GEOM 5903 Seminar: François D'Entremont
GEOM 5903 Seminar: François D'Entremont
Title: Navigating the Definitions of Old-Growth Forests: Impacts on Environmental Policy and Management
Location & Time: Huggins Science Hall, Room 336, 4:00 p.m.
Abstract:
Old-growth forests exhibit diverse ecological features responsible for maintaining biodiversity, climate regulation, and provide both cultural and spiritual values to local communities. Old-growth forests sequester approximately 1.3 ± 0.5 gigatonnes of carbon per year, attributing to 10 per cent of the global net ecosystem productivity.
Defining old-growth forests remains complex due to their dynamic nature across multiple existing ecosystems. Current implementation of structural criteria, such as age, size, and the canopy cover and spatial patterns of old-growth trees fall short in defining the full range of their ecological attributes. Conservation efforts to protect these diverse ecosystems and assure sustainable forestry practices are currently at odds with existing harvesting guidelines.
In Canada, provincial old-growth forest management varies due to the diversity of forest ecosystems and underscores the challenge of standardizing a federal policy framework. Assisted by the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI), Nova Scotia's current exploration of ecological forestry, a new approach to forestry management allowing for selective logging that mimics natural disturbances, such as wind, fire, or insect outbreaks, illustrates an innovative approach to balance timber extraction with ecological preservation. Implementing machine-learning technology by Geographic Information System (GIS) could locate local clusters of interest and determine currently unrecognized areas of old-growth forests.
Old-growth forests present a definitional challenge due to their diverse characteristics and varying ecosystems. Current ecological definitions continue to disparage both conservation efforts and the commercial forestry industry. Ecological forestry explored by Nova Scotia offers a possible balanced approach for future forest management and provincial policy.