Wildland fire has long been recognized as an important disturbance to consider in natural resource management in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Fuel reduction treatments are conducted to achieve designated fuel load targets, measured as the weight of the remaining fuel per unit area (tonnes/hectare [t/ha]). Multiple methods are available to professionals for measuring hazard abatement, but this prevents standardization of data for comparison across the province. To promote a study based in science but through an operational lens, the authors used freely available BC Government documents and guidebooks to perform the fuel measures and fuel load tallies. Thirty-two fuel plots were established in the summer of 2021 within the Burns Lake Community Forest. Field measurements were carried out following mechanical raking treatments to determine if units within the ‘severe’ fuel hazard threshold (FHT) met the target fuel load of 1–5 t/ha. Less than one-third of the plots had a fuel load within the target range. Implications of results are discussed, and several recommendations are proposed to improve the feasibility of post-harvest fuel mitigation practices, including a streamlined fuel measurement methodology and more flexible fuel load targets that would enable better comparisons of treatment feasibility across different fuel types and ecosystems within the province.

No single disturbance regime is suitable for maintaining ecological patterns and processes across an entire landscape when viewed broadly from an ecological perspective. Some species may require high-frequency and high-intensity disturbance, while others may require low-frequency and low-intensity disturbance. Across a large landscape, specific sites with certain features, slopes, and topography also provide important elements for the structure and function of the landscape. These sites, coupled with varying time since disturbance, provide diverse spatial mosaics across landscapes and are essential for biodiversity. Traditional land management has employed a simplistic view of natural processes. The result on large landscapes is that patterns derived from these processes are not comprehensively understood, accepted, or applied. In most landscapes, traditional management has not promoted heterogeneity so that all possible conditions are represented. However, based on all available evidence, creating heterogeneity and a shifting mosaic across the landscape should be a primary objective if conservation of biodiversity is the goal. This article introduces the concept of the landscape disturbance matrix (LDM) as a framework for strategic landscape planning that encompasses time since disturbance at multiple sites. This concept keys in on the needs of priority wildlife species, which have varying responses to time since disturbance. In this article, a large management area in northeastern British Columbia is used to demonstrate that managing change in the landscape for multiple times since disturbance on multiple sites will promote multi-functionality and biodiversity, thereby providing an objective basis for land management planning. A forward planning approach such as the LDM also provides a foundation for ecological resilience and disturbance-absorbent landscapes, thereby allowing land managers to plan for the future based on the past and current disturbance regimes.

The impact of mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins (Coleoptera: Scolytinae), is the most significant source of mortality of mature pine forests in western North America; however, in 2003-2004, high levels of mortality were observed in young pine stands in central British Columbia. This study investigagtes the impact of mountain pine beetle in these young pine stands. In 2005 and 2006, 24 plots were established throughout the mountain pine beetle-affected area of British Columbia. Cumulative mortality reached 83% in some plots. Secondary bark beetles and other pests contributed to overall stand mortality and decline but to a far lesser degree than mountain pine beetle. Stem deterioration and falldown was very rapid and severe in young stands following attack. Over 70% of attacked trees in the Sub-Boreal Spruce ecosystem were severely deteriorated, or had fallen less than 5 years after attack. The largest pines in young stands were attacked first, and brood production and emergence in these trees was more successful than in smaller, younger cohorts. Many attached stands had received silvicultural treatments. Once the outbreak in adjacent mature stands had subsided, very little new attack occurred in these young stands. Brood production was successful, albeit lower in young trees than in mature trees.

We have an increasing wildfire risk to communities of the province that is not being effectively addressed by the current hazard reduction program. Existing planning and remediation efforts are a small fraction of what is required given the march of climate change, the steady accumulation of forest fuels in the WUI and the large number of affected communities. The greatest barrier to an adequate response is the high cost of initial and recurring treatments, dependent primarily on tax funds from senior governments, and the lack of a policy framework that makes it possible to earn offsetting revenues from remedial work. Continuing on this trajectory will bring the predictable results of increasingly frequent and increasingly severe interface fires. A solution to this impasse is a major departure from current policy and practice; it is an attempt to turn an economic barrier into an economic advantage by converting a fuel surplus from a costly burden to a commercially valuable energy source. Because the proposal affects the legislated jurisdictions of communities, the tenure rights of existing industry, the encouragement of a new energy industry, the revision of silvicultural requirements, the linked use of merchantable timber and lower value biomass, expanding the carbon offset regime and sensitivity to international timber pricing agreements it is a formidable challenge to our current forest administration. Such a bold transformation likely cannot be approached piecemeal nor can it be applied province-wide without practical trial.

We obtained radiometric data from a public-domain archive maintained by Natural Resources Canada and processed them to produce a ternary image for a portion of the Cariboo region. A field program was used to evaluate what information could be reliably inferred from the available data. This initial investigation confirmed that the radiometrics for this area exhibited consistent and useful patterns to interpret the lithology, mineralogy, depth, and moisture status of the surficial materials. Different colour patterns in the ternary image correlated well with different compositions of the various tills. We noted a clear association between higher values of radioactive emission and more recently deposited aeolian, alluvial, and glaciofluvial sediments that contained higher concentrations of relatively unweathered minerals. We observed a clear pattern of lower emission from wetlands and areas of wet soil. Airborne radiometrics, even at 500-m line spacing, provided invaluable and precise information—not otherwise obtainable—for mapping or modelling spatial variation in properties of the surficial material within the forested study area in British Columbia. We recommend further investigations to develop operational procedures for the use of such data in mapping surficial materials.

The ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests in the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, are facing problems such as forest in-growth mainly due to fire suppression, reducing grazing land area. This study focused on the use of thinning to reduce forest stand density and restore understorey species diversity and increase aboveground biomass productivity. Data were collected over a 4-year period. Species richness and diversity were generally lower under the canopy of ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir trees than outside the canopy. Species diversity was reduced by thinning at one site but unaffected by thinning at the other. Total understorey biomass increased up to 80% within 3 to 4 years after thinning. Depending on site and year, biomass production of one or more plant groups, such as forb, shrub, or graminoid, increased. Reduction in litter depth was observed at both sites due to the removal and/or reduction of needle sources. Variations in species composition existed among blocks and between sites, suggesting greater sampling size may be needed in future research to better capture the spatial variability. Thinning reduces stand density and thereby reduces fuel load and enhances understorey species productivity.

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People have tried to understand ecosystems using many different models. As a result, the concept of ecosystem-based fishery management is evolving and has no universal definition or consistent application. The objective of this paper is to provide a review of the concepts and ecological economic models related to ecosystem-based fishery management. The paper starts by reviewing basic concepts related to ecosystems and ecosystem-based fishery management. It then reviews economic models for ecosystem-based fishery management that are consistent with the reviewed concepts. The paper finishes off with some conclusions derived from previous literature reviews. We find that there is widespread agreement about the need to implement ecosystem-based fishery management even though this concept has no universal definition or consistent application. We also reveal that nutrient flow plays a crucial role in an ecosystem and that nutrients may be seen as the currency in ecological economic models for ecosystem-based fishery management.