This interim policy is intended to clarify and consolidate the Department’s initiatives designed to maintain old forests in the forested landscape. The primary goal of the interim policy is to set aside the best remaining old forests and old forest restoration opportunities while a more comprehensive old forest policy is developed.

The policy focuses on provincial Crown land and emphasises lands currently under protection. It provides guidelines for selecting and setting aside old forests, and tools that identify possible old forest sites. It also relies heavily on the knowledge and experience of Regional field staff regarding the locations and old growth qualities of the forests in their area. Regional IRM teams in consultation with the Ecological Technical Committee will make the final decisions regarding selection of areas to be set aside for old forest purposes in their regions. As an interim policy, these areas of old forest will be excluded from any forestry development.

A final, more comprehensive old forest policy should include such things as area and distribution objectives based on the Department’s ecological land classification while considering socio-economic conditions, goals and objectives. It may also address legal designation and such management issues as whether and under what circumstances old forests should be included in forestry rotations. The final policy may also recognise that the goal of restoring representative old forests cannot be met entirely on Crown land and should include an effective strategy for involving private landowners in the stewardship of old forests. Finally, the old forest policy should be part of a broader, integrated strategy to manage land in an ecologically sustainable way that will maintain and restore biodiversity at the landscape level.

Definitions

Old Growth is any forest stand with a minimum of 30% crown closure, 50% of the basal area is in climax species and 30% of the stand’s basal area 125 years old. Climax species are normally Hemlock, Red Spruce, White Pine, Sugar Maple, Yellow Birch or American Beech but may also include ‘intermediate’ species such as Balsam Fir, Red Maple and Black Spruce in some environments e.g. highlands, bogs, fens.

Mature Climax is any forest stand with a minimum of 30% crown closure , 50% of the basal area is in climax species and 30% of the stand’s basal area ³ 80 years old.

Old Forest is any stand or collection of stands containing old growth or mature climax forests.

"Best remaining old forest restoration opportunities" means the largest, oldest, unbroken patches of climax-species-dominated forest on the landscape.

Policy

Staff are to set aside as old growth, eight percent of Crown land in each landscape that will be maintained in the oldest forests available, where possible in climax forest types representative of the landscape. Percentages of forest types and site classes, should be in proportion to percentages that are ecologically ‘normal’ for the landscape (i.e. 8% of each climax forest type and 8% of site classes 1 - 7). Staff will estimate proportions required using their experience and familiarity with the region until the Ecological Technical Committee completes a provincial ecological land classification.

Procedure

The criteria which guide decision making are; better stands have more basal area in climax species; older stand age is better; and larger stands, groups of stands or patches are better. Using these criteria the following steps are to be followed to identify the required number of hectares of old forest for the landscape.

1. All stands that meet the old growth criteria in part one of the Old Growth Score sheet (Appendix 1) on Crown land inside protected areas are to be included. Protected areas are National and Provincial Parks and category A and B park reserves, and all ecological reserves or candidate ecological reserves.

2. If more land is required to meet the 8% objective, include stands that meet the old growth criteria in part one of the Old Growth Score sheet (Appendix 1) on Crown land outside protected areas. Also include a surrounding buffer at least 50 metres wide and include the buffer area in the old forest percentage calculations.

3. If more land is required to meet the 8% objective, include all forested lands within protected areas with a site class 3, basal area of climax species 50%, age > 40 and crown closure >30%.

4. If more land is required to meet the 8% objective, add the best remaining old forest restoration opportunities from all Crown lands outside protected areas according to their rank calculated from the second and third parts of the old growth Score sheet (Appendix 1).

5. Additional areas may be added above 8% if staff feel the areas have regionally important features.

Guidelines

1. Regional IRM teams, with guidance from the Ecological Technical Committee, will decide which areas to set aside based on their knowledge of the area and other development objectives. Where landscapes span DNR Regions, adjacent Regional Resource Managers will collaborate on meeting objectives for each landscape.

2. On an ongoing basis, any stand scheduled for harvest or other development that is suspected of meeting old forest criteria, should be assessed in the field and scored using the Old Forest Score sheet. Where the stand exceeds the values of stands already set aside as old forest, the IRM team should consider replacing one of the other areas. Copies of the completed Old Forest Score sheets should be forwarded to the Forestry Division.

3. Stands must be large enough to be identified as a stand on the GIS, i.e. narrow special management zones along watercourses do not have the necessary old forest qualities to be considered old growth stands.

4. Staff should note that forests on steep slopes have different ecological characteristics than those on level ground so both types of topography should be represented in proportion to percentages that are ecologically normal for the landscape. Within this constraint, preference should be given to forests having the least value for harvesting, such as inaccessible sites.

5. Stands should be selected that will provide the best opportunities to establish large and well connected old forest systems. Clumping stands with a variety of old forest qualities i.e. clumping mature climax or old growth stands with neighbouring immature climax stands, is encouraged to create larger old forest patches that may have higher value than an isolated old growth stand. Similarly, old forests should be linked by wildlife corridors and special management zones.

6. The buffers surrounding old forest stands outside protected areas, are intended to maintain the interior forest conditions of the old forest. Only silvicultural activities that would improve the old forest qualities of the buffer should be allowed.

7. Some of the lands under permanent protected status are expected to develop into relatively large areas of old growth forest which will serve as cores in an old forest network. This important long-term role is recognised in Step 3 of the Procedure.

8. The Department has no management authority on private lands. However where old growth stands have been identified and evaluated on private land, staff should inform the owner(s), of the stand’s provincially important ecological values and advise on appropriate management options emphasising protection.

9. Old forests identified during this process should be drawn on GIS maps and a separate coverage generated representing areas set aside under the interim old forest policy. The Ecological Technical Committee will link this layer to the score sheets completed during field evaluation.

10. The Ecological Technical Committee will cooperate with the regional IRM teams in the identification, priorization and selection of stands through a series of workshops.

Tools

1) GIS:

The GIS maps should be combined with local knowledge and experience to show potential old forest stands and possibilities for clumps of old forest. Stand height (used to derive stand age) and species composition are the major search items. Stands classified as ‘all aged’ may also be old forest. The GIS can be used to analyse landscapes to determine area by land capability, cover type/community type and to store location and data on selected old forest stands. The Ecological Technical Committee will work on the development of effective GIS tools and classifications to assist Regional Services in undertaking old forest initiatives.

Staff should be aware that species and height interpretation errors will affect the results of a GIS search. All stands scheduled for harvest should be field checked and any appearing to meet mature climax criteria should be scored using the Old Forest Score sheet and considered for inclusion in the interim old forest lands.

2) Old Forest Score Sheet:

The Old Forest Score Sheet (Appendix 1) has proven helpful in evaluating stands for their old

forest qualities. The score has three parts e.g. 2-72-2. Priorities for stand selection should be assigned based on the complete old forest score. The Ecological Technical Committee has developed the field methodology for completing the score sheet. A table of reference stands is also available.

Part one identifies the stand as either old growth (1), or mature climax (2), immature climax (3) or other (4).

Part two of the score sheet allows scoring a stand on its structural attributes - age, primal forest values, tree diameter, bole length of standing and fallen dead woody material, crown closure and number of canopy layers. This part provides guidance to the important features of old forests and allows comparison of stands within the first category e.g. which mature old growth stand has the best old forest qualities.

Part three ranks the size of the whole patch identified by the IRM team. All stanpatch identified by the IRM team. All stands in the patch will have the same part three score. Single isolated stands will usually score 1 for size class.