The Fundy Model Forest has been granted $251,382 by the department of Environment and Climate Change, Community Based Climate Action fund, to carry out the project "Operationalizing Carbon Sequestration Strategies on the Ground on New Brunswick Private Woodlots". The FMF will work with woodlot owners, contractors and organizations to increase the capacity of the sector to increase resilience and carbon storage in managed forests.
We are looking forward to contributing to the knowledge and opportunities associated with managing private forests for carbon sequestration.
Linking Policy to Practice
Join us November 13th and 14th, 2019
Workshop Objective:
To facilitate discussion about the management of our Atlantic urban forests. Topics will include: policy development and implementation, balancing economics, the environment and aesthetics, tools and strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate events, pest and disease, urban and landscape design, current research and much more.
Who should attend:
Representatives from Municipal and Provincial Government, Certified Arborists, Foresters, Developers, Planners, Architects, Landscape Architects, Nursery Industry and related Trades, researchers, teachers and students — this event is also open to the public.
Location:
Marion McCain Arts and Social Sciences Building Social Sciences Building (Dalhousie Univeristy)
6135 University Avenue 6,
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Cost:
$250 General Admission
$225 Early Bird (Before September 1, 2019)
$150 Student (With Valid ID)
It is the time of the year where we start to get back into New Brunswick Forests to hunt for non-timber forest products like fiddleheads and mushrooms. The forests of New Brunswick contain a wealth of plant and animal species. For woodlot owners, the values and reasons for owning woodland are as diverse as the plants and animals living in them.
Our Atlantic Woods: A Photo Guide to Non-timber Forest Products by Ron Smith is the perfect companion. The photo guide is intended to help you identify some of the plants growing in your woodlot and the NTFP's that can be obtained from them.
Population Viability Analysis (PVA) is of interest to both conservation biologists and the forest sector, because it can predict the potential impact of forest practices on wildlife populations now and into the future. In an adaptive management framework, PVA can inform how forestry practices might be altered to mitigate adverse impacts. PVA provides crucial information for assessment by describing the current state of a population, predicting future population changes, and identifying any threats to population persistence. Assessment and adaptive management are complementary goals and essential for sustainable forest management.
The goal of this project is to develop PVA protocols for use by government, the forest sector and the public. The protocols can then be used to predict the impact of our activities and identify populations that are in jeopardy of being eliminated from the local or regional landscape (This is not a research project but, will take data, models and knowledge we already have and apply practically).
Blackburnian Warbler
Funding and research partners:
When the Fundy Model Forest (FMF) opened in 1992, the need for research that investigated the long term impacts of forest practices on multiple plants and animals on the same land base, simultaneously, was identified. During 1992, a partnership was formed within the FMF that included researchers (partners included the University of New Brunswick Fredericton, University of New Brunswick Saint John, University of Moncton, Department of Fisheries and Oceans and, Fundy National Park) and J.D. Irving, the land managers. Two watersheds were identified (Holmes and Hayward) and a protocol for the cause and effect research was established.
In 1993, the first year of the controlled study, researchers surveyed pre-harvest conditions and post-harvest impacts of forest practices on a host of indicators: water quality, fish populations, plant communities, bryophyte communities and small mammal populations. Much of the research was published in refereed scientific journals and was used to inform public policy for the management of New Brunswick’s forests.
20 years later
In 2014, the Hayward and Holmes Brook sites were revisited. In most cases the sites, were 20 years post-harvest. The researchers: Dr. Kate Frego of UNB Saint John and Dr. Alyre Chiasson of the University of Moncton, conducted part of the original study. The current surveys focused on bryophyte and aquatic communities. The original research results showed:
Bryophyte Research:
The results of the immediate impacts of forest practices were that the Bryophyte communities showed compositional change over 4 years, even in areas that were not harvested. Although species richness was maintained or recovered 4 years after harvest, changes in species composition were significant in all disturbance classes with greatest change related to forest floor disturbance. In particular, liverworts were lost in areas with forest floor disturbance. (Fenton, Frego and Sims 2003)
Aquatic Research:
The primary results of Bourque and Pomeroy (2001) found that buffer strips placed along the main stream branches had little or no effect when the stream water had already been warmed as a result of deforestation in the upper catchment. No relationship between buffer width and stream warming was found. Water temperatures ranges were still within ideal values for brook trout, though rates of daily changes were not noted. Brook trout populations were highly variable and no differences in population levels or habitat were detected (Melanson 2000).
Stay tuned for results from the 2014-2016 studies.
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