Ontario Québec

Manitoba

Alberta

Saskatchewan

British Columbia

Yukon Northwest Territories Nunav

t

Labrador + Newfoundla

NovaScoti

New Brunswi

P.E.I.

boreal cordillera boreal plain boreal shield

AcknowledgmentsForeword

Part 1. The Goals of Sustainable Forest ManagementPart 1. The Goals of Sustainable Forest Management

1. The Current State of Boreal Forestry and the Drive for Change1. The Current State of Boreal Forestry and the Drive for ChangeP.J. Burton, G.F. Weetman, W.L. Adamowicz, E.E. Prepas, C. Messier, and R. Tittler

2. Sustainability and Sustainable Forest Management2. Sustainability and Sustainable Forest ManagementW.L. (Vic) Adamowicz and Philip J. Burton

Part 2. Social and Economic Dimensions of Sustainable Forest ManPart 2. Social and Economic Dimensions of Sustainable Forest Managementagement3. Not Just Another Stakeholder: First Nations & SFM in Canada’s3. Not Just Another Stakeholder: First Nations & SFM in Canada’s Boreal Forest Boreal Forest

Marc Stevenson and Jim Webb4. Public Involvement in Sustainable Boreal Forest Management4. Public Involvement in Sustainable Boreal Forest Management

Fiona Hamersley Chambers and Tom Beckley5. Milltown Revisited: Strategies for Assessing and Enhancing Co5. Milltown Revisited: Strategies for Assessing and Enhancing Community mmunity

SustainabilitySustainabilitySara Teitelbaum, Tom Beckley, Solange Nadeau, and Chris Southcott

6. The Economics of Boreal Forest Management6. The Economics of Boreal Forest ManagementW.L. (Vic) Adamowicz, Glen W. Armstrong, and Mark J. Messmer

7. Designing Institutions for Sustainable Forest Management7. Designing Institutions for Sustainable Forest ManagementH. Nelson, I. Vertinsky, T. Lempriere, M. Luckert, M. Ross, & Bill Wilson

CONTENTCONTENT

little access or intervention

accessible, industrial zone

accessible and fragmented, agricultural zone

Figure 4(c) Current land use zones (adapted from CanadianForestry Service and Canadian Geographi c)

Financial aspects of boreal forests: an example.Assuming the yieldyield curvecurve belowbelow (Fig. 1), the logging costs are around $5000/ha and the value of the wood (what the mill would be willing to pay for the wood delivered to the gate) is $60/m3.

The optimal forest rotation is 90 years at a 4% discount rate and 80 years at a 10% discount rate, under a ‘leave for natural’ (LFN) reforestation prescription (no cost).

Fig. 2 shows the yields required to recoup a $500/ha silivicultural investment at4% and 10% discount rates compared to the assumed yields for naturalregeneration. At a 4% discount rate, the yield at 70 years would have to be 2.5 timesthat under LFN in order to justify a $500/ha investment (i.e., MAI must increase from1.2 to 3.1 m3/ha/yr).

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Part 3. Forest Ecology Part 3. Forest Ecology andManagementandManagement

8. A Process Approach to Disturbance and Forest Dynamics 8. A Process Approach to Disturbance and Forest Dynamics E.A. Johnson, H. Morin, K. Miyanishi, R. Gagnon, and D.F. Greene

9. Comparing Forest Management to Natural Processes9. Comparing Forest Management to Natural ProcessesSybille Haeussler and Dan Kneeshaw

10. 10. Impacts of Forestry Operations on Boreal Lakes of CanadaImpacts of Forestry Operations on Boreal Lakes of CanadaE.E. Prepas, B. Pinel-Alloul, R.J. Steedman, D. Planas, and T. Charette

11. Forest Management Planning Based on Natural Disturbance and 11. Forest Management Planning Based on Natural Disturbance and Forest Forest DynamicsDynamicsThuy Nguyen, Brian D. Harvey, Yves Bergeron, Sylvie Gauthier, and Alain Leduc

12. Tactical Forest Planning and Landscape Design12. Tactical Forest Planning and Landscape DesignDavid W. Andison

13. Stand Level and 13. Stand Level and SilviculturalSilvicultural Treatments for Sustaining a Variety of ValuesTreatments for Sustaining a Variety of ValuesV.J. Lieffers, C. Messier, P.J. Burton, J.-C. Ruel, and B.E. Grover

