Quantification of the impact of large herbivores on regeneration in hardwood stands following harvesting

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Forest and their resources are essential to the long-term well-being of Canadians, their environment and their economy. Sustainable development practices are thus critical in the forest industry. Understanding the dynamics of forest regeneration is a key element that needs to be taken into account by logging companies to predict their timber supplies. Browsing by large herbivores (e.g. deer and moose) is one of the factors whose impacts on forest regeneration need to be quantified and managed. AV Group Inc., a pulp company conducting logging activities, wants to estimate the financial losses associated with browsing activities of hardwood regeneration by large herbivores. The first step to estimate such losses is to quantify experimentally the impacts of large herbivores on hardwood regeneration following harvesting. The objective of the project is to set up an experimental design to quantify the impact of large herbivores on natural forest regeneration in managed hardwood stands following harvesting. A total of n=15 plots will be selected in 5 cuts (3 plots per cuts) that will be harvested in 2019 in one of the forest lands managed by AV group (Western NB: Northwest of Fredericton in York County). The K.-C.-Irving Research Chair's team will sample the regeneration and the composition of the field layer in late July 2019 prior to the harvesting operations, and will repeat this sampling every two years (this later step conducted using other funding sources). Close collaboration between the K.-C.-Irving Research Chair and AV Group will ensure timely completion of the proposed project. This project is one of the steps required to determine whether management of large herbivore at densities that are compatible with regeneration of species is needed in both exploited and natural forests.