Ruggiero, Leonard F.; Carey, Andrew B. 1984. A programmatic approach to the study of old-growth forest--wildlife relationships. In: New forests for a changing world: Proceedings of the 1983 convention of the Society of American Foresters; 1983 October 16-20; Portland, OR. SAF Publ. 84-03. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters: 340-345.
The USDA Forest Service's Old-GrowthForest Wildlife Habitat Research and Develop-ment Program was chartered to develop infor-mation that would help managers comply withThe National Forest Management Act. Thefocus is on Pacific Northwest Douglas-firold-growth forests (west of the CascadeRange from Canada to California)--theiruniqueness, contribution to ecologicaldiversity, and value to wildlife. Theresearch approach consists of geographicstratification by five physiographicprovinces with replicated community studiescovering a broad range of moisture,temperature, and seral stages within eachprovince. Ecological relationships evidentfrom community studies will form the basisfor species-specific studies whereinspecific hypotheses will be tested andmechanisms of association elucidated.Studies of forest fragmentation will beintegrated with other results to formulaterecommendations for managing viablepopulations of plants and animals.