The projects below have been conducted by Don Morgan over the last five years

Abstract

This environment research project focuses on forest ecosystem management and landscape ecology, particularly developing analytical and decision support tools and methods for landscape management. These areas fit into the FRBC investment priority area of restoring and protecting the forest environment.

Ecosystem management has created new challenges for forest managers. To meet this challenge we developed new techniques and methodologies to characterise natural ecological patterns and to predict and evaluate the impacts of ecological processes (e.g., wild fire, insects and succession) and management processes into the future. Ecological processes occur at a variety of scales, thus we require a hierarchical approach to managing forested landscapes and must have ways of both providing detail when required and for summarising information when detail is not required. To facilitate analysis and community involvement, a framework was developed to bring together stakeholders, domain experts and modellers to address a variety of research and operational questions.

Key project results include the development of complex landscape analysis techniques for characterising landscapes and identifying ecological patterns for operational planning in the Invermere EFMP, and the Lakes, Morice and Bulkley Forest Districts and habitat analysis in the Kispiox and North Coast Forest Districts. They include the application of landscape models within a collaborative modelling framework for analysing mountain pine beetle control scenarios in the Lakes Forest District, the interaction of fire and timber supply in Invermere EFMPP and fire and resource management zonation in the Iskut-Stikine LRMP. Techniques were developed for improved geospatial data management resulting in an accelerated implementation of a multi-agency Northwestern BC data warehouse. Lastly, the internet was explored as a tool for distributing landscape analysis tools and methods.

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Acknowledgements

DULP is a BC Ministry of Forest Research Branch project with funding assistance from Forest Renewal BC.