Forest Management Guidelines

Informed guidance helps land managers protect and enhance the resilience of forests in the Cleveland Metroparks system.

In the face of intensifying climate and land use changes, the forest systems of Cleveland Metroparks cannot maintain their current ecological function or recover to historic levels of biodiversity without active management. Based on Metropark’s robust monitoring and management documentation, primary literature, and an understanding of carbon-management planning for forests, Biohabitats created a framework to guide forest management practices across diverse forest types within the park system.

The climate-informed Forest Management Guidelines are based on a resistance-resilience-transition continuum that offers land managers a progression of strategies from preserving current conditions (resistance) to enabling systems to adapt and thrive under new climate regimes (resilience and transition).

The guidance addresses specific management scenarios for each of the seven major forest types in the park system: Oak-Mixed Hardwood, Beech-Mixed Hardwood, Wet Red Maple-Mixed Hardwood, Sugar Maple Mixed Mesic, Alluvial Forest, Ruderal Forest, and Conifer Plantation Sites. They characterize each by landscape positioning and ecological context, historical land use influence, and sensitivity to climate impacts and adaptive capacity. Each section also discusses type-specific threats and recommended management approaches.

Overall, the guidelines establish a framework and common vocabulary for land management strategies that build resilience and adaptive capacity in Northeast Ohio forests.

TAGS

• Analysis+Planning
• Assessment+Monitoring
• Climate Adaptation + Resilience
• Conservation
• Ecological Restoration