Forest Practices > Forest Health > Forest Investment Account

Forest Investment Account - Strategic Resource Planning Management Unit or Watershed Level Activities

Eligible Activities for Incremental Forest Health Strategies

An incremental forest health strategy would enhance and augment the content of existing Provincial or TSA-wide (DFAM) forest health strategies.  Enhancements would consist of more detailed descriptions of strategies to carry-out and implement non-bark beetle related tactics focused on 1) improving "best practices" in reforestation to minimize pest impacts; and 2) address information gaps for Timber Supply reviews relating to forest health impacts on growth and yield, regeneration delay, and merchantability.  The existing bark beetle strategic planning process is detailed enough to determine where resources should be focused.  Salvage strategies are considered operational planning that is not eligible for FIA funding.

One example of an incremental strategy that was done for the Okanagan IFPA is described below.  This is one approach that focused on addressing hazard and risk by natural disturbance types rather than Biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification (BEC) and was developed prior to the establishment of TSA (DFAM) Forest Health Strategy content requirements.  Other approaches may be possible and will have to be reviewed by the technical contacts to determine their eligibility.

(note: the project description listed below is just one of several possible activities.  The project is the only one that has had eligibility criteria fully described to date.)

Licensee projects that involve the following activities are eligible for FIA funding:

BEC level hazard and risk ratings

1. Develop BEC-level forest harvesting and silviculture strategies that could improve forest resiliency, sustainability, and growth and yield by identifying which BEC's are more susceptible to specific insects or disease issues.

• This is the key objective that would improve the existing hazard and risk ratings available to the BEC-level from the subzone-variant level. This improved resolution will assist prescribing foresters with more site-specific estimates of risk to various significant forest health factors.

2. Achieve #1 by: Conduct an inventory of forest health factors, with emphasis on young and under-performing stands, to aid in identifying appropriate management strategies and tactics required to maximize site potential while minimizing forest health hazard and risk.

• Recommended survey standards are described in the Generic Forest Health Surveys Guidebook.

• Survey Schedule A (Example from TFL 15 FRBC Survey for Pest Incidence)

• Survey intensity recommended in the guidebook is generally believed to be too intense for application on a TSA and must be re-examined through consultation with the regional forest health specialists.

3. Establish monitoring plots to quantify or refine losses and/or gains resulting from forest health factors or treatments associated with mitigating losses (OAF and VDYP). 

• Plot protocol for immature lodgepole pine

• Mature stand plot protocol

• Pest codes

4. Collate existing forest health data and develop a forest health spatial (GIS) and relational database.

• A data standard has been developed by MOF Forest Practices Branch but no data other than from the provincial aerial overview has populated the data base.

• Testing of the database and data standard should be done with ground survey and plot data.

Back to the FIA Strategic Resource Planning Page 

Last updated on November 2, 2005
The contact for this web page is: tim.ebata@gov.bc.ca