Comments on the 2021-2031 Forest Management Plan for Algonquin Park

by

Submitted to:

Joe Yaraskavitch, R.P.F
Management Forester
Joe.yaraskavitch@ontario.ca

Dear Mr. Yaraskavitch,

Please accept my comments on the proposed operations for the 2021-2031 Forest Management Plan (FMP) for the Algonquin Park Forest.

Algonquin Park is provincially and internationally significant for its concentration of old-growth forest. Roughly 40% of forest over 140 years old in Ontario’s Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Forest Region is located in Algonquin Park, while the Park occupies only 4% of the land in the region. There is no similar park in the rest of eastern Canada, and in the USA only Adirondack State Park is comparable. Algonquin Park has a large responsibility to conserve its internationally significant old-growth forests. The Park is also one of very few places with large tracts of hemlock forest that are well beyond the cold tolerance of hemlock woolly adelgid, a tree-killing pest which has been found in southern Ontario. Algonquin Park is literally the last refuge of old-growth eastern hemlock forest in the world.

The proposed forest management plan allocates a significant amount of old-growth forest, including tracts of very old forest (>200 years on Forest Resource Inventory maps). This is particularly concerning given that field work in forests with stands ages of 200 or more has frequently found that trees far exceed this age, reaching 300 to 400 years old or more (Henry & Quinby 2018, 2006, Henry et al. 2018).

A superficial review shows some of the forests in the proposed harvest area have a high probability of containing pristine old-growth forest, as indicated by high stand age, topographic isolation, and lack of recorded logging or roads. Some significant forests include Lost Dog Lake, Maple Lake, Three Mile Lake, and Squawk Lake. These are very good candidates for field surveys to confirm the quality and age of the old-growth forest, and ultimately exclude them from the Recreation Utilization Zone.  They should not be allocated for logging. The four areas are mapped and described in greater detail below.

The proposed harvest area impinges on the edge of a candidate high-quality old growth area adjacent to Whatnot and Lower Whatnot Lakes. The boundaries of the proposed harvest area should be adjusted. Additionally a large area of old-growth forest on the west shore of Erables Lake is in the proposed harvest area. While Erables Lake may have more disturbance than other areas discussed here, it should be evaluated for significant tracts of old-growth forest. Many other old-growth forests are included in the proposed harvest, which have not been thoroughly evaluated for significance. Any old-growth forests that don’t have a clear history of forest management should be removed from preferred and contingency harvest areas.

Virgin old-growth forest landscapes remaining within the Recreation-Utilization Zone should have been identified in the joint proposal of the Ontario Parks Board and the Algonquin Forestry Authority, and protected in the Algonquin Park Management Plan Amendment in 2013. Until this is done there will be ongoing resource conflicts in Algonquin Park forest management, and the foreseeable impact will be to harden public sentiment against logging in Algonquin Park. It is in nobody’s best interest to allocate tracts of virgin old-growth forest in the Park.

Figure 1 Locations of some high quality old-growth forests included in the 2021-2031 proposed harvest

Lost Dog Lake

Some 450 Ha of old growth forest over 140 years old is found to the north and west of Lost Dog Lake. Of this roughly 90 ha is over 200 years old. It is unknown how much of it is virgin old-growth forest, but it seems likely that a majority may be pristine, with only scattered historical cutting of white pine.

This is nearly contiguous with the Cayuga Lake old-growth forest and other nearby tracts. The old-growth complex found here totals over 1800 ha and is a highly significant concentration of very old, often hemlock-dominated forest (Henry et al. 2018). The Lost Dog Lake old-growth stands should be a high priority for field studies, and pending the result, permanent exclusion from the Recreation-Utilization Zone.

A large part of the old-growth forest is identified as preferred harvest on the planning maps.

Figure 2. Lost Dog Lake old-growth forest

Three Mile Lake and North Sylvia Creek

Roughly 400 ha of forest over 140 years old is found on the east and west shores of Three Mile Lake. Of this roughly half (200 ha) is forest over 200 years old. The peninsula on the west shore of Three Mile Lake has good potential to be largely pristine due to wetlands that isolate it from logging roads to the west. Likewise North Sylvia Creek creates a barrier that may have protected the old-growth forest there from access via logging roads. Three Mile Lake is likely an island of old-growth forest in an otherwise heavily managed landscape.

