Land Units And Benchmarks For Developing Natural Disturbance Based Forest Management Guidance For Northeastern British Columbia

"There has been a steady increase in the use of knowledge of natural disturbance dynamics as a basis for forest management policy directed towards maintaining biological diversity. While the merits of this approach are currently being debated, especially in light of climate change, knowledge of natural disturbance patterns provides useful baseline information to assist with landscape level planning and stand level forest practices. This document outlines an ecological land delineation process that focuses on differences in disturbance rate and pattern and successional dynamics for northeast British Columbia. It provides some general principles regarding natural disturbance-based management and, for each delineated unit, detailed information on location, climate, vegetation, natural disturbance dynamics, forest management effects on natural pattern, and recommended forest practices based on the natural disturbance-based management paradigm."--Document.

This handbook is designed for staff in protected areas around the world who encounter conflicts of all kinds. It presents a framework and strategies for responding to different types of conflicts, along with case studies that describe a variety of approaches for dealing with conflict.

"The landscape-level species strategy project was initiated in 2009 in support of the Chief Forester's Future Forest Ecosystems Initiative. This scoping report explores the issues related to developing and implementing a landscape-level tree species strategy for forest management in British Columbia. It specifically aims to: identify the key elements of a landscape-level tree species strategy, assess the implementation considerations for a landscape-level species strategy within the existing management framework, develop an analysis methodology for portraying the landscape-level species composition and distribution for natural and managed stands."--Document.

Presents a summary of legislation (including the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and regulations), chief forester's policies and procedures, and related information regarding higher level plans related to provincial forestry. It contains direction that must be followed when preparing certain higher level plans and is intended for use by authorised decision-makers such as district managers and designated environmental officials. Higher level plans establish the broader, strategic context for operational plans, providing objectives that determine the mix of forest resources to be managed in a given area. Sections of this summary cover plans in two categories: those directly enabled through Part 2 of the Act, including objectives for resource management zones, landscape units, and sensitive areas; and those developed under non-Code legislation or policy. Includes glossary.

Provides direction on how to prepare operational plans and prescriptions that require specification of limits for various types of soil disturbance during forestry operations.

"The Great Bear Rainforest Order (GBRO), established January 2016, presents legal objectives for the protection of Old Forests and Red- and Blue-Listed Plant Communities (Listed Communities) within the timber harvesting land base of the Great Bear Rainforest. Although the direction on management and conservation of both Old Forest and Listed Communities is conceptually straightforward, practical field implementation is challenging due to the lack of explicit field assessment criteria. This guidance document provides an overview of key aspects of the GBRO with respect to Old Forest and Listed Communities, and interpretation of the text in the GBRO with reference to current ecological concepts. Additionally, the document discusses how the GBRO text relates to the B.C. Conservation Data Centre methods for assessing Red- and Blue-Listed Ecological Communities. A set of field keys is provided to facilitate consistent application of ecological concepts to meet the intent of the GBRO objectives for Old Forest and Sufficiently Established Listed Communities. The keys incorporate initial minimum criteria for certain ecological features, and an index that integrates a suite of old forest attributes (the Forest Attribute Score) based on features that reflect the complexity of these older coastal, forested ecosystems. Both keys require the field practitioner to determine stand age and occurrence of a Veteran Overstory Tree layer. To evaluate the requirement for protection of Listed Communities, the level of understory development must also be evaluated. Calculation of a Forest Attribute Score requires the assessment of six stand attributes: density of Veteran Overstory Trees, density of large snags, vertical canopy differentiation, understory shrub and herb cover, amount of coarse woody debris, and stand disturbance history."--Publisher's website