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https://foothillsri.ca/sites/default/files/20BrookesHorne.pdf
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Restoring Ecological Function in Stands Impacted by
Mountain Pine Beetle
ESRD MPB Rehabilitation Program
Brooks Horne Rehabilitation Forester
Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development
April 24, 2014 FRI MPB Ecology Information Forum
Background
• MPB
Management
Strategy and
MPB Action Plan
(2007) – 2006
infl.
• Rehabilitation
part of the plan
2007
2013
Level 1 Background
• ~$350 M spent over 8
years on control, aer.
Surveys, staff,
everything MPB!!
• 1.25 million trees Level
1 controlled to date
5
Level 2 Numbers To Date
• 16 mill m3 of Level
2 harvest (not all
infested!!) to date
• 33,407 Ha in 1,133
openings in ARIS
entered
6
Long Term Timber Supply
Impacts Due to Healthy Pine
Strategy Surge
• To alter age classes of
Pl
– Maintain overall pine health
– Minimize risk to MPB and
wildfire
• Comes at cost
– AAC drops as a result
7
Community Sustainability
Long-term impact to Timber Supply (economy) for one Planning Unit
Conifer harvest levels
(First 20 years shown on map)
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,0002006
2011
2016
2021
2026
2031
2036
2041
2046
2051
2056
2061
2066
2071
2076
Year (quadrant start)
M3 p
er
year Baseline - disaster
Baseline harvest
Pine Strategy (75%)
Pine Strategy (58%)
Status Quo
MPB Rehabilitation Program
• Since 06/09 flights,
Diminished ability for
companies to salvage
– Deterioration/inaccessibility
• Building inventory of
unsalvageable stands
= rehab program establishment
9
Background to Rehab Program
• 2011- $1m went to seed
collection
• June, 2012, the GOA
announced $40 million
in emergency MPB
funding with
$10 million earmarked to:
• “reforest areas where trees
have been killed by
infestations in previous
years”
• Guiding principles
• Delivery principles
• Policy development
• Stand selection
criteria
• Treatment strategies
Rehabilitation Program Components
ONGOING!!
Guiding Principles for the
Program
• rehab will be used in forests to
mitigate the risks to ecosystem
goods and services
– esp. where critical values at risk
• Must be strategic and meet Dept
and Branch Vision and Goals
• A range of rehab treatments will
be necessary
• scientific foundation using
– research
– effectiveness evaluations
– and monitoring
Key program delivery principles
• Provincial in scope
• mitigate risk to key ecosystem services and risk
of wildfire;
• Stands eligible must be netted out and not part of
regular FM planning and reforestation
• Rehab strategies will depend on the specific risk
being mitigated
• must be cost-effective and promote the
establishment of a functioning forest
• Must be collaborative with stakeholders
• FRIAA will administer the Program
• w/ For. Industry members or other organizations
managing projects
Another key principle:
We Can’t Do It All!!...Nor Should We!
• Given limited budgets:
– We must be smart
– Bang for Buck
• Areas chosen for rehab
work must have
multiple values at risk
from MPB
• Rehab not restoration!
– NOT replacing what was
there before MPB
– ARE ensuring eco function
is maintained
Time heals all but….
• Most forests regenerate after nat.
dist. over time (25+ yrs)
– Not quick enough!, sometimes..
• key ecosystem service
components may be at risk
• Biodiversity, F & W habitat,
riparian areas, water
yield/quality, etc.
As well as public safety and
wildfire risk
• May need intervention
– multiple use!!
• Succession and forest dynamics for fire better known than MPB.
• Knowledge of fire regimes and MPB biology (FRBC project)
• Not much quantitative info about stand and fuel changes over time after MBP attack (FRBC project)
Fire and MPB Spatial Patterns and Succession
20 years after MPB
20 years after fire
15 years after MPB
Spruce Bark Beetle
• Succession and forest dynamics for fire better known than MPB.
