Enhancing forest resilience: Advances in Ontario’s wild tree seed transfer policy

Abstract

Climate is a critical driver in shaping patterns of tree distribution and productivity in Canadian forests. Canada’s climate is changing and, as a result, tree populations may become maladapted to the climate at their current growing locations. In 2020, Ontario updated its tree seed transfer policy to respond to the evolving natural, operational, scientific, and policy environments, including a changing climate. Collaboration among federal and provincial science, operations, and policy staff was essential to update the policy, which involved a custom climate similarity analysis, a related assessment of critical seed transfer distances, various engagement efforts to assess end-user receptivity, and the development of an online interactive tool to allow users to explore seed transfer options under climate change. Here we describe several factors considered during the policy update, major steps in the update process, and highlights of the outcome. The intent of this effort is to support other jurisdictions considering similar changes and to emphasize the need for a changing culture in seed procurement and management.