forestateguide

Diversity Enhancement

Legacy Trees and Cavity Trees

Efforts should be made to retain existing cavity trees and incorporate them into leave patches of legacy trees. When present, trembling aspen are preferred for legacy trees as they have the greatest potential for providing cavities for the longest period of time.

Key Definitions:

  • Cavity Tree: A tree, alive or dead, preferably >20 cm DBH and >7 m height, which may or may not have existing cavities used by wildlife for roosting and/or reproduction
  • Legacy Tree: A standing live tree with great size (diameter and/or height), old age, historical value, or rarity

Coarse Woody Debris (CWD)

Coarse woody debris (CWD) must be retained on all harvest sites with a minimum of 200 debris pieces per hectare. Each debris piece must have an average diameter greater than or equal to 7.5 cm and a minimum length of 2 m.

Purpose of CWD:

Downed woody material creates micro-habitats for a variety of plant and wildlife species, provides nutrients as it decomposes, helps retain moisture, and supports biodiversity.

Species Diversity in Plantations and Thinnings

To increase tree species diversity in plantations, plantation maintenance, pre-commercial and commercial thinning treatments, a minimum of 15% of the residual density should be comprised of alternate tree species.

Methods to Achieve 15% Diversity

Unplanted areas within a plantation such as:

These can be left untreated to attain this goal.

Preferred Mix:

It is preferable to leave hardwood in softwood treatments and conversely, softwood in hardwood treatments. These alternate tree species must comprise part of the plantation throughout the rotation.

Wind Protection Buffer Zones

When a treatment consists of a thinning and the treated stand is adjacent to open or exposed areas, a 15 m buffer zone is to be left untreated to minimize wind penetration into the stand.

Retention of Valuable Species

When a stand contains a low density of natural red spruce, white spruce, black spruce, eastern hemlock, white pine, red pine, eastern cedar, yellow birch, sugar maple, white ash, black ash, or red oak, these individual trees are to be left as seed trees.

Priority Species for Retention

High-Value Species to Protect:

  • Softwoods: Red spruce, eastern hemlock, white pine, red pine, eastern cedar
  • Hardwoods: Yellow birch, sugar maple, white ash, black ash, red oak

These species are valuable for timber quality, ecological function, and/or are becoming less common due to climate change and other factors.

Rare Plant and Animal Species

Rare plant and animal species are to be conserved and managed upon official confirmation of presence by a PEI Forests, Fish and Wildlife professional as described in the Plant and Animal Species of Special Concern section.