Science > Boreal Mixedwood Management

The Black Sturgeon Boreal Mixedwood Research Project: Ecosystem Research in Support of Integrated Resource Management

Project Coordinator: Al Cameron
alcam@nrcan.gc.ca

Project Description:

Boreal mixedwood forests are estimated to occupy at least 50% of the productive forest land in northern Ontario. Their timber yield is a major contributor to the provincial forest economy. These forests comprise complex and dynamic ecosystems that pose a multifaceted challenge for the resource manager. Because of their diversity, aesthetic appeal and rich flora and fauna, these mixed forests have important non-timber values that increasingly must be taken into account in decisions relating to their management. Consequently, integrated resource management (IRM), including the appropriate application of alternative harvesting and silvicultural practices, is likely to be a critical goal in the future sustainable development of boreal mixedwoods.

To establish a strong ecological foundation for IRM in boreal mixedwoods, we need to develop a much better understanding of these highly variable ecosystems -- their structure and dynamics, their response to disturbance and manipulation, and the inter-relationships among different ecosystem elements. The Black Sturgeon Boreal Mixedwood Research Project is an attempt to respond to this need, through long-term fundamental studies that focus upon stand-level ecosystem processes.

This multidisciplinary, multi-agency project was initiated in 1993. It comprises components that evaluate the impacts and ecological responses to various combinations of harvesting regime, prescribed fire and mechanical site preparation in 55-year-old second-growth spruce-fir-aspen mixedwoods near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Current studies focus upon site impacts, logging damage to residual trees and advance growth, fire behaviour, pathological and entomological responses, seedbank dynamics, post-disturbance vegetation succession and stand dynamics, forest renewal, nutrient dynamics, soil fauna, and wildlife (songbirds, small mammals, amphibians).