Disturbance based management in eastern Canada: current status and trends.

As in many jurisdiction around the world, forest management in Canada has undergone considerable transformation over the past few decades as a result of a constantly improving knowledge base of forest ecosystem processes and perception of what constitutes socially-acceptable, sustainable forest management. Management that previously focussed almost exclusively on timber production has evolved to incorporate habitat and biodiversity conservation objectives as well as recreational and aesthetic values. Improved scientific understanding of how natural and managed forest dynamics differ along with general public disapproval of clearcutting have led to an increasing interest in the development of alternatives to conventional forest practices at both the stand and forest level. These trends have converged with what is considered a paradigm shift to forest ecosystem management (FEM), in which historical natural disturbance dynamics serve as a reference for forest planning and silviculture. In eastern Canada, boreal mixedwood and coniferous forests are biologically diverse and economically important forest ecosystems. In the past 20 years, considerable effort has been devoted to the development of silvicultural approaches (e.g. partial cutting) and management strategies (e.g. spatial arrangement of cutover areas), that integrate knowledge of natural stand dynamics. In this presentation, I will provide a brief history of research on ecosystem management in eastern Canada, discuss how it is integrated in forest planning, and conclude on some challenges facing forest managers and policy makers.peerReviewe