Hydrology, ecology & disturbance in the Western Boreal Forest phase 2 ( HEAD 2 ) : Forest harvest impacts and hydrologic recovery

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Forest harvesting and oil sands development are major components of the Albertan and Canadian economies. Collectively, they have a large potential to impact the Western Boreal Forest (WBF). A fundamental understanding of the interaction of water and energy pathways and forest succession (primary or secondary) and hydrologic recovery is the cornerstone to developing best forestry management practices and to establishing design criteria and benchmarks to which successful reclamation efforts will be built. Our research uses a combination of a) paired catchment forest harvest experiments at fine (10ha) and coarser (>10km2) scales, and b) hydrologic modelling to develop a management framework. This framework will be used to predict the influence of forest harvest practices and vegetation succession on water cycling as influenced by the geology and sub-humid climate of the WBF. We will develop landscape indices that provide information on an area's response to particular disturbances and allow non-hydrologists to predict and assess the hydrologic impacts of Forest Management Practices (FMP's) on harvested sites and forest succession on reclaimed landscapes. Specific deliverables of benefit to the Canadian forestry and oil sands industries arising from the project include: 1) new or refined landscape hydrologic models to describe the current and predict the future behaviour of existing and reclaimed landscapes characteristic of the Western Boreal Forest; 2) effective planning tools that can be used to develop rigorous and objective scientific criteria and recommendations for cumulative risk assessment of the hydrologic consequences of FMP at a given scale, and appropriate reclamation procedures and landscape configuration of oil sands leases; and 3) appropriate and defensible soil and hydrologic indicators for monitoring and assessing success of FMP and oil sands reclamation. We anticipate that the management framework will allow results of our research to be applied to provincial water strategies and to serve as guidelines for integrated land managers at the provincial level. The framework can also be applied at the national scale, facilitating the transfer of research knowledge among different regions.