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The article presents a case study on disputes for the resources of Boreal Forest in Canada. Topics discussed include conflict between the paper and pulp industry Resolute Forest Products and non- government environmental organization Greenpeace International, rights of first nation over the resources of forest and the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) to continue negotiations on the forest issue such as sustainable forest management programs.

Aim: Seedling recruitment is a vital process for forest regeneration and is influenced by various factors such as stand composition, climate, and soil disturbance. We conducted a long‐term field experiment (18 years) to study the effects of these factors and their interactions on seedling recruitment. Location: Our study focused on five main species in boreal mixed woods of eastern Canada: trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), white spruce (Picea glauca), balsam fir (Abies balsamea), and white cedar (Thuja occidentalis). Methods: Sixteen 1‐m2 seedling monitoring subplots were set up in each of seven stands originating from different wildfires (fire years ranging from 1760 to 1944), with a soil scarification treatment applied to every other subplot. Annual new seedling counts were related to growing‐season climate (mean temperature, growing degree days and drought code), scarification, and stand effects via a Bayesian generalized linear mixed model. Results: Soil scarification had a large positive effect on seedling recruitment for three species (aspen, birch and spruce). As expected, high mean temperatures during the seed production period (two years prior to seedling emergence) increased seedling recruitment for all species but aspen. Contrary to other studies, we did not find a positive effect of dry conditions during the seed production period. Furthermore, high values of growing degree days suppressed conifer seedling recruitment. Except for white cedar, basal area was weakly correlated with seedling abundance, suggesting a small number of reproductive individuals is sufficient to saturate seedling recruitment. Conclusion: Our findings underscore the importance of considering multiple factors, such as soil disturbance, climate, and stand composition, as well as their effects on different life stages when developing effective forest management strategies to promote regeneration in boreal mixed‐wood ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With climate change, climatic optima are shifting poleward more rapidly than tree migration processes, resulting in a mismatch between species distributions and bioclimatic envelopes. Temperate hardwood tree species may take advantage of the release of climate constraints and forest management to migrate into the boreal forest. Here, we use the SORTIE‐ND forest simulation model to determine the potential for the persistence of three temperate species (sugar maple, red maple and yellow birch) when introduced at seedling stage in typical balsam fir–paper birch (BF–PB) bioclimatic domain stands of eastern Canada, quantifying the consequences on the native species composition. SORTIE‐ND is a spatially explicit, individual‐based forest stand model that simulates tree growth, regeneration and mortality. We performed a novel parameterization of the SORTIE‐ND tree growth equation allowing for the inclusion of climate modifiers on tree growth. After validating our model with data from permanent forest inventory plots, we modeled the dynamics of unharvested stands at different successional stages, as well as post‐harvest stands, after the addition of sugar maple, red maple and yellow birch seedlings at different densities. Our results show that current BF–PB domain climate conditions do not limit growth and survival of temperate species in boreal stands. Of the temperate species introduced, sugar maple had the lowest ability to grow and survive by the end of the simulation. Species assemblages of host stands were impacted by the presence of temperate species when the addition of seedlings was above 5000 temperate seedlings per hectare at the beginning of the simulation. For stands that were recently clear cut, temperate seedlings were unable to grow due to intense competition from aspen regeneration. Our results suggest that both current climate and competitive interactions between temperate species and boreal species should not impede the ability of temperate species to grow and survive in the BF–PB domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research by reflecting on the considerable progress accomplished in select areas of Canadian wildland fire science over the past half century. Specifically, we discuss key developments and contributions in the creation of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System; the relationships between wildland fire and weather, climate, and climate change; fire ecology; operational decision support; and wildland fire management. We also discuss the evolution of wildland fire management in Banff National Park as a case study. We conclude by discussing some possible directions in future Canadian wildland fire research including the further evaluation of fire severity measurements and effects; the efficacy of fuel management treatments; climate change effects and mitigation; further refinement of models pertaining to fire risk analysis, fire behaviour, and fire weather; and the integration of forest management and ecological restoration with wildland fire risk reduction. Throughout the paper, we reference many contributions published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, which has been at the forefront of international wildland fire science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, forest management has focused on forestry-related practices whereas other industries have been managed separately. Forest management requires the integration of all natural resource development activities, along with other anthropogenic and natural forest disturbances (e.g., climate change, pollution, wildfire, pest disturbance) to understand how human activities can change forested ecosystems. The term cumulative effects has been used to describe these attempts to integrate all disturbances to develop an understanding of past, current, and future impacts on environmental, social, and economic components of the system. In this review, we focus on the science required to understand the past, current, and future impacts of the cumulative effects of anthropogenic and natural disturbances on forested ecosystems or their components. We have primarily focused on the terrestrial system with an emphasis on northern forests in Canada. Our paper is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all cumulative effects science but a synthesis of the challenges and approaches currently being used. Central repositories were identified as an approach to deal with issues of availability of remotely sensed data on anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Data integration projects, open data, and well-designed large-scale data collection efforts are needed to provide sufficient data on environmental responses to cumulative effects. As well, large-scale integrated, modularized ecosystem models are needed to bring stressor and environmental response data together to explore responses to, and interactions between, multiple stressors to project these effects into the future and to identify future data collection needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the development of the web-based Canadian Forest Service climate change indicator system, referred to as the Forest Change Tracking System. This indicator system was established in 2011 with financial support from the Adaptation theme of the Government of Canada Clean Air Agenda. The objectives of the Forest Change Tracking System are to (a) raise awareness and inform on the occurrence and scope of ongoing changes across Canadian forests associated with climate change and to (b) support