42 resources found

This document summarizes the Strathcona Elk Winter Range Restoration Project in British Columbia, outlining habitat restoration efforts from 2002 to 2003. The project focused on increasing forage production and improving cover attributes for elk through activities like planting, pruning, and scarification at six sites. Beyond restoration, a significant component involved monitoring techniques to assess project success and document its impact on Roosevelt elk populations, alongside efforts to increase public awareness about elk habitat needs.

This extension note focuses on the hydrological equivalent clearcut area as a tool for managing forests in British Columbia that have been affected by natural disturbances like mountain pine beetle infestations. It explores how different stand-level treatments, such as salvaging timber and replanting, can influence ECA over time compared to leaving stands unsalvaged. The author examines the contributions of various stand components-including surviving trees, dead snags, and regeneration-to ECA and compares the cumulative hydrological effects of different management strategies using ECA years. The document provides a decision framework to help forest managers consider hydrological values, especially when detailed assessments aren't possible, while also acknowledging other important ecological and economic factors in rehabilitation decisions.

This extension note serves as a guide for practitioners involved in reforestation efforts following large-scale natural disturbances, particularly those caused by the mountain pine beetle in British Columbia's interior. The document emphasizes the importance of considering watershed hydrology when planning these rehabilitation activities, highlighting potential negative impacts on water resources such as increased runoff, stream sedimentation, and reduced riparian function. It advocates for a cautious approach that includes clear objectives, risk analysis, and coordination with stakeholders to minimize these negative effects and ensure the long-term health of both timber and water-related values.

This paper explores silviculture strategies applicable in British Columbia's designated northern caribou ranges. It addresses the critical intersection of forestry practices and caribou conservation, especially in light of the mountain pine beetle infestation and resulting salvage logging. The paper synthesizes current scientific research to provide guidelines for managing forest stands to maintain or improve caribou habitat, considering their ecology, legal protections, and the potential impacts of forestry operations. The paper aims to offer practical silvicultural options that balance timber harvesting with the conservation of this sensitive species and its habitat.

This guide delves into the fundamental ecological principles underpinning the successful application of the shelterwood silvicultural system in British Columbia. As the second part of a three-part series, this guide emphasizes that effectively using partial cutting methods like shelterwoods requires a strong understanding of stand dynamics, which involves how forest structure changes over time due to factors such as tree regeneration, growth, competition, and disturbance. The guide highlights the crucial role of regeneration ecology, exploring the necessary conditions for new trees to establish and thrive after silvicultural interventions. This resource aims to equip forest managers with the knowledge to manipulate forest stands predictably to achieve specific management objectives by considering the interplay of these ecological processes.

This guide focuses on the shelterwood silvicultural system in British Columbia and specifically addresses implementation considerations. As the first part of a three-part series, it outlines the advantages and risks associated with this partial cutting method compared to clearcutting. The guide also delves into crucial aspects like forest health factors and administrative hurdles within the BC forestry context, emphasizing the need for careful planning to manage risks and achieve both timber and non-timber objectives.

This document details a case study on varaible retention as a method to restore old-growth forest conditions in British Columbia's East Kootenay region. It explains how historical land management, including fire suppression, drastically altered forest structures, leading to a decline in biodiversity and an increase in fire risk. The study outlines a silvicultural prescription designed to mimic natural disturbances by strategically removing timber, aiming to re-establish the characteristics of pre-settlement old-growth stands, such as varied tree sizes and increased light penetration. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a sustainable management approach that not only mitigates fire hazards but also enhances wildlife habitat and supports the long-term health of the forest ecosystem.

This study focuses on aspen, a vital broadleaf tree, examining its distribution and health in north-central BC and the various threats it faces, including climate change, forest management practices, and ungulate grazing. It explores the ecological implications of potential aspen declines, specifically considering the relationship between aspen and beaver-created shallow water wetlands, offering recommendations for future research and management.

This course offers practical skills and knowledge to understand the effects of fires on natural environments through ecosystem decoding. The course also explores the impacts of, and the interactions between, fire management and forest management over the past 100 plus years. By the end of the course, participants will be able to prepare communities to respond to wildfire threats and create ecosystem resiliency through restoration methods - in fire and forest landscapes with multiple ecological objectives.

Building a community of practice that shares ideas, insights, and experiences for advancing effective and efficient restoration in northern B. C. Who is a Restoration Practitioner Anyone interested in the delivery of a restoration project, including professionals, academics, authorities, First Nations, stakeholders, funders, partners, governmental and non-governmental groups, and individuals interested in restoration.

The Ecological Restoration program offers specialized training in high-level ecosystem functioning and is designed for practitioners working in restoration and related environmental fields that see problems with current practices and want to investigate alternative and innovative solutions. This program develops critical thinking skills and asks challenging questions that require students to deal with the uncertainty that is present with problems in ecological restoration. Upon completion of this program, students will be able to conduct detailed site assessments and restoration projects that pay special attention to the unique conditions and challenges presented by built and otherwise highly altered environments.

