The Missing Link

About this presentation

Low-elevation pine forests in north central British Columbia provide high value caribou winter range. These stands have been impacted by fire and mountain pine beetle and various silviculture treatments are being proposed within these stands. Biologists and wildlife habitat managers are faced with the question of what treatments are best suited to maintaining or promoting the winter range value of these stands in the mid- to long-term.

SORTIE-ND is a stand dynamics model that enables the projection of changes in composition and structure of forests (the tree component) following natural disturbance and/or silviculture treatments. In order to model how caribou winter range features (i.e. terrestrial lichen) also develop following silviculture treatments, linker functions can be used to link stand level attributes to caribou habitat features. This presentation will focus on the development of these linker functions.

About Erin Hall

Erin C. Hall (BSc. RPF) is a forest ecologist and forester currently studying caribou winter range stand dynamics as part of her Masters of Science in Natural Resource Management at UNBC. Erin’s early career carried her across northern BC from the Peace River country, to Prince George, and west to the Bulkley Valley working in forest consulting and silviculture research. Erin then worked for seven years as an Assistant Silviculture and Ecology Researcher in the FLNR Research Program with Dave Coates and Allen Banner. Erin currently works as a Stewardship Forester at the Skeena Stikine Resource District. She was delighted to embark on her MSc. project, which enables her to build on her experience in forest ecology and silviculture and to apply this to wildlife habitat management questions.

ACCESS: Current BVRC members will receive a Zoom invite. Non-members can email info@bvcentre.ca for a link.