Stand level forest management for biodiversity and Ecosystem Based Management on Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands

Abstract

Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) is gaining increasing legitimacy in the province of British Columbia as an integrated planning and operational framework that ensures social, economic, and ecological goals are achieved from activities in the forested landscape. Industry has expressed worry that the added restrictions imposed by EBM will represent an insurmountable loss of profitability. This study involves the analysis of site plans and timber cruise data for 14 randomly selected cut blocks on Haida Gwaii/ Queen Charlotte Islands (HG/QCI) in order to determine whether current management practices for stand level biodiversity are consistent with the Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) benchmarks. The quantity and quality of wildlife tree retention was examined. Percentage of wildlife tree retention was calculated using site plan records for all areas harvested between January 2004 and July 2006. Structural attributes were measured for a sub-sample of 14 blocks and compared to pre-harvest timber cruise data. The study found that on HG/QCI average per cutblock wildlife tree retention, calculated as a proportion of TAUP, would need to increase by 79 percent in order to meet the minimum EBM benchmark. No significant deviation in the quality of structural attributes and species composition of this retention was found relative to the pre-harvest stand. Unless levels of wildlife tree retention can be increased substantially, ecosystem-based management on HG/QCI remains a distant goal.