Tracking Forests
B Y CHEN DING AND LESLIE M C AULEY
Resource Management
Tracking Forests
Reforestation Mapping Monitors Seed from Source to Site
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GEOWORLD /JULY2O10
ritish Columbia’s genetically diverse forests are vulnerable to dramatic changes as a result of the recent mountain pine beetle epidemic and increasing natural-disturbance events (e.g., fire, pests, extreme weather events, drought, etc.) due to a changing climate. To practice sustainable genetic resource management (GRM) in the face of such changes, forest and resource managers are putting their minds to developing new indicators for evaluating the impacts of GRM policies and practices. Gaining a better understanding of stand- and landscape-level impacts is an important tool in developing new policies and climate change adaptation strategies to reduce the vulnerability of British Columbia’s forest and range ecosystems. A collaborative project involving the BC Ministry of Forests and Range and the University of British Columbia developed a GIS-based monitoring method to track how seed stocks (seedlots) used for reforestation are distributed over time and space (see “Authors’ Note,” page 27). By tracking seedlots from their source (genetic provenance)
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