Forest regeneration standards: are they limiting management options for Alberta's boreal mixedwoods?

Abstract

Regeneration standards in Alberta have developed incrementally over the last 40 years to ensure that cutover areas are regenerated with commercially valuable species that will contribute to timber yield. These standards have been controversial for the boreal mixedwood forest, because they do not appear to be producing forests that are similar in composition and structure to those found naturally. In this paper we discuss several components of the standards that are problematic: the issue of landbase designations that force relatively pure stands of spruce onto the landscape early in stand development compared to natural conditions where spruce establishes below deciduous canopies; the need for the free-to-grow standard, which requires removal of a large proportion of the deciduous trees in these mixedwood forests; and the overall philosophy that stands should be managed to maintain relatively simple composition and canopy structures. Regeneration standards need to be better-linked with forest management planning to allow managers to produce stands of a range of composition and structure. Key words: policy, free-to-grow, competition, forest composition, succession