Restoring Ecological Function in Stands Impacted by

Mountain Pine Beetle

ESRD MPB Rehabilitation Program

Brooks Horne Rehabilitation Forester

Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development

April 24, 2014 FRI MPB Ecology Information Forum

Background

• MPB

Management

Strategy and

MPB Action Plan

(2007) – 2006

infl.

• Rehabilitation

part of the plan

2007

2013

Level 1 Background

• ~$350 M spent over 8

years on control, aer.

Surveys, staff,

everything MPB!!

• 1.25 million trees Level

1 controlled to date

5

Level 2 Numbers To Date

• 16 mill m3 of Level

2 harvest (not all

infested!!) to date

• 33,407 Ha in 1,133

openings in ARIS

entered

6

Long Term Timber Supply

Impacts Due to Healthy Pine

Strategy Surge

• To alter age classes of

Pl

– Maintain overall pine health

– Minimize risk to MPB and

wildfire

• Comes at cost

– AAC drops as a result

7

Community Sustainability

Long-term impact to Timber Supply (economy) for one Planning Unit

Conifer harvest levels

(First 20 years shown on map)

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,0002006

2011

2016

2021

2026

2031

2036

2041

2046

2051

2056

2061

2066

2071

2076

Year (quadrant start)

M3 p

er

year Baseline - disaster

Baseline harvest

Pine Strategy (75%)

Pine Strategy (58%)

Status Quo

MPB Rehabilitation Program

• Since 06/09 flights,

Diminished ability for

companies to salvage

– Deterioration/inaccessibility

• Building inventory of

unsalvageable stands

= rehab program establishment

9

Background to Rehab Program

• 2011- $1m went to seed

collection

• June, 2012, the GOA

announced $40 million

in emergency MPB

funding with

$10 million earmarked to:

• “reforest areas where trees

have been killed by

infestations in previous

years”

• Guiding principles

• Delivery principles

• Policy development

• Stand selection

criteria

• Treatment strategies

Rehabilitation Program Components

ONGOING!!

Guiding Principles for the

Program

• rehab will be used in forests to

mitigate the risks to ecosystem

goods and services

– esp. where critical values at risk

• Must be strategic and meet Dept

and Branch Vision and Goals

• A range of rehab treatments will

be necessary

• scientific foundation using

– research

– effectiveness evaluations

– and monitoring

Key program delivery principles

• Provincial in scope

• mitigate risk to key ecosystem services and risk

of wildfire;

• Stands eligible must be netted out and not part of

regular FM planning and reforestation

• Rehab strategies will depend on the specific risk

being mitigated

• must be cost-effective and promote the

establishment of a functioning forest

• Must be collaborative with stakeholders

• FRIAA will administer the Program

• w/ For. Industry members or other organizations

managing projects

Another key principle:

We Can’t Do It All!!...Nor Should We!

• Given limited budgets:

– We must be smart

– Bang for Buck

• Areas chosen for rehab

work must have

multiple values at risk

from MPB

• Rehab not restoration!

– NOT replacing what was

there before MPB

– ARE ensuring eco function

is maintained

Time heals all but….

• Most forests regenerate after nat.

dist. over time (25+ yrs)

– Not quick enough!, sometimes..

• key ecosystem service

components may be at risk

• Biodiversity, F & W habitat,

riparian areas, water

yield/quality, etc.

As well as public safety and

wildfire risk

• May need intervention

– multiple use!!

• Succession and forest dynamics for fire better known than MPB.

• Knowledge of fire regimes and MPB biology (FRBC project)

• Not much quantitative info about stand and fuel changes over time after MBP attack (FRBC project)

Fire and MPB Spatial Patterns and Succession

20 years after MPB

20 years after fire

15 years after MPB

Spruce Bark Beetle

• Succession and forest dynamics for fire better known than MPB.

