Long-Term Forest Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring in the Fort Clatsop Unit, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park
Klinzing M. 2026. Long-Term Forest Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring in the Fort Clatsop Unit, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. National Park Service. Fort Collins, CO
This report presents the results of long-term forest monitoring conducted at the Fort Clatsop Unit of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (LEWI), Oregon, from 2012 through 2026. The monitoring program was established to evaluate the effectiveness of forest restoration treatments implemented in acquired industrial timber stands to promote late-successional forest characteristics and improve forest structure and ecosystem function over time. Forest conditions were monitored on permanent 20 x 20 meter plots that were revisited approximately every five years. Monitoring included both treated and untreated control plots and assessed multiple indicators of forest development, including tree species composition and diameter at breast height (DBH), overstory density, woody tree recruitment, understory vegetation composition and cover, coarse woody debris, and standing dead wood. These measurements provide a long-term record of changes in forest structure, composition, and habitat characteristics following restoration. This report summarizes the monitoring program, data quality assurance and quality control procedures, analytical methods, and observed changes in forest conditions across monitoring visits. Results are used to assess whether restoration treatments are contributing to increased structural complexity, changes in species composition and diversity, and the development of characteristics associated with late-successional forests. The report provides a baseline for continued monitoring and supports evaluation and adaptive management of forest restoration at the Fort Clatsop Unit.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Klinzing, Meredith
- Date of Issue
- 2026
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- LEWI
- Keywords
- Astoria, biota, coarse woody debris, community structure, diameter at breast height, disturbance patterns, ecosystem ecology, Field inventory and monitoring, forest disturbance, forest dynamics, forest ecology, forest ecosystems, forest floor, habitat alteration and disturbance, human disturbance, LEWI, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Long-term ecological monitoring, NCCN, North Coast and Cascades Network, old growth forests, Oregon, permanent plots, plant cover, plant species composition, plot sampling, recovery, reference stands, resource management, revegetation, seedling establishment, species composition, thinning, timber harvest, transect sampling, tree age, tree growth, tree mortality, understory vegetation
- License
- Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal