Science and the industrial planning process in the western Canadian boreal forest: a case study Available to Purchase

This investigation presents new and aggressive approaches to link the results of scientific endeavor to management of a portion of the Canadian boreal forest, within the framework of the detailed forest management plan (DFMP) process of a forestry company in the province of Alberta. The first component in the DFMP was landscape projection, whereby cumulative impacts of key natural and anthropogenic disturbance agents were modelled under current and altered climate conditions. The second component addressed two types of impact assessment. The Biodiversity Assessment Project (BAP) modelled ecosystem diversity at landscape and habitat levels, as well as developed habitat supply models, relative to changing vegetation composition, management practices, and stand age. Models were used during the development of a preferred forest management strategy to address undesirable ecological predictions. In the Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance (FORWARD) project, a variant of the soil and water assessment tool was developed to model the impacts of watershed disturbance on streamflow. In the third component of the DFMP, timber supply scenarios were devised based on maximizing annual allowable harvest in a sustained yield fashion, while incorporating elements of the BAP and FORWARD project as constraints in harvest sequence optimization. This initiative is an example of an industry-led effort to manage forests using a system that is regionally centered, science based, peer reviewed, and considers multiple activities and their cumulative environmental effects.