the inclusion of adaptation into forest management planning and forest-related policies. The development strategy was to focus on a limited number of most relevant indicators and to build on existing capacity in order to produce information on current and future climate change impacts across Canada's vast forests. An initial list of 141 potential indicators relevant to forestry was compiled through a series of workshops with more than 100 researchers and forest sector stakeholders and through a global scan of climate change indicator initiatives. A rating system based on each indicator's potential relevance, sensitivity, and feasibility of measurement was used to select a subset of 35 indicators. These indicators fall within three broad systems—climate, forest, and human. Each indicator web page contains information on the relevance of the indicator, graphs, or maps on past trends and future projections across Canada and related links and references. This paper also presents lessons learned, discusses challenges and opportunities, and reviews potential next steps related to the broadening of this indicator system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and advocates have long argued that on-going engagement by broad segments of the public can help make forests and forest-based communities more sustainable and decisions more enduring. In Canada, public engagement in sustainable forest management has primarily taken one of two approaches: advisory forums through forest-sector advisory committees (FACs) and direct decision-making authority through community forest boards (CFBs). The purpose of this paper is to compare these two approaches by focusing on who participates and the values that participants bring to their deliberations. We conducted a national survey of FACs and CFBs involving 402 participants. Results showed that both models favoured well-educated, Caucasian men and fell short on the representation of women and Indigenous peoples. Additionally, despite different levels of authority in relation to forest management decisions, participants in CFBs and FACs shared similar forest values. Hence, we conclude that neither model of forest governance encourages participation from a diverse public. Our findings suggest the need to find new ways of recruiting diverse participants and to investigate more deeply whether local and extra-local pressures and power dynamics shape these processes. Such information can inform the establishment of more robust institutions for decision-making in support of sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing a territory’s fire proneness is fundamental when planning and undertaking effective forest protection and land management. Accurate methods to estimate the risk of fire ignition in natural environments have been proposed over the last decades and digital mapping has been used to identify critical areas. The Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index is a well-known fire danger rating index created and improved during the last 45 years by the Canadian Forest Service. The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, we evaluated whether the Forest Fire Weather Index is an adequate instrument to predict fire ignition in Alpine and sub-Alpine areas using quite a large dataset of meteorological and forest fire data collected in the Lombardy region (Northern Italy) between 2003 and 2011. By means of a spatial binary regression model, we demonstrated that Forest Fire Weather Index has a significant impact on the probability of fire ignition. Since this approach allows us to account for other characteristics of the territory in order to provide a more accurate estimate of the spatial wildfire dynamics at a moderately large scale, the second goal of the paper aims at creating a model to assess fire risk occurrence using the Forest Fire Weather Index and land use information. It has been found that ignition can easily occur in large forested areas whereas denser urban areas are less exposed to fire since they usually have no fuels to ignite. Nevertheless, since human activity has a direct impact on fire ignition human presence, it fosters ignition in forested areas. Finally, the model, including these spatial dimensions, has been employed to derive a probability map of fire occurrences at 1.5 km resolution, which is a fundamental instrument to develop optimal prevention and risk management policy plans for the decision maker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public advisory committees (PACs) are a dominant form of public participation in Canada's Crown forests, providing a venue in which members of the local public can engage and influence sustainable forest management decision-making. In this paper, we examine the experiences of Indigenous participants (relative to non-Indigenous participants) concerning the success of PAC processes. We focus on issues of fairness, equity, and inclusion of Indigenous voices along with an assessment of forest values diversity. Findings from surveys in 2004 and 2016 indicate statistically significant differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous PAC members regarding their forest values and their evaluation of the success of PAC processes. This work draws attention to the relative experiences of survey participants and the identification of persistent challenges associated with public engagement over the last two decades. Policy recommendations include substantial changes to how we define and measure sustainable forest management in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-management of forests has been reported from more than fifty countries and stakeholder advisory committees have become central to forest planning in Canada. Scientists tend to agree that local users are capable of self-organising to manage resources more effectively than state agencies alone, whether jointly with governments or with considerable autonomy. Little, however, is known about how the network of contextual influences helps, hinders, or overrides the deliberation that facilitates the development of cooperation critical for co-management success. The objectives of the paper are to identify the relative influence of contextual factors, participants' sense of control over contextual factors, and effects on performance. In a comparative case study of two stakeholder advisory committees in Ontario, Canada, the objectives are addressed by identifying and analysing advisory committee thinking about consensus building using network analysis of group cognitive maps. The paper concludes with three lessons regarding how the mix of hierarchical, market, and community institutions that influence community-based deliberation can be coordinated for effective forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconciling diverse forest values within policy and decision-making processes is an ongoing challenge in forestry. The use of environmental impact assessment (EIA) provides potential for improving forest management and making it more responsive to diverse interests. This paper examines EIA in Canadian and Finnish forest planning. In Finland there has been a reluctance to see EIA as a tool for forest planning while in Canada some provinces have long applied EIA to forest management. Ontario, Canada, provides one example of applying EIA to forest planning at a range of scales in order to advance integrated planning and help conflict management. The paper provides a brief analysis of the Finnish forest planning system, an illustration of the Ontario EIA forest management experience, and then considers the application of EIA to Finnish forest management. The paper concludes that EIA may be workable for Finnish state forests and would likely enhance planning and management, but given the existing institutional frameworks EIA would be difficult to apply to private forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a large literature that addresses the gendered structure of forestry occupations in Europe and the USA, relatively little attention has been