Our objective is to provide managers and stakeholders with an improved set of reference conditions, in particular reference conditions for mixed-conifer habitat types for which little information has been available. The former click here Klamath Indian Reservation (hereafter Reservation) extends from the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range into the Basin and Range Province in south-central Oregon (latitude 42.2–43.4°N, longitude 122-121.6°W). At the time of the timber inventory, Reservation forests were managed by the US Indian Service (subsequently renamed the BIA). In 1954 the federal government ended its trust relationship

with the Klamath Tribes. The majority of the forestlands of the Reservation were acquired by the federal

government leading to the creation of the Winema National Forest (NF) with smaller portions of the Reservation incorporated into the Fremont NF. The Klamath Tribes work with federal and state resource agencies, as well as other entities with shared conservation and resource management goals, on lands within and outside of the former Reservation that are important to the Tribes’ interests. The inventory data from three selleck inhibitor large segments of the Reservation, each >30,000 ha, were selected for study: (1) Wildhorse Ridge-Yamsi Mountain (hereafter Wildhorse), (2) South Chiloquin (hereafter Chiloquin) and (3) Black Hills (Fig. 1). They were selected because portions of these three areas have experienced little timber harvest and offer excellent opportunity for eventual re-sampling of inventory transects to assess changes in vegetation primarily due to fire suppression. In addition, all three areas encompass current or proposed restoration projects.

Wildhorse, Chiloquin, and Black Hills areas collectively span the moisture and productivity gradients that fully represent the spectrum of dry forest types (ponderosa pine and dry and moist mixed-conifer habitat types) that are the focus of this study (Table 1). Moisture and productivity gradients are inferred in this study from habitat type classifications, which were created using indicator SB-3CT plants as described in Section 2.3. These forests span an elevation range of 1270–2300 m. The Reservation experiences a continental climate. Summers are typically hot and dry with cold nights while winters are cold and snowy. Most precipitation falls as snow during fall and winter. Forests of the study area are strongly influenced by tephra deposits from Mount Mazama; parent materials and topography strongly influence forest composition and productivity through their influence on available moisture and temperature extremes (Dyrness and Youngberg, 1966, Carlson, 1979 and Franklin and Dyrness, 1988).