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Northern Alberta L03 - Wildfire Restoration

Location
Northern Alberta
disturbance
Wildfire in 2021
Application year
2022
hectares
19
Species
White Spruce, Jack Pine
seed pods used
seeding density
target pod:tree ratio
target stocking
1,400
target trees
26,614
assessment year
2024
achieved stocking
1422
More information Coming soon
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Project Overview

Partnered with a Northern Alberta forest products partner. The area is almost exclusively south-facing. The site consisted of sparse, heavily burned, white spruce-dominant upland forest.

Flagged Transect Summary (Permanent Plot)

In the first year, ten plots of flagged rows were distributed across L03 with pods planted directly adjacent to flags. These permanent plots allowed us to assess early germination rates in a south-facing block, as well as test the performance of embedded vs dropped pods and the relative success of White Spruce vs Jack Pine. We used a sampling density of roughly 1 plot / 2 hectares for this site.

Circular Plot Summary (Temporary Plot)

In the second year, eight circular plots were distributed at L03. These circular plots have an area of 55 m² with seedlings counted within the circle area. Before planting, the silviculture team also assessed natural regeneration and excluded sites with high regen from planting efforts to eliminate naturals from our seedling count. The only species assessed were White Spruce and Jack Pine, as those were the species the company planted. No assessment of deciduous trees was conducted, though deciduous tree growth was anecdotally observed.

Findings: Temporary Plot Assessments at Year 2

Plot # - Seedlings Counted

1 - 2

2 - 1

3 - 14

4 - 2

5 - 15+

6 - 15+

7 - 15+

8 - 1

Seedling Count for Entire Site - >27,029

Average Stems Per Hectare - >1,422

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Species Mix (Year 1 permanent plots)

Jack Pine - 10%

White Spruce - 90%

Takeaways

  1. Permanent plots showed moderately strong germination rates in the first 3 months. If these were used to predict average germinants across the entire site it would amount to 2,425 per hectare.
  2. South exposure and hot conditions at the site resulted in early germinant mortality. Between the mid-summer and late fall assessment in year 1, 51% of early germinants died.
  3. Fortunately, there was no additional mortality between fall 2022 and fall 2023.
  4. The temporary plots indicated that the site was sufficiently stocked by the end of year 2. This is due to Flash Forest’s pods and likely some natural regeneration.
  5. There was variability between the temporary plots, ranging from 1 to more than 15 seedlings per plot, mostly attributable to microsite differences in shade, sunlight, slope direction, and soil type.
  6. Microsite differences have been accounted for in our machine learning model, which will be used to adjust planting densities within a block to ensure more even distribution in future planting.
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