Legacy Programs
Extended from over fifteen years of experience, the MFNL will continue to facilitate and assist in the development of sustainable forest management systems and tools to encourage the practice of sustainable forest management throughout the forest sector.
We have spearheaded and continue to run the annual Newfoundland and Labrador Envirothon. This competition brings high school students together to test their knowledge of environmental issues, and gives them the opportunity to represent the province at the North American competition. For more information about the NL Envirothon contact Bonny Moroni at (709) 637-7300 or bmoroni@mfnl.ca.
- Schoolyard Naturalization
Western School District has been a leader in schoolyard naturalization for the past decade, allowing students and teachers to transform their school grounds into natural, inviting spaces for playing and learning.
The district has worked with the MFNL and other partners to create outdoor classrooms and green spaces in many school yards in the MFNL area. At C.C. Loughlin Elementary in Corner Brook, students and teachers developed a 500-metre walking trail around the property, and built a bridge over a restored stream.
Birdhouses, trees, shrubs and a flagstone patio were installed at the front entrance, and a composting/recycling room was established behind the school. Students also have the use of a greenhouse, where they grow their own vegetables and flowers.
Schools and communities involved in these projects take ownership of, and pride in, their school grounds, creating a safe, friendly environment for children to play and learn.
- Watershed Management Plan
The City of Corner Brook is developing an integrated watershed management plan for its water supply area to determine the impact potential activities may have on drinking water quality.
Many municipalities across the province are under pressure to accommodate multiple uses in city watersheds, such as all-terrain vehicle activity, forest management planning, domestic wood cutting, mining, hydro-electric development, agriculture, pit an quarry excavation, road development, and recreational activities such as hunting and fishing.
Council also requires a protocol to determine how it may allow some development to occur, while still protecting water quality- the city’s top priority. The watershed management plan will assess the impact such activities may have on water supply, and will develop a strategy to minimize the impacts.
The plan is being developed in cooperation with the MFNL, which recently went through the watershed planning process with the Town of Steady Brook.
We have designed and developed educational material to fit Department of Education curriculum outcomes, including a forest education web site, a hands-on tool kit including classroom presentations and activities, curriculum material such as “The One-Inch Forest,” and other outreach activities to meet the province’s youth and share messages about sustainable forest management.
- Carbon Budget Model of Canadian Forest Service
The Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador continues to administer national training opportunities in the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Service (CBM-CFS2). The CBM-CFS2 is a landscape-level forest accounting framework that simulates, over time, carbon dynamics of above-ground and below-ground forest biomass and dead organic matter. Landscape-level forest carbon accounting is carried out in CBM-CFS2 by tracking the carbon dynamics associated with both stand-level and landscape-level processes.
The CFS is in the process of expanding and enhancing CBM-CFS2 to allow a user to perform detailed processes and risk analysis.
By tracking what has happened, and what is happening, with carbon stocks in our forests, a user will be able to project into the future and determine the consequences of environmental changes and management activities.
The Canadian Forest Service is also in the process of building improved datasets to help carry our more detailed and precise analyses using the CBM-CFS2.
- Continuing Forestry Education
Continuing Forestry Education (CFE) is an activity of increasing importance to all foresters and forest practitioners. Rapid technological change, the social significance of forest resources, increased public awareness, higher environmental standards, greater professional demands, and the ever-changing competencies required dictate continuous learning and development if individuals and the profession are to better serve society.
The Canadian Institute of Forestry’s national CFE program is voluntary and participation is open to Institute members and non-members. Its ultimate success depends on individual participation and integrity.
The program helps forest professionals maintain current knowledge, advance knowledge and skills, learn new techniques, increase awareness of new developments and current issues, assist members in reviewing their knowledge of current literature, and keep abreast of new opportunities to upgrade knowledge.
In 2003, Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Ltd. worked with the MFNL to assess the requirements of gaining International Organization Standardization (ISO) certification. The process offered suggestions to the CBPP Public Advisory Committee on how to better improve their Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) manual so it would link to the ISO certification process.
Six meetings were conducted with the Public Advisory Committee to allow citizens to gain an understanding of the values, objectives, indicators and targets of certification, and to agree upon six indicators under six criteria. The group identified 32 indicators, which allowed CBPP staff to gather baseline data.
A SFM plan was drafted to meet the requirements of Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards, and an SFM manual was also developed. The manual identified linkages between the SFM system and existing ISO system, and ensured requirements of the standard were being met.
- NL Riparian Zone Working Group
The Newfoundland and Labrador Riparian Zone Working Group was established in 1999 to deal with buffer zone issues arising from five-year operating plans for Forest Management Districts in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The group has addressed issues such as the value of the riparian zones to the province’s paper industry and the lack of a riparian management plan for the province. Questions such as how and whether these buffers can be managed for timber without sacrificing their ecological integrity have been examined. The wildlife division is a partner in this initiative with a mandate to analyze the kinds of impacts proposed harvesting techniques may have on riparian systems. The division’s latest initiative is to monitor terrestrial and invertebrate indicator species within the riparian zone.
Partners have conducted a range of research activities to determine a protocol for riparian zone management in the province. As a result, the NL Riparian Zone Management Strategy document is ready for release.
- Forestry Ecology Walking Tour
Every autumn the MFNL offered a school-based, interpretive walking tour to highlight to features of the boreal forest in the urban environment of the Corner Brook - Humber Valley area. Over the years this tour has been expanded to include community groups, and has also become mobile, with our interpreter offering the tour in local communities. In future the years this tour will be offered ? as funding becomes available.
- Conflict Resolution Role Play
Now incorporated into Sir Wilfred Grenfell College’s Environmental Studies program and College of the North Atlantic’s Natural Resources programs, the role play allows post secondary students to assume the perspectives of the many agencies involved in resource management, and teaches them the reality of multi-stakeholder management planning processes.
The concept of proper management of forest lands using the principles of sustainable development and integrated resource management is rapidly being implemented across Canada.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, industry and government agencies are applying these principles to the management, protection, and utilization of forest resources. CNA’s two-year Forest Resources technician program has been designed to provide graduates the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the expanded requirement for ecosystem-based technology within this changing environment. The program places great emphasis on field-based activities, as well as a significant computer-based component.
- Biodiversity Assessment Project with Habitat Suitability Modeling
The objective of this project was to develop a computer modeling tool that can be used to assess the biodiversity implications of a variety of timber harvest scenarios. This project consisted of several components including the development of baseline conditions of forest habitat and structure using successional rules, the conversion and development of three Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs) for the species of Newfoundland marten, woodland caribou and boreal owl, the development of a variety of forest management scenarios, the transfer of knowledge to planning analysts, the interpretation of results and delivery of recommendations regarding landscape level biodiversity-friendly harvesting alternatives. This pilot project was completed in 2007 with the production of a final report on four management scenarios. (See our library for the latest update) The Institut Québécois d'Aménagement de la Forêt Feuillue (IQAFF) or Quebec Institute for the Management of Deciduous Forests through their Science Director, Frédérik Doyon, ing.f., Ph.D., Prof. associé UQO was the primary architect of this prototype suite of tools. The MFNL would like to thank IQAFF for their efforts in sharing this approach with our forest sector professionals.
As a legacy continuation, the Department of Environment and Conservation, Wildlife Division has been active in enhancing the functionality of the HSMs. Mr. Carl Marks would be the partner lead on this activity.
- Criteria and Indicators/ Local Level Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management
This legacy project is just not a project but is a different way of looking at forests and measuring our impacts and management success.
Consider that forests are divided into 6 themes; these themes are given values of why we think they are special; these values have elements or forest features that are critical to the theme; each value also has goals which we aspire to reach if we are truly management for the particular value; each goal has an objective to reach in order to accomplish the goals; and finally, what we measure in the forest are considered indicators of either the objective, goals or value being monitored. Indicators may be local, regional, provincial, national or even international in scope depending on the Criteria and Indicator program.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s C & I program is to help resource managers and planners ensure that we maintain healthy forests, at the same time outlining a process for monitoring forest conditions and the impacts of forestry and other activities.
Since the Model Forest brought the idea of C & I to Newfoundland and Labrador in the mid-90’s, both newsprint companies, Abitibi-Bowater and Corner Brook Pulp and Paper use this system as an auditing tool to maintain their certified forests. The Department of Natural Resources has also worked with the Model Forest in listing their own provincially significant suite of indicators as a way of measuring their success in sustaining their own crown lands. The Model Forest’s role with this project has evolved from manager to advisor and sometimes, facilitator – as with our involvement with the Public Advisory Committee (PAC) of Corner Brook Pulp and Paper’s Certification Team.
Since 2007, MFNL has teamed up with the Canadian Model Forest Network and Natural Resources Canada in building the capacity of Argentine Model Forests in using these methods of evaluating SFM. Dr. John Hall, Science Advisor, Sean Dolter, GM of MFNL and Monica Gabay have facilitated two C & I Workshops in Argentina in hopes of integrating a national program with local level indicators from five of the national MF sites.
Criteria and Indicators can be used to encourage more holistic thinking when planning forest management activities, and to bring about greater rigor, openness, transparency and accountability in forest management planning, monitoring, and reporting. Please feel free to download the guides and final reports related to C & I – all of our material is intended to be read and used by forest managers, as well as by anyone involved in a public participation process established to help develop forest management plans.
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