Incorporating uncertainty into forest management planning: Timber harvest, wildfire and climate change in the boreal forest

2017 ◽  
Vol 400 ◽  
pp. 542-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin J. Daniel ◽  
Michael T. Ter-Mikaelian ◽  
B. Mike Wotton ◽  
Bronwyn Rayfield ◽  
Marie-Josée Fortin
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emin Zeki BASKENT ◽  
Jose Guilherme BORGES ◽  
Jan KASPAR

Abstract Background: Forest policy and decision makers are challenged by the need to balance the increasing demand for multiple ecosystem services while addressing the impacts of natural disturbances (e.g. wildfires, droughts, wind, insect attacks) and global change scenarios (e.g. climate change) on its potential supply. This challenge provides the motivation for the development of a framework for incorporating concerns with a wide range of ecosystem services in multiple criteria management planning contexts. Thus, the paper focused on both the analysis of the current state-of-the art in forest management planning and the development of a conceptual framework to accommodate various components in a forest ecosystem management planning process.Results: Based on a thorough recent classification of forest management planning problems and the state-of-the-art research, the key dimensions of that framework and the process were defined. The emphasis is on helping identify how concerns with a wide range of ecosystem services may be analyzed and better understood by forest ecosystem management planning. This research discusses the potential of contemporary management planning approaches to address multiple forest ecosystem services. It highlights the need of a landscape-level perspective and of spatial resolution to integrate multiple ecosystem services. It discusses the importance of methods and tools that may help support the involvement of stakeholders and public participation in hierarchical planning processes. Conclusions: The research addressed the need of methods and tools that may encapsulate the ecological, economic and social complexity of forest ecosystem management to provide an efficient plan, information about tradeoffs between ecosystem services as well as the sensitivity of the plan to uncertain parameters (e.g. prices, climate change) in a timely manner.


2001 ◽  
Vol 77 (6) ◽  
pp. 998-1005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Tittler ◽  
Christian Messier ◽  
Philip J. Burton

In keeping with international efforts to encourage sustainable forest management, new legislation, regulations, and certification criteria have been brought into effect across boreal regions of the world in the past decade or less. These initiatives have established hierarchical systems of forest management planning that consider multiple uses of the forest and various aspects of sustainable forest management at different scales. We describe the systems established in Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, Russia, Finland, and Sweden. Most jurisdictions employ some form of three-level planning framework, in which strategic, tactical, and operational plans and considerations are presented with successively greater detail and spatial explicitness. However, planning scales and time horizons vary considerably, as does the level of consideration given to biodiversity and social concerns. We examine these systems in the context of sustainable forest management, raising a number of questions to be addressed in future research, adaptive management, and policy reform. In particular, we note (1) a need of new landscape and regional planning tools to evaluate the long-term and large-scale impacts of various land uses and (2) a general lack of responsiveness to global carbon and climate change concerns. Key words: forest management planning, sustainable forest management, boreal forest, forest policy, planning hierarchies, hierarchical planning


2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (12) ◽  
pp. 2370-2383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio A. Acuna ◽  
Cristian D. Palma ◽  
Wenbin Cui ◽  
David L. Martell ◽  
Andres Weintraub

Forest management planners usually treat potential fire loss estimates as exogenous parameters in their timber production planning processes. When they do so, they do not account for the fact that forest access road construction, timber harvesting, and silvicultural activities can alter a landscape’s vegetation or fuel composition, and they ignore the possibility that such activities may influence future fire losses. We develop an integrated fire and forest management planning methodology that accounts for and exploits such interactions. Our methodology is based on fire occurrence, suppression, and spread models, a fire protection value model that identifies crucial stands, the harvesting of which can have a significant influence on the spread of fires across the landscape, and a spatially explicit timber harvest scheduling model. We illustrate its use by applying it to a forest management unit in the boreal forest region of the province of Alberta in western Canada. We found that for our study area, integrated fire – forest management planning based on our methodology could result in an 8.1% increase in net present value when compared with traditional planning in which fire loss is treated as an exogenous factor.


Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1108
Author(s):  
Emin Zeki Baskent ◽  
José Guilherme Borges ◽  
Jan Kašpar ◽  
Meryem Tahri

Forest policy and decision-makers are challenged by the need to balance the increasing demand for multiple ecosystem services while addressing the impacts of natural disturbances (e.g., wildfires, droughts, wind, insect attacks) and global change scenarios (e.g., climate change) on its potential supply. This challenge motivates the development of a framework for incorporating concerns with a wide range of ecosystem services in multiple criteria management planning contexts. Thus, the paper focused on both the analysis of the current state-of-the art research in forest management planning and the development of a conceptual framework to accommodate various components in a forest management process. On the basis of a thorough recent classification of forest management planning problems and the state-of-the-art research, we defined the key dimensions of the framework and the process. The emphasis was on helping to identify how concerns with a wide range of ecosystem services may be analyzed and better understood by forest ecosystem management planning. This research discusses the potential of contemporary management planning approaches to address multiple forest ecosystem services. It highlights the need for a multi-level perspective and appropriate spatial resolution to integrate multiple ecosystem services. It discusses the importance of methods and tools that may help support stakeholders’ involvement and public participation in hierarchical planning processes. The research addresses the need of methods and tools that may encapsulate the ecological, economic, and social complexity of forest ecosystem management to provide an efficient plan, information about tradeoffs between ecosystem services, and the sensitivity of the plan to uncertain parameters (e.g., prices, climate change) on time.


2007 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen B Holmes ◽  
Lisa A Venier ◽  
Brian J Naylor ◽  
J. Ryan Zimmerling

We used point-count data collected as part of Bird Studies Canada's Boreal Forest Bird Program to validate habitat suitability models for 22 forest bird species in Ontario's Habitat Suitability Matrix. We found that many of the species'models performed relatively poorly in discriminating between occupied and unoccupied sites, primarily due to the high error of commission rates (false positive predictions). Since species presence and abundance were assessed by single, five minute point counts, insufficient sampling was at least partly responsible for some of the observed over-prediction. Results suggested that model parameters for at least nine of the species tested (hairy woodpecker [Picoides villosus], blueheaded vireo [Vireo solitarius], red-eyed vireo [Vireo olivaceus], red-breasted nuthatch [Sitta canadensis], Swainson's thrush [Catharus ustulatus], hermit thrush [Catharus guttatus], Tennessee warbler [Vermivora peregrina], Blackburnian warbler [Dendroica fusca] and dark-eyed junco [Junco hyemalis]) should be reviewed to improve the predictive capability of the models and to ensure appropriate consideration of the habitat needs of these species during forest management planning. Key words: boreal forest, forest birds, discrimination capacity, habitat models, habitat suitability matrix, model accuracy, model validation, relative operating characteristic curve, ROC


2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henn Korjus ◽  
Priit Põllumäe ◽  
Ahto Kangur

Abstract Changes in the society have created a need for a systematic approach in forestry combining forest management, timber harvest analysis, research and demonstration of new technologies. A research and demonstration area is an option for explaining and visualising frameworks of forest design, modelling and planning in the real nature. A research and demonstration area of forest management planning can be defined as a forested landscape that combines various forest uses and aims to ensure and explain forest management strategies as well as conservation of ecosystems and natural resources. A suitable area for creating the research and demonstration area of forest management planning is at Järvselja Training and Experimental Forest Centre in Estonia. It has naturally diverse forests and these include also habitats of several rare and endangered species and already comprise different sets of nature conservation areas. The centre has been used for forestry higher education and research for over 90 years and therefore all essential infrastructure has been developed including dormitories and lecture rooms for field training as well as different nature paths, old field experiments (e.g. initial spacing and thinning experiments) and new modern research facilities. Forest management plans and inventory data since 1922 still exist for the area. The area at Järvselja is expected to demonstrate present studies and research work in the most comprehensive way as well as the implications to forest management and the newest technologies in forest management and planning. Different systems and techniques of forest management can be studied and demonstrated to the wider public by establishing the research and demonstration area of forest management planning at Järvselja.


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