Impacts of Boreal Forest Management on Woodland Caribou Habitat

By Gord Miller

A scientific study* published in the Journal Land looked at the historic management of the Ontario and Quebec boreal forests and, as Earthroots has been warning for years, found forest management techniques to be poor and in the long term produced boreal forests lacking significant proportions of old growth stands.

Of particular concern to the researchers involved were the implications of management prescriptions on the prevalence of at-risk boreal caribou populations. Boreal forests are naturally shaped by wildfires, insect outbreaks and diseases develop structures and dynamics which favour old growth patches on the landscape with sufficient numbers and sizes to provide the habitat which supports woodland caribou.

However, the use of clear cuts in timber management produces forests predominated by even aged stands and a generally younger forest structure. This occurs despite the attempts to mimic wildfire patches in their clearcutting because the species composition in response to the cutting does not reflect the kind of forest dynamic that naturally occurs after fire. And, also, because there is a bias in favour of managing toward a more even-aged stand in the long term to improve timber yield in the next rotation.

The study results show that despite claims of utilizing ‘sustainable” forest management, the only thing being sustained is the timber yield. Caribou are an ‘umbrella species’ such that their failing to thrive implies that other biodiversity associated with the natural boreal landscape is also being degraded.

Major changes are needed in boreal forest management in Ontario

for it to be truly ecologically sustainable, including a greater emphasis on protection and restoration for older forests, and to lower the risks for caribou populations.

*Mackey, B.; Campbell, C.; Norman, P.; Hugh, S.; DellaSala, D.A.; Malcolm, J.R.; Desrochers, M.; Drapeau, P. Assessing the Cumulative Impacts of Forest Management on

Forest Age Structure Development and Woodland Caribou Habitat in Boreal Landscapes: A Case Stud

from Two Canadian Provinces. Land 2024, 13, 6. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/land13010006