15 resources found

This extension note serves as a practical guide for silvicultural practitioners. It addresses critical operational concerns identified by the forestry community, specifically focusing on competing vegetation and forest health. The core of the document presents Stand Establishment Decision Aids for nine distinct forest health issues prevalent in the Southern Interior Forest Region of British Columbia, such as the black army cutworm, various root diseases, and blister rusts. Each SEDA provides essential information on identifying susceptible stands, understanding the biology of the damaging agent, and outlining relevant harvest and silviculture considerations, including regeneration and plantation maintenance strategies, ultimately aiming to support informed decision-making for healthy forest establishment.

This paper investigates the effectiveness of various fuel treatments in mitigating wildfire behavior in British Columbia's seasonally dry forests, a region increasingly vulnerable to extreme fires. Through field measurements and fire behavior modeling, the study assessed how different combinations of thinning, pruning, and residue fuel management impact the potential for crown fires and tree mortality. Key findings suggest that high-intensity thinning is more effective at reducing both passive and active crown fire potential and tree mortality compared to low-intensity thinning, while pruning after thinning offered little additional benefit. The study also highlights that chipping or pile burning residue fuel can reduce crown fire risk, but cautions that chipping may lead to delayed tree mortality not captured by current models, indicating a need for further research on its long-term effects.

This document provides guidance on harvesting and thinning treatments within Wildland-Urban Interface areas, specifically focusing on reducing wildfire risk in British Columbia. It details a multi-step planning process for Community Wildfire Protection Plans, emphasizing the analysis of land features, existing values like public safety and wildlife habitat, and long-term visions for a fire-resilient forest dominated by Douglas-fir. The report also presents case studies illustrating various fuel reduction methods and their associated costs, alongside operational considerations and responses from professionals regarding logging systems, fuel management, and funding challenges. This document delves into fire behavior modeling to inform best practices for achieving target fuel loadings and canopy base heights, while also highlighting policy conflicts that hinder cost-efficient implementation of these crucial wildfire mitigation strategies.

This paper reviews the effectiveness of stand-level fuel reduction treatments in Canadian boreal conifer forests, specifically focusing on black spruce, jack pine, and lodgepole pine. These treatments, which involve thinning trees, pruning lower branches, and removing understory vegetation, aim to mitigate the risk of fast-spreading, high-intensity crown fires that are naturally prevalent in these ecosystems. While these fuel treatments generally reduce modeled and observed fire behavior under low to moderate fire weather, evidence suggests they become ineffective under very high or extreme fire conditions, especially when combined with high surface fuel loads and the relatively short stature of boreal conifers. The authors highlight the need for further research into managing surface fuel loads, exploring alternative fuel configurations, and integrating these treatments with broader fire suppression strategies.

This document addresses the challenge of balancing timber harvesting with the conservation of at-risk plant communities that depend on mature and old forest conditions in British Columbia's Coastal Douglas Fir biogeoclimatic zone. Recognizing the scarcity of these older forests, the document outlines silvicultural practices aimed at maintaining existing structural diversity in high-conservation areas and accelerating the development of old-growth characteristics in younger, more homogenous stands. Ultimately, it seeks to equip forest professionals with strategies to enhance the ecological functions of older forests within provincial forest lands.

The Stand Tender program provides foundational knowledge for those involved in stand tending within forest management. This free, 2-hour online course covers essential techniques such as brushing, thinning, and pruning, along with assessing stand health and implementing stand tending plans

To promote effective forest management and stewardship, these training materials were developed as part of an ongoing commitment to sustainability of the province's forest resources with a focus on pruning, commercial thinning, fertilization, wood quality, stand density, and juvenile spacing.

This handbook outlines the principles and best practices for silvicultural systems in British Columbia, emphasizing a shift toward complex, multi-value forest management in the 21st century. Its primary purpose is to serve as a central reference and conceptual framework for forest professionals to design and implement silvicultural plans that move a stand from its current state to a desired future condition through planned interventions, known as stand development pathways. A crucial and recurring theme is the growing role of First Nations, including their traditional knowledge, values, and stewardship goals, which are integrated alongside ecological, social, and economic objectives. The document provides detailed guidance on technical aspects, such as managing for biodiversity, mitigating risks like windthrow and pests, and utilizing adaptive management for continuous improvement in forestry practices.

