Intensive plantation management for good-site forest lands in northwest Ontario

Abstract

Intensively managed forest plantations occur or are recommended in several Canadian provinces, in Oregon and Washington, in the southern United States and worldwide. Intensively managed plantations help meet increased demands for forest products in these areas. Northwest Ontario also will need increased wood production for increased present and future national and international wood markets. However, a recent Forest Accord for Northwest Ontario has almost doubled the areas reserved for parks and conservation reserves creating a dilemma where increased wood production will be needed from decreased areas of forest land available primarily for timber management. This dilemma can be partially resolved using intensive management for forest plantations established on productive (good site) forest lands. Intensively managed plantations have the potential for producing greatly increased quantity and quality of wood, thus partially resolving present and future wood supply needs. Concentrating wood production on selected good sites in Northwest Ontario also will allow us to dedicate increased areas of forest land to multiple-use management as well as more parks and conservation reserves. Key words: forest land zonation, site-quality evaluation tools, site-specific silviculture, stand and landscape diversity