paid to these issues in Canada. In this paper, it is argued that policy makers and academics have used outdated statistics about forestry employment to shape policies and programs of government and industry. Use of these data has been to the general disadvantage of women working in the forest industry and in forestry communities. This paper draws mainly on three studies, spanning the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Each study relied on secondary sources such as Census data, government and industry documents, as well as primary sources such as interviews or questionnaires. On Vancouver Island, British Columbia, analysis of land reallocation policies and transition strategies for displaced workers in the 1990s did not consider women as forestry workers or consider how job losses and opportunities for retraining might vary between men and women. Consequently, gender-neutral transition strategies were more accessible for men than for women. A study of female forestry workers in Saskatchewan revealed there was very little knowledge about employment conditions for women in forestry. Women reported that they missed out on training and advancement opportunities because they lacked networks, childcare support or other benefits that might encourage them to improve their circumstances. Finally, a survey of forest sector advisory committees across the country revealed a very low rate of participation by women, even though those who did participate had some significantly different viewpoints about forestry than their male counterparts. In combination, these efforts suggest that improvements in the understanding of forestry employment would benefit forestry workers, both male and female, and ensure that all workers made lasting contributions to the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing demand for active public involvement in forestry decision making, but there are as yet few established models for achieving this in the new sustainable forest management (SFM) context. At the level of the working forest, the fields of forest sustainability assessment, public participation, decision support, and computer technology in spatial modelling and visualization need to be integrated. This paper presents the results of a literature review of public participation and decision-support methods, with emphasis on case study examples in participatory decision support. These suggest that emerging methods, such as public multicriteria analysis of alternative forest management scenarios and allied tools, may lend themselves to public processes addressing sustainability criteria and indicators. The paper develops a conceptual framework for participatory decision support to address the special needs of SFM in tactical planning at the landscape level. This framework consists of principles, process criteria, and preliminary guidelines for designing and evaluating SFM planning processes with community input. More well-documented studies are needed to develop comprehensive, engaging, open, and accountable processes that support informed decision making in forest management, and to strengthen guidance for managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews trends in the academic literature on cumulative effects assessment (CEA) of disturbance on forest ecosystems to advance research in the broader context of impact assessments. Disturbance is any distinct spatiotemporal event that disrupts the structure and composition of an ecosystem affecting resource availability. We developed a Python package to automate search term selection, write search strategies, reduce bias and improve the efficient and effective selection of articles from academic databases and grey literature. We identified 148 peer-reviewed literature published between 1986 and 2022 and conducted an inductive and deductive thematic analysis of the results. Our findings revealed that CEA studies are concentrated in the global north, with most publications from authors affiliated with government agencies in the USA and Canada. Methodological and analytical approaches are less interdisciplinary but mainly quantitative and expert-driven, involving modeling the impacts of disturbances on biophysical valued components. Furthermore, the assessment of socioeconomic valued components, including the effects of disturbance on Indigenous wellbeing connected to forests, has received less attention. Even though there is a high preference for regional assessment, challenges with data access, quality, and analysis, especially baseline data over long periods, are hampering effective CEA. Few articles examined CEA – policy/management nexus. Of the few studies, challenges such as the inadequate implementation of CEA mitigation strategies due to policy drawbacks and resource constraints, the high cost of monitoring multiple indicators, and poor connections between scenarios/modeling and management actions were paramount. Future CEA research is needed to broaden our understanding of how multiple disturbance affects forests in the global south and coupled social and ecological systems and their implications for sustainable forest management. • We review cumulative effect assessments of disturbances in forest ecosystems. • The study developed a Python package to automate the search term selection. • We identified 148 peer review and grey literature across 29 countries. • Most studies are located in the global north, and methodologies are expert-driven. • Study should focus on how disturbance affects coupled social and ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a likely addition to the unpredictable challenges urban communities will face. Enhancing urban forests has gained prominence as a climate adaptation tool in cities. The fact that urban forests are also vulnerable is now starting to emerge. Many urban forest management professionals do not know how to take climate change into account and what aspects of urban forest vulnerability to climate change to prioritize. Bringing climate change to the forefront of the decision-making process in urban forest management, and urban forests to the forefront of urban climate issues, is important to urban forest success. This paper presents an exploratory assessment of vulnerability to climate change in the Canadian urban forests of Halifax, London, and Saskatoon. The objectives of the assessment were to: 1) identify the elements of urban forest exposure and sensitivity to climate change, the nature of the expected impact, and the adaptive capacities that exist in these three urban forests; 2) assess which of these elements contributes more to urban forest vulnerability to climate change; and, 3) elicit adaptive strategies based on this information. The method used was participatory and expert-based and allowed for a systematic evaluation of vulnerability. Exposures related to drought, heat stress, and wind, susceptibility of urban trees to insects and diseases, and the sensitivity of young trees and tree species with specific temperature and moisture requirements, are the main concerns regarding the vulnerability of urban forests to climate change in these three cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air temperature (Ta) is an important climatological variable for forest research and management. Due to the low density and uneven distribution of weather stations, traditional ground-based observations cannot accurately capture the spatial distribution ofTa, especially in mountainous areas with complex terrain and high local variability. In this paper, the daily maximumTain British Columbia, Canada was estimated by satellite remote sensing. Aqua MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data and meteorological data for the summer period (June to August) from 2003 to 2012 were collected to estimateTa. Nine environmental variables (land surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI), latitude, longitude, distance to ocean, altitude, albedo, and solar radiation) were selected as predictors. Analysis of the relationship between observedTaand