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