Following the appointment of the new Cabinet, the Forest Sector now reports to the ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts, while the Wildlife and Parks Sectors report to the ministère de l'Environnement, de la Lutte aux changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs. Adjustments will be made to the website over time.

Ecoforest inventory on your land

This leaflet presents the various actions taken by forest specialists who establish sample plots in private forests as part of the ecoforestry inventory of southern Québec. The ecoforestry inventory consists of acquiring and distributing knowledge on Québec’s public and private forests to monitor their evolution and ensure their sustainable management.

Multi-model projections of tree species performance in Quebec, Canada under future climate change

Published in Global Change Biology 28(5): 1884-1902. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16014

Many modelling approaches have been developed to project climate change impacts on forests. By analysing ‘comparable’ yet distinct variables (e.g. productivity, growth, dominance, biomass, etc.) through different structures, parameterizations and assumptions, models can yield different outcomes to rather similar initial questions. This variability can lead to some confusion for forest managers when developing strategies to adapt forest management to climate change. In this study, we standardized results from seven different models (Habitat suitability, trGam, StandLEAP, Quebec Landscape Dynamics, PICUS, LANDIS-II and LPJ-LMfire) to provide a simple and comprehensive assessment of the uncertainty and consensus in future performance (decline, status quo, improvement) for six tree species in Quebec under two radiative forcing scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). Despite a large diversity of model types, we found a high level of agreement (73.1%) in projected species’ performance across species, regions, scenarios and time periods. Low agreements in model outcomes resulted from small dissensions among models. Model agreement was much higher for cold-tolerant species (up to 99.9%), especially in southernmost forest regions and under RCP 8.5, indicating that these species are especially sensitive to increased climate forcing in the southern part of their distribution range. Lower agreement was found for thermophilous species (sugar maple, yellow birch) in boreal regions under RCP 8.5 mostly as a result of the way the different models are handling natural disturbances (e.g. wildfires) and lags in the response of populations (forest inertia or migration capability) to climate change. Agreement was slightly higher under high anthropogenic climate forcing, suggesting that important thresholds in species-specific performance might be crossed if radiative forcing reach values as high as those projected under RCP 8.5. We expect that strong agreement among models despite their different assumptions, predictors and structure should inspire the development of forest management strategies to be better adapted to climate change.

A review of ungulate impacts on the success of climate-adapted forest management strategies

Published in Current Forestry Reports 7(4): 305-320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-021-00148-5

Climate change is modifying the dynamics of forests and threatens the supply of ecosystem services from managed forests. In response, managers are developing climate-adapted strategies, mostly focusing on changes in abiotic conditions. Ungulate populations, however, also impact forest integrity and productivity, and the effects of ungulate browsing likely interact with the effects of climate change. This raises the issue of whether climate-adapted strategies will be compatible with abundant ungulate populations. Here, we endeavour to (1) review if/how climate-adapted strategies currently consider ungulates and (2) to highlight how browsing could affect the success of these strategies, using a systematic mapping protocol and available knowledge of ungulate browsing.

Establishing a benchmark population status for Arctic Char in the Five Mile Inlet system, Inukjuak, 2018

This report focuses on biodemographic parameters primarily related to reproduction and mortality of anadromous Arctic char sampled in the Five Mile Inlet system north of the community of Inukjuak. One of the main objectives of this study is to establish a reference state for this species before any potential new development can occur in this area of Nunavik.