Brooks Horne, rehabilitation forester for AESRD, talks about the dynamic process of restoring ecological function in pine stands after a Mountain Pine Beetle attack. He discusses the Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) Management Strategy and MPB Action Plan created by AESRD, and focuses his talk on the rehabilitation aspect of these plans.
In 2012, the Government of Alberta announced a 40 million dollar fund for emergency MPB issues, with 10 million dollars designated for reforesting areas where trees have been killed by infestations. Components of the program include: guiding principles, delivery principles, policy development, stand development criteria, and treatment strategies. The goal is to ensure ecological function – not returning the ecosystem to what it was before the MPB attack; a process that would be much more comprehensive. Their focus is on choosing areas to improve that have multiple areas at risk; key ecosystem service components at risk could include: biodiversity, fish and wildlife habitat, or riparian areas, to name a few.
Their intent of the program is to collaborate with stakeholders, start with good candidate stands selected to mitigate risk to ecosystem services and risk of wildfire, and do work based on sound science. This presentation was a part of the Mountain Pine Beetle Information Exchange Forum in April of 2014.
