Forest management strategies for dealing with fire-related uncertainty when managing two forest seral stages

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Savage ◽  
David L. Martell ◽  
B. Mike Wotton

Ecological values are an important aspect of sustainable forest management, but little attention has been paid to maintaining these values when using traditional linear programming (LP) forest management planning models in uncertain planning environments. We embedded an LP planning model that specifies when and how much to harvest in a simulation model of a “managed” flammable forest landscape. The simulation model was used to evaluate two strategies for dealing with fire-related uncertainty when managing mature and old forest areas. The two seral stage areas were constrained in the LP planning model to a minimum of 10% of the total forest area and the strategies were evaluated under four representative fire regimes. We also developed a risk analysis tool that can be used by forest managers that wish to incorporate fire-related uncertainty in their decision-making. We found that use of the LP model would reduce the areas of the mature and old forest to their lower bound and fire would further reduce the seral areas below those levels, particularly when the mean annual burn fraction exceeds 0.45% per annum. Increasing the minimum area required (i.e., the right-hand side of the constraint) would increase the likelihood of satisfying the minimum area requirements.

2005 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 582-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héloïse Le Goff ◽  
Alain Leduc ◽  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Mike Flannigan

Climate influences natural processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Consequently, climate change raises many challenges for sustainable forest management; among them, the integration of fire and forest management is increasingly discussed. We propose here an evaluation of the adaptive capacity of forest management under changing forest fire regimes under climate change in the boreal forest of Quebec. Adaptation begins by reinterpreting current practices dealing with climatically driven variability. Among them, fire suppression, and regeneration enhancement can contribute to coping with some impacts of climate change. However, there is an increasing need to develop more integrative and spatially explicit management strategies to decrease the vulnerability of forest management to changing fire risk. Some developing management strategies, such as fuel management or the triad approach (zoning system for conservation, intensive, and extensive forest management), present an interesting potential for integrating the fire risk in management plans. While fuel management and fire suppression are indicated for particularly severe fire regimes, protection against insects, and maintaining a shorter disturbance cycle using forest management represent the preferred adaptation options where the fire cycle is lengthening under climate change. Key words: forest fire, fire risk, climate change, vulnerability, impacts, adaptation strategy, adaptation options, sustainable forest management, fire management


Author(s):  
Philipp Back ◽  
Antti Suominen ◽  
Pekka Malo ◽  
Olli Tahvonen ◽  
Julian Blank ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
G. Santopuoli ◽  
C. Temperli ◽  
I. Alberdi ◽  
I. Barbeito ◽  
M. Bosela ◽  
...  

The increasing demand for innovative forest management strategies to adapt to and mitigate climate change and benefit forest production, the so-called Climate-Smart Forestry, calls for a tool to monitor and evaluate their implementation and their effects on forest development over time. The pan-European set of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management is considered one of the most important tools for assessing many aspects of forest management and sustainability. This study offers an analytical approach to selecting a subset of indicators to support the implementation of Climate-Smart Forestry. Based on a literature review and the analytical hierarchical approach, 10 indicators were selected to assess, in particular, mitigation and adaptation. These indicators were used to assess the state of the Climate-Smart Forestry trend in Europe from 1990 to 2015 using data from the reports on the State of Europe’s Forests. Forest damage, tree species composition, and carbon stock were the most important indicators. Though the trend was overall positive with regard to adaptation and mitigation, its evaluation was partly hindered by the lack of data. We advocate for increased efforts to harmonize international reporting and for further integrating the goals of Climate-Smart Forestry into national- and European-level forest policy making.


1998 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter N. Duinker ◽  
Reino E. Pulkki

In June 1997, we visited the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme (MCF), a community forest in the Alps of northern Italy. We have prepared this article to help broaden the perspectives of Forestry Chronicle readers on community forests and what they mean in various parts of the world. We first describe the area and its forests, and then give a brief history of the MCF. Then we review the forest-management strategies used in this Norway spruce forest, and summarize the logging and wood-processing activities of the enterprise. We continue with a comparison of this community forest with three community forests in Canada, concluding that generalization on what makes a community forest successful is dangerous — each situation is unique. Finally, given that the MCF recently won permission to use the eco-label of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), we discuss our perceptions of how the MCF operation does and does not meet the FSC's Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship. Despite several shortcomings, we believe that the MCF is in most respects a sound example of sustainable forest management.


2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1378-1388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Peter ◽  
John Nelson

Incorporating fire disturbance into sustainable forest management plans is necessary to provide estimates of variation around indicators for harvest levels, growing stock, profitability, and landscape structure. A fire disturbance model linked to a harvest simulator was used to estimate the probability of harvest shortages under a range of harvest levels and fire suppression scenarios. Results were then used to estimate "sustainable" harvest levels based on a risk tolerance to harvest shortages and the effects of fire suppression. On a 288 000 ha forest in northeastern British Columbia, the cost of historical fire disturbance was estimated at $4 million per year in terms of foregone harvest profits. Suppressing 98.3% of disturbance events to 30% of their historical size had a value of $1.8 million per year. Higher levels of risk tolerance were associated with increased harvest levels and short-term profits, but as timber inventories were drawn down, average long-term profits became volatile. The modelling framework developed here can help to determine resilient forest management strategies and estimate the future flow and variability of harvest volumes, profits, and landscape conditions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 436-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Robson ◽  
Troy Davis

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the extent of policy change and learning in the 20 years following the implementation of Ontario’s forest sustainability legislation. Extent of policy learning and change towards sustainable forest management are measured using a combination of content, co-occurrence, and textual analysis of the previous Crown Timber Act and the new Crown Forest Sustainability Act, as well as the latter’s 1996 and 2009 forest planning manuals. There were four key findings. First, policy change towards sustainable forest management has been limited. Second, although there was an increased number of values mentioned in new legislation and planning manuals, the frequency of timber values remained dominant. Third, although integration occurred among a greater range of values, integration with timber values continued to dominate. Fourth, with respect to policy learning, the achievement of sustainable forest management is now explicit and judged based on evidence regarding the inclusion of a range of values beyond timber. The paper concludes that the transition to the more integrative and responsive policies of sustainable forest management remains a work in progress.


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