spatially averaged remotely sensed LST indicated that 7 × 7 pixel size was the optimal window size for statistical models estimatingTafrom MODIS data. Two statistical methods (linear regression and random forest) were used to estimate maximumTa, and their performances were validated with station-by-station cross-validation. Results indicated that the random forest model achieved better accuracy (mean absolute error, MAE = 2.02°C,R2 = 0.74) than the linear regression model (MAE = 2.41°C,R2 = 0.64). Based on the random forest model at 7 × 7 pixel size, daily maximumTaat a resolution of 1 km in British Columbia in the summer of 2003–2012 was derived, and the spatial distribution of summerTain this area was discussed. The satisfactory results suggest that this modelling approach is appropriate for estimating air temperature in mountainous regions with complex terrain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of Canada's terrestrial biodiversity is supported by boreal forests. Natural resource development in boreal forests poses risks to this biodiversity. This paper reviews the scientific literature to assess the effects of natural resource development on terrestrial biodiversity in Canadian boreal forests. We address four questions: (1) To what extent have Canadian boreal forests changed due to natural resource development? (2) How has biodiversity responded to these changes? (3) Will the biodiversity of second-growth forests converge with that of primary boreal forests? (4) Are we losing species from boreal forests? We focus on trees, understory plants, insects, fungi, selected mammals, and songbirds because these groups have been most studied. We review more than 600 studies and found that changes in community composition are prevalent in response to large-scale conversion of forest types, changes in stand structures and age distributions, and altered landscape structure resulting from forest management and habitat loss associated with other developments such as oil and gas, hydroelectric, and mining. The southern boreal forest has been more highly impacted than the north due to more extensive forest management and the cumulative effects of multiple forms of development. There is abundant evidence that most species are not in danger of being extirpated from the boreal forest due to these anthropogenic changes. A few species, including woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus) and grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos), have, however, undergone long-term range contractions. Significant gaps in our ability to assess the effects of natural resource development on biodiversity in the boreal zone are the lack of long-term spatial and population data to monitor the impact of forest changes on ecosystems and species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A close examination of venues for participatory environmental governance reveals highly constrained settings for citizen engagement. This situation is documented within the broader social milieu by Skocpol as a narrowing of public life which is characterized in this paper by professional, stakeholder, and elitist forms of participatory environmental governance. Case-study evidence is presented from three different governance settings in Canada (environmental assessment, land-use planning, and forest management) identifying two distinct types of elitism: elite representation by design and elite representation by procedure. Two options are presented as a response to this analysis. One option involves accepting elitism by strengthening the linkages between stakeholders and constituencies, and the other option involves fighting elitism by drawing on modes of community-based decision, deliberative activism, and promoting research that highlights the consequences of environmental elitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation efforts to sustain water resources and aquatic biodiversity in boreal watersheds will require reliable information on the recent status of various indicator species and an improved understanding of the risks to aquatic biodiversity posed by resource development activities. We reviewed the recent state of knowledge on the responses of aquatic biodiversity to forest management, pulp and paper mill effluents, hydroelectric impoundments, mining of minerals and metals, oil sands extractions, and peat mining and offer a prognosis for aquatic biodiversity under each of these environmental stressors. Despite the prevalence of natural resource development in Canada's largest forest ecosystem, there was a limited amount of published literature on the effects of many of the disturbance types on various indicators of aquatic biodiversity, making it difficult to produce a current and reliable status assessment. Across most of the boreal zone, there is a lack of coordinated, consistent data collection for many of the bioindicators and disturbance types discussed in this review. Forecasting the future state of aquatic biodiversity across the boreal zone is challenged by increasing natural resource development and its interactions with other stressors, especially climate change. The cumulative effects of multiple stressors coupled with resource development activities in boreal watersheds remain largely unknown. More importantly, the ecological thresholds for these cumulative effects (that is, the point at which aquatic ecosystems and their biodiversity cannot recover to a desired state within a reasonable time frame) are also unknown and remain gaps in our knowledge. The recent literature identifies a number of risks to aquatic biodiversity at local (tens of square kilometres) to regional (hundreds of square kilometres) scales associated with natural resource development. There are indications that many of these risks can be minimized by 'greener' technologies for resource development and reclamation, practical conservation planning and regulation, and increased stewardship in watershed management, although the effectiveness of many of these measures cannot yet be assessed from the published literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Web of Science Core Collection databases from 1990 to 2018, a scientometric analysis of 1,284 academic works related to forest carbon sequestration is carried out to characterize the intellectual landscape by identifying and revealing the basic characteristics, research power, intellectual base and research hotspots in this field. The results of this work show that: ① the number of publications in forest carbon sequestration research has increased rapidly and the research in this field is in its "growth stage"; Forest Ecology and Management is the most productive journal and Forestry is the most popular subject category; ② the most productive authors and institutions in this subject area are in the USA, China and Canada, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences being the key institution performing such research; ③ in the sample, 9 papers have played a key role in the evolution of the field and laid a solid foundation for future research; ④ Keyword clustering analysis showed that the main research topics in the domain of forest carbon sequestration could be summarized as: (a) temperate forest; (b) forest management; (c) uncertainty analysis; (d) forest floor; (e) REDD; (f) net primary productivity. Meanwhile, keyword bursts analysis showed that the new research hotspots or research frontiers mainly concentrated on changes in the carbon storage and carbon sequestration potential of secondary forests and tropical forests, plant litter carbon storage and contribution to total ecosystem carbon storage, and new national forest inventories (NFIs). Through in-depth analysis of forest carbon sequestration research, this paper provides a better understanding of development trends that have emerged in this field over the past 29 years, which can also offer reference for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholder participation is a vital component of successful Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). SEA, an