Bark stripping inventories to monitor forest-large fauna balance

Bark stripping damages on Norway spruces are an important economic issue, in particular in Wallonia (southern Belgium) where it is the main tree specie, with 12% of standing volume damaged. As Norway spruces are sensitive to wood decay when debarked, financial losses of standing volume of a damaged standing spruce is approximately 30% of the tree value. Based on a systematic inventory measured since 2004 at regional scale, we could model probability of bark stripping occurrence on contrasted environmental conditions, with consideration of numerous factors. We showed that bark stripping probability is mainly driven by red deer abundance, but also influenced by numerous factors shaping red deer spatial distribution, food resource availability, and stand sensitivity. The adjusted model allows to correct bark stripping rates variations caused to climate changes what helps to understand changes caused by other factors, in particular deer abundance.Accord-cadre de recherches et vulgarisation forestières 2014-201