scholarly journals Vegetation characteristics of forest stands used by woodland caribou and those disturbed by fire or logging in Manitoba

Rangifer ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juha M. Metsaranta ◽  
Frank F. Mallory ◽  
Dale W. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Suitability ◽  
Rangifer Tarandus ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Woodland Caribou ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Vegetation Characteristics ◽  
Negative Impacts

This study examined woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in an area known as the Kississing-Naosap caribou range in west central Manitoba. The vegetation characteristics of areas used by caribou and areas disturbed by fire or logging were measured in order to develop a model to estimate habitat quality from parameters collected during stan¬dard resource inventories. There was evidence that habitat index values calculated using a visual score-sheet index could be used as the basis to relate parameters commonly collected during resource inventories to habitat suitability. Use of this model to select long and short-term leave areas during forest management planning could potentially mitigate some of the negative impacts of forest harvesting. Abundance of arboreal lichen and wind-fallen trees were important predictor variables in the suitability model, but their inclusion did not explain more variance in habitat suitability than models that did not include them. Extreme post-fire deadfall abundance may play a role in predator-prey dynamics by creating habitat that is equally unsuitable for all ungulates, and thus keeping both moose and caribou densities low.

scholarly journals Developing a woodland caribou habitat mosaic on the Ogoki-Nakina North Forests of northwestern Ontario

Rangifer ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
I. Armstrong ◽  
G. Swant ◽  
H.R. Timmermann
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Rangifer Tarandus ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Woodland Caribou ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Habitat Mosaic ◽  
Northwestern Ontario ◽  
Thunder Bay

The Ogoki-North Nakina Forests consist of (10 638 km2) unroaded boreal forest approximately 400 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario (lat 50°- 51°31'N, long 86°30'- 89°W). Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) inhabit discrete portions within these forests based on minimal current and past historical data. As part of the Forest Management Planning process, for the period 1997-2097, a woodland caribou habitat mosaic has been developed to coordinate present and future forest management activities with the retention and development of current and future woodland caribou habitat. Several criteria including, past fire history, forest structure, age, species composition, proximity to current road access and location of existing and potential caribou habitat, helped identify and delineate 50 mosaic harvest blocks. Each harvest block will be logged in one of five 20 year periods over a 100 year rotation (1997¬2097). The harvest blocks have been developed to simulate a pattern of past wildfire history in an area that has not been subjected to past forest management activities, while managing for woodland caribou, a locally featured species.

scholarly journals Preliminary assessment of habitat characteristics of woodland caribou calving areas in the Claybelt region of Québec and Ontario, Canada

Rangifer ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Émilie Lantin ◽  
Pierre Drapeau ◽  
Marcel Paré ◽  
Yves Bergeron
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Rangifer Tarandus ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Percent Cover ◽  
Woodland Caribou ◽  
Vegetation Characteristics ◽  
Forest Cover Types

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) require a diversity of forested habitats over large areas and may thus be particularly affected by the large-scale changes in the composition and age-class distribution of forest landscapes induced by the northern expansion of forest management. In this study we examine habitat characteristics associated to the use of calving areas by woodland caribou females and calves at different spatial scales. Thirty females were captured and collared with Argos satellite transmitters that allowed to locate 14 calving areas. Field surveys were conducted at each of these areas to measure the landscape composition of forest cover types and local vegetation characteristics that are used for both forage conditions and protection cover. At the scale of the calving area, univariate comparisons of the amount of forest cover types between sites with and without calves showed that the presence of calves was associated to mature black spruce forest with a high percent cover of terrestrial lichens. Within calving grounds, univariate comparisons showed that vegetation features like ericaceans and terrestrial lichens, that are important food resources for lactating females, were more abundant in calving areas where females were seen with a calf in mid-July than in areas where females were seen alone. The protection of the vegetation cover against predators was however similar between calving areas with or with¬out a calf. Logistic regression results also indicated that vegetation characteristics associated to forage conditions were positively associated to calf presence on calving grounds. Our results suggest that foraging conditions should be given more attention in analyses on habitat requirements of woodland caribou.

