The decline of many woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) populations is thought to be linked with habitat disturbances resulting from industrial development, including timber harvesting and its network of haul roads. Defining a disturbance-abundance relationship offers a tool to assess and potentially manage for the influence of disturbance on caribou abundance. Defining this relationship is challenged by limited historical land use and abundance data, the choice of a disturbance measure, and variability in the relationship between subpopulations and across core versus matrix habitat. For 12 subpopulations of woodland caribou within the southern mountain population, we linked longitudinal caribou abundance data with historical forestry disturbances simulated from forest harvest data. We compared disturbance measures estimating the proportion of forested area commercially harvested with even-aged, regeneration treatments (cutblocks) and converted to roads for transporting timber within subpopulationspecific core and matrix habitats as predictors of caribou abundance. Non-linear mixed models provided evidence that disturbances in matrix habitats negatively influenced caribou abundance, with the effects in core habitat being variable between subpopulations. Of the disturbance types evaluated, the best predictors included roads buffered by 50 m (R50), cutblocks ≤80 years old, and the cumulation of cutblocks ≤80 years old plus roads buffered by 50 m. The top-ranked model was composed of R50 present in core and in matrix habitats.
The potential development of a Canadian forest-based bioeconomy requires an assessment of both fiber availability and associated marginal supply costs. To a large extent, the bioeconomy is expected to rely on wood fiber made available through primary products, sawnwood, and pulp production processing streams. Therefore, it is important to understand the regional wood fiber flows and mill residue availability through various processing streams. In this study, we developed a spatially explicit Forest Fiber Cascade Model (FCM) to estimate regional fiber flows and availability of untapped residue surplus. The FCM was calibrated to 2013 production levels, and we evaluated the wood fiber cascade through existing forest industry in Canada. The results show that, under current conditions, there is limited availability of surplus mill residues in Canada, especially in the Eastern provinces. It is therefore critical to consider the impacts on regional fiber flows and feedstock availability to the secondary industries when designing feedstock supply strategies and policies for the emerging forest-based industries.
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