Forest Management

By holding industry accountable for applying best land use practices

Logging MacKay River

The problem with current forest management:

Current forest management strategies, including activities of the forestry industries and petroleum industries in Alberta, have resulted in a forest that is:

Becoming smaller (conversion to other purposes)
Increasingly fragmented

Becoming younger (old-growth being lost)
Changing in character (loss of mixedwood)
Becoming much more accessible (hunting, poaching, and other disturbances)

Losing integrity

The result is a decline of wildlife (i.e. caribou, grizzly bear, forest birds) and wilderness values. Using the TRIAD Approach and Ecological forest management is the solution, and Forest Stewardship Council certification (FSC) is the best way of ensuring that forests are well managed.

Solutions

Ecological Forest Management

Around the world there is a concern with past and present forestry practices that are designed to manage forests to produce wood fiber for human use. A change in view is beginning with a recognition of the need to consider ecological values as well as fiber production, not only to protect biodiversity, but also to maintain a truly sustainable forest resource for human needs. More about ecological management.

Forest Stewardship Council Certification

The Forest StewardshipCouncil (FSC) supports environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. More about FSC.

The Alberta Forest Conservation Strategy

CPAWS Northern Alberta supports the implementation of the Alberta Forest Conservation Strategy. A strategy that essentially describes how we can apply the TRIAD Approach, throughout Northern Alberta.

For the forest industry, this will entail the widespread adoption of practices consistent with the boreal standards of the Forest Stewardship Council. For the petroleum industry, it will involve the development and implementation of a suite of "best practices" that include limits on cumulative impacts and requirements for integrated planning with the forest industry.

The Alberta Centre for Boreal Studies

To provide the scientific foundation for our involvement in forest management issues, CPAWS initiated the Alberta Centre for Boreal Studies in 1999. Since that time the Boreal Centre generated a series of reports that summarize the status of industrial activities in northern Alberta, and provide a synthesis of scientific information on alternative approaches designed to achieve ecological objectives.

These reports have been published as a book: Alternative Futures: Alberta's Boreal Forest at the Crossroads.