Publications

Silviculture Guidelines and Practices for Maintaining or Recruiting Key Habitat Objectives

Ten key, broad level habitat objectives were identified which can be managed (i.e., maintained or recruited) using silviculture treatments (i.e., including appropriate harvesting and retention strategies; post-harvest regeneration and stand tending regimes; additional habitat restoration practices). These habitat objectives, as follows, were chosen because of their applicability to many forested regions of British Columbia, and their particular biological, ecological or management significance:

1. Maintenance and or recruitment of coarse woody debris (CWD).
2. Retention and or recruitment of wildlife tree patches (WTPs).
3. Maintenance and or recruitment of habitat structure and function in riparian management areas (RMAs).
4. Maintenance and or recruitment of landscape level biodiversity functions/objectives (including seral stage distribution and landscape connectivity).
5. Maintenance and or recruitment of habitat elements for the general range of primary cavity excavating birds.
6. Maintenance and or recruitment of habitat elements for Northern Goshawk reproduction and foraging.
7. Maintenance and or recruitment of coastal black-tailed deer and Roosevelt elk winter range.
8. Maintenance and or recruitment of mule deer winter range.
9. Maintenance and or recruitment of mountain caribou winter range.
10. Maintenance and or recruitment of habitat elements for grizzly bear forage & security cover.

This report was written to provide operational management guidelines to forest managers for maintaining the above broad-level habitat objectives. In the context of this report, management guidelines are generally accepted non-mandatory guidance and management recommendations based on the best available data and expert opinion. These guidelines are intended to apply to specified areas (i.e., generally areas of high habitat suitability or capability) where the management objectives include habitat for a particular species or habitat attribute. For example, a certain grizzly bear habitat management regime (i.e., recommended silvicultural practices) may be applicable to a specific BEC subzone within a watershed, but are not applicable to a different subzone within the same watershed. Consequently, the location, circumstances and conditions where a recommended silvicultural guideline applies, must be clearly defined within the associated forest stewardship plan. This report is also intended to be a companion document to the various provincial and regional forest management guidelines that have already been developed for managing selected species and habitats. Consequently, it provides a useful summary of current knowledge and recommended guidelines for managing the key habitat objectives described above, and is compatible with existing silviculture standards guidelines (e.g., Establishment to Free Growing Guidebooks). Information on habitat restoration practices is also provided.