Effects of Alternative Forest Management on Culturally-valued Plants and Understory Plant Communities in Mountain Pine Beetle-affected Montane Spruce Forests, Kamloops region, BC

This project will examine the ecological response of understory vegetation communities to alternative forest management practices, in the Montane spruce forests of the Interior, which have been disturbed by mountain pine beetle, fire and salvage logging. The research is within the Secwepemc Nation traditional territory and will focus on culturally valued plants and include applied burning to bring cultural values into the analysis. Using an experimental approach, and by collecting vegetation, site, and forest structural data at each plot laid out within the study sites, research will examine how variation in disturbances influence regeneration, successional patterns and stand dynamics. A control, plus five management treatments will be sampled and compared, including: clear-cut; wildfire burned, salvage logged; wildfire burned and unlogged; and a partial retention cut, followed by a prescribed burn. The research will produce information on vegetation communities, culturally valued plants and forest management that will benefit First Nations, government and industry.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Ken Lertzman

Student:

Naomi de Ville

Partner:

Tk'emlupsemc Forestry Development Corporation

Discipline:

Resources and environmental management

Sector:

Forestry

University:

Simon Fraser University