Erdle T FEMC2007

Exploration of Forest Management Alternatives for Public Forest in New Brunswick

Thom Erdle, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, P.O. Box 44555, 28 Dineen Drive, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 6C2, Canada, erdle@unb.ca

Management of New Brunswick’s public forest has long been controversial. Some in the province deem management inadequate to generate the wood supply needed for a vibrant forest industry; others deem it inadequate to maintain the “Acadian forest” and the ecological services it provides. In attempt to define a more generally acceptable management strategy, the New Brunswick government formed the Task Force on Forest Diversity and Wood Supply with a mandate to develop for public land a comprehensive set of realistic forest management alternatives aimed at securing an adequate and diverse wood supply, while protecting the key ecological features of the Acadian forest. The objective of the work was not to set forth management recommendations, but rather to define a “menu” of management choices which will become input to a broader public discussion about how best to manage New Brunswick’s forest.

The Task Force effort took maximum advantage of existing information and planning methods in the province, but given the charge to look at strategies outside the status quo, substantial additional work was required in three areas. First was definition of a broader set of indicators by which to characterize management strategy outcomes. This was accomplished through workshops in which expert opinion was solicited regarding the indicators deemed most informative about forest management impacts on forest diversity, socio-economic welfare, and business opportunity. Second was quantitative characterization of the forest, stand development, treatments, and response patterns as required for forecasting forest development in terms of the broad set of indicators defined at the workshops. This involved significant effort to better characterize many facets of forest development and management, including partial harvest treatments and responses, patterns of within-stand breakup and renewal, late successional forest conditions, potential product out-turn, and delivered wood costs. Third was development of scenarios by which to meet the dual objectives of securing an adequate and diverse wood supply, while maintaining the key ecological features of the forest. This involved devising scenarios which to varying degrees maintain and/or expand supply of all species groups in higher product grade categories while maintaining species composition and stand structures commonly associated with the natural Acadian forest. Several means for accomplishing such outcomes were explored, including increased use of non-clear cut harvesting, increasing protected areas and area of mature/late successional forest, and defining zones for intensive timber production. Quantitative analysis of alternatives will be completed by the fall of 2007, at which time a different challenge will emerge; that being distilling from a complex analysis set an informative, clear, and simple summary of findings that effectively contributes to the process of charting New Brunswick’s forest management future.