• Knowledge of fire regimes and MPB biology (FRBC project)

• Not much quantitative info about stand and fuel changes over time after MBP attack (FRBC project)

Fire and MPB Spatial Patterns and Succession

20 years after MPB

20 years after fire

15 years after MPB

Spruce Bark Beetle

Other Things to consider

– Budgets

– Policy

– Dept vision and goals

– OGR’s

– Existing FMP’s and

FMA agreements

– SLA

– Economic, social, and

environmental values

16

Stand Selection Criteria- How do

we choose stands for rehab??

• Must be strategic

– Where do we rehab?

– No fast and easy answer

– Lots of work to go on this

• Lit review

• Poach BC work!

• Research

• Collaboration with industry

Stand Selection Criteria

• Program is provincial in scope

• Can’t assume industry will tackle

all stands needed- Priorities

unlikely to always intersect!!

• Decision Support Tool necessary to

set priorities provincially

GIS based system being worked

on – NEED INVENTORY #1!!

Will guide both ESRD and FRIAA

ops (allowing input from industry

partners!!)

Stand Selection Criteria cont’

High value or sensitive watersheds

Water quantity/Quality- (ECA)

Riparian Habitat

Wildlife and Biodiversity Zone

Trumpeter Swan habitat

Class A watersheds

Critical ART, WSC, AG spawning

habitat

Rare Natural Subregion and ecosites

Wildfire threat (Public safety)

Recreation (Public safety)

MPB Zone

Within SHS

Caribou zone

Leading tree species1

Crown closure

Mortality

Stand height

Stand age

Site productivity rating

Understory characteristics

Polygon area

Salvage potential

Proximity to existing road

access

Stand

Characteristics

Ecosystem Service and Safety

Characteristics

Ecosystem function

values are hard to pin

down

Are known inventories

(Class A, trumpeter, etc)

the best way to assess

and prioritize?

• More work/research

needed to quantify

biodiversity, nutrient

cycling, etc.

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Rehab Prescriptions

Critical Questions • What values do you wish

to maintain?

• What is your objective?

• How will you monitor to

ensure objective is met?

• Ie. Heavily impacted

riparian area of critical

Atha Rainbow trout spawn.

• Not a timber prescription,

you would manage for

bank stability, shade, etc. 21

• Definitely not a one size

fits all approach

– Caribou habitat not

seeming to be settled

– Mosaic of dead

standing and

reforested site

perhaps best

– Federal recovery may

push more dead

standing!

Rehab activities

• Maybe shrub

planting better

prescription at

times!

• When 500sph,

when 1500sph?

• Much to learn

from FGYA trial,

Beyond Beetle

and Canfor work

23

Further Research Work

Needed

• Just getting up to

speed but…

• MPB attacked stands as

habitat (grizzly, caribou,

fur bearers, etc.)

• Silvicultural practices-

underplant, mechanical

prep, etc.

• Biodiversity inventory

• Measuring ecological

function

• Remote Sensing

• Others??!! 24

Hotchkiss Aerial Seeding

• 12,538 ha wildfire (July 2012)

near Manning

• MPB impacted, pine

dominated stands

• MPB Rehab funds paid for

aerially seeding 21 polygons

(140 hectares of intensely

burned area) (March 30, 2013)

• lodgepole pine (LBH 1.6) and

white spruce (LBH 1.6)

– 10 m wide swaths

– Applic rates 0.2 kg/ha PL and

0.04 kg/ha SW (9 seeds per

m2)

– Revisit the summer

Others?

• Provincial Program

Needs to consider other

natural disturbances as

well which threaten

ecosystem function

– Spruce Beetle

(Alaska/Yukon)

– WPBR impacting WB and

Limber (Endangered)

– Spruce Budworm (E.

Canada, N. Alberta to

lesser extent)

Spruce Beetle

WPBR

Spruce Budworm

To summarize intent of rehab

program:

– Collaborate with

Stakeholders

– Start with good candidate

stands selected to

mitigate risk to

ecosystem services and

risk of wildfire,

– Do some good

rehabilitation work based

on sound science

– We should end up with

some VERY POSITIVE

OUTCOMES.

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