The Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (TCEF), located in central Montana, is the only Forest Service Experimental Forest that features the lodgepole pine forest type. In contrast to the common perception of lodgepole pine stands being primarily developed by stand replacement fires, many lodgepole stands across the west are multi-aged. Many of these stands are in late-successional stages, at risk to pests, and susceptible to catastrophic-scale fires due to heavy fuel loading following years of fire suppression. On the TCEF, 54 percent of the lodgepole pine stands are multi-aged, with 27 percent found to be two-aged and another 27 percent were in an indistinct mosaic of different aged groups.

The Tenderfoot Research project was developed to evaluate and quantify the ecological and biological effects of two innovative silvicultural treatments with and without the use of prescribed fire in an attempt to create two-aged stand structures in lodgepole pine. This poster will outline the experimental design, treatment details, and preliminary results.