The peninsula on the west shore is identified as a preferred harvest area on planning maps, as is a significant part of the North Sylvia Creek stand near the east shore of the lake.

Other important considerations in Algonquin Park Forest Management Planning

Algonquin Park forest management planning suffers from a number of invalid assumptions that have led to overharvesting of older age classes of forest, and in particular old-growth hemlock forest. These assumptions are addressed below.

Age class distribution

The Algonquin Forestry Authority has identified a shortage of younger age classes in the Park as an issue, but there is in fact a shortage of the oldest age-classes of forest when compared to historical norms. 

Forests dominated by sugar maple, yellow birch, hemlock, and other shade tolerant species are relatively stable ecosystems that are not prone to frequent catastrophic disturbance, particularly by fire (Ziegler 2002; Frelich & Lorimer 1991; Bormann & Likens 1979). Wind is typically a far more important agent of disturbance, and operates within these forests at various temporal and spatial scales. However wind events are not subject to human intervention and presumably the disturbance regime is operating more or less at natural levels (with minor modification due to fire suppression). However logging does significantly reduce the average stand age, including selective which reduces the average age. 

Since logging takes place in the majority of the Park, older age classes are almost certainly far below historical norms, particularly in the western portion of the Park. Pristine landscapes dominated by old-growth forests are extremely rare in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Forest region, and those that remain must be protected. In the interim I request that they be excluded from harvesting and road building in the current management plan.

Carbon sequestration

The current scientific literature clearly shows that leaving old-growth forests unlogged is the best way to maximize carbon sequestration. The expectation that old forests experience a decline in carbon accumulation was derived largely from computer models rather than experimental data (Lichstein et al. 2009). Over the past two decades numerous scientific studies using newly available data have made it clear that old growth forests store a large bank of carbon, and that ageing forests continue to fix significant quantities of carbon for centuries, well after entering the old-growth stage (Luyssaert et al. 2008; Lichstein et al. 2009; Gough et al. 2016; Curtis & Gough 2018).

Curtis and Gough (2018) conclude that “new observations, ecological theory and our emerging biological understanding of temperate forest ecosystems point to sustained NEP in aging temperate deciduous forests.” In an analysis of carbon sequestration forestry in the boreal region, Pukkala (2018) concluded that low rates of cutting or no cutting were the optimal strategies to sequester carbon, and that it was not optimal to commence cutting in older forests, even after the carbon biomass stopped increasing. Luyssaert et al. (2008) report that

“The currently available data consistently indicate that carbon accumulation continues in forests that are centuries old. In fact, young forests rather than old-growth forests are very often conspicuous sources of CO2 because the creation of new forests (whether naturally or by humans) frequently follows disturbance to soil and the previous vegetation, resulting in a decomposition rate of coarse woody debris, litter and soil organic matter (measured as heterotrophic respiration) that exceeds the NPP of the regrowth.” (Luyssaert et al. 2008)

Stephenson et al. (2014) noted that “large, old trees do not act simply as senescent carbon reservoirs but actively fix large amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees; at the extreme, a single big tree can add the same amount of carbon to the forest within a year as is contained in an entire mid-sized tree.”

The scientific consensus indicates that the best way to mitigate climate change and meet Canada’s international commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to leave old-growth forests undisturbed. Because Algonquin Park has a disproportionate share of old-growth forests in south and central Ontario, it bears an equally large responsibility to conserve these large carbon banks. I therefore request that old-growth forests be excluded from harvesting and road building in the current management plan.

Hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) management

Algonquin Park is likely to remain a climatic refuge from HWA for decades, maybe indefinitely, and therefore has an important international role in eastern hemlock conservation.

Many parts of Algonquin Park experience minimum winter temperatures of -35 to -40 degrees Celsius, which are sufficiently extreme to limit establishment, survival and spread of HWA (Paradis et al. 2008). I recognize that climate change and evolution of cold tolerance could at some point in the future make colonization of Algonquin Park by HWA possible; however at the moment, and for the foreseeable future, the Park is a rare climatic refuge from HWA. Algonquin Park therefore has tremendous significance for the persistence of eastern hemlock in North America. Cutting now in anticipation of the hypothetical arrival of HWA is inappropriate, given its status as a climatic refuge, the lack of evidence of the effectiveness of silvicultural treatments, and the possibility of effective biological control before HWA nears the Park boundary.

