Elevated mortality of residual trees following structural retention harvesting in boreal mixedwoods

Abstract

In recent years boreal forests have been harvested to retain a portion of the original canopy, thereby providing forest structure, mostly for biodiversity reasons. Boreal mixedwood cutovers were surveyed at one and five years after harvesting with approximately 10% structural retention, to quantify the mean annual mortality rates of the residual trembling aspen, balsam poplar, paper birch and white spruce trees. For comparison, "natural" mortality rates by species were estimated from permanent sample plots in stands of similar composition. Species ranking of the annual mortality rates of residuals in areas harvested with structural retention were: poplar (10.2%) > birch (8.7%) > aspen (6.1%) > spruce (2.9%). Annual mortality rates were 2.5 to 4 times greater than in the reference stands. The majority of broadleaved species died as snags (~70%–90%), while most spruce died due to windthrow (80%). Mortality rates increased with slenderness coefficient for codominant and understory poplar and for understory birch. For aspen, codominants were most likely to die, while in spruce, dominant trees and trees with the greatest damage to the bole from harvesting operations had the highest mortality. Key words: Alberta, Betula papyrifera, dieback, harvesting damage, mixedwood forests, variable retention, Picea glauca, Populus balsamifera, Populus tremuloides, structural retention, sustainable forest management