14. Modelling Tools to Assess the Sustainability of Forest Mana14. Modelling Tools to Assess the Sustainability of Forest Management Scenariosgement ScenariosC. Messier, M.-J. Fortin, F. Schmiegelow, F. Doyon, S.G. Cumming, J.P. Kimmins,B. Seely, C. Welham, and J. Nelson

region

Forest roads at three scales

landscape stand

photo credits (left to right): Natural Resources Canada, Dave Coates, unknown

What is proposed in Canada for a large chunkof its forest:: Emulating nature

• Following the naturalsuccession

• Preserving its structure and composition

• Emulating natural disturbance

Fire by variable retention (in Alberta)

Insect outbreak Insect outbreak by selective by selective cutting in cutting in eastern Canadaeastern Canada

a) Present landscape b) + 200 years, natural fire only

c) + 200 years, harvest only d) + 200 years, harvest with 1990’s fire

Figure 10. The distribution and abundance of good Figure 10. The distribution and abundance of good SwainsonSwainson’’ss Thrush habitat (cells where predicted Thrush habitat (cells where predicted abundances are relatively high, coloured in blue; reference areaabundances are relatively high, coloured in blue; reference area for good habitat in redfor good habitat in red[SC1][SC1]) (a) at ) (a) at present and (present and (b,c,db,c,d) after 200 yr under the three scenarios described in the text.) after 200 yr under the three scenarios described in the text.. .

ForêtsForêts et et perturbationsperturbations

Interventions Interventions sylvicolessylvicoles

Axis 1

wildfire

logging

Axi

s 2

Axi

s 2

Axi

s 2

c) black spruce plant communities, Québec

b) aspen beetle and spider communities, Alberta

Axis 1Axis 1

a) aspen plant communities, Alberta

Variability in plant and animal communities after wildfire and logging. (a) aspen plant community chronosequence, Alberta (Crites 1999); (b) aspen beetle and spider community chronosequence, Alberta (Buddle et al. 1999); (c) black spruce plant communities, Québec (Nguyen-Xuan et al. 2000). Early or severely burned post-fire communities (open circles) are distinct from all other communities, and logging does not fully replicate the range of variability found after fire. In the Alberta chronosequences, communities partially converge with time (darker symbols are older).

Things to consider for our lakes

• In the boreal forests of Canada, clearcutting can have a detectable impact on water qualitywhen the catchment area to lake volume ratio is greater than 4 m-1. Within thisconstraint:a) On the boreal shield, clearcutting should not exceed 30% of the catchment area,b) On the boreal plain, lakewater quality is likely to be impacted at less than 30% clearcutting. Thus 30% of catchment cleared should be considered a distant upper bound.

• Catchment slope does not appear to affect the magnitude of clearcutting response on lakes inthe boreal forest.

• Where thresholds cannot be met, alternative methods of logging (e.g., selective logging,thinning) should be incorporated into forest management plans to include, at the very least,percentages cut beyond thresholds.

• Given today’s forest harvesting practices in Canada’s boreal forest, vegetated buffer stripsaround a lake’s perimeter appear to have no aquatic protection value.

Part 4. Minimizing Impacts of Forest Use and Fibre ProcessingPart 4. Minimizing Impacts of Forest Use and Fibre Processing

15. Minimizing Negative Environmental Impacts of Forest Harvesti15. Minimizing Negative Environmental Impacts of Forest Harvesting ng OperationsOperationsReino Pulkki

16. Residues Produced by the Forest Industry 16. Residues Produced by the Forest Industry Clark P. Svrcek and D.W. Smith

17. Forest Industry Aqueous Effluents and the Aquatic Environmen17. Forest Industry Aqueous Effluents and the Aquatic EnvironmenttEric R. Hall

18. The Fate, Effects, and Mitigation of Atmospheric Emissions f18. The Fate, Effects, and Mitigation of Atmospheric Emissions from the Forest rom the Forest Products IndustryProducts IndustryD. Grant Allen and Zijin Lu

