Levac P FEMC2007

Past, Present and Future Challenges for the Office of the Chief Forester (Québec)

Pierre Levac, Bureau du forestier en chef, 845, boulevard Saint-Joseph, Roberval, PQ, G8H 2I6, Canada, pierre.levac@forestierenchef.gouv.qc.ca

In 2004, the report submitted by the Coulombe Commission on forest management in Québec proposed the creation of a Chief Forester position to manage the calculation of annual allowable cuts. The Office of the Chief Forester was created in December 2005, and its first challenge was to organize its activities within a regionalized structure. The Chief Forester then had to examine and validate the calculations previously submitted by Forêt Québec. An approach based on the characterization of risks and their impact on the annual allowable cut was used to check the accuracy of the calculations and rule on the required changes. At the same time, the Office’s development team began to define the tools and target processes for the next round of calculations, for the years 2013-2018. The technological solution applied will have, first, to integrate as many functions as possibility to correct the deficiencies of the previous system; and, second, provide for more complex, faster calculations input by a smaller staff. The technological solution chosen is a combination of Woodstock/Stanley software and an in-house application for silvicultural diagnosis and mathematical model generation. The new software will be introduced in the spring of 2009, when the new round of annual allowable cut calculations will begin.