There is very little evidence that silvicultural management could reduce mortality caused by HWA, but even if silvicultural management for HWA were proven effective, negative ecological impacts of management must be balanced against any potential benefits. Foster & Orwig (2006) state that “From an ecosystem perspective there are strong arguments against preemptive and salvage logging or the attempt through silvicultural means to improve the resistance or resilience of forests to disturbance and stress. There are often valid motivations for salvage or preemptive logging including financial considerations, human safety, and a desire to shape the long-term composition and resource-production characteristics of forests. Nonetheless, there are many ecological benefits derived from leaving forests alone when they are affected or threatened by disturbances and pest and pathogen outbreaks.”

Old-growth eastern hemlock forests in Algonquin Park have high ecological value, and Algonquin Park bears a disproportionate responsibility for their conservation in Ontario and globally. Although Algonquin Park makes up only 1.8% of the productive forest area of the Province, it contains 60% of Ontario’s hemlock working group over the age of 140 (Henry & Quinby 2006). Hemlock has declined by almost 75% in the landscape adjacent to and west of the Park (Leadbitter et al. 2002) and has been virtually eliminated in many parts of southern Ontario where it was once a dominant tree and a common forest type (Suffling et al. 2003). Changes in forest composition may extend beyond the decline of hemlock to other species that use hemlock forests as habitat. For example, in the northeastern United States, 96 bird species and 47 mammal species are associated with hemlock forests (Yamasaki et al. 1999).

Because of the role of Algonquin Park as a climatic refuge from hemlock woolly adelgid, all old-growth hemlock forests should be removed from the proposed operations in the Forest Management Plan.

Thank you for your time and effort on this forest management plan.

Sincerely,

Michael Henry

References

Bormann, F.H. & Likens, G.E., 1979. Pattern and Process in a Forested Ecosystem : Disturbance, Development and the Steady State Based on the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, Springer New York.

Curtis, P.S. & Gough, C.M., 2018. Forest aging, disturbance and the carbon cycle. New Phytologist, 219(4), pp.1188–1193. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/nph.15227

Foster, D.R. & Orwig, D.A., 2006. Preemptive and salvage harvesting of New England forests: when doing nothing is a viable alternative. Conservation Biology, 20(4), pp.959–970.

Frelich, L.E. & Lorimer, C.G., 1991. Natural Disturbance Regimes in Hemlock-Hardwood Forests of the Upper Great Lakes Region. Ecological Monographs, 61(2), pp.145–164. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.2307/1943005

Gough, C.M. et al., 2016. Disturbance, complexity, and succession of net ecosystem production in North America’s temperate deciduous forests. Ecosphere. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304576911_Disturbance_complexity_and_succession_of_net_ecosystem_production_in_North_America’s_temperate_deciduous_forests.

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Paradis, A. et al., 2008. Role of winter temperature and climate change on the survival and future range expansion of the hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) in eastern North America. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 13(5–6), pp.541–554.

Pukkala, T., 2018. Carbon forestry is surprising. Forest Ecosystems, 5(1), p.11. Available at: https://forestecosyst.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40663-018-0131-5

Stephenson, N.L. et al., 2014. Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size. Nature, 507(7490), pp.90–93. Available at: http://www.nature.com/articles/nature12914

Suffling, R., Evans, M. & Perera, A., 2003. Presettlement forest in southern Ontario: Ecosystems measured through a cultural prism. In Forestry Chronicle. pp. 485–501.

Vasiliauskas, S.A., 1995. Interpretation of age-structure gaps in hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) populations of Algonquin Park. Queen’s University. Available at: http://www.algonquin-eco-watch.com/reference-material/Vasiliauskas Study.pdf

Yamasaki, M., DeGraaf, R.M. & Lanier, J.W., 1999. Wildlife habitat associations in eastern hemlock-birds, smaller mammals, and forest carnivores. In Proceedings: Symposium on Sustainable Management of Hemlock Ecosystems in Eastern North America. Edited by KA McManus, KS Shields, and DR Souto. USDA Forest Service, Newtown Square, Pa. pp. 135–143. Available at: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&btnG=Search&q=intitle:Wildlife+habitat+associations+in+eastern+hemlock+birds,+smaller+mammals,+and+forest+carnivores#0%5Cnhttp://ww.savegeorgiashemlocks.org/Downloads/Resources_page/Archives/Wildlife_Habitat_Associa

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