Natural Disturbance Research and Natural Disturbance Research and Forest ManagementForest Management

An Alberta Government PerspectiveAn Alberta Government Perspective

Sustainable Resource Development

John Stadt John Stadt –– Provincial Forest EcologistProvincial Forest Ecologist

Desired Future FOREST

OPERATIONAL PLANNING &

MANAGEMENTForest Management

Plans

POLICY & STRATEGIC PLANNING

SCIENCE

MONITORING

Land-Use Framework

Desired Future FOREST

POLICY & STRATEGIC PLANNING

SCIENCE

MONITORING

Set objectives

Implementation

Implementation Monitoring

Assess /Re-evaluate

OPERATIONAL PLANNING &

MANAGEMENT

Conservation of BiodiversityCCFM Criterion

SpeciesDiversity

EcosystemDiversity

GeneticDiversity

ProtectedAreasCCFM Elements

Water crossings

Sensitive Sites

Stand Structure-retention-downed woody

material

Seral Stage / Cover Types

Fragmentation-patch size

- interior forest

Access

Uncommon plant communities

Riparian areas

Burned/Windthrow habitats

Objectives

LandscapeScale Diversity

StandScale Diversity

Values

AlbertaAlbertaForest ManagementForest ManagementPlanning StandardPlanning Standard

Conservation of BiodiversityCCFM Criterion

SpeciesDiversity

EcosystemDiversity

GeneticDiversity

ProtectedAreasCCFM Elements

Water crossings

Sensitive Sites

Stand Structure-retention-downed woody

material

Seral Stage / Cover Types

Fragmentation-patch size

- interior forest

Access

Uncommon plant communities

Riparian areas

Burned/Windthrow habitats

Objectives

LandscapeScale Diversity

StandScale Diversity

Values

AlbertaAlbertaForest ManagementForest ManagementPlanning StandardPlanning Standard

Conservation of BiodiversityCCFM Criterion

SpeciesDiversity

EcosystemDiversity

GeneticDiversity

ProtectedAreasCCFM Elements

Water crossings

Sensitive Sites

Stand Structure-retention-downed woody

material

Seral Stage / Cover Types

Fragmentation-patch size

- interior forest

Access

Uncommon plant communities

Riparian areas

Burned/Windthrow habitats

Objectives

LandscapeScale Diversity

StandScale Diversity

Values

AlbertaAlbertaForest ManagementForest ManagementPlanning StandardPlanning Standard

Objective: Retain full range of cover types and seral stages.

Indicator: Area of old, mature, and young forest in each subunit by cover class

Target: Targets for each seral stage to be set for both the gross and net landbase

Seral StagesSeral Stages

Stand Age

Per

cent

Are

aAge distribution of forests

80 and 160 year fire cycles

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

10 50 90 130 170 210 250 290

80 year160 year

Fire cycle

160 yr 80 yr

>100 yrs = 38% 28%

>200 yrs = 13% 6%

>300 yrs = 15% 2%

• Fire regime analysis– Fire cycle– Disturbance size distribution

• Spatial simulation modeling (e.g. LANDMINE (Andison), BFOLDS (Ontario)

Seral Stages Seral Stages –– Natural Range of VariationNatural Range of Variation

Conservation of BiodiversityCCFM Criterion

SpeciesDiversity

EcosystemDiversity

GeneticDiversity

ProtectedAreasCCFM Elements

Water crossings

Sensitive Sites

Stand Structure-retention-downed woody

material

Seral Stage / Cover Types

Fragmentation-patch size

- interior forest

Access

Uncommon plant communities

Riparian areas

Burned/Windthrow habitats

Objectives

LandscapeScale Diversity

StandScale Diversity

Values

AlbertaAlbertaForest ManagementForest ManagementPlanning StandardPlanning Standard

Fragmentation

Objective: Avoid landscape fragmentation

Indicator 1: Range of patch sizes (current harvest pattern)

Indicator 2: Interior old forest for each cover class

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

<1

1-40

40-80

80-20

0

2-600

600-1

,0001-2

,000

2-5,00

05-1

0,000

10,00

0+

Forest Patch Size-Class (ha)

Perc

ent

AreaNumbersMost fires are small,

… but the large ones count for most area

Disturbance Sizes & Disturbance Numbers(In the Alberta Foothills (Andison))

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

<1

1-40

40-80

80-20

0

2-600

600-1

,0001-2

,000

2-5,00

05-1

0,000

10,00

0+

Forest Patch Size-Class (ha)

Perc

ent

AreaNumbers

Disturbance Sizes vs Traditional harvest sizes

Traditional harvest unit

sizes

Conservation of BiodiversityCCFM Criterion

SpeciesDiversity

EcosystemDiversity

GeneticDiversity

ProtectedAreasCCFM Elements

Water crossings

Sensitive Sites

Stand Structure-retention-downed woody

material

Seral Stage / Cover Types

Fragmentation-patch size

- interior forest

Access

Uncommon plant communities

Riparian areas

Burned/Windthrow habitats

Objectives

LandscapeScale Diversity

StandScale Diversity

Values

AlbertaAlbertaForest ManagementForest ManagementPlanning StandardPlanning Standard

Stand level structure

Objective: Retain stand level structure:

Indicator: % area or volume or stems of residual structure within harvest area

- Representative of harvest area

Target: patches, clumps, stems comprising X% of harvested area/volume/stems

NEPTUNE tool – classifying within fire pattern

NEPTUNE tool – classifying within fire pattern

Matrix Element

Island Remnant

Area in Island Remnants for WC Alberta and Saskatchewan

0102030405060

0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60Percent of Event Area in Island Remnants

Rel

ativ

e Fr

eque

ncy WC Alberta

Saskatchewan

Does patternDoes pattern

== Biodiversity ?Biodiversity ?J. Witiw, DMIJ. Witiw, DMI

Credit: J. Witiw, DMICredit: J. Witiw, DMI

FireFire

vs.vs.

HarvestingHarvesting

Desired Future FOREST

OPERATIONAL PLANNING &

MANAGEMENTForest Management

Plans

POLICY & STRATEGIC PLANNING

SCIENCE

MONITORING

Land-Use Framework

Upper PeaceUpper Peace

LowerLowerPeacePeace

LowerLowerAthabascaAthabasca

UpperUpperAthabascaAthabasca

NorthNorthSaskatchewanSaskatchewan

Red DeerRed Deer

SouthSouthSaskatchewanSaskatchewan

• 7 Regional Plans• Provincial Outcomes

1. Healthy economy2. Healthy

ecosystems3. Healthy

communities

Thank YouThank You