evaluation of environmental and sustainability consequences of strategic initiatives prior to their implementation, seeks to ensure that various stakeholder perspectives are considered early in the strategic decision-making process. However, once the implementation decisions are taken, are the stakeholders consulted with, or involved in, strategy implementation and SEA follow-up? If so, how can participatory processes benefit delivery of strategies and follow-up? These questions remain largely unexplored due to the conventional focus on ex ante SEA and limited knowledge about SEA follow-up. This paper explores the role and potential of stakeholder participation processes in facilitating SEA follow-up in the case of a 20-year Pasquia-Porcupine Forest Management Plan (FMP), in Saskatchewan (Canada). It explores different forms of stakeholder participation in the FMP and SEA follow-up implementation and identifies the associated benefits for SEA follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores the political concept of civil society and its emergence in multi-level rural and urban planning contexts. The first section conceptualizes civil society in the broader context within which it develops and we discuss global civil society to establish the need for a more local and regional focus. We then present considerations for assessing civil society and outline the research approach. The second section presents two case examples: (1) rural civil society in British Columbia, Canada focusing on the socio-political environment that enabled a shift away from conventional top-down, state-led forest management to devolved local control, and; (2) urban civil society in Waterloo Region, Ontario, which illustrates the response of local organizations to the wider socio-economic problems of housing provision in the Region. In both rural and urban contexts, there was longstanding tacit local support for each cause but significant triggers were needed to open policy windows and enable civil society organizations to help shift management ideologies in the forestry and housing sectors. Empowering civil actors through, for example, the devolution of decision making and responsibilities, and the redistribution of resources, helped to foster forms of legitimacy needed for emerging local and regional civil society organizations and networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the social capital that evolved in the Sustainable Forest Management Network (SFMN), one of the Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence. Our longitudinal study shows a sevenfold increase in the total number of researchers and a high density of relationships among (researchers from) provinces across the country. The results of a social network analysis revealed that 52.6 percent of the network researchers maintained the same number of collaborators while 46.7 percent increased their number of collaborators enormously: the maximum increase in number of collaborators being 6900 percent and the minimum 6 percent. A bibliometric analysis suggested that the number of publications was strongly correlated to measures of social capital. From a science and innovation policy perspective, the finding that more than half of the researchers in the SFMN did not increase their personal networks of collaborators raises important questions. A theoretical model is proposed to examine whether funding agencies should focus on fostering various network structures and evolutions or rely on competition in the distribution of research funds through networks. The proposed model is designed to measure the impact of various network structures on the development of social capital and research output. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An important element of resource management and conservation is an understanding of the tradeoffs between marketed products, such as timber, and measures of environmental quality, such as biodiversity. In this paper, we develop an integrated economic-ecological spatial optimization model that we then apply to evaluate alternate forest policies on a 560,000km2 study region of managed boreal forest in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. The integrated model incorporates dynamic forest sector harvesting, current levels of oil and gas sector development, coarse-filter or habitat-based old forest indicators, a set of empirical forest bird abundance models, and statistical models of the natural and current fire regimes. Using our integrated model, economic tradeoff curves, or production possibility frontiers, are developed to illustrate the cost of achieving coarse-filter targets by a set time (50 years) within a 100-year time horizon. We found levels of ecological indicators and economic returns from the timber industry could both be increased if spatial constraints imposed by the current policy environment were relaxed; other factors being equal, this implies current policy should be revised. We explore the production possibility frontier's relationship to the range of natural variation of old forest habitat, and show how this range can be used to guide choices of preferred locations along the frontier. We also show that coarse-filter constraints on the abundance of certain habitat elements are sufficient to satisfy some fine-filter objectives, expressed as the predicted abundances of various species of songbirds. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

How do processes for community engagement in forestry decision making in Canada serve the aims of sustainable forest management? This paper reports on several studies of forest land-use and management planning processes in four provinces and a national survey of forest-sector advisory committees to determine who is selected to participate, what values participants bring to the table, and how participants are expected to behave in committee processes. The analysis suggests that participatory mechanisms are both shaped by and reinforce local norms, values and expectations of forestry communities. Thus, the focus is on understanding the social context within which communities become engaged rather than providing a technical assessment of specific initiatives. In particular, the study examines assumptions related to gender, class and racialized identities that operate in rural communities and shape the participation and influence of participants. These studies all suggest that forestry advisory committees remain elite organizations, dominated by individuals with economic stakes, constrained by priorities set by government and/or industry, and focused on technical issues. Women, Aboriginal people and those of lower socioeconomic status are less likely to participate and less likely to make substantive contributions when they do participate. Differences by gender are significant, but gender is not the only factor that explains the marginalization of some groups within these processes. The results suggest a need to examine how gender intersects with other sets of social relations such as class and racialized identity in order to better understand the social factors that will influence the achievement of sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate whether future climate change would trigger an increase in the fire activity of the Waswanipi area, central Quebec. First, we used regression analyses to model the historical (1973–2002) link between weather conditions and fire activity. Then, we calculated Fire Weather Index system components using 1961–2100 daily weather variables from the Canadian Regional Climate Model for the A2 climate change scenario. We tested linear trends in 1961–2100 fire activity and calculated rates of change in fire activity between 1975–2005, 2030–2060, and 2070–2100. Our results suggest that the August fire risk would double (+110%) for 2100, while the May fire risk would slightly decrease (–20%), moving the fire season peak later in the season. Future climate change would trigger weather conditions more favourable to forest fires and