the soil. Building heavy roads on top of this unstable soil will expedite this process of erosion and lead to unprecedented amounts of sediment in the rivers and streams. So instead of building more and more forest roads, the Forest Service should maintain the roads that are still intact and convert compromised roads into new trail heads.

Lastly, limiting vehicular access to temperate rain forests will also decrease the amount of fossil fuel emissions released in the forests; which, along with illegal logging, is another one of the many other human impacts on this ecosystem.

Below is a map depicting the average yearly rainfall in Washington, including the Olympic Peninsula where the temperate rain forest is located.

Image courtesy of: 
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cmpweb/resources/map-rainfall.html

Image courtesy of: http://content.lib.washington.edu/cmpweb/resources/map-rainfall.html

References

Berg, Linda R., and Mary Catherine Hager. Visualizing Environmental Science. Hoboken: John Wiley &      Sons, Inc., 2009.

DellaSala, Dominick. Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World : Ecology and Conservation. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2011.

Ecotrust, "Inforain." Accessed November 20, 2011. http://www.inforain.org/index.html.

North Cascades Conservation Council, "American Alps." Last modified November 21,2011. Accessed November 20, 2011. http://americanalps.blogspot.com/2011/09/dosewallips-river-road-case-for-going.html.

Olympic Forest Coalition, "Dosewallips Washout Update." Accessed November 20, 2011. http://www.olympicforest.org/130.pdf.

Shelmerdin, Bill. "Roads in the River: Encroachment, Implications, and Solutions." Advancing the Fundamental Sciences: Proceedings of the Forest Service National Earth Sciences Conference, San Diego, CA. http://www.stream.fs.fed.us/afsc/pdfs/Shelmerdine.pdf (accessed November 20, 2011).