• Knowledge of fire regimes and MPB biology (FRBC project)
• Not much quantitative info about stand and fuel changes over time after MBP attack (FRBC project)
Fire and MPB Spatial Patterns and Succession
20 years after MPB
20 years after fire
15 years after MPB
Spruce Bark Beetle
Other Things to consider
– Budgets
– Policy
– Dept vision and goals
– OGR’s
– Existing FMP’s and
FMA agreements
– SLA
– Economic, social, and
environmental values
16
Stand Selection Criteria- How do
we choose stands for rehab??
• Must be strategic
– Where do we rehab?
– No fast and easy answer
– Lots of work to go on this
• Lit review
• Poach BC work!
• Research
• Collaboration with industry
Stand Selection Criteria
• Program is provincial in scope
• Can’t assume industry will tackle
all stands needed- Priorities
unlikely to always intersect!!
• Decision Support Tool necessary to
set priorities provincially
GIS based system being worked
on – NEED INVENTORY #1!!
Will guide both ESRD and FRIAA
ops (allowing input from industry
partners!!)
Stand Selection Criteria cont’
High value or sensitive watersheds
Water quantity/Quality- (ECA)
Riparian Habitat
Wildlife and Biodiversity Zone
Trumpeter Swan habitat
Class A watersheds
Critical ART, WSC, AG spawning
habitat
Rare Natural Subregion and ecosites
Wildfire threat (Public safety)
Recreation (Public safety)
MPB Zone
Within SHS
Caribou zone
Leading tree species1
Crown closure
Mortality
Stand height
Stand age
Site productivity rating
Understory characteristics
Polygon area
Salvage potential
Proximity to existing road
access
Stand
Characteristics
Ecosystem Service and Safety
Characteristics
Ecosystem function
values are hard to pin
down
Are known inventories
(Class A, trumpeter, etc)
the best way to assess
and prioritize?
• More work/research
needed to quantify
biodiversity, nutrient
cycling, etc.
20
Rehab Prescriptions
Critical Questions • What values do you wish
to maintain?
• What is your objective?
• How will you monitor to
ensure objective is met?
• Ie. Heavily impacted
riparian area of critical
Atha Rainbow trout spawn.
• Not a timber prescription,
you would manage for
bank stability, shade, etc. 21
• Definitely not a one size
fits all approach
– Caribou habitat not
seeming to be settled
– Mosaic of dead
standing and
reforested site
perhaps best
– Federal recovery may
push more dead
standing!
Rehab activities
• Maybe shrub
planting better
prescription at
times!
• When 500sph,
when 1500sph?
• Much to learn
from FGYA trial,
Beyond Beetle
and Canfor work
23
Further Research Work
Needed
• Just getting up to
speed but…
• MPB attacked stands as
habitat (grizzly, caribou,
fur bearers, etc.)
• Silvicultural practices-
underplant, mechanical
prep, etc.
• Biodiversity inventory
• Measuring ecological
function
• Remote Sensing
• Others??!! 24
Hotchkiss Aerial Seeding
• 12,538 ha wildfire (July 2012)
near Manning
• MPB impacted, pine
dominated stands
• MPB Rehab funds paid for
aerially seeding 21 polygons
(140 hectares of intensely
burned area) (March 30, 2013)
• lodgepole pine (LBH 1.6) and
white spruce (LBH 1.6)
– 10 m wide swaths
– Applic rates 0.2 kg/ha PL and
0.04 kg/ha SW (9 seeds per
m2)
– Revisit the summer
Others?
• Provincial Program
Needs to consider other
natural disturbances as
well which threaten
ecosystem function
– Spruce Beetle
(Alaska/Yukon)
– WPBR impacting WB and
Limber (Endangered)
– Spruce Budworm (E.
Canada, N. Alberta to
lesser extent)
Spruce Beetle
WPBR
Spruce Budworm
To summarize intent of rehab
program:
– Collaborate with
Stakeholders
– Start with good candidate
stands selected to
mitigate risk to
ecosystem services and
risk of wildfire,
– Do some good
rehabilitation work based
on sound science
– We should end up with
some VERY POSITIVE
OUTCOMES.
27