a slight increase in regional fire activity (+7%). While considering this long-term increase, interannual variations of fire activity remain a major challenge for the development of sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of cooperation depends on the nature of deliberations among and between local stakeholders and the state as well as the context of deliberations, especially whether larger scale governance helps, hinders or overrides deliberative processes. However, the context of deliberations has not been a focus of past research on deliberation. The paper identifies the key context criteria that influenced deliberation and the development of cooperation in a comparative case study of two forest advisory committees in Ontario, Canada. The study uses cognitive mapping and network analysis techniques to identify key context criteria and concludes with five inferences regarding the influence of context on deliberation and cooperation that have implications for deliberation and decentralization theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has received considerable attention in recent years; however, the focus has been on the pre-decision stages of policies, plans and programs with much less attention to post-decision follow-up and monitoring. In those instances where SEA followup has been addressed, it has been done so much more from a conceptual than a practical perspective. As a result, the principles and concept of SEA follow-up are moving forward but we know little of the practice itself. This paper explores the practice and utility of SEA follow-up for twenty-year forest management planning and assessment in Saskatchewan, Canada. To do this, we develop and implement an analytical framework consisting of the necessary strategic, design and procedural, and institutional principles to enable 'good' SEA follow-up. The overall objective is to identify opportunities to learn from experience and to help advance SEA follow-up from concept to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific community, forest managers, environmental organizations, carbon-offset trading systems and policy-makers require tools to account for forest carbon stocks and carbon stock changes. In this paper we describe updates to the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) implemented over the past years. This model of carbon-dynamics implements a Tier 3 approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Good Practice Guidance for reporting on carbon stocks and carbon stock changes resulting from Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry (LULUCF). The CBM-CFS3 is a generic modelling framework that can be applied at the stand, landscape and national levels. The model provides a spatially referenced, hierarchical system for integrating datasets originating from different forest inventory and monitoring programs and includes a structure that allows for tracking of land areas by different land-use and land-use change classes. Ecosystem pools in CBM-CFS3 can be easily mapped to IPCC-defined pools and validated against field measurements. The model uses sophisticated algorithms for converting volume to biomass and explicitly simulates individual annual disturbance events (natural and anthropogenic). Several important scientific updates have been made to improve the representation of ecosystem structure and processes from previous versions of CBM-CFS. These include: (1) an expanded representation of dead organic matter and soil carbon, particularly standing dead trees, and a new algorithm for initializing these pools prior to simulation, (2) a change in the input data requirement for simulating growth from biomass to readily available merchantable volume curves, and new algorithms for converting volume to biomass, (3) improved prediction of belowground biomass, and (4) improved parameters for soil organic matter decay, fire, insect disturbances, and forest management. In addition, an operational-scale version of CBM-CFS3 is freely... [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Statistical models relating habitat characteristics to species occurrences are increasingly used to evaluate the consequences of forest management activities and conservation plans over large spatial and temporal scales. In practice, such models do not always generalize to other locations, hence, they should be validated using independent data. In this paper, we assess the predictive ability of 16 songbird habitat models developed in the Calling Lake region of the boreal mixedwood forest of Alberta using both internal and external validation approaches. Internal validation relied on the same dataset used to develop the models while external validation utilised independent data collected within four validation landscapes in the same ecological region. Two aspects of predictive accuracy were evaluated: the agreement between observations and predicted values (calibration) and the models’ ability to classify locations into those in which species are present or absent (discrimination). Calibration was assessed using the Hosmer–Lemeshow (H–L) statistic and plots showing predicted versus observed probabilities of occurrence. Discrimination was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the associated area under the ROC curve. With internal validation, the calibration plots were reasonable for all species, however the H–L statistic indicated a good fit for only eight species. Model discrimination between occupied and unoccupied sites, on the other hand, was reasonable for 14 of 16 models. With external validation, both the calibration plots and the H–L statistic identified only three species with a reasonable fit. The remaining models generally over- or under-predicted probability of occurrence. External model discrimination was reasonable for 10 of 16 species. When we re-estimated the models using all available data, the calibration plots were again reasonable for all species, with the H–L statistic indicating good fit for 12 species. Similarly, model discrimination was reasonable for 14 of 16 species. Several factors may help to explain why model performance using external data was generally poorer and more variable than when using internal data. These include differences in landscape structure and disturbance history as well as differences in the frequency of occurrence of individual species. Overall, our analyses identified several species whose habitat models degraded considerably, especially as measured by calibration. By re-estimating the models, we increased the range of variation in our covariates which likely led to an improvement in model calibration. We discuss the importance of ongoing evaluation and refinement of habitat models that will be used in conservation planning or to evaluate management scenarios at large spatial and temporal scales. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The term “aboriginal forestry” is used increasingly to describe the evolving role of First Nations peoples in Canadian forestry over the last 30 years. This paper reviews a diversity of experiences and identifies issues that have important implications for governments, forest planners, and First Nations: a forestry regime that reflects the interests of governments and industry rather than those of First Nations; variable implementation of aboriginal rights in forestry practice; benefits and problems of economic partnerships; limitations on consultation, traditional knowledge, and comanagement in forestry; and finally, different forestry paradigms. Among these experiences and issues, we recognise different visions for the participation of First Nations peoples in Canadian forestry. At one end of the spectrum, “forestry excluding First Nations” is no longer accepted. The most common form may be “forestry by First Nations,” representing a role for First Nations within existing forestry regimes. Other options include “forestry for First Nations,” in which forest managers seek to incorporate aboriginal values and knowledge in management activities and “forestry