Mixedwood stand

Last updated
Boreal mixedwood stand in Quebec, Canada P1340812 DDumais.jpg
Boreal mixedwood stand in Quebec, Canada

A mixedwood stand is a forest type in which 26% to 75% of the canopy is made up of softwood trees. [1]

Uncertainties of the definition, extent, and potential of mixedwood types necessitate the placement of some mensurational bounds on the subject of mixedwood management, especially the distribution and component sub-types, age classes, advance growth, productivity, and rotation ages. A major ecological factor in mixedwood management is the spruce budworm; another is the problem of providing for sufficient white spruce regeneration. [2]

The white spruce–aspen mixedwood associations of the Prairie Provinces have a variety of compositions ranging from pure aspen to pure white spruce, to mixtures of both. Balsam poplar, white birch, black spruce, balsam fir, and pines may also occur. [3] Silvicultural treatments have generally been aimed at promoting white spruce, primarily through plantation establishment and management. The type of stand of a given association is as much a product of successional stage and stand history [4] as it is of site type. [5] Depending on seed source and seedbed conditions, recruitment of white spruce may begin relatively soon after disturbance or may be spread over many decades. [6]

Management of mixedwoods in the Prairie Provinces in the 1990s usually used clearcutting. When aspen is the main species to be regenerated, little treatment is applied to the site, but slash piles, compaction of soil, and damage to aspen root systems are minimized as much as is feasible in order to encourage suckering. In the coniferous harvest, aspen that is not harvested is usually left standing to reduce suckering, as well as for the benefit of wildlife. Regeneration of white spruce is more difficult. [5] In general, plantation techniques are used, with mechanical site preparation following clearcutting. Depending on site conditions and availability of equipment, disk trenching, double disking, blading, ripper, or Marttiini plowing, Bracke spot scarification, high-speed mixing, or spot mounding are used. Plantings of white spruce have come to favour the use of large container or transplant stock. In the early years after clearcutting, site preparation and planting, shade-intolerant vegetation, such as aspen, Calamagrostis canadensis, and green alder compete strongly with the young outplants, frequently causing death. [5] [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tillage</span> Preparation of soil by mechanical agitation

Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking. Examples of draft-animal-powered or mechanized work include ploughing, rototilling, rolling with cultipackers or other rollers, harrowing, and cultivating with cultivator shanks (teeth).

Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production.

<i>Picea glauca</i> Species of conifer

Picea glauca, the white spruce, is a species of spruce native to the northern temperate and boreal forests in North America. Picea glauca is native from central Alaska all through the east, across western and southern/central Canada to the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, and south to Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Upstate New York and Vermont, along with the mountainous and immediate coastal portions of New Hampshire and Maine, where temperatures are just barely cool and moist enough to support it. There is also an isolated population in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. It is also known as Canadian spruce, skunk spruce, cat spruce, Black Hills spruce, western white spruce, Alberta white spruce, and Porsild spruce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aspen parkland</span> Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion of Canada and the United States

Aspen parkland refers to a very large area of transitional biome between prairie and boreal forest in two sections, namely the Peace River Country of northwestern Alberta crossing the border into British Columbia, and a much larger area stretching from central Alberta, all across central Saskatchewan to south central Manitoba and continuing into small parts of the US states of Minnesota and North Dakota. Aspen parkland consists of groves of aspen, poplar and spruce, interspersed with areas of prairie grasslands, also intersected by large stream and river valleys lined with aspen-spruce forests and dense shrubbery. This is the largest boreal-grassland transition zone in the world and is a zone of constant competition and tension as prairie and woodlands struggle to overtake each other within the parkland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duck Mountain Provincial Park (Saskatchewan)</span> Provincial park in Saskatchewan, Canada

Duck Mountain Provincial Park is a provincial park, located in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) east of the town of Kamsack and stretches about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) eastward to the Saskatchewan / Manitoba boundary. The park covers approximately 150 km2 (58 sq mi). Road access to the park is via Highway 57, which connects Saskatchewan Highway 5 to Manitoba Highway 83.

<i>Choristoneura fumiferana</i> Species of moth

Choristoneura fumiferana, the eastern spruce budworm, is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae native to the eastern United States and Canada. The caterpillars feed on the needles of spruce and fir trees. Eastern spruce budworm populations can experience significant oscillations, with large outbreaks sometimes resulting in wide scale tree mortality. The first recorded outbreaks of the spruce budworm in the United States occurred in about 1807, and since 1909 there have been waves of budworm outbreaks throughout the eastern United States and Canada. In Canada, the major outbreaks occurred in periods circa 1910–20, c. 1940–50, and c. 1970–80, each of which impacted millions of hectares of forest. Longer-term tree-ring studies suggest that spruce budworm outbreaks have been recurring approximately every three decades since the 16th century, and paleoecological studies suggest the spruce budworm has been breaking out in eastern North America for thousands of years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spruce–fir forests</span> Spruce forest

Spruce–fir forests are type of forest found in the Northern Hemisphere dominated by spruce and fir trees. These forests are often considered to be climax forests, with the two main tree genera able to reproduce in their own shade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boreal forest of Canada</span> Canadian biome characterized by coniferous forests

Canada's boreal forest is a vast region comprising about one third of the circumpolar boreal forest that rings the Northern Hemisphere, mostly north of the 50th parallel. Other countries with boreal forest include Russia, which contains the majority; the United States in its northernmost state of Alaska; and the Scandinavian or Northern European countries. In Europe, the entire boreal forest is referred to as taiga, not just the northern fringe where it thins out near the tree line. The boreal region in Canada covers almost 60% of the country's land area. The Canadian boreal region spans the landscape from the most easterly part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the border between the far northern Yukon and Alaska. The area is dominated by coniferous forests, particularly spruce, interspersed with vast wetlands, mostly bogs and fens. The boreal region of Canada includes eight ecozones. While the biodiversity of regions varies, each ecozone has a characteristic native flora and fauna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flora of Saskatchewan</span>

