Speaker: Mutlu Ozdogan, UW Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology
Abstract: Wisconsin's forests are changing rapidly as a result of commercial harvest, disease and climate. However, these changes are captured only at the county or at the national forest scales and thus are not suitable for local scale hydrological, biological, and climate studies. Using satellite observations spanning three decades, we are developing stand-level forest change maps at five-year intervals for northern Wisconsin. Our maps show that commercial forest harvesting is a major form of disturbance in northern forests and as a result, the size of contiguous intact forest blocks that are important for habitat and hydrological connectivity are diminishing. The seminar will walk the audience through some historical perspective on forest harvesting in Wisconsin, show the impact of satellite technology in mapping harvested blocks, and discuss the implications of forest change.