Modelling partial mortality wildfire dynamics in boreal and mountain landscapes

An emerging strategy for managing natural resources such as Canada’s forests more sustainably and responsibly is to use knowledge of how Mother Nature has done it to help guide our hand. This so-called ecosystem-based approach has gained favour with provincial and federal governments, as well as national and international certification agencies. One of the foundations of such an approach is a fundamental understanding of how natural forest ecosystems have worked for millennia over time and space: How has Mother Nature provided the rich array of goods and services such as timber, clean water, recreation, fishing, hunting, and critical species habitat that we enjoy today? Unfortunately, it is not possible to define historic reference conditions using actual data. The next best solution is to develop simulation models that can capture what we understand of landscape dynamics over time and space to re-create such reference points. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Eliot McIntire

Student:

Ceres Barros

Partner:

Foothills Research Institute

Discipline:

Forestry

Sector:

Forestry

University:

Program: