Forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services
Eckehard G. Brockerhoff et al., 2017. Biodiversity and Conservation volume 26, pages3005–3035
Wood production and biodiversity conservation are rival forestry objectives in Europe’s Baltic Sea Region
Per Angelstam et al., 2018 Ecosphere. 06 March 2018 “The policy term green infrastructure highlights the need to maintain functional ecosystems as a foundation for sustainable societies. Because forests are the main natural ecosystems in Europe, it is crucial to understand the extent to which forest landscape management delivers functional green infrastructures. We used the steep west–east gradient in forest landscape history, land ownership, and political culture within northern Europe’s Baltic Sea Region to assess regional profiles of benefits delivered by forest landscapes.”
Three ways to deliver a net positive impact with biodiversity offsets
Atte Moilanen & Janne S. Kotiaho Conservation Biology 10 May 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13533 “Biodiversity offsetting is the practice of using conservation actions, such as habitat restoration, management, or protection, to compensate for ecological losses caused by development activity, including construction projects. The typical goal of offsetting is no net loss (NNL), which means that all ecological losses are compensated for by commensurate offset gains. We focused on a conceptual and methodological exploration of net positive impact (NPI), an ambitious goal that implies commitment beyond NNL and that has recently received increasing attention from big business and environmental nongovernmental organizations. We identified 3 main ways NPI could be delivered…”
How Forest Management affects Ecosystem Services, including Timber Production and Economic Return: Synergies and Trade-Offs
Philipp S. Duncker et al., 2012 in Ecology & Society.
Wilderness areas halve the risk of extinction for plants and animals
By Richard A. Lovett in www.sciencemag.org Sep. 18, 2019
Insect apocalypse: German bug watchers sound alarm
by Daphne Rousseau on phys.org July 1, 2019
What is a ‘mass extinction’ and are we in one now?
https://conservationbytes.com Nov 13, 2019
High Conservation Value Forest Assessment Report for the Medway District
NSDNR Document, May 6, 2016. The Medway District is located in southwestern Nova Scotia, northeast of the Tobeatic Wilderness
Area and Kejimkujik Park, and west of the Cloud Lake Wilderness Area. It was acquired by the Province in 2012 when it purchased Bowater assets. 113 pages, maps etc.
Protecting Nova Scotia’s true boreal forest
Post on this website. It explains why true boreal forest in Nova Scotia is special while “borealized” Acadian forest is not.
Making habitat connectivity a reality
Keeley ATH et al., 2018. Conservation Biology 2018 Jun 19. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13158 “For over 40 years, habitat corridors have been a solution for sustaining wildlife in fragmented landscapes, and now are often suggested as a climate adaptation strategy…t. We argue that connectivity conservation must more rapidly move from planning to implementation and provide an evidence-based solution made up of key elements for successful on-the-ground connectivity implementation. The components of this new framework constitute the social processes necessary to advance habitat connectivity for biodiversity conservation and resilient landscapes under climate change. ”
What Is Forest Fragmentation and Why Is It A Problem?
One pager by Michael Snyder Autumn 2014 issue of Northern Woodlands. ” Ecologists suggest that true interior forest conditions – you know, where it’s hard to hear cars and lawnmowers and it remains cool, shady, and downright damp even during a three-week drought – only occur at least 200-300 feet inside the non-forest edge. And so a circular forest island in a sea of non-forest would have to be more than 14 acres in size to include just one acre of such interior forest condition. Put differently, reports indicate that the negative habitat effects of each residential building pocket within a forest radiate outward, affecting up to 30 additional acres with increased disturbance, predation, and competition from edge-dwellers.”
Forestry practices and biodiversity, with particular reference to the Maritime Provinces of eastern Canada
Bill Freedman et al., Environmental Reviews, 1994, 2(1): 33-77
Comprehensive, informative; species, community and guilds associated with forests of different ages are described; conservation challenges addressed. Full Paper (PDF)
The Great Forest Migration
Article by Benjamin Lord in Spring 2015 issue of Northern Woodlands. “How New England’s Forests Arrived, Where They Came From, and What it Means for The Future”. Applies to NS too.
Voles and Moose, Fungi and Spruce
by John Pastor Autumn 2016 issue of Northern Woodlands/ “Have you ever wondered why patch cuts in the North Woods become carpeted with spruce and fir seedlings within a few years of being cut, while beaver meadows in the same area stay grassy for decades, or even centuries?” A fascinating storu of links between trees, mycorrhizal fungi and voles.
Spring Excavations: Pileated Woodpeckers
by Susan Shea in Spring 2016 issue of Northern Woodlands
Red Spruce Rising
by Joe Herring in Spring 2016 issue of Northern Woodlands, Acid rain and red spruce… it affected trees in US but not Canada.
Focus Species Forestry: A Guide to Integrating Timber and Biodiversity Management in Maine
by Robert R. Bryan Maine Audbon, 98 pages. Most of the species are shared with Nova Scotia
Good Forestry in the Granite State
New Hampshire. Available as PDF (227 pages), or as separate chapters in web or PDF form. Comprehensive. Most of it is applicable to Nova Scotia, e.g., 6.2 CAVITY TREES, DENS AND SNAGS
Recovery of late-seral vascular plants in a chronosequence of post-clearcut forest stands in coastal Nova Scotia, Canada
F.M. Moola & .L. Vasseur. Plant Ecology Volume 172, Issue 2, pp 183–197 . Abstract PhD Thesis “Although clearcutting had no immediate impact on overall alpha richness or diversity, the richness and diversity of residual plants declined after canopy removal and showed no evidence of recovery over 54 years of secondary succession. Consequently, compositional differences between secondary and late-seral stands persisted for many decades after clearcutting. Several understory herbs (e.g., Coptis trifolia (L.) , Oxalis montana (L.), Monotropa uniflora (L.)) were restricted to or attained their highest frequency and abundance in late-seral forests. These results suggest that the preservation of remnant old stands may be necessary for the maintenance of some residual plants in highly disturbed and fragmented forest landscapes in eastern Canada.”
The Northern Appalachian / Acadian Ecoregion: Conservation Assessment Status and Trends: 2006
The Nature Conservancy
The Northern Appalachian/Acadian Ecoregion Priority Locations for Conservation Action (Download PDF)
Trombulak, S.C. et al. 2008. M.G. Anderson. Two Countries, One Forest Special Report No. 1, 58 pages.
New Brunswick forestry practices impact bird populations, says researcher
CBC Dec 18, 2016 “Even with the changes that have occurred in the landscape, Villard said “it is never too late” to help birds in the province. He noted there are still plenty of forests that haven’t been harvested and could be maintained.” He sees the issue as a political one and encourages the public to start asking questions about how forests are managed.
Interactions between white-tailed deer density and the composition of forest understories in the northern United States
Matthew B. Russell et al. 2-17. Forest Ecology and Management 384: 26–33
“Density above four deer km2 has been suggested as a population where deer densities could provide detrimental impacts to browse-sensitive tree seedlings. Our data suggest that less than 40% of northern US forests may have deer densities below this level.” Much of this paper is applicable to Maritimes.
Biodiversity in the Forests of Maine: Guidelines for Land Management
Gro Flatebo et al., 1999
A systematic approach for selecting focal species for conservation in the forests of Nova Scotia and Maine
K. Beazley and N. Cardinal.2004. Environmental Conservation 31: 91-101 “Focal species are a critical component of conservation planning, along with representation of ecosystems, special elements and ecologically sustainable management. They warrant conservation attention because they are functionally important, wide-ranging or space-demanding, habitat-quality indicators, ‘flagship’, and/or vulnerable or special populations…Species with the highest scores were identified as potential focal species, including wolf, cougar, lynx, river otter, eastern pipistrelle, wood turtle, four-toed salamander, golden eagle and Atlantic salmon.”
What lichens and lichenologists can and sometimes cannot tell us
Post on this website. Includes a list of recent scientific papers on the lichens of Nova Scotia
A Wildlife Connectivity Analysis for the Chignecto Isthmus Region
Natuure Conservancy of Canada, 2016
American pine marten comes home
Zak Metcalfe in CH, Apr 30, 2017
The ecology of Lyme disease
Michael Henry on www.ancientforest.org, Feb 2017. How forest fragmentation and biodiversity loss increase Lyme disease risk.
High conservation value forest assessment report for the Medway district
Bowater Mersey Paper Company Limited February 5, 2010. 79 pages. “In 2008 Bowater Mersey Paper Company Limited Mersey Woodlands Operations decided to undertake Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Forest Management Certification in the Medway District due tocustomer demand for FSC-certified paper. KBM Forestry Consultants were contracted to complete the High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) Assessment Report for Medway District.”
Introducing Old Growth. the Ultimate Forest
Written by Mark Stabb. Illustrations by Tim Yearington Ontario Federation of Naturalists. 12pp Exceptional guide to identifying features of OG forests.
More useful publications are cited under their Resources and Publications page
The bat seekers of Nova Scotia
By Steve Berry On newsinteractives.cbc.ca. No date. Accessed Sep 2, 2018
Diversity is key to forests withstanding drought, research finds
By Mike Gaworecki, Mongabay.com Sep 25, 2018
It references Hydraulic diversity of forests regulates ecosystem resilience during drought by William R. L. Anderegg et al. in Nature, 2018
Southwest Nova Scotia Habitat Conservation Strategy
MTRI. Links to a 257 page comprehensive report, Southwest Nova Scotia Habitat Conservation Strategy [Farrow, L. J., & P. Nussey. 2015. Southwest Nova Scotia Habitat Conservation Strategy. Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, Kempt, NS.]
Handful of nations hold fate of world’s vanishing wilderness
www.japantimes.co.jp Nov 1, 2018
More than 70 percent of Earth’s last untouched wilderness lies in the territories of just five countries, scientists said Wednesday — mostly nations that alarm environmentalists with their lukewarm response to climate change. True wild spaces — land and sea areas mostly unaffected by mankind’s explosive expansion and insatiable appetite for food and natural resources — now cover just a quarter of the planet…Due to voracious human consumption of fossil fuels, wood and meat, as well as our exploding population, just 23 percent of land on Earth is untouched by the impact of agriculture and industry. A century ago that figure stood at 85 percent. View Comment in Nature, Oct 31, 2018: Protect the last of the wild
Boreal felt lichen’s surprising decline worrying for forest health
Cassie Williams · CBC News · Posted: Jun 24, 2016
Environmental Science: a Canadian perspective, 6th ed
Bill Freedman
Fully online, freely available text.
The B word: communicating biodiversity to a world that doesn’t care enough
https://www.birdlife.org/ . May 2, 2019 “Biodiversity. It’s the magnificent infrastructure that supports all life on earth, including ours. But we’re losing it fast. With the biodiversity crisis quite possibly surpassing climate change as the greatest threat to humanity, we explore why many do not seem to realise the urgency, and reveal why this year is the crucial time for a plan ‘B’.”