Forest harvesting, resource-based tourism, and remoteness: an analysis of northern Ontario's sport fishing tourism

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Len M Hunt ◽  
Peter Boxall ◽  
Jeffrey Englin ◽  
Wolfgang Haider
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Hedonic Pricing ◽  
Sport Fishing ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Revenue Generation ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Management Schemes ◽  
The Impact

This paper assesses the impact that the routine application of Ontario's forest management planning process has on the revenue generation of sport fishing tourism sites. The analysis employs a hedonic pricing model to examine jointly these effects on revenue for three tourism experiences. These tourism experiences offer different degrees of remoteness, and as a consequence, require different levels of effort and cost to visit. Modelling the relationship between price and attributes of sites such as remoteness permits the analysis to forecast the revenue generation potential of sport fishing tourism sites under a range of forest management schemes. The results show that the extent of forest harvesting had no statistical relationship with prices charged for fishing packages at road-, boat-, or train-accessible sites and a negative but small impact on the prices charged for fishing packages at sites accessible by float plane.

Assessing the changing effects of forest harvesting on nature-based tourism: a case of sport-fishing tourism in Ontario, Canada

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Len M. Hunt ◽  
Brian Kolman ◽  
Peter Boxall
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Hedonic Price ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Hedonic Price Analysis ◽  
The One ◽  
Price Analysis

Forest harvesting can negatively affect nature-based tourism operations. Using observable and interpretable indicators of operating tourism establishments and associated prices charged for fishing packages, we illustrate how one can assess these forest harvesting effects. From a case of floatplane-accessible tourism in Ontario, Canada, we found no evidence to implicate recent (less than 10 years) forest harvests in decisions by tourism operators to close their establishments between 2000 and 2010. Using a hedonic price analysis, we found a significantly reduced effect of forest harvests on prices charged by these tourism operators between 2000 and 2010. These conclusions were robust to different specifications of forest harvesting. On the one hand, the results suggest that changes to forest management planning, policies, and practices in Ontario appear to have mitigated the negative effects from forest harvesting on nature-based tourism. On the other hand, the results show a method that other researchers and policy analysts can adopt to monitor the changing effects of forest management on economic activities such as nature-based tourism.

scholarly journals Climate and management interact to explain the decline of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in Jasper National Park

Rangifer ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 183-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Bradley ◽  
Lalenia Neufeld
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Wildlife Management ◽  
National Park ◽  
Rangifer Tarandus ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Woodland Caribou ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Jasper National Park ◽  
Human Use

Woodland caribou in the southern portion of Jasper National Park have declined from an estimated 435 in the mid 1970s to a population estimate of 87 in the fall of 2009. We examined the available historical information to determine why caribou have declined. We compared three main hypotheses for caribou decline in JNP: human disturbance, climate change, and wildlife management. We used historical human use statistics, climate data, and animal abundance information to weigh the evidence for these competing hypotheses over two time scales. Caribou decline could not be attributed to changes in climate over the long-term, or an increase in human use (our proxy for disturbance). Caribou decline was attributed to a combination of climate and wildlife management. Recovery of caribou in Jasper National Park will likely be contingent on managing the interaction between the predator/prey dynamic and climate change.

Reforestation policy has constrained options for managing risks on public forests

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (9) ◽  
pp. 855-861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor J. Lieffers ◽  
Bradley D. Pinno ◽  
Jennifer L. Beverly ◽  
Barb R. Thomas ◽  
Charles Nock
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Forest Sustainability ◽  
False Sense ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Growing Conditions ◽  
Public Forests ◽  
Forest Renewal

Strict forest renewal policies in western Canada focus on replicating the stand type that was cut and projecting the growth of young stands forward using simple models based upon past growing conditions. These policies arose from European principles of sustained yield and now limit options for adaptive management at the time of investment in forest renewal of public lands. We assert that such simple and restrictive policies, combined with long-term yield predictions, give a false sense of sustainability in times of increased drought, fires, and insect and disease attacks that accompany climate change. We must undertake comprehensive changes in forest policy that incorporate disturbance in our forest management planning. This is a large task! Options include (i) zoning public forests to vary intensities of management and minimize risk; (ii) changing stand- and forest-level models to increase the diversity of forests regenerated; (iii) widening the sphere of scientific experts that can influence forest policy and risk management; and (iv) reallocating expenditures on forest renewal, protection, and management to minimize negative impacts of disturbance. Such a comprehensive overhaul of forest management will be necessary as the current assumptions of forest sustainability come under further scrutiny by the public and investors.