The native flora of Saskatchewan includes vascular plants, plus additional species of other plants and plant-like organisms such as algae, lichens and other fungi, and mosses. Non-native species of plants are recorded as established outside of cultivation in Saskatchewan, of these some non-native species remain beneficial for gardening, and agriculture, where others have become invasive, noxious weeds. Saskatchewan is committed to protecting species at risk in Canada. The growing season has been studied and classified into plant hardiness zones depending on length of growing season and climatic conditions. Biogeographic factors have also been divided into vegetative zones, floristic kingdoms, hardiness zones and ecoregions across Saskatchewan, and natural vegetation varies depending on elevation, moisture, soil type landforms, and weather. The study of ethnobotany uncovers the interrelation between humans and plants and the various ways people have used plants for economic reasons, food, medicine and technological developments. The Government of Saskatchewan has declared 3 indigenous plants as provincial symbols.

The biogeoclimatic zones of British Columbia are units of a classification system used by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests for the Canadian province's fourteen different broad, climatic ecosystems. The classification system, termed Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification, exists independently of other ecoregion systems, one created by the World Wildlife Fund and the other in use by Environment Canada, which is based on one created by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and also in use by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The system of biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification was partly created for the purpose of managing forestry resources, but is also in use by the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and other provincial agencies. A biogeoclimatic zone is defined as "a geographic area having similar patterns of energy flow, vegetation and soils as a result of a broadly homogenous macroclimate."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Even-aged timber management</span>

Even-aged timber management is a group of forest management practices employed to achieve a nearly coeval cohort group of forest trees. The practice of even-aged management is often pursued to minimize costs to loggers. In some cases, the practices of even aged timber management are frequently implicated in biodiversity loss and other ecological damage. Even-aged timber management can also be beneficial to restoring natural native species succession.

When logging began in British Columbia, Canada, in the late 19th century, the overriding concern was to harvest timber in the most economical fashion. Reforestation, aesthetics and protection of fish and wildlife habitat were not issues of great concern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coniferous swamp</span> Forested wetlands dominated by conifers

Coniferous swamps are forested wetlands in which the dominant trees are lowland conifers such as northern white cedar. The soil in these swamp areas is typically saturated for most of the growing season and is occasionally inundated by seasonal storms or by winter snow melt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern forest–boreal transition</span> Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion in Canada and the United States

The eastern forest–boreal transition is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of North America, mostly in eastern Canada. It is a transitional zone or region between the predominantly coniferous Boreal Forest and the mostly deciduous broadleaf forest region further south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberta–British Columbia foothills forests</span> Temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada

The Alberta–British Columbia foothills forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of Western Canada, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system. This ecoregion borders Canada's taiga and contains a mix of subarctic forest and temperate forest species as a result. This makes the region an ecotone region, or a region that acts as a buffer between two other biomes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midwestern Canadian Shield forests</span> Taiga ecoregion of Canada

The Midwestern Canadian Shield forests ecoregion, in the Taiga and Boreal forests Biome, are of northern Canada.

Forest growth models are mathematical or computer models to project the future state and yields of forest stands or forest trees, over a time scale of from a few years to many decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lac-Témiscouata National Park</span> National park in Quebec, Canada

Lac-Témiscouata National Park is a provincial park located in Quebec, Canada south of the Saint Lawrence River, near the border with New Brunswick. It contains Lake Témiscouata, which is "the second-largest lake south of the Saint Lawrence River" within some unspecified area, perhaps within Quebec, with a length of around 40 km (25 mi). Touladi River can also be found within the park's boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological regions of Quebec</span>

The Ecological regions of Quebec are regions with specific types of vegetation and climates as defined by the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks. Given the size of this huge province, there is wide variation from the temperate deciduous forests of the southwest to the arctic tundra of the extreme north.

Abitibi-De-Troyes Provincial Park is in Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1985 and provides backcountry canoeing, camping, hunting, fishing and nature viewing activities. The park is named after Pierre de Troyes who may have portaged across Long Point during his Hudson Bay expedition in 1686.

References

  1. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service. 1995. Silviculture terms in Canada (Terminologie de la sylviculture au Canada). NRCan, CFS, Ottawa, Ontario, 2nd edition. 109 p.
  2. Project 07-24-0 analysis, Artificial regeneration of spruce in the spruce–fir forest type of Ontario. J.B. Scarratt, Canadian Forest Service, Ontario Region, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. E3933
  3. Rowe, J.S 1972. Forest regions of Canada. Can. Dep. Environ., Can. For. Serv., Ottawa ON, Publ. 1300. 172 p.
  4. McCune, B.; Allen, T.F..H. 1985. Will similar forests develop on similar sites? Can. J. Bot. 63:367–376.
  5. 1 2 3 Lieffers, V.J.; Beck, J.A. 1994. A semi-natural approach to mixedwood management in the prairie provinces. For. Chron. 70(3):260–264.
  6. DeLong, C. 1991. Dynamics of boreal mixedwood ecosystems. p.30–31 in Northern Mixedwood ‘89: Proceedings of a symposium held at Fort St. John, B.C., Sept. 1989. A. Shortreid (Ed.), For. Can., Pacific For. Centre, Victoria BC, FRDA Report 164.
  7. Lieffers, V.J.; MacDonald, S.E.; Hogg, E.H. 1993. Ecology of and control strategies for Calamagrostis canadensis in boreal forest sites. Can. J. For. Res. 23(10):2070–2077.