Potential Tree Growth and Silvicultural Options for Maintaining Management Unit Productivity After Catastrophic Natural Disturbance

The central interior of British Columbia has experienced the largest mountain pine beetle epidemic in history and the government of BC is contemplating changes to silvicultural practices. As members of a collaborative group of government, industry and academia, the partner companies require research into two areas: forest productivity measures and economic performance measures. By analyzing the forest productivity outcome and the cost of current silvicultural regulations, the partner companies can create a benchmark for comparison with more flexible and innovative company-based silvicultural regimes. An optimization model will be used to minimize silviculture costs while maintaining forest land productivity. The research is broken into two internships, the first focusing on creating the bench mark data and initial company objectives and the second extending this work by incorporating changes in forest productivity due to climate change and creating additional silvicultural regimes to address the productivity shift.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Cornelis Van Kooten

Student:

Tim Bogle

Partner:

Tolko Industries Ltd.

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Forestry

University:

University of Victoria