| Project Code: | ANC-01-026 |
| Program: | FRIP |
| Area: | Inventory and Planning |
| Sponsor: | ANC Timber Ltd. |
Object & Deliverables
The primary goal of the project was to address the information gap left by the ecological classification guides published by the Canadian Forest Service in the mid-1990s. These field guides provided the basis for users to characterize mature ecosystems and communicate their ecological information; however, lacked information about the ecological characteristic of young managed forests, which have become common features of west-central Alberta landscapes over the last 45 years. The project implemented a program of data collection and analysis to reveal successional trends on post-harvest areas and link these to moisture, nutrient and climatic conditions.
A comprehensive list of ecological attributes (vegetation, site and soil characteristics) were collected at 485 plots distributed across west-central Alberta in 1998-2000. Subsequent data analyses, using the Managed Stand Ecosite (MSE) Microsoft® Access 2000 database, contributed to the development of the Field Guide to ecosites of west-central Alberta: supplement for managed stands <40 years old, first approximation (Corns et al., 2004) that characterizes young stand development on a variety of ecosites.
The complete data collected over a three-year period beginning in 1998 and ending in 2000, including the data collection methodology and field content descriptions are contained in a report titled “Ecosite Dynamics and Managed Stand Productivity in West Central Alberta: Final Technical Report.”
The principal objective of this Project was to characterize and describe the range of seral plant communities and their productivity – on second growth forest stands, ranging in age from 1 to 45 years on eco-sites in west-central Alberta.
Plot establishment in support of this study began in early 1999 and culminated with the completion of the Field Guide in March of 2004.
Final Report
Final Project results are contained in the following documents –
* “Managed Stand Ecosite Data Dictionary”, prepared by Todd Little of Tesera Systems Inc., and dated March 2004; and
* “Field Guide to Ecosites of West-Central Alberta: Supplement for Managed Stands <40 Years Old, First Approximation (Corns et al., 2004)”.
Keywords
Second Growth Forest Stands
West – Central Alberta
Ecosite Field Guide
Productivity
ANC
Seral Plant Communities
ANC-01-026