Chapter 42 - Martel Forest, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The Martel Forest is located in northeastern Ontario, within the boreal forest region. Despite the boreal characteristics of the forest, the southeast portion of the forest is characterized by some components of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest region and is comprised of several tree species at the northern edge of its range. The Martel Forest is primarily comprised of Crown land that is managed in accordance with the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (1994) and a well-established forest policy and legal framework that incorporate sustainability, public involvement, Aboriginal involvement, and adaptive management as key elements. Despite a highly regulated forest management planning system in Ontario, local planning teams are afforded the opportunity to innovate and develop unique solutions to address their own unique set of management considerations and context. This requires local level planning teams to define unique long-term management strategies, including the identification of social, economic, and environmental objectives and allowable harvest levels. This chapter illustrates an innovative process to developing the long-term management direction for the forest that involves the use of spatial modeling in a two-stage hierarchical strategic modeling approach. The integration of spatial models into the decision support system permitted the planning team to evaluate the long-term effects of spatial and operational considerations, such as landscape-level policies (e.g., natural disturbance pattern emulation, wildlife habitat) and harvest economics (e.g., road construction and maintenance and transportation costs), leading to greater confidence that the forecasted outcomes are realistic, implementable, and sustainable. The hierarchical-spatial modeling process used by this planning team represents a significant improvement to forest management planning, and results in improved confidence in the overall sustainability of the long-term management direction.