Abstract
We recently assessed biodiversity values as part of the strategic forest planning of a publicly owned forest managed by Millar Western Forest Products Ltd. in Alberta, Canada. Our approach was to create and apply a set of models to predict the responses of indicators related to landscape patterns, ecosystem diversity, and wildlife habitat quality. The analysis took place in three rounds, starting with a suite of four forest-management scenarios differing on silvicultural intensity and cutting spatial layout. Insight into determining favourable behaviour for the biodiversity indicators came from our use of a natural disturbance simulator (LANDIS). We used it to calculate limits of natural variability which define a realm of acceptable behaviour for the biodiversity indicators. Interpretation of the biodiversity assessment results allowed us to identify alternative practices that improve the performance of identified critical indicators and to design a final management-plan option. The paper provides details on our analyses and presents selected results. We conclude by arguing that landscape ecology will have its strongest influence on forest management only if landscape-ecological analysis is embedded directly within a real forest-management planning process.
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Doyon, F., Duinker, P.N. (2003). Assessing Forest-Management Strategies Through the Lens of Biodiversity: A Practical Case from Central-West Alberta. In: Arthaud, G.J., Barrett, T.M. (eds) Systems Analysis in Forest Resources. Managing Forest Ecosystems, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0307-9_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0307-9_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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