On the risk of systematic drift under incoherent hierarchical forest management planning

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 480-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Paradis ◽  
Luc LeBel ◽  
Sophie D'Amours ◽  
Mathieu Bouchard
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
System State ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Wood Supply ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Game Theoretic

In theory, linkages between hierarchical forest management planning levels ensure coherent disaggregation of long-term wood supply allocation as input for short-term demand-driven harvest planning. In practice, these linkages may be ineffective, and solutions produced may be incoherent in terms of volume and value-creation potential of harvested timber. Systematic incoherence between planned and implemented forest management activities may induce drift of forest system state (i.e., divergence of planned and actual system state trajectories), thus compromising credibility and performance of the forest management planning process. We describe hierarchical forest management from a game-theoretic perspective and present an iterative two-phase model simulating interaction between long- and short-term planning processes. Using an illustrative case study, we confirm the existence of a systematic drift effect, which we attribute to ineffective linkages between long- and short-term planning. In several simulated scenarios, the planning process fails to ensure long-term wood supply sustainability, fails to reliably meet industrial fiber demand over time, and exacerbates incoherence between wood supply and fiber demand over several planning iterations. We show that manipulating linkages between long- and short-term planning processes can reduce incoherence and describe future work on game-theoretic planning process model formulations that may improve hierarchical planning process performance.

scholarly journals Woodland caribou range occupancy in northwestern Ontario: past and present

Rangifer ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 173 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.D. Racey ◽  
T. Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Rangifer Tarandus ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Woodland Caribou ◽  
Development Activity ◽  
Current Conservation ◽  
Northwestern Ontario ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Forest Use ◽  
Historical Range

A zone of continuous woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) distribution is defined for northwestern Ontario. This zone establishes a benchmark for measuring the success of future management of habitat and conservation of populations. Inventory of key winter, summer and calving habitats reaffirms the concept of a dynamic mosaic of habitat tracts that supports caribou across the landscape. The historical range recession leading to this current distribution has been associated with resource development, fire and hunting activities over the past 150 years, and numerous attempts at conservation over the last 70 years. The decline was apparently phased according to several periods of development activity: i) early exploitation in the early to mid-1800s; ii) isolation and extirpation of southern populations due to rapid changes in forest use and access between 1890 and 1930; and iii) further loss of the southernmost herds due to forest harvesting of previously inaccessible areas since the 1950s. Lessons learned from history support current conservation measures to manage caribou across broad landscapes, protect southern herds, maintain caribou habitat as part of continuous range, maintain large contiguous tracts of older forest and ensure connectivity between habitat components.

scholarly journals Forest management guidelines for forest-dwelling caribou in Québec

2004 ◽  
Vol 80 (5) ◽  
pp. 598-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Réhaume Courtois ◽  
Jean-Pierre Ouellet ◽  
Claude Dussault ◽  
André Gingras
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Rangifer Tarandus ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Ecosystem Approach ◽  
Forest Harvesting ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Woodland Caribou ◽  
Habitat Recovery ◽  
Irregular Structure

The forest-dwelling ecotype of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) is vulnerable to predation, hunting, and disturbances due to anthropogenic activities. Its strategies of space and habitat use are oriented towards reducing the effects of these limiting factors. Caribou occupy large home ranges, undertake extensive movements, and avoid fragmented areas. They use various habitats, but especially mature and over-mature conifer stands with irregular structure, which are less suitable for other ungulates, wolves and black bears. In order to protect habitat for forest-dwelling caribou, we suggest an ecosystem approach based on the protection of large forested blocks, the concentration of forest harvesting in large management blocks, and the maintenance of habitat connectivity. This strategy focuses on short-term conservation of minimum caribou habitats in the protected blocks, a medium-term habitat recovery in the management blocks, the maintenance of forest activities, and facilitation of seasonal and dispersal movements. Within the management blocks, we recommend creation of an irregular forest structure similar to the pattern created by natural disturbances inherent to spruce-moss forests. These guidelines have been tested in Québec for the last few years and were well received by forest and wildlife agencies as well as the forest industry. Key words: adaptive management, boreal forest, ecosystem management, forest-dwelling ecotype, forest management, spruce forest, woodland caribou

A test of Ontario's Habitat Suitability Matrix as a forest management planning tool for forest birds

2007 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen B Holmes ◽  
Lisa A Venier ◽  
Brian J Naylor ◽  
J. Ryan Zimmerling
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Habitat Suitability ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Forest Birds ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Forest Bird

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

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