Project Area
The John Prince Research Forest is leading the development of an ASCC instillation project site within British Columbia’s Central Interior Plateau. The JPRF ASCC trial site is located within the Nechako Plateau. The research forest is collaboratively managed by the Tl’azt’en First Nation and the University of Northern British Columbia. The land is representative of Canada’s dry sub-boreal spruce biogeoclimatic zone and covers more than 16,000 hectares, the largest such research forest in North America. The territory includes two large lakes, hundreds of kilometers of streams, and more than 2,000 hectares of wetlands. Located within the territory of the Tl’azt’en and Nak’azdli First Nations, this working forest is a dynamic laboratory for the ecological and cultural impacts of climate change, and the management activities that might ameliorate those effects.
Management Goals
A team of natural resource specialists from the John Prince Research Forest, regional managers, and scientists came together for a virtual three-day workshop in June 2021 to develop the study design for the ASCC project site. The team developed a set of Desired Future Condition statements, Objectives, and Tactics for each major climate adaptation trajectory (resistance, resilience, transition). These three trajectories are briefly summarized below:
Resistance:
- Preserve current species richness, but shift towards historic (1940s) species composition and stand structure: reduction of sub-alpine fir and promotion of Douglas-fir, spruce, and deciduous
- Maintain or improve forest health
- Maintain or enhance forest structural and age diversity, including large diameter spruce and Douglas-fir
Resilience:
- Enhance present species diversity by increasing hardwood relative abundance in overstory
- Reduce fire risk and decrease ladder fuels
- Increase resilience to pest and pathogens
Transition:
- Maintain current diversity, while promoting future-adapted species
- Select and manage current and novel species carefully for present and future pest and pathogens
- Consideration of long-term carbon storage with increased cedar and hemlock
No Action:
Since climate change impacts all forest globally, we cannot maintain a true "control". With this in mind, we consider an approach in which forests are allowed to respond to climate change in the absence of direct silvicultural intervention as an appropriate baseline for many questions.
Climate Change Impacts
Key projected climate change impacts that the project team considered for the John Prince Research Forest include:
Increased summer and winter temperatures leading to modeled shifts away from the sub-boreal spruce classification variously to climatic zones favoring a mixture of cedar and hemlock, or Douglas-fir
Increased risk of drought stress, altered site hydrology, and changing fire regimes, all affecting forest composition, health, and productivity
Altered pest life cycles potentially leading to larger and more frequent damaging outbreaks
Challenges and Opportunities
Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives of this project, including:
Challenges
Shifts or reduction in suitable habitat within the study region, specifically for hybrid white spruce
Possible increase in stress and disturbance risk
Possible changes in precipitation and increased potential for water quality degradation
Increased possibility of drought stress events during warmer months
Possible increase in the severity of wildfire, potentially changing composition. Favoring early seral species such as paper birch and trembling aspen, to the exclusion of later-stage species such as Douglas-fir, hybrid white spruce, and subalpine fir
Potential for increased pest and pathogens, such as blister and gall rusts, tomentosus root rot and other root disease, dothistroma needle blight, mountain pine, Douglas fir, and spruce beetle outbreaks
Opportunities
Novel habitat suitability can carry the opportunity of new and potentially diverse species compositions, including cedar, ponderosa pine, western larch, and others
Carbon storage – provided there is sufficient additional precipitation, some northern forests may be able to increase in productivity.
Adaptation Actions
The ASCC project was designed to explicitly test three different adaptation options: resistance, resilience, and transition. A detailed silvicultural prescription was designed for each adaptation option, which was replicated several times across the study site. Detailed silvicultural prescriptions can be found in the Adaptation Workbook. The study site also includes several no-action "control" stands for comparison. Some of the adaptation tactics employed in this project include:
Area/Topic
Approach
Tactics
Resistance
5.1. Promote diverse age classes.
5.2. Maintain and restore diversity of native species.
5.3. Retain biological legacies.
9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
5.2. Maintain and restore diversity of native species.
5.3. Retain biological legacies.
9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
Modified/hybrid group selection system
Retain ~15 m2/ha basal area, including “veteran trees”
Plant locally sourced Douglas-fir on mesic and drier sites, and hybrid white spruce on wetter sites
Leave coarse woody debris, particularly larger diameter pieces
Resilience
1.4. Reduce competition for moisture, nutrients, and light.
2.1. Maintain or improve the ability of forests to resist pests and pathogens.
3.1. Alter forest structure or composition to reduce risk or severity of wildfire.
9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
9.7. Introduce species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
2.1. Maintain or improve the ability of forests to resist pests and pathogens.
3.1. Alter forest structure or composition to reduce risk or severity of wildfire.
9.1. Favor or restore native species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
9.7. Introduce species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
Variable matrix of skips and gaps with flexibility to adapt to microsites
Variable gap size from 0.1 – 1 ha.
Lower residual basal area of 10-15 m2/ha to reduce drought stress
Thinning from below for vigor and to remove ladder fuels and light thinning from above of softwoods to shift overstory composition
Plant Douglas-fir, hybrid white spruce, and pine from a diversity of future-adapted southern sources
Promote natural regeneration of aspen in openings
Transition
2.1. Maintain or improve the ability of forests to resist pests and pathogens.
5.1. Promote diverse age classes.
5.2. Maintain and restore diversity of native species.
9.6. Manage for species and genotypes with wide moisture and temperature tolerances.
9.7. Introduce species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
5.1. Promote diverse age classes.
5.2. Maintain and restore diversity of native species.
9.6. Manage for species and genotypes with wide moisture and temperature tolerances.
9.7. Introduce species that are expected to be adapted to future conditions.
Shelterwood system with a lower residual basal area of 5-10 m2/ha
Plant future-adapted species: current: Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, birch, aspen; novel: western red cedar, western hemlock, ponderosa pine, western larch
Leave hardwoods to shift relative abundance
Monitoring
Monitoring is an essential component of the ASCC study. Research partners from several institutions are working together to investigate the effectiveness of different silvicultural treatments aimed at creating adaptive ecosystems. Some of the monitoring items include:
Regeneration of planted seedlings
Residual tree survival and growth
Microclimate conditions
Culturally important understory species
Overstory species mixture
Endemic and novel pest presence and levels
Keywords
Carbon mitigation
Fish habitat
Forest types
Management plan
Other ecosystems
Planting
Research
Water resources
Wildlife habitat