Bulkley Valley Research Centre - Science in the Public Interest

Restoring Whitebark Pine Ecosystems to Enhance Subalpine Bear Habitat - Year Four

Project Reference Number: 2014-15

Project Status: Complete

Led by: Sybille Haeussler, PhD, UNBC, Smithers

Alana Clason, Adjunct Researcher, Bulkley Valley Research Centre

Funder: Habitat Conservation Trust Fund

This is year four of a five year project with the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund.

The operational objectives over the five years are:

1. To collect viable seeds from at least 20 apparently blister-rust resistant whitebark pine parent trees per year for five years (seed production is intermittent).
2. To successfully regenerate at least 1000 whitebark pine seedlings from seed over five years in high value, recently burned or MPB killed bear habitat and protect these seedlings from competing vegetation and other damage.
3. To successfully produce 500 - 1500 nursery-grown whitebark pine seedlings per year over five years (it takes 2 - 4 years to produce a seedling ready for outplanting).
4. To successfully establish 100 to 1500 whitebark pine seedlings per year over five years within high value, recently-burned or MPB killed bear habitat.
5. To successfully regenerate > 20 hectares of endangered whitebark pine ecosystems over a five year period.

To see all the work that the Bulkley Valley Research Centre has undertaken with respect to whitebark pine, please view our Whitebark Pine website at http://bvcentre.ca/whitebark.

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