This extension note explores the critical role of fire in the dry interior forests of British Columbia, which historically experienced frequent, low-intensity surface fires that maintained ecosystem health and biodiversity. The authors explain how human fire exclusion over the past 60 years has dramatically altered these forests, leading to increased fuel loads, higher tree density, altered species composition, and a greater risk of intense, large-scale crown fires. The documen then outlines four management options for these sites: continued fire suppression, controlled prescribed burns, mechanical fuel reduction, or a combination of these strategies, emphasizing the need to balance ecological, social, and economic considerations. Finally, the document highlights various ongoing research initiatives aimed at understanding fire regimes and developing integrated management solutions for these fire-adapted ecosystems.

This technical report introduces Landscape Fire Management as a crucial, integrated approach to addressing escalating wildfire risks while restoring ecosystem health. LFM is presented as a paradigm shift, moving beyond localized efforts to encompass broader landscapes by coordinating various land management activities and setting complementary wildland fire objectives across different land-use zones. The document outlines six core principles for effective LFM practice: defining the landscape, understanding current and future conditions, assessing risks to values, setting cohesive objectives, coordinating interventions, and continuously learning through adaptive management. This report aims to guide diverse land managers in British Columbia towards a more resilient coexistence with fire by detailing strategies like fuel breaks, fire-tolerant stands, and managing fuel loads.

This document focuses on fire risk reduction in the Coastal Douglas Fir biogeoclimatic zone and synthesizes expertise from a collaborative community to address the escalating threat of wildfires. It highlights the unique challenges within the CDF, particularly the high concentration of human settlements integrated with forests and the prevalence of degraded, homogenous forest stands resulting from historical logging and fire suppression. The document emphasizes the critical need for ecologically-informed active forest management to restore biodiversity and enhance climate resilience, moving away from a zero-fire model. It explores current initiatives, identifies significant inter-jurisdictional complexities and funding gaps, especially concerning privately held lands, and advocates for multi-scale collaboration and the reintroduction of Indigenous land management practices to achieve long-term wildfire mitigation and ecological integrity.

This report outlines the Lower North Thompson Community Forest Wildfire Risk Management Plan, a comprehensive strategy developed to address the increasing threat of wildfires in British Columbia. Initiated in 2018, the plan identifies and evaluates wildfire risks, considering factors like ignition probability, fire intensity, and values at risk such as human life, infrastructure, and environmental assets. It proposes five key management strategies including wildfire management zones, silviculture, strategic harvesting, prescribed fire, and collaborative planning aimed at enhancing wildfire resilience and mitigating negative impacts, while also exploring potential ecological opportunities associated with fire. The plan emphasizes a proactive and adaptive approach, recommending annual progress reports and a five-year renewal cycle to adjust to changing conditions.

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 synthesizes existing research on forest fuel treatments and their effectiveness in modifying wildfire behavior. Recognizing that the local, currently wetter forests are projected to become similar to drier, fire-prone forests of the Western US due to climate change, the report explores how fuel treatments can reduce wildfire intensity and spread. It defines fuel treatments and outlines their objectives, such as ecosystem restoration and protecting communities, emphasizing that these actions aim to change fire behavior, not prevent fire ignition. Furthermore, the report delves into empirical evidence from past wildfires encountering treated areas, highlighting key principles for effective treatments in mature stands, including surface fuel reduction, increasing height to live crown, decreasing crown density, and retaining large fire-resistant trees. The ultimate purpose is to provide guidance for implementing appropriate and effective fuel management strategies in the Southern West Kootenays.

This study addresses the ecology and management of interior Douglas-fir at the northern extent of its range in British Columbia, particularly within the Prince George Timber Supply Area. The study delves into concerns about a perceived decline in Douglas-fir abundance, exploring its ecological, cultural, and economic significance in this northern environment. It synthesizes existing knowledge on Douglas-fir, examining past and present management practices, its role in local ecosystems including wildlife habitat and soil health, and challenges related to its regeneration, often comparing it with other species like lodgepole pine and spruce. The document serves as a problem analysis and aims to inform the development of an interim management strategy and future research directions for sustaining Douglas-fir in these unique northern landscapes.