GREATER FUNDY ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH PROJECT

UNB Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management


Forest Management Guidelines to Protect
Native Biodiversity in the Fundy Model Forest

Landscape Level Considerations

At the landscape or forest level, management must consider the type, size and configuration of forest stands on the landscape (see review by Hansen et al., 1991). Biodiversity, no matter how it is measured, is never restricted to one stand. A given organism survives because it is able to exploit a combination of resources for food, shelter, reproduction, and competition. Thus, the type, shape and configuration of forest stands (or "patches" in ecological terminology) are critical to the survival of most wildlife. Unfortunately, this is one of the least understood aspects of forest ecology - making the development of prescriptive goals for forest harvest and management difficult.

Forests are dynamic, and they rarely, if ever, reach a steady-state or equilibrium state. The forces that drive ecosystems are many, including succession, senescence, and disturbance by insects, herbivores, fire, and weather (see review by Attiwill, 1994). Generally, ecologists group these forest disturbances into two main types. The first categories include high-intensity events that replace the stand. Fire is an example. The second category includes those disturbances that occur at a smaller scale, killing individual trees or small groups of trees. This is termed "gap" type disturbance and it typically occurs over a longer time scale of many years. Even-aged stands originate from stand replacing disturbances, while uneven-aged stands originate from gap-type disturbances.

The various ecological zones and forest types in New Brunswick can be classified as predominantly stand replacing or gap disturbance regimes. If a goal of forest harvesting is to protect biodiversity, the preferred approach to forest harvesting is to use a technique that approximates the disturbance regime characteristic of the area or forest type. The reason for this is that the native biodiversity of the area is adapted to the characteristic disturbance regime and will likely persist if such a regime is approximated by harvest. Figure 1 is a map of ecodistricts in the Fundy Model Forest. Table 1 shows the disturbance considered characteristic of the ecodistricts shown on the map. In some cases the ecodistricts are subdivided by major forest types, because both types of disturbance listed are characteristic of the area. The forest communities identified as gap or stand replacing stands are listed in Appendix 3).


Figure 1.



Go to Guidelines for:
Patch Size (Forest Stand Size)
Connectivity
Stand Age - Provisions for Mature Forest Stands
Incorporating Maturity into Forest Harvest Schedules
Guidelines for Mature/Overmature Coniferous Forest
Plantations
Stand Conversion
Roads
Protected Areas
Water Course Buffers


Habitat Considerations for Specific Species
Special Status Tree Species
Coarse Woody Debris
Snag and Cavity Tree Retention


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Information provided by:
Dr. Graham Forbes
Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at UNB
Last Update: Dec 17, 1997
This document: http://www.unb.ca/web/forestry/centers/cwru/landscap.htm