Assessment Of Post Beetle Impacts On Natural Regeneration Of Lodgepole Pine PDF Download

Over the past 15 years, selective cutting prescriptions have been applied by forest operations in southeastern British Columbia as part of a strategy to reduce landscape-level susceptibility to damage from mountain pine beetle outbreaks. The prescriptions have been applied in stands where maintenance of some mature forest cover is needed to meet management objectives for viewscapes, recreation and habitat or to hold some pine volume during periods of rising beetle activity until it is required or available for harvest. In this study, we examined 10 of these sites 5 to 14 years after harvest, and determined current stand composition and structure from direct sampling and pre- and post-treatment stand characteristics from stand reconstruction. We then related these characteristics to original treatment specifications; the volume removed during harvest and remaining on site after treatment; subsequent losses to wind, snow or bark beetle damage; current stocking status; radial growth rates of residual overstorey trees; and the nature of fuel complexes created and effects of treatment on potential fire behaviour.