scholarly journals Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes: an Emerging Approach for Sustainable Forest Management

2008 ◽  
pp. 341-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm P. North ◽  
William S. Keeton
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Disturbance Regimes

Birds as indicators of sustainable forest management

2004 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A Venier ◽  
Jennie L Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Biological Indicators ◽  
Population Modelling ◽  
Habitat Modelling ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Disturbance Regimes

This paper discusses the potential of birds as indicators of sustainable forest management. Several reviews have been critical of birds as indicators of environmental change, and we discuss the major criticisms in the context of forest management. We address these criticisms by suggesting alternative approaches for an indicator research program including the use of focussed studies to identify cause-and-effect relationships, habitat modelling to act as a surrogate to extensive monitoring of populations, and spatially-explicit population modelling (1) to conduct exploratory sensitivity analysis to identify the most important parameters; (2) to incorporate the spatial configuration of habitat into consideration of the impacts of management; (3) to anticipate future impacts as an alternative to measuring past impacts; (4) and, as a means of evaluating alternative management scenarios including natural disturbance regimes. Birds are unlikely to be able to act as a precise tool for the measurement of some forest condition, but they could be useful indicators of sustainable forest management as part of an iterative research program. Key words: sustainable forest management, biological indicators, forest birds, habitat modelling, population modelling, natural disturbance regimes

scholarly journals Synthesizing knowledge of the Claybelt to promote sustainable forest management

2002 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 665-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Lefort ◽  
B Harvey ◽  
J Parton ◽  
G KM Smith
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Engineering Research ◽  
Forestry Practices ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Forest Practices

A review of the scientific literature relevant to the Claybelt region was undertaken under the initiative of Lake Abitibi Model Forest (LAMF) and in collaboration with the Canadian Forest Service, the Ontario and Quebec Ministries of Natural Resources and the NSERC-UQAT-UQAM (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council – Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue – Université du Québec à Montréal) Industrial Chair in Sustainable forest Management. The objective was to synthesize this information in order to develop better forestry practices and identify knowledge and research gaps. Forestry-related knowledge was gathered on six broad topics: i) natural disturbances, ii) forest ecosystems, iii) past and present forest practices, iv) biological diversity, v) forest management and vi) examples of current applications of natural disturbance-based forest management. The work allowed us to synthesize a large body of knowledge into one publication that will be a useful reference for foresters in both provinces. Key words: biodiversity, Claybelt, even-aged/uneven-aged forests, fire, silvicultural practices

Past, current, and future fire frequencies in Quebec's commercial forests: implications for the cumulative effects of harvesting and fire on age-class structure and natural disturbance-based management

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 2737-2744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Dominic Cyr ◽  
C Ronnie Drever ◽  
Mike Flannigan ◽  
Sylvie Gauthier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Ecological Functions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Class Distribution ◽  
Age Class ◽  
If Current ◽  
In Fire

The past decade has seen an increasing interest in forest management based on historical or natural disturbance dynamics. The rationale is that management that favours landscape compositions and stand structures similar to those found historically should also maintain biodiversity and essential ecological functions. In fire-dominated landscapes, this approach is feasible only if current and future fire frequencies are sufficiently low compared with the preindustrial fire frequency, so a substitution of fire by forest management can occur without elevating the overall frequency of disturbance. We address this question by comparing current and simulated future fire frequency based on 2 × CO2 and 3 × CO2 scenarios to historical reconstructions of fire frequency in the commercial forests of Quebec. For most regions, current and simulated future fire frequencies are lower than the historical fire frequency, suggesting that forest management could potentially be used to maintain or recreate the age-class distribution of fire-dominated preindustrial landscapes. Current even-aged management, however, tends to reduce forest variability by, for example, truncating the natural age-class distribution and eliminating mature and old-growth forests from the landscape. Therefore, in the context of sustainable forest management, silvicultural techniques that retain a spectrum of forest compositions and structures at different scales are necessary to maintain this variability and thereby allow a substitution of fire by harvesting.

scholarly journals Natural disturbance regimes as templates for the response of bird species assemblages to contemporary forest management

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Drapeau ◽  
Marc-André Villard ◽  
Alain Leduc ◽  
Susan J. Hannon
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Species Assemblages ◽  
Disturbance Regimes

scholarly journals Protected areas in boreal Canada: a baseline and considerations for the continued development of a representative and effective reserve network

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret E. Andrew ◽  
Michael A. Wulder ◽  
Jeffrey A. Cardille
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Boreal Zone ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Disturbance Regimes ◽  
Management Interventions

Boreal forests maintain regionally important biodiversity and globally important ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and freshwater resources. Many boreal systems have limited anthropogenic disturbances and are preserved, in effect, to date largely by their harsh climates and remoteness. As of 2011, almost 10% of Canada is subject to some manner of formal protection, with 4.5% of this protected area found within the boreal zone. The management of existing parks and protected areas (PPAs) is shared amongst many federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions. Although there are currently low levels of anthropogenic development in some portions of the boreal zone (especially the north), if expansion of protected areas is of interest, there are challenges to traditional PPA networks that may be more prominent in the boreal zone than elsewhere: (1) the boreal zone is home to charismatic mammal species with area requirements much larger than typical PPAs; (2) the boreal zone is characterized by natural disturbance regimes that impact large areas; and (3) projected changes to climate for the boreal zone are among the greatest in the world, creating temporal considerations for conservation planning exercises. There is currently no PPA assessment specific to boreal Canada. To address this lack of an assessment, we developed a conservation gap analysis of the current PPA system with respect to a variety of environmental surrogates (ecozones, land cover, vegetation productivity, and landscape structure). The amount of formally protected land varied within each surrogate, with few commonly reported features meeting national or international conservation targets. Furthermore, few reserves met the areal requirements that have been previously recommended to protect large mammals or accommodate the disturbance regimes present. We also discuss considerations and implications of area-based versus value-based protection objectives. While recognizing that there are still scientific challenges around understanding and evaluating the effectiveness of PPAs, based upon our review and assessment, the following considerations should inform conservation options for the boreal zone: (1) representation of the distribution of natural features within the PPA network; (2) effective maintenance of habitat requirements and spatial resilience to both cyclical and directional changes in spatial patterns through large, connected reserves; and (3) implementation of sustainable forest management practices (where applicable) throughout the broader landscape, as traditional on-reserve protection is unlikely to be sufficient to meet conservation goals. The Canadian boreal is unique in possessing large tracts of inaccessible forested lands that are not subject to management interventions, thereby offering functions similar to protected lands. The question of how to more formally integrate these lands into the existing PPA network requires further consideration. Further, the important temporal role of landscape dynamics in designing an effective PPA needs to be further studied as well as development of a better understanding of design needs in the context of a changing climate.