with First Nations,” in which aboriginal peoples are equal partners in forest management. However, aboriginal forestry is better understood as a potential new form of forestry that uses knowledge and techniques drawn from both traditions and conventional forestry and is based on aboriginal rights, values, and institutions. Au Canada, le terme « foresterie autochtone »gagne en popularité pour décrire le rôle grandissant des Premières nations en foresterie au cours des trente dernières années. Cet article passe en revue de nombreuses expériences et identifie des enjeux aux conséquences importantes pour les gouvernements, les gestionnaires forestiers et les Premières nations. Un régime forestier qui reflète les intérêts des gouvernements et des industriels plutôt que ceux des Premières nations, la reconnaissance inégale des droits autochtones dans les pratiques forestières, les bénéfices et les problèmes associés aux partenariats d’affaires, les limites propres à la consultation, la place des savoirs traditionnels et de la cogestion en foresterie et enfin, la variété des paradigmes forestiers composent ces enjeux. Parmi ces expériences et enjeux, nous reconnaissons l’expression de différentes façons de concevoir la participation autochtone à la foresterie canadienne. À un bout du spectre, « une foresterie qui exclut les Premières nations »n’est plus une option acceptable. La vision la plus répandue est probablement celle d’« une foresterie par les Premières nations »signifiant que celles-ci ont un rôle à jouer dans les régimes forestiers existants. Une autre conception est celle de « la foresterie pour les Premières nations »lorsque les gestionnaires forestiers tentent d’intégrer des valeurs et des savoirs autochtones à leurs activités d’aménagement. Enfin, les situations où les autochtones sont partenaires à part entière dans l’aménagement de la forêt s’inscrivent sous la rubrique « la foresterie avec les Premières nations ». Cependant, la foresterie autochtone est mieux comprise lorsqu’elle implique la possibilité d’une nouvelle foresterie qui a recours à des savoirs et des techniques inspirés à la fois des traditions et de la foresterie conventionnelle et qui est fondée sur des droits, des valeurs et des institutions autochtones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns about the management of agro-ecosystems in Ontario Canada have been precipitated by the increasing intensity of agriculture operations and concerns about its impact on the environment and human health. The management of agro-ecosystems for sustainability is particularly challenging due to their inherent features and the complex web of institutional arrangements in which they arc set. This paper focuses on the concepts of regulation and stewardship. The contribution of the environmental farm plan (EFP) program to environmental management in Ontario farms is specifically examined. The EFP program was initiated by farmers to minimize environmental impacts from farming practices; it is voluntary and founded upon the principles of stewardship. Results of a survey conducted with participants in the EFP program demonstrate that appreciable measures are being taken to manage environmental impacts from farming. The contributions of stewardship to managing agro-ecosystems are explored in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In British Columbia, Canada, industrial sustained-yield forest regulation was embraced together with a system of forest tenures governing private access to public forest lands in the mid-1940s. This approach has underpinned forest exploitation and regulation ever since, despite sometimes significant reforms over the years. Yet this approach to forest policy has also come under fire in recent years because of pervasive signs of economic, social, and environmental exhaustion. In this paper I analyze the political circumstances surrounding adoption of this particular approach to governing forest access and forest use in the province of British Columbia. In particular, I draw on historical documentation related to two key provincial Royal Commissions on Forestry conducted in the 1940s and 1950s. These commissions provided an arena for debating alternative approaches to forest regulation in the province, and resulted in a series of recommendations that were key influences on postwar forest policy. Drawing on the debate and particularly on the positions adopted by socialists and trade unionists, I link the politics of forest regulation to the politics of class struggle and class compromise in early postwar British Columbia. This serves the purpose of highlighting important, alternative ideas about forest use values and exchange values that contrast with those that underpin conventional, commodity-oriented forestry in the province, as well as with contemporary alternatives to mainstream forestry. It also serves the purpose of exploring the organization of political consent around industrial, sustained-yield forestry, treating this model of regulation not as something ‘natural’, but rather as something politically contingent and negotiated. And finally, I examine seldom explored links between the politics of producing and regulating nature, and the politics of class struggle under capitalism more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light detection and ranging (lidar) is becoming an increasingly popular technology among scientists for the development of predictive models of forest biophysical variables. However, before this technology can be adopted with confidence for long-term monitoring applications in Canada, robust models must be developed that can be applied and validated over large and complex forested areas. This will require "scaling-up" from current models developed from high-density lidar data to low-density data collected at higher altitudes. This paper investigates the effect of lowering the average point spacing of discrete lidar returns on models of forest biophysical variables. Validation of results revealed that high-density models are well correlated with mean dominant height, basal area, crown closure, and average aboveground biomass (R2 = 0.84, 0.89, 0.60, and 0.91, respectively). Low-density models could not accurately predict crown closure (R2 = 0.36). However, they did provide slightly improved estimates for mean dominant height, basal area, and average aboveground biomass (R2 = 0.90, 0.91, and 0.92, respectively). Maps were generated and validated for the entire study area from the low-density models. The ability of low-density models to accurately map key biophysical variables is a positive indicator for the utility of lidar data for monitoring large forested areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With 2% of the world’s forests and 17% of Canada’s forested land, Ontario plays a major role in maintaining Canada’s forests and managing them sustainably. Ontario is developing a set of criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management (SFM) to aid in conservation and sustainable management of its temperate and boreal (BO) forests. The criteria and indicators are intended to provide a framework for describing and assessing processes of SFM at a regional scale; and to improve the information available to the public and decision-makers. This paper describes three ecological indicators, evaluated using a carbon (C) budget model, a forest inventory database, and disturbance records to assess long-term sustainability of Ontario’s forest ecosystems based on the environmental conditions of the past 70 years. Results suggest that total net primary productivity (NPP) of Ontario’s forest ecosystems increased from 1925 to 1975 and then decreased between 1975 and 1990; Ontario’s forest ecosystems acted as a C sink between 1920 and 1980, and a C source from 1981 to 1990, mainly due to decreased average forest age and NPP caused by increased ecosystem disturbance (e.g. fire, insect and disease infestations, harvesting) since 1975. Current estimates from this analysis suggest that there is significant potential for Ontario’s forests to function as C sinks by reducing ecosystem disturbances and increasing growth and storage of C in the young forests throughout the province. