Clearcut Harvesting and Structural Dynamics of a Boreal Forest in Saskatchewan

Abstract

The conversion of natural forests into managed forests raises concerns about sustained timber production and nature conservation. This study combined long-term inventory projections for some 84,000 ha of productive boreal mixedwood in Saskatchewan with fragmentation analysis. A spatially unrestricted clearcut harvesting regime was simulated for a 100-year period .The current harvest rates of 1.5 m3 ha-' per year could be sustained, but the age class distribution of the forest would markedly shift towards younger stands. Maximizing timber yields could raise harvest rates by 10%. These harvest rates would make it increasingly difficult to set aside permanently productive forest for ecosystem protection and alternative forest uses. A reduction of current harvest rates by at least 30% would support forest conservation. Spatial restrictions of the harvesting regime would be required to prevent forest fragmentation. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworfh Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: getinfo@haworth.com]--~

Ecological and Historical Evidence of Anthropogenic Forest Transformations in Eastern Cape Breton Island

“…White and Mladenhoff (1994) compared original land grant survey reports with current forest inventories of Wisconsin and concluded that agricultural settlement dramatically increased the area of young forests and cold-temperate northern (i.e., boreal) species, at the expense of the cool-temperate old-growth eastern hemlock forests. Langen and Bouman (1998) showed that technologically advanced wood harvesting systems and plantation silviculture rapidly changed the structure of cold-tem-perate forests in Saskatchewan. Socio-cultural organization expressed in forest ownership patterns also had an apparent influence on forest structure.…”