Using knowledge of natural disturbances to support sustainable forest management in the northern Clay Belt

2007 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Pierre Drapeau ◽  
Sylvie Gauthier ◽  
Nicolas Lecomte
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Landscape Patterns ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Natural Disturbances ◽  
Natural Fire ◽  
Coarse Filter

Several concepts are at the basis of forest ecosystem management, but a relative consensus exists around the idea of a forest management approach that is based on natural disturbances and forest dynamics. This type of approach aims to reproduce the main attributes of natural landscapes in order to maintain ecosystems within their natural range of variability and avoid creating an environment to which species are not adapted. By comparing attributes associated with natural fire regimes and current forest management, we were able to identify four major differences for the black spruce forest of the Clay Belt. The maintenance of older forests, the spatial extent of cutover areas, the maintenance of residuals within cutovers and disturbance severity on soils are major issues that should be addressed. Silvicultural strategies that mitigate differences between natural and managed forests are briefly discussed. Key words: natural disturbance, landscape patterns, coarse filter, harvest pattern, volume retention, historic variability, even-aged management

Preindustrial reconstruction of a perhumid midboreal landscape, Anticosti Island, Quebec

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 928-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Barrette ◽  
Louis Bélanger ◽  
Louis De Grandpré
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Dynamics ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Abies Balsamea ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Balsam Fir ◽  
Dynamics Model ◽  
Disturbance Dynamics ◽  
Cyclic Model ◽  
Anticosti Island

The knowledge of natural disturbance dynamics and preindustrial landscapes is essential to implement sustainable forest management. Recent findings identify the lack of a forest dynamics model, different from the standard cyclic model of Baskerville (1975. For. Chron. 51: 138–140), for balsam fir ( Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) ecosystems of maritime eastern Canada. With the use of historical forest maps and dendrochronology, we reconstructed the range of variability of the preindustrial landscape (6798 km2) and inferred on the natural disturbance dynamics of the balsam fir forest of Anticosti Island. The preindustrial landscape was characterized by a forest matrix of overmature softwood stands with inclusions of younger softwood stands ranging from 0.1 to 7837 ha in size. Widespread stand-initiating events were apparently rare in the preindustrial landscape over the last 160 years. Since our results were not well represented by the cyclic model, which predicts the occurrence of a mosaic of stands in different age classes, we proposed an alternative forest dynamics model for eastern balsam fir ecosystems near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Forest management inspired by this alternative model may be more appropriate to maintain or restore ecological characteristics of balsam fir forests of this region within their range of natural variability.

What is the “END” (emulation of natural disturbance) in forest ecosystem management? An open question

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 2159-2168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Klenk ◽  
Gary Bull ◽  
Dave Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Ecosystem ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Forest Ecosystem Management ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Qualitative Analyses ◽  
Promising Avenue

The emulation of natural disturbance (END) is said to be the most promising avenue for implementing sustainable forest management; however, there appears to be no consensus as to the meaning of the END. We have interviewed forest scientists across Canada and, with the use of mental models and network textual analyses, created a shared mental model of the END. Results from both quantitative and qualitative analyses suggest that there are contrasting and contradictory views about the meaning of the END, which raise serious implications for the use of the END in policy making.

Biodiversity and multiple disturbances: boreal forest ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) responses to wildfire, harvesting, and herbicide

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 1310-1323 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.P. Cobb ◽  
D.W. Langor ◽  
J.R. Spence
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Woody Debris ◽  
Ground Beetle ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Multiple Disturbances ◽  
Compositional Variability ◽  
The Individual

Rising societal demands for forest resources along with existing natural disturbance regimes suggest that sustainable forest management will increasingly depend on better understanding the cumulative effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. In North America, for example, there is increasing economic pressure to salvage log burned forests, although the ecological consequences of combining fire and harvesting on the same sites are unclear. We examined the short-term (2 year) responses of boreal forest ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) to the individual and combined effects of wildfire, harvesting, and herbicide. Ground beetle responses to wildfire and forestry-related disturbances differed strongly and suggested that, although some species may appear to benefit from disturbance combinations (e.g., Sericoda quadripunctata (DeGeer)), these effects are detrimental to others (e.g., Sericoda bembidioides Kirby). Species compositional variability was significantly reduced by disturbance combinations suggesting that multiple disturbances may lead to a simplification of this entire assemblage. In addition, ground beetle responses were correlated with changes in several key habitat parameters such as amount of woody debris, exposed ground, and plant species richness suggesting avenues for future study. Overall, however, our results suggest that efforts to avoid compounding disturbances on any site should be considered when developing current and future forest management guidelines.

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