Computer visualization of pre-settlement and current forests in Wisconsin

A growing trend in public forest management is the inclusion of the public in the decision making process. Visual representations of the management process can assist in conveying complex management treatments. A second trend has been the promotion of biological diversity as a management objective. Ecosystem managers and restoration ecologists are using pre-settlement landscape patterns and forest conditions as a reference point to encourage the recovery of rare or extirpated species and habitat types. The problem is that information about pre-settlement conditions is limited. Our research goal was to visualize pre-settlement forests in Wisconsin and compare them with current forest conditions. Pre-settlement vegetation conditions were derived from computerized U.S. Public Land Survey records. Current forest conditions were derived from USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data. We used World Construction Set software (3D Nature, LLC) for the visualizations. Our results focus on ecosystems that are (a) still widespread but altered in structure and species composition (northern hardwoods communities) or (b) greatly diminished in extent (pine barrens communities). We found there are substantial visual differences between current and pre-settlement forests, most notably in species composition, density, and stand structural complexity. Our results highlight the potential of computer visualization as a tool to aid forest managers and restoration ecologists.