BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
ECOSYSTEM BASED FOREST MANAGEMENT
The approach to forest management in Canada has transformed over the years, shifting from a narrow emphasis on timber harvesting to a more comprehensive consideration of various values. As this transformation has taken place, Ecosystem-Based Forest Management (EBM) has become increasingly important and, although intricate and multifaceted, it is being integrated into forest management practices throughout Canada(Van et al., 2014). EBM takes a holistic view of forest ecosystems with the goal of maintaining or enhancing ecological, economic and social resilience (Van et al., 2014). One dominant approach to implementing EBM is natural-disturbance-based management (NDBM). The fundamental idea behind Natural Disturbance-Based Management (NDBM) is that by emulating elements of natural disturbance patterns, at various scales, from individual stands to entire landscapes, we can reduce the impact of human activities on the structure and functioning of forest ecosystems (Lindenmayer et al., 2002). The strategy of structural retention was introduced 30 years ago (J.F Franklin,1989), and has since been incorporated into forest management practices across the globe (Baker et al.,2013). At large scales, differences in the frequency, severity and spatial pattern of disturbances are the focus, while at the stand scale, retention of biological legacies (e.g. patches of living trees) represents a key approach (Lindenmayer et al., 2002). While research advances have been made at both scales, there is a gap in terms of reconciling and aligning implementation of EBM from the stand to the landscape scale.
With the framework of Ecosystem-Based Management in mind, land managers have devised a distinct treatment approach that entails mimicking the natural disturbances characteristic of a particular region through their harvesting practices. Since this concept was originally formulated in Western regions, forest managers have chosen to replicate the disturbance caused by wildfires. Forest fires are among the most significant natural disturbances in Canada's boreal forests. When a wildfire sweeps through a landscape, it leaves patches of forests that either remain unburned or experience low-severity burning (Gasaway and DuBois 1985; DeLong and Kessler 2000; Bergeron and Fenton 2012).Examinations of these matrix areas have shown that the isolated patches function as refuges, preserving the original biodiversity of the surrounding forests (Gasaway and DuBois 1985; DeLong and Kessler 2000; Bergeron and Fenton 2012).The forest industries should aim to practice sustainable management of their land , with the dual goals of ensuring long-term production and conserving biodiversity (Gustafsson et al. 2012). A method to achieve this objective involves the application of retention forestry (Gustafsson et al. 2012).This approach seeks to balance economic, cultural, and environmental goals by leaving remnants in the forest following harvesting. This allows for regeneration from the species that remain and serves to safeguard biodiversity by creating a refuge for species within untouched forest patches. |
COARSE WOODY DEBRIS
Forest island remnants serve as a life-boat for species to weather a disturbance and act as a propagator for post-disturbance regeneration. In a remnant, as well as any forest, coarse woody debris plays a significant role in ecological service. Research dating back to as early as the 1940s has consistently shown that coarse woody debris is positively correlated with biodiversity, carbon storage, and nutrient cycling (Arnborg 1942; McCullough 1948; Harmon et al. 1986; Freedman et al. 1996; Stevens 1997; Jonsson and Kruys 2001). Nonetheless, management practices typically did not incorporate goals for maintaining coarse woody debris until recent decades. Coarse woody debris plays a vital role by providing essential resources like shelter, nesting sites, food, and this support enables a wide range of organisms, including bryophytes, saprobes, invertebrates, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, vascular plants, and fungi, to flourish in habitats that might otherwise be challenging for them (Jönsson and Jonsson 2007). Because of its connection to biodiversity and forest structure, coarse woody debris can serve as a predictor for both forest biodiversity and fire dynamics (Hobson and Schieck 1999; Mac Nally et al. 2002; Astrom et al. 2005; Kail et al. 2007; Hart and Chan 2008). Hence the amount of coarse woody debris in island remnants following post-harvest and post-fire conditions can be utilized to assess its potential for preserving biodiversity and stability (Moussaoui et al. 2016)
OBJECTIVES
The objective of this project is to estimate the volume and determine the decay classes of coarse woody debris comparing fire island remnants and harvest island remnants. Specifically, I will be collecting the volumes and decay classes of coarse woody debris within the edge to interior plots in each islands and its disturbance. We aim to evaluate how successful forest industries are in replicating island remnants similar to those formed after a wildfire. A higher volume of coarse woody debris typically suggests greater biodiversity and potentially implies the long-term stability of these islands. It's important to note that although this correlation exists, our project does not directly assess biodiversity or the sustainability of these islands. Our objective is to confirm the claims of our forestry partners, and we are looking for minimal differences between post-fire and post-harvest island remnants.
EXPECTATIONS
I expect that the fire islands will experience more edge effects due to the high tree mortality in the edge of the fire islands. Moving from edge to interior, I expect that the coarse woody debris volume will be high in harvest due to the clean edge of harvest islands which allows the islands to experience more wind, temperature changes and humidity variations. Therefore I believe that harvest will cause more tree mortality and downfall compared to fire islands. Also interior harvest plots experience edge effects from the directions apart from the transect which can lead to more downfall in the interior plots.