Bulkley Valley Research Centre - Science in the Public Interest

Growth and Yield Implications of Alternative Silvicultural Strategies in Mountain Pine Beetle Damaged Stands

Project Reference Number: 2004-04

Project Status: Complete

Led by: Dave Coates, PhD, Research Silviculturist, Ministry of Forests and Range, Smithers

Funder: Forest Investment Account - Forest Science Program

Various silvicultural strategies can be applied in stands impacted by Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB).  The entire stand can be harvested and replanted, or only the damaged trees might be salvaged, possibly with measures taken to protect surviving canopy and understory trees, or no salvage may take place at all.  In any event, yield predictions are required for the future stand.  Traditional growth and yield models such as TASS are applicable when the entire stand is replaced, but not when significant legacies of live trees are maintained.

SORTIE/BC will be used to assess the implications of traditional and alternate partial retention silvicultural strategies in MPB damaged stands, building on the recent model calibration work for the sub-boreal spruce zone (see “Growth of canopy trees in complex structured mixed-species stands”, described above).  Objectives for 2004-5 include:

• to include snag dynamics in the SORTIE/BC model;
• to undertake model simulations of different silvicultural strategies being proposed for MPB damaged stands;
• to develop and test innovative silvicultural strategies.

Results will be used to compile a suite of silvicultural strategies appropriate for MPB damaged stands, and to predict quantitative results of each.  These can be compared with results from traditional even-aged single-species management, with and without increasing levels of retention of residual live trees, and thus can allow identification of trade-offs among different management strategies for timber production and stand structure development.  Links can also be made to landscape level models, to gain a better understanding of the broader picture.

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