Wildlife is probably the most relatable aspect of nature. We all want to see squirrels, deer, bears, and lynx. But do we know how best to manage a working landscape to ensure those species continue to thrive? That is the question we talked about today. How do we begin to look at forest management from the perspective of the critters? How do we incorporate wildlife values into forest management so we always have plenty of cool creatures to see when we are out with our family in the great wide open.

Resources

Daniel Harrison

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

6.46 - 6.56: “Animals don’t make judgements based on forest treatments, they make judgements based on forest structure.”

Takeaways

Outcome-based forestry approaches (04.29)

Daniel says that one of the disconnects for foresters trying to work with wildlife biologists is the ambiguity and vastness of the concept of maintaining biodiversity in forests. The solution is to simplify what we ask for and avoid being too prescriptive.

Coarse-filter approaches 11.11

Daniel outlines how dynamics in land ownership patterns affect the health of the forest. Biodiversity can be achieved through coarse-filter approaches.

Species biodiversity (19.09)

Daniel narrates how it created problems in Maine, when, due to forest regulation, forests were managed in ways that weren’t conducive to early successional or late successional biodiversity.

Partial harvesting (22.15)

Daniel talks about partial harvesting as appeasing the public because even though it doesn’t manage for species diversity, it looks less devastating than clear-cutting. Foresters are frustrated because competing goals can’t be achieved on the same piece of land.

Everybody wants a healthy forest (28.37)

Daniel believes that group objective setting among foresters and wildlife ecologists is a solution to managing different priorities. However, wildlife ecologists and foresters can become frustrated with policy shifts as administrations change.

Mitigating the decline in species (34.38)

The approach they take in Daniel’s lab is to derive products from forests while looking to maintain components of the landscape.

Trees take time, markets change quickly (43.10)

Daniel points out that historically, they have not planted much since natural regeneration was dense enough to warrant thinning to promote growth. The complex composition of the forest there and how they fare along the lifespan of the tree species there.

It feels good vs. it is good (48.07)

Daniel believes that the order of priorities in a forest should be biodiversity, sustainability, human demands then regulations, ownership patterns and market. Research helps in differentiating forest management practices that seem to be good from the ones that are truly good for the forest.

Commonalities among species at risk (57.41)

Daniel highlights that species at risk face some of the same bottlenecks like decreased composition and increased fragmentation of forests.

The way of the future (1.00.05)

Many forest management practices create wildlife habitats, which he says need to be combined with the demand for forest products to create a shared will between foresters and wildlife ecologists to work together. He looks at landscape management planning as the way of the future to achieve biodiversity and sustainability.