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Through an Expression of Interest process, the Kamloops Timber Supply Area (TSA)
was selected as a pilot area
to test the applicability and functionality of the Future Forest Strategy (FFS)
concept and identity opportunities for improvement before moving the concept and
framework into practice. The intent of the Kamloops FFS is, first and foremost,
to: understand planning synergies and conflicts, and resolve these on several
spatial scales across a TSA; and ultimately provide reasonable management
guidance that integrates overlapping objectives and seeks well-informed
solutions to fit with stand and landscape structures and functions over time.
To effectively integrate management for multiple objectives over time it is
important to have a vision of the mix
of stand types and structures for various landscapes to reasonably fit with
those objectives and the ecosystems present. It requires best estimates of
changing future ecological conditions, with a reasonable consideration of the
uncertainty tied to those estimates.
To articulate the vision of what the desired forest condition is to be towards
ensuring / mitigating more resilience to ecological, economic and/or social
issues and/or drivers such as climate change, and mountain pine beetle.
- Clarify intent and overlap from the various plans and strategies for the
Kamloops TSA and to assess management options based on the desired future
condition;
- Provide management options based on climate change scenarios;
- Mitigate risks to environmental values to ensure objectives for timber and
other values are not jeopardized;
- Identify data gaps and uncertainties; and
- Provide a template for managing multiple objectives in a changing
environment.
The project is separated into two phases:
Phase 1: preliminary data organization and analysis
Phase 1 informs the choice of an area within the TSA which will act as a case
study to develop an approach
for integration of planning direction within the context of a changing climate.
This case study area will reflect
a variety of overlapping management objectives and significant anticipated
impacts from climate change.
Phase 2: develop the strategy
Phase 2 utilizes existing inventories, expert opinion and available data, tools
and information emerging from the Future Forest Ecosystems Initiative to
identify what if any ecological or management vulnerabilities emerge over time
within the modified landscape.
Phase 2 will take the methodology developed in the case study area and apply it
over the TSA. The final report will present the results of the Kamloops FFS and
provide a process to design management guidance that integrates overlapping
objectives and seeks informed solutions to fit with stand and landscape
structures and functions over time for ecosystems influenced by climate change.
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