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Forest Renewal British Columbia (FRBC) was created in 1994 to deliver programmes of sustainable development within the leading economic sector of the province, serving as a key element of the radical new natural resource management agenda being promoted by an interventionist provincial administration. Its funding consisted solely of the hypothecated revenues of a 'super' stumpage on timber harvesting. This paper considers the role FRBC played in helping to gain agreement to changes in provincial land use planning and forest strategy, and evaluates its effectiveness as an eco-tax recycling mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper synthesizes data extracted from the literature and data collected in various studies by the author on the quantity, characteristics, and functional importance of coarse woody debris (CWD) in the old-growth forests of British Columbia (B.C.). There is little agreement in the literature about the minimum diameter of CWD or the number of decay classes recognized. In western North America, five decay classes are commonly used, but recent studies suggest fewer decay classes are preferable. Comparisons among decay classes and biogeoclimatic zones and subzones in B.C. reveal that quantities and volumes are greatest (up to approximately 60 kg/m[sup 2] and approximately 1800 m[sup 3] /ha, respectively), and CWD persists the longest (sometimes in excess of 1000 years) in the Coastal Western Hemlock (CWH) biogeoclimatic zone. The quantity and ground cover of CWD increase with forest productivity. Persistence of CWD has varied from less than 100 to over 800 years in two coastal (CWH and Mountain Hemlock (MH)) and three interior (Interior Douglas-fir (IDF), Interior Cedar–Hemlock (ICH), and Engelmann Spruce – Subalpine Fir (ESSF)) biogeoclimatic zones. Trends in CWD quantity with forest age in managed coastal B.C. forests suggest a U-shaped curve, with greater quantities occurring in recent cutovers than in old-growth forests, and lowest quantities occurring in middle-aged forests. This may be the normal trend in CWD with forest age, with departures from this trend resulting from disturbance- or environment-specific factors. Relatively large amounts of data exist on the characteristics of CWD in the CWH, IDF, ICH, ESSF, and Boreal White and Black Spruce (BWBS) biogeoclimatic zones, but such data for the Coastal Douglas-fir, Sub-Boreal Pine–Spruce, Sub-Boreal Spruce (SBS), and Spruce–Willow–Birch biogeoclimatic zones appear relatively sparse. There have been few studies of the functional role of CWD in B.C. forests, but those studies that have been completed indicate that CWD is an important habitat component for some plant and animal species. A total of 169 plant species, including >95% of all lichens and liverworts, were found to grow on CWD in old-growth forests in the CWH, MH, IDF, ICH, and ESSF biogeoclimatic zones. One third of these species were restricted to CWD. Studies in several biogeoclimatic zones have found that CWD provided preferred habitat for and was associated with higher populations of some small animal species, such as shrews, some voles, and some salamanders, in old-growth forests, but the effects varied with species and biogeoclimatic zone. The nutrient cycling role of CWD is not yet well known, but it currently appears to be relatively insignificant in B.C. old-growth forests. Although it has been considered that CWD could increase mineral soil acidification and eluviation, no evidence for this was found in a study of the CWH, MH, IDF, ICH, ESSF, BWBS, and SBS biogeoclimatic zones. Future studies of the functional role of CWD should consider both scale (square metre vs. hectare) and temporal (changes in CWD with forest age) issues, as studies including these are sparse and both may be important. Key words: biogeoclimatic zones, British Columbia, coarse woody debris, old-growth forests.Cette communication résume les données tirées de la littérature et celles recueillies par l'auteur dans diverses études sur la quantité, les caractéristiques et l'importance fonctionnelle des débris ligneux grossiers (DLG) dans les forêts anciennes de la Colombie-Britannique (C.-B.). Dans la littérature, on ne s'entend pas sur le diamètre minimum des DLG, ou le nombre de classes de décomposition. Dans l'ouest de l'Amérique du Nord, on emploie le plus souvent cinq classes, mais des études récentes portent à croire qu'un nombre de classes inférieur serait préférable. Les comparaisons entre les classes de décomposition et les zones et sous-zones biogéoclimatiques de la C.-B. révèlent que les DLG sont plus abondants (pouvant atteindre environ 60 kg/m[sup 2] et 1800 m[sup 3] /ha) et persistent le plus longtemps (parfois pendant plus de 1000 ans) dans la zone biogéoclimatique cótière de la pruche de l'Ouest (CWH). L'abondance des DLG et la superficie de sol qu'ils couvrent augmentent avec la productivité de la forêt. La persistance des DLG varie de moins de 100 ans à plus de 800 ans dans cinq zones biogéoclimatiques : deux zones côtières (la CWH et la zone de la pruche subalpine (MH)) et trois zones intérieures (celle du douglas taxifolié de l'intérieur (IDF), celle des cèdres et des pruches de l'intérieur (ICH) et celle de l'épinette d'Engelmann et du sapin subalpin (ESSF)). Dans les forêts côtières aménagées de la C.-B., l'abondance des DLG en fonction de l'âge de la forêt suivrait une courbe en U, les débris étant plus abondants sur les parterres de coupe récents que dans les forêts anciennes, et moins abondants dans les forêts d'âge moyen. Cette relation entre les DLG et l'âge de la forêt est peut-être la tendance normale, et les écarts par rapport à celle-ci pourraient être le résultat de facteurs propres à chaque perturbation ou milieu. Il existe beaucoup de données sur les caractéristiques des DLG dans la CWH, la IDF, la ICH, la ESSF et la zone boréale des épinettes blanche et noire (BWBS), mais il en existe relativement peu pour la zone côtière du douglas taxifolié, la zone subboréale des pins et des épinettes, la zone subboréale de l'épinette (SBS) et la zone de l'épinette, du saule et du bouleau. Peu d'études ont été consacrées au rôle fonctionnel des DLG dans les forêts de la Colombie-Britannique, mais d'après celles qui ont été réalisées, les DLG constitueraient une composante importante de l'habitat de certaines espèces végétales et animales. On a recensé 169 espèces végétales poussant sur ces débris, dont plus de 95 % de tous les lichens et hépatiques, dans les forêts anciennes de la CWH, de la MH, de la IDF, de la ICH et de la ESSF. Le tiers de ces espèces ne poussent que sur les DLG. D'après des études effectuées dans plusieurs zones biogéoclimatiques, ces débris constituent l'habitat préféré de certains petits animaux présents dans les forêts anciennes, tels que les musaraignes, certains campagnols et certaines salamandres, et sont associés à de plus fortes populations de ces animaux, mais les effets varient selon l'espèce et la zone biogéoclimatique. Le rôle des DLG dans le recyclage des éléments nutritifs n'est pas bien connu, mais il semble qu'il soit relativement négligeable dans les forêts anciennes de la C.-B. Il a été avancé que les débris ligneux grossiers pourraient accroître l'acidification et le lessivage des sols minéraux, mais de tels effets n'ont pas été mis en évidence dans une étude de la zone CWH, de la MH, de la IDF, de la ICH, de la ESSF, de la BWBS et de la SBS. À l'avenir, les études sur le rôle fonctionnel des DLG devraient tenir compte des aspects liés à l'échelle (m[sup 2] ou ha) et temporels (modifications des DLG avec le vieillissement de la forêt) puisque les études impliquent ces paramètres potentiellement importants sont rares. Mots clés : zones biogéoclimatiques, Colombie-Britannique, débris ligneux grossiers, forêts anciennes. [Traduit par la rédaction] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]