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A Delphi Study of Growth and Yield in Canada's Forests: Project Report 95-03 -- Technical Appendix: Questionnaires and Results by Region
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- Author(s) / Creator(s)
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Information on growth and yield of Canada's forests tends to be anecdotal, site specific, difficult to compile, and unsuitable for general aggregations across species and to provincial and ecological region-wide levels. Yet aggregated information on growth and yield is necessary for estimating future timber supplies for large regions in order to plan for the future of both the industry and the other various non-timber forest users. Thus, a study was undertaken using the Delphi technique to summarize the opinions of growth and yield experts and practicing foresters across the country. Survey participants were asked to fill in a series of three sequential and carefully-designed questionnaries. Feedback from each previous questionnaire was used as a basis to refine initial responses and establish a final set of growth and yield estimates for various regions across the country. The regional breakdown followed a combination of Rowe's forest regions and provincial boundaries: Atlantic-Acadian; Atlantic-Boreal; Quebec-Great Lakes/St. Lawrence; Quebec-Boreal; Ontario-Great Lakes/St. Lawrence; Ontario-Boreal; Prairie/Northwest Territories-Boreal; Interior British Columbia/Yukon-Boreal; Interior British Columbia; Coastal British Columbia-Coast; and Coastal British Columbia-Subalpine. Within each of these 13 regions, responses were broken down further by species groupings: softwood, mixed-wood, and hardwood. Also, the questionnaires were divided into two parts, existing stands and regenerated stands. Results of the Delphi survey show that existing stands are currently being harvested beyond the age of maximum mean annual increment (MAI) across the country with the exception of the Quebec-Great Lakes/St. Lawrence where harvest is at the age of maximum MAI. Estimated future harvest ages of regenerated stands were at the age of maximum MAI for all regions except the Atlantic-Acadian and Ontario-Great Lakes/St. Lawrence where estimated ages were beyond the age of maximum MAI. Estimated growth responses connected with unevenaged management, fertilization, cleaning/brushing, juvenile spacing/pre-commercial thinning, and commercial thinning were provided by survey respondents for both existing and regenerated stands. Growth responses from genetic improvement were also provided for regenerated stands. Respondents' estimates of growth from unevenaged management tended to be considerably less than maximum MAI growth rates. Estimates of growth increases as a result of fertilization ranged from 0.1 m3/ha/year for regenerated stands in Coast British Columbia-Subalpine region and +2/6 m3/ha/year for the Atlantic-Acadian region. Predicted change in the number of years to reach a rotation based on harvestable tree size was between 0 and -20 years but the effect on rotation age using maximum MAI was generally between -5 and +5 years. Predicted growth increases from commercial thinning varied from a low of -1.8 m3/ha/year for existing stands in the Coast British Columbia-Coast region to a high of +1.5 m3/ha/year for regenerated stands in the Atlantic-Boreal region. Duration of growth changes are expected to be between 8 and 20 years except in the Coastal British Columbia regions where the range is from 27 to 43 years. Predicted shortening of rotation time based on harvestable tree size is from 1 to 10 years while changed rotation age at maximum MAI varied from -2 years to +17 years. Estimated increases in MAI growth from genetic improvement of regenerated stands varied from 0.3 to 1.2 m3/ha/year. In general, for most regions, predicted rotations from genetic improvement were shortened by 5 to 10 years. The results were based on 42 responses over the 13 regions in the third and final round of the survey. Great care should be taken regarding the use of data for the four Interior British Columbia regions due to minimal responses. Otherwise, the data seem to represent the view of edxperts in the field. Delphi studies such as this one are useful as a first estimate when there is insufficient hard empirical data.
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- Date created
- 1995
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- Type of Item
- Report