ECOLOGICAL PROPERTIES FOR THE EVALUATION, MANAGEMENT, AND RESTORATIONOF TEMPERATE DECIDUOUS FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

Given that many of the original deciduous forests of North America hav e disappeared over the last few centuries, our challenge is to preserv e remnant forests, restore altered forests, and harvest managed forest s in a sustainable manner. To do so, we need to identify macroscale pr operties that can easily monitor the condition of the eastern deciduou s forest as a whole. We offer 10 possible properties: (1) tree size; ( 2) canopy composition; (3) quantity and quality of coarse woody debris ; (4) number of spring ephemeral species in the herbaceous layer; (5) number of typical corticulous bryophyte species; (6) density of wildli fe trees; (7) fungi; (8) avian community; (9) number of large carnivor es; and (10) forest area. We have assigned to each property a control (or normal) value, an intermediate value, and a heavily altered value. These values are based on the existing literature. These 10 propertie s would: (1) allow us to recognize, rank, and protect high-priority fo rest sites for conservation; (2) tell us whether changes in a forest a re in the direction of restoration or toward further alteration; and ( 3) enable us to evaluate different harvesting methods so we can select those that cause the least alteration to forests.