Development of a silviculture adapted to the irregular boreal forest

The Canadian boreal forest covers a wide territory within which the natural disturbance regime varies widely. The specific dynamics of the eastern portion is responsible for an abundance of stands of irregular structure, which influences ecosystem biodiversity. Partial cuts should therefore play an important role in an adapted silviculture that focuses on maintaining biodiversity. However, the practice of partial cuts in the context of irregular boreal forests still needs to be developed. In this context, an integrated experiment comparing the current harvesting practices (careful logging preserving advance regeneration, cutting leaving small merchantable stems) and two selection cutting methods was put in place. It will enable us to compare the effect of these practices on operational plans, silviculture, wildlife and wood processing. This experiment has already shown that it is possible to operationally maintain a well-developed stand structure after cutting. Both selection cutting approaches have led to increases in harvesting costs but these were kept low. Future monitoring will clarify the effects of these treatments in terms of vegetation and wildlife, and whether gains can be obtained when processing wood from partial cuts. This project is part of the research program of the Industrial Research Chair NSERC-Laval University in silviculture and wildlife.