19. Reducing, Reusing and Recycling Solid Wastes from Wood 19. Reducing, Reusing and Recycling Solid Wastes from Wood Hongde Zhou

20. Carbon Balance and Climate Change in Boreal Forests20. Carbon Balance and Climate Change in Boreal ForestsJ. Bhatti, G.C. van Kooten, L.D. Laird, I.D. Campbell, C. Campbell, M.R. Turetsky, Z. Yu, E. Banfield, and M.J. Apps

Part 5. Implementing Sustainable Forest ManagementPart 5. Implementing Sustainable Forest Management

21. 21. Adaptive management: progress and prospects for Canadian forestsAdaptive management: progress and prospects for Canadian forestsPeter N. Duinker and Lisa M. Trevisan

22. Implementing Sustainable Forest Management: Some Case Studie22. Implementing Sustainable Forest Management: Some Case StudiessDaryll Hebert, Brian Harvey, Shawn Wasel, Margaret Donelly, Jacques Robert, and Fiona Hamersley Chambers

23. Sustainable Forest Management as License to Think and to Try23. Sustainable Forest Management as License to Think and to TrySomething DifferentSomething DifferentTimothy T. Work, John R. Spence, W. Jan A. Volney, and Philip J. Burton

IndexIndex

Adaptive management can be envisioned as “staying Adaptive management can be envisioned as “staying on the wrong road long and smart enough to know”, on the wrong road long and smart enough to know”, i.e. to learn how and why things didn't go as planned. i.e. to learn how and why things didn't go as planned. Since ineffective or poor decisions are inevitable in Since ineffective or poor decisions are inevitable in any arena, the key is to have a framework in place to any arena, the key is to have a framework in place to ensure that the institution harnesses the knowledge ensure that the institution harnesses the knowledge that can be gained from mistakes (that can be gained from mistakes (DuinkerDuinker).).

1st cohort – deciduous 2nd cohort - mixed 3rd cohort - coniferous

b) conventional silviculture

0 10050 200 250 yrs150

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Forest dynamics on clay soils in southern boreal mixedwood forests of Quebec. (a) Natural forest succession (white arrows) from deciduous-dominated to mixed to coniferous-dominated stands; (b) conventional silviculture dominated by clearcutting (dashed arrows); and (c ) proposed natural dynamics-based silviculture incorporating a mix of clearcutting (dashed arrows), partial and selection cutting (solid arrows) to generate and maintain deciduous, mixedwood and coniferous stands.

c) natural dynamics-based silviculture

clearcutting clearcutting clearcuttingselection

cutting

partial cutting partial cutting

partial cutting

clearcutting clearcuttingclearcutting

Challenges to sustainable forest management:

• to understand disturbance processes, not just emulate disturbance patterns;• to sustain important ecosystem processes, including tree population dynamics;• to characterize regional differences in disturbance regimes in a meaningful way;• to recognize the constraints to forest management imposed by regional disturbance

processes; and• to consider the forest management opportunities offered by regional disturbance

processes.

Options for sustainable forest management.

Major problems- many forest practices result in attributes outside of natural range in variability (e.g., reductions

in coarse woody debris, roads, changes to forest age class structure);- forest management may also be within the range of variability but may homogenize the

forest through uniform practices;- effects may not be observed immediately but may occur after substantial time lag;- forestry-caused problems are being affected by other environmental changes (e.g., climate

change, other industrial developments, invasive species); and- it is difficult to account for all differences, as some may be unknown.

Changes needed- consider ecological impacts at small to large scales and over short to long time frames;- at the stand scale, retention of coarse woody debris, wildlife trees, organic matter reduction –

not elimination, variation in silvicultural applications, plan for species succession;- at the landscape scale, ensure a variety of practices, patterns and species mixes and allow for

temporal and spatial continuity of stands; and- at regional and larger scales, consider cumulative effects of disturbance rates and human land

use

Alternative models for change- zoning (such as the triad approach), including a sliding scale of adherence to the natural

disturbance model;- a conservation biology approach which combines some aspects of a natural disturbance model

with a fine-filter strategy that identifies the elements most at risk and proposes interventions toaddress them; and

- a biocomplexity approach that does not preserve past conditions but aims toincrease diversity and complexity of ecosystems at all scales to enhance resiliencein an uncertain future.