long-term effects of timber management on marten (martes americana) habitat potential in an ontario boreal forest
abstract
to evaluate the hypothesis that current forest management practices in the
boreal forest are decreasing the quantity and quality of long-term marten
habitat, and alternative, more suitable strategies exist, a geographic
information system (gls)-based simulation study was initiated to determine
the habitat suitability for marten of a boreal forest under various timber management
strategies. two simulation models were used in this study. the
first was the harvest schedule generator (hsg), a wood-supply model created
at the petawawa national forestry institute (forestry canada). the second
was a marten habitat suitability index (hsi) model developed for this study.
each of the timber harvest strategies decreased the amount of long-term
marten habitat. however, slight decreases in the level of spruce harvest
provide significant future increases in suitable habitat. in the short term,
delayed harvest of mature black spruce stands provides an improvement in
marten habitat suitability. the procedures developed in this study provide
valuable quantitative information which can be used to aid in forest
management decision making.
collections
- retrospective theses [1604]