Canada's forest and peatland ecosystems are globally significant carbon stores, whose management will be influenced by climate change mitigation policies such as offset systems. To be effective, these policies must be grounded in objective information on the relationships between land use, ecosystem carbon dynamics, and climate. Here, we present the outcomes of a workshop where forest, peatland, and climate experts were tasked with identifying management actions required to maintain the role of Canada's forest and peatland ecosystems in climate regulation. Reflecting the desire to maintain the carbon storage roles of these ecosystems, a diverse set of management actions is proposed, incorporating conservation, forest management, and forest products.Key words: forests, peatlands, carbon, Canada, climate change, management, forest products, conservation RÉSUMÉLes écosystèmes du Canada formés par les forêts et les tourbières constituent des réservoirs importants de carbone dont l'aménagement sera influencé par les politiques d'atténuation des effets des changements climatiques comme les systèmes de crédits compensatoires. Ces politiques, si elles se veulent efficaces, doivent être rattachées à des informations objectives sur les relations entre l'utilisation du territoire, la dynamique du carbone de ces écosystèmes et le climat. Dans ce texte, nous présentons les conclusions d'un atelier au cours duquel on a demandé à des experts du secteur des forêts, des tourbières et du climat d'identifier les actions à entreprendre en aménagement pour préserver le rôle régulateur des écosystèmes formés des forêts et des tourbières au Canada face au climat. Tout en reflétant le souci de maintenir le rôle de réservoir de carbone joué par ces écosystèmes, un ensemble d'actions à entreprendre en aménagement est proposé, incorporant la conservation, l'aménagement forestier et les produits forestiers.

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Dall’s sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) are endemic to alpine areas of sub-Arctic and Arctic northwest America and are an ungulate species of high economic and cultural importance. Populations have historically experienced large fluctuations in size, and studies have linked population declines to decreased productivity as a consequence of late-spring snow cover. However, it is not known how the seasonality of snow accumulation and characteristics such as depth and density may affect Dall’s sheep productivity. We examined relationships between snow and climate conditions and summer lamb production in Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska over a 37-year study period. To produce covariates pertaining to the quality of the snowpack, a spatially-explicit snow evolution model was forced with meteorological data from a gridded climate re-analysis from 1980 to 2017 and calibrated with ground-based snow surveys and validated by snow depth data from remote cameras. The best calibrated model produced an RMSE of 0.08 m (bias 0.06 m) for snow depth compared to the remote camera data. Observed lamb-to-ewe ratios from 19 summers of survey data were regressed against seasonally aggregated modelled snow and climate properties from the preceding snow season. We found that a multiple regression model of fall snow depth and fall air temperature explained 41% of the variance in lamb-to-ewe ratios (R2 = .41, F(2,38) = 14.89, p<0.001), with decreased lamb production following deep snow conditions and colder fall temperatures. Our results suggest the early establishment and persistence of challenging snow conditions is more important than snow conditions immediately prior to and during lambing. These findings may help wildlife managers to better anticipate Dall’s sheep recruitment dynamics.

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