by André Boily | 11 December 2020
In the Sustainable Forest Management Strategy, the Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs provided for the introduction of a provincial wood production strategy. The first version of that strategy, known as the Québec Draft Wood Production Strategy, aims to maintain the socio-economic benefits provided by the wood processing sector by developing the full potential of Québec’s forests. A further aim is to ensure the viability of the Government’s silvicultural investments, among other things by responding to recommendations made by Québec’s Auditor General following her 2017 audit of the silvicultural work. After producing the Draft of the Québec Wood Production Strategy, the Ministry sought comments and opinions from the main forest sector partners and stakeholders. This Consultation Report presents a compilation of the comments and opinions received during the summer of 2018.
by Claire Morin | 11 December 2020
Innovative, the Québec Timber Production Strategy will help to address the future of timber production in Québec with confidence, especially by creating wealth for the society and contributing to the tackle against climate change.
The Québec Timber Production Strategy is an ambitious initiative designed to produce more timber with the desired characteristics, through profitable investments, while developing the forest’s existing potential to create more wealth.
by Claire Morin | 15 October 2020
Published in The Forestry Chronicle 95(2): 113-123. https://doi.org/10.5558/tfc2019-018
We used the two-step shelterwood cutting to release conifer advance growth and limit the development of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloïdes) suckers in a stratified mixed aspen – conifer stand. This study presents the effects of the final cut, applied 12 years after the establishment cut, on the 5-year response of advance regeneration and aspen sucker development. Suckering was inversely proportional to the intensity of the establishment cut, with 19 000, 14 900 and 6800 stems/ha two years after the final cut, respectively, in the initial removal of 35%, 50% and 65% basal area. By year 5 however, the treatment effect on stem density was no longer significant due to high aspen mortality in the 35% and 50% cuts. At this time, the density of conifer stems taller than 100 cm was comparable to that of aspen stems in the 35% and 50% cuts, while conifers dominated the 65% cut. Standing mortality was higher for hardwood (22–28%) than for conifer (4–9%) advance growth, except in the uncut control (14% and 9%, respectively), while windthrow averaged 4% and 8%, respectively, in the three partial cuts without being related to treatment. Small merchantable conifer stems (diameter at breast height – DBH 9.1–15.0 cm) that were retained were most affected by windthrow, but overall losses were found acceptable considering DBH and height growth of the surviving stems. This study confirms that the two-step shelterwood cutting that secures conifer advance regeneration should be considered to limit hardwood conversion in the boreal mixedwood forest.
by Claire Morin | 14 October 2020
Published in Forest Ecology and Management 458: 117662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.117662
In their paper recently published in FEM (“Finding the sweet spot: Shifting climate optima for maple syrup production in North America”), Rapp et al. (2019) suggest that there is a marked “sweet spot” for maple syrup production (i.e., a climatic optimum associated with much higher yield) centered around the 43rd parallel. They also project that this climatic optimum could move 400 km northward in the future, as climate change drives temperatures to increase. As a result of this shift, they also predict that maple syrup production in the northeastern United States will rapidly decline in the next decades, and that the whole maple syrup industry could be at risk in several states. At the same time, they predict that maple syrup production will markedly increase in southeastern Canada, especially in the province of Quebec. Here we show that the predictive model built and used by Rapp et al. (2019) to project future maple syrup yield from climate scenarios is biased and presents several major flaws. We then demonstrate, using a data set of historical data many orders of magnitude larger than the one used by Rapp et al. (2019), that maple syrup yield is remarkably stable across a broad latitudinal and temperature gradient and therefore, that no climate optimum exists. This exercise leads us to conclude that the collapse of the U.S. maple syrup industry predicted by Rapp et al. (2019) is not based on solid evidence.
by Marie-Claude Boileau | 13 October 2020
Published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 291: 108063. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108063
On vegetation-covered land surfaces, tree transpiration, compared to soil and canopy evaporation, is a major process that sends large amounts of water back to the atmosphere. While the driving forces of tree transpiration have been studied over a range of tree species across an array of ecosystems, no work has been done on balsam fir and black spruce in the humid boreal forest of eastern Canada. We thus studied the relationships between environmental variables and sap flow velocity (as a proxy for transpiration) for these two boreal tree species located at two forest sites in Quebec, Canada over multiple growing seasons (2004 to 2013 for balsam fir and 2006 to 2009 for black spruce). Our results showed that daily sap flow had a strong non-linear relationship with vapour pressure deficit (VPD) for both species. Sap flow was also strongly correlated to solar radiation (Rad) for both species although with slightly weaker relationships than for VPD. Other variables such as daily maximum temperature and precipitation explain a smaller portion of the variance in sap flow while soil water content (SWC) and wind speed had almost no effect. An analysis of the relationships between sap flow and VPD/Rad on an hourly basis over multiple years showed strong diel hysteresis for both species. Contrary to what has been previously proposed, the magnitude of this hysteresis does not seem to relate to the degree of iso/anisohydricity. Finally, our investigation of sap flow relationships to environmental variables during a drought period at the balsam fir site showed that sap flow was only slightly reduced despite a significant decrease in SWC. On the other hand, VPD and Rad remained the main drivers of sap flow. This study emphasizes that VPD and Rad are indeed the major drivers of transpiration during the growing season as well as during drought in humid boreal region.
