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Forest Health in Ontario

The major factors affecting the health of Ontario’s forests include forest insects, disease and weather conditions, such as drought. The average amount of wood volume lost each year to these factors exceeds the combined amount of wood harvested plus that lost to fire. More..

Invasive Species:

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Article Summary:

Introduction, Monitoring, Assessing & Reporting, Forest Health Management, List of Related Items

Introduction

The primary purpose of the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA) is to ensure the sustainability of Ontario’s Crown forests. The act defines sustainability as long-term forest health, which means maintaining “the ecosystem’s complexity while providing for the needs of the people of Ontario.”

Forest health programs focus on the biotic, or living, and abiotic, or non-living, factors that affect the health, value, growth, and survival of trees and forests. Biotic factors are typically forest insects and diseases, while abiotic factors include pollution and weather events, but not fire.

Ontario’s forest health program revolves around two broad areas of activity:

  1. Monitoring, assessing, and reporting on the major factors affecting forest health; and
  2. Forest health management, which includes control programs, research, expert advice, education and transfer, development of pest control methods and products, policy development and implementation, development of best practices and their inclusion in forest management activities and interagency collaboration.

Monitoring, Assessing, and Reporting

Forest health in Ontario has been monitored since the 1930s in partnership with the federal government. Until 1998, the field monitoring and reporting was conducted by the Canadian Forest Service or its predecessors. The province provided support in the form of advice, use of aircraft, land for field stations, funding for specific projects, and occasional assistance with surveys. Since 1998, the program has been conducted jointly by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Canadian Forest Service (CFS).

Under this partnership approach to forest health monitoring, the province is divided into 12 work areas for which MNR and CFS each provide six field staff. Each technician does the work of both organizations. The overall health of the forest is monitored through systems of plots that address either specific problems, such as aspen decline and drought, or ecosystem health, such as that of spruce-fir forests.

Major factors affecting forest health are monitored each year. The annual monitoring detects, identifies, quantifies, assesses and reports on major forest disturbances. Detection is typically done through reconnaissance work, such as aerial surveys, ground checks, and investigating reports from MNR staff, the forest industry, and the public. Identification, although often performed on-site, is verified by specialists within the CFS. Quantification involves mapping major disturbances from the air, and ground checks to collect samples, determine population density, and collect data on impacts on tree growth and mortality. Assessment involves estimating impacts on forest values, such as wood supply, recreation and tourism; analysing historical trends; making forecasts of insect or disease incidences; and predicting the impact on forest values.

The results are reported informally through one-on-one contacts with forest resource managers. A number of formal reports prepared annually also address forest health, such as the Status of Factors Affecting Forest Health in Ontario, annual Regional Forest Health Reports and the Annual Forest Health Review. In addition, staff make presentations at various meetings, workshops and conferences.

The reports are complemented by annual estimates of the amount of wood volume lost to insects, disease, and abiotic factors. Volume losses are calculated based on field assessments or data contained in scientific literature.

Forest Health Management

When specific forest health problems arise, such as an insect outbreak, a formal planning process is followed as outlined in the Forest Management Planning Manual. A planning committee is formed with MNR district, specialist and regional staff, and representatives from the forest industry, CFS, the Ministry of the Environment and local citizens committees. The committee examines management options to address the problem. These can include letting the event run its course, undertaking control programs, and carrying out salvage, accelerated or redirected harvest. The committee makes recommendations to the MNR Regional Director, and the resulting program is implemented by either by MNR or the forest industry, or both. Funding for forest pest management programs can be provided by the Forestry Futures Trust.

Research and development in forest health in Ontario is conducted by several agencies. Staff at MNR’s Ontario Forest Research Institute focus mainly on forest pathology. The CFS conducts research in all aspects of forest health, including entomology, pathology, forest decline, climate change, forest health monitoring methodologies, impacts on forest health, development of pest control methods and products, ecosystem impacts of pest management activities, biological control, pheromones, exotic organisms, and more. MNR provides leadership in research and development by either conducting the work in-house or cooperating in partnership with others such as the CFS, universities, and private companies. One such partnership conducting research and development in forest health is Spray Efficiency Research Group (SERG), whose members include representatives from most other Canadian provinces, CFS and the U.S. Forest Service.

Specialists from MNR, CFS, university partners and private companies provide expert advice, educate, and share technology and information on forest health. Fact sheets, forest health alerts, advice on common pest problems and forest health reports are available on MNR’s Web site and at district offices. Workshops, public meetings, media releases, and mail outs are also used to provide rapid and timely information on specific issues, such as insect outbreaks or droughts.

A partnership among MNR, Science North in Sudbury and the CFS delivers an education and awareness program to provide the public with information and advice during the ongoing forest tent caterpillar outbreak. Information is available from fact sheets, on a dedicated Web site, via e-mail questions or by calling a toll-free number.

Ontario, as well as the rest of Canada and the United States, is under increasing threat from exotic organisms that affect forest health and our ability to trade with other nations. The lead agency for addressing exotic organisms is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). MNR works with the CFIA, CFS, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the forest industry and other parties to prevent exotic organisms from becoming established, and to control or eradicate those exotic species that do get established.

 

Related Items
   Ontario's Key Forest Law - Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA)

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