This paper presents the long-term ecological effects of forest fuel and restoration treatments from the ongoing national Fire and Fire Surrogate study, analyzing data collected over approximately 20 years across four diverse sites in the Western and Eastern United States. The central goal of the original FFS study was to evaluate how mechanical treatments and prescribed fire impact forest ecosystems by reducing fire hazard, promoting desirable fire-adapted species, and improving understory diversity. Key findings reveal that the most effective treatment varies significantly by region: mechanical treatments combined with fire yielded better long-term outcomes in Western pine-dominated forests, while prescribed burning alone proved more beneficial in Eastern hardwood-dominated forests. The authors conclude that to maintain these desirable conditions and achieve long-term resilience, treatments must be adapted to the specific ecosystem and followed up with repeated applications.

The BCWF is a non-profit with a mission is to protect and enhance the environment for present and future generations, driven by core values of stewardship, transparency, and science-based solutions.

This paper investigates how wildfires influence the upward migration of tree species in California's subalpine forests, a phenomenon often linked to climate change. Researchers examined post-fire tree regeneration across various fire severities, focusing on the contrasting responses of shade-tolerant and shade-intolerant conifer species. While overall montane species regeneration decreased in burned areas, shade-intolerant Jeffrey pine showed increased success in severely burned plots, aligning with predictions of higher climatic suitability. Conversely, shade-tolerant red fir regeneration declined significantly with higher fire severity, suggesting that the specific regeneration niche of a species, its ideal post-fire conditions, is critical in determining whether fire facilitates or hinders its range expansion.

This document introduces revised estimates for snow recovery in pine-dominated forests of British Columbia's interior, a critical factor for watershed management. Snow recovery refers to the restoration of snow accumulation and melt patterns in regrowing forests after clearcutting, compared to mature forests and clearcut areas. The authors highlight how changes in forest cover significantly impact spring streamflow peaks, making accurate recovery estimates essential for assessing potential hydrologic changes. The study presents new recovery curves based on long-term data from the Thompson-Okanagan region, demonstrating that previous estimates likely overstated the rate of snow recovery, suggesting a more gradual return to pre-harvest conditions as young forests grow taller.

This document provides operational management guidance for forest managers on how to integrate wildlife habitat considerations into forestry practices. It identifies ten key, broad habitat objectives relevant to many forested regions, focusing on maintaining or encouraging features like coarse woody debris, wildlife tree patches, and specific habitat needs for various species, including cavity-nesting birds and ungulates. For each objective, the report offers management guidelines and silvicultural practices, suggesting how activities like harvesting, regeneration, and stand tending can be adapted to support wildlife. The document emphasizes using these guidelines in areas with high habitat suitability, as defined within associated forest stewardship plans, and intends to complement existing provincial and regional forest management guidelines.

This document outlines how to integrate wildfire risk reduction into forest regeneration practices. It explains that these standards are modifications of existing reforestation guidelines, tailored to achieve specific fire management objectives, such as reducing crown fire potential and enhancing fire suppression effectiveness, particularly near communities and high-value infrastructure. The document details considerations for developing these standards, including species selection based on fire resilience, stand density management to influence fire behavior, and structural characteristics like canopy base height. It provides a framework and examples for forest professionals to create stocking standards that balance timber production with proactive wildfire management at both local and landscape levels.

This paper investigates the effectiveness of different forest fuel treatments, such as thinning and prescribed burning, in reducing the severity of subsequent wildfires. Leveraging a unique 1200-hectare experiment that was later impacted by a significant wildfire, the authors compared various treatment approaches, including thin-only, burn-only, and a combination of both, against an untreated control. Their analysis of fire severity metrics, considering pre-fire fuel conditions and fire weather, provides strong evidence that proactive fuel management, especially combining thinning and burning, significantly mitigates wildfire intensity and damage to trees, even decades after the treatments were implemented and under a range of weather conditions. The study supports the continued use of these treatments as valuable tools for forest restoration and enhancing resilience to increasingly severe wildfires.

This document explores the complex relationship between fire management in fire-prone forests of British Columbia and the dynamics of forest carbon. It highlights the challenge for natural resource managers in determining when fire management actions act as sources or sinks of greenhouse gases. The document discusses forest carbon cycles, the impact of climate change on fire regimes, and various forest management approaches, including fire suppression and fuel reduction, in the context of carbon storage and emissions. The docuemtn aims to inform decision-making by considering carbon dynamics alongside other crucial ecological and economic values in these fire-dependent ecosystems.

This paper investigates the long-term effects of post-wildfire logging in dry coniferous forests east of the Cascade Range. It addresses a key debate by presenting findings that post-fire logging effectively reduces future surface woody fuel levels over several decades, thereby potentially mitigating the severity of subsequent wildfires. Furthermore, the research indicates that when best management practices are employed, post-fire logging has minimal lasting negative impacts on the recovery of understory vegetation. The purpose of this publication is to provide scientific information to land managers making decisions about post-fire forest management, particularly regarding fuel reduction and ecological impacts.