Vous êtes-vous déjà
demandé d'où pouvaient bien provenir les renseignements sur lesquels
repose la gestion forestière au Nouveau-Brunswick? Les décisions se
fondent sur les recherches qu'entreprennent avec soin les étudiants
diplômés et leurs superviseurs pour répondre aux questions que les
planificateurs de l'exploitation forestière peuvent avoir demandées.
L'auteure Jeanne Moore décrit les détails de trois de ces projets
présentement en cours à l'University of New Brunswick :
-On entreprend des essais
de résistance génétique pour déterminer pourquoi, dans un même
peuplement, la maladie corticale du hêtre s'attaque à certains arbres et
pas à d'autres.
-Le projet des placeaux en
réserve examine les effets de la récolte de diverses espèces de plantes.
-D'autres chercheurs
développent des cartes détaillées des sols et de leur emplacement selon
la topographie et l'hydrographie d'une région afin d'arriver à situer
avec plus de précisions les endroits qui possèdent des conditions
particulières de drainage et de croissance.
Seeing the
Forest for the Trees
Jeanne
Moore
Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management
University of New Brunswick
May 2008
o
you ever wonder where the information comes from that guides forest
management in New Brunswick? Decisions regarding wildlife, recreation,
industrial forestry planning, and policy, as well as private woodlot
management, are informed by research that graduate students and their
supervisors diligently undertake to provide answers to questions that
forest land use planners may have.
At
the faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University
of New Brunswick in Fredericton, approximately 80 projects are
underway at various stages of completion that guide forest management
decisions in New Brunswick. In the fields of forest resource
management and forest engineering research, subject areas include
insects, birds, and small mammals, remote sensing technology,
socio-economic and policy research, forest stand dynamics, soil and
hydrology, genetic diversity, carbon sequestration, forest zoning,
harvest operations and wood quality, among others. Students conducting
this research come from countries around the world; they are working
in an effort to bring an understanding of the science behind what we
see in the forest, and what might occur should that be changed.
Three
examples of projects, selected from the diversity of those available,
are highlighted here.
Genetic
expression of resistance in Beech bark disease (Beata Chledowski,
Dr. Judy Loo, Supervisor)
(Photo: Jeanne Moore)
With
genetic resistance testing, research is being done to determine why
some beech trees in our Acadian Forest are clear of beech bark disease
while others (even in the same stand) are infected. This project has
progressed over a number of years from looking at the location and
conditions of clear beech versus diseased beech, to attempts to grow
clear beech under various laboratory conditions (exposure to disease).
Currently, investigation into the molecular and genetic differences
that might indicate resistance to the disease is being carried out.
The outcome of this work is to provide a source of genetically
resistant clear beech trees to repopulate forest stands with this once
disease-free species.
Edge
effects and vascular plants of leave patches (Megan de Graaf, Dr. Mark
Roberts, Supervisor)
(Photo: Jeanne
Moore)
The
leave patches project investigates the effects of forest harvesting on
various plant species. By leaving areas of forest intact within a cut,
these areas act as "life boats" or "refuges" for
plants that will be able to reproduce and grow again in the cut. This
project looks at whether plants are negatively affected by harvesting,
and the dimensions and characteristics the patches should have in
order to be most effective in safe-guarding the source of new plants.
One of the main outcomes of this project is direction to forest
managers about harvest block layout and maintenance of site conditions
to retain the original forest composition.
Refining
detail of forest site classification for the Fundy Model Forest in New
Brunswick (Jeanne
Moore, Dr. Paul Arp, Supervisor)
(Photo: Jeanne
Moore)
Forest
site classification relies on detailed mapping of soils and their
placement according to topography and water in the landscape, in order
to most accurately map sites of particular drainage and growing
conditions. Since the interaction of soil and water determines forest
growth and associated forest habitat, knowing the precise location of
these conditions will mean more careful management of them. The
information that more detailed site maps will provide can be used for
forest productivity planning, as well as maintenance of forest
ecosystems.
Although
at different scales, these projects all deal with trees at some level
- genetic, forest stand, or forest landscape. Careful examination of
detail at any level provides information about the associated forest
conditions and habitat, and makes for better, or at least, more
informed, forest management. UNB has a long history of forestry
research and the tradition continues. A listing of current projects
can be found at http://www.unbf.ca/forestry/gradstudentdirectory.php.
o
you ever wonder where the information comes from that guides forest
management in New Brunswick? Decisions regarding wildlife, recreation,
industrial forestry planning, and policy, as well as private woodlot
management, are informed by research that graduate students and their
supervisors diligently undertake to provide answers to questions that
forest land use planners may have.
