Forest Management for Climate Change Mitigation in Northwestern British Columbia
About this Presentation
Almost half of Canada’s wood products originate from clear-cut harvesting in British Columbia. Sustainable forest management choices can offer transformative alternatives that support regional and global climate mitigation goals. One promising approach is the substitution of partial harvesting for clearcutting, which can increase carbon retention while promoting carbon sequestration at the stand scale. However, it is unknown how adjusting harvest intensity affects carbon dynamics and other ecosystem services at a landscape scale, particularly if a larger area is harvested in order to meet the demand for wood. Here, we present results from a collaborative project with the Gitanyow First Nation in northern B.C.’s interior cedar-hemlock (ICH) forests. We used the landscape-scale model LANDIS-II to simulate forest stand growth and mortality, disturbance, and harvest for mature and old forests under a range of realistic harvest rates and intensities, then compared carbon storage and sequestration outcomes. We also assess the impact of harvest waste residue burning on carbon dynamics and implications of management changes for important ecosystem services.
About the Presenter
Dr. Flora Krivak-Tetley is a plant ecologist with diverse research interests including forest demography and carbon dynamics,
invasive insect ecology and population dynamics, plant-soil interactions, arid regions ecology, and social-ecological systems. Her current research focuses on three main areas: (1) modelling alternative forest management strategies in British Columbia, (2) intercontinental impacts and population dynamics of forest insect pests, and (3) the integration of multi-scale research methods (field, drone, and remote sensing) to study abiotic and biotic factors affecting plant growth in the Namib Desert. Flora completed her PhD at Dartmouth College and her MS at the University of California, Berkeley. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of British Columbia from 2022-2024 and is currently a Research Associate at the Bulkley Valley Research Centre in Smithers, BC and a Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Studies and Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.