Ward McCaughey
Rocky Mountain Research Station
Forestry Sciences Laboratory
800 East Beckwith Avenue
Missoula, MT 59801
406-329-2125
wmccaughey@fs.fed.us
Arthur McKee Flathead Lake Biological Station 32125 Bio Station Lane Polson, MT 59860 406-982-3301 x 226 Art.McKee@umontana.edu
The Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (TCEF) is located within the Northern Rockies domain (12), referred to as the Northern Rocky Mountain Ecological Observatory (NoRMEO) by the region’s scientists, and sometimes abbreviated as NRM on NEON-related maps and tables.
Geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude) and size (acres). The approximate center of TCEF is Latitude 46° 55’ N, Longitude 110° 53’ W. The Experimental Forest (EF) is 9125 acres (3693 ha) in size. Maps of TCEF boundary and DEM are attached (ESRI shapefile). Locator map: For a larger image and additional maps go to http://flbs.umt.edu/sitemaps/tenderfoot.aspx
Site’s characteristics that make it an ideal NEON site. TCEF is located in the Little Belt Mountains on the Lewis and Clark National Forest, approximately 90 air miles north of Bozeman, MT and 45 air miles southeast of Great Falls, MT. It contains excellent examples of lodgepole pine forests and meadow vegetation types characteristic of the continental climate in this part of the Northern Rockies. Lodgepole pine forests are the 3rd most extensive type in the Rocky Mountains (approx 15 million ac). Fire-dependent lodgepole pine communities comprise a significant component of mid- to upper-elevation forests in the Northern Rockies, providing wildlife habitat, livestock forage, water and watershed protection, recreational opportunities, wood products, and expansive viewsheds.
Administered by the US Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), TCEF’s status as an Experimental Forest ensures long-term site security, administrative continuity, and openness to collaboration and experimental manipulation. The TCEF contains the headwaters of Tenderfoot Creek, a major drainage flowing into the Smith River which in turn flows into the Missouri River, an ideal setting for aquatic research in a nested-watershed design. TCEF also includes the 1100-acre Research Natural Area (Onion Park RNA).
A legacy of active research, including manipulative experiments, has produced a number of data sets including: forest stand information, site-specific fire histories, streamflow, sediment production, water chemistry, climate, snowpack, fish population, stream geomorphology, fish habitats, wildlife (birds, small mammals, wolverine), as well as maps (forest stands, geology, soils, fuels, vegetation, watershed boundaries, contour/DEM, GPS’d locations of sampling sites), and 2005 LIDAR imagery. Current research infrastructure includes 11 electronically gauged streams, two Natural Resource Conservation Service snow telemetry (SNOTEL) sites, and two Eddy-flux towers (operated by collaborators from Montana State University). The SNOTEL sites have additional weather and climate sensors over and above the standard SNOTEL configuration.