Land-Use References
2008
Alberta By Design: A Blueprint for an Effective
Land-Use Framework
Alberta is at a turning point with respect to land and resource management. There is a broad consensus among Albertans familiar with land-use issues in the province that the current system of planning and decision-making urgently needs an overhaul. This report, by the Pembina Institute and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, presents a practical and solutions- oriented blueprint for a new Land-Use Framework.
Steve Kennett and Rick Schneider
2010
Collisions between Wildlife and Vehicles in Alberta
Amy Carter
2008
Better Farming; Better Air
Review of agricultural practices and their contributions to GHG
H.H. Janzen, R.L. Desjardins, P. Rochette, M. Boehm and D. Worth
2006
A Checklist for Evaluating Alberta's New Land-Use
Initiatives
Public land management in Alberta is once again under scrutiny thanks to several policy initiatives and stakeholder consultations recently launched by the provincial government. Many stakeholder groups and individuals who pay attention to land-use issues must be wondering whether or not they should participate in this flurry of activity and how likely it is to achieve significant results.
Steve Kennett
2008
Curing Environmental Dis-Integration: A Prescription
for Integrating the Government of Alberta's Strategic
Initiatives
The Government of Alberta lacks the regulatory ability to manage the cumulative environmental impacts of the industrial development and other human activities now occurring across Alberta's landscapes. A new approach to environmental decision-making is needed to avoid continued decline in key indicators of environmental quality and depletion of Alberta's natural capital.
Danielle Droitsch, Steven A. Kennett, and Dan Woynillowicz
2002
Ecological basis for stand management: A synthesis of
ecological responses to wildfire and harvesting
Public concern over the ecological impacts of clearcutting and loss of old growth forest, as well as the increased knowledge of natural disturbance dynamics of forests, has prompted a number of agencies in North America to re-evaluate forest practices. Increasingly, in an attempt to address these concerns, many government departments and corporations have released new policies and guidelines to supplement or replace the current suite of harvesting practices with a broader range of approaches that are intended to use natural disturbance as a model. Generally, the intent of the natural disturbance template is that biotic systems adapted to natural disturbance may be better managed under a harvesting regime that attempts to emulate those disturbances rather than under existing clearcutting practices. This represents a different focus for altering harvest practices than models that aim to protect old forest seral stages, although there are many overlapping components. The objective of the Ecological Basis for Stand Management project was to review, synthesize, and evaluate the ecological basis for harvest practices at the stand level in boreal mixedwood forests. Our approach critically assessed two strategies for forest management: management for old growth seral stages, and management to emulate natural disturbances, particularly wildfire. Using a chronosequence approach and with some re-analysis of existing data, we reviewed the ecological effects of wildfires on forests, then compared with clearcutting and retention of residual trees. We compared ecological elements at each seral stage to old seral stage forests. We also documented existing information on biotic responses to riparian areas and forest edges.
Samantha Song (editor)
2007
An Examination Of The Effects Of Economic Growth On
Landscape Features And Processes In Southern Alberta
Using ALCES
Regional-scale modelling examined the long-term cumulative effects of land-use, resource demands, and population increases on the landscape of southern Alberta. The results will help inform the project, Southern Alberta Landscapes: Meeting the Challenges Ahead (SAL), in addressing the increased use of our environment into the future. SAL was launched in 2002 as a cross-Ministry, inter-governmental, strategic planning initiative to examine sustainable development issues in southern Alberta. A Base Case Scenario, which assumed a continuation of current land use practices and business plans, was developed first as a Baseline for comparison with other scenarios. An alternate scenario was then run to test various "What-if" questions. Both scenarios used 2000 for year zero because this was the most recent year for which most data were available for the region.
Terry Antoniuk, Brad Stelfox, and Mark Anielski
2010
Science for a Changing Far North. The Report of the Far
North Science Advisory Panel
This report describes the vast and largely intact ecological systems of the Far North, and recommends a conservation-matrix approach for land use planning. It recommends landscape-level planning, with benchmark areas and specific features of interest set aside from development, while other areas are designated for active management, and the landscape overall is planned for continuity and resilience of ecological function. Adaptive management provides a means of evaluating management strategies as climate change and economic development proceed. It will require sustained commitment to the collection and sharing of information about the Far North, including scientific and aboriginal traditional knowledge.
The Far North Science Advisory Panel
1995
Relationships Between Stand Age, Stand Structure, and
Biodiversity in Aspen Mixedwood Forests in Alberta
Resource managers and the environmental community are concerned that intensive clearcut logging of Alberta's aspen-dominated boreal mixedwood forests at 60–70 year rotations may alter the age class structure of the forest landscape and result in a change in forest structure and biota. In response to these concerns, we described forest structure and composition of plant and animal communities in young (20–30 years), mature (50–65 years) and old (120+ years) aspen mixedwood stands of fire origin in Alberta. The information collected in this study will serve as a reference against which structure and biota in harvested forests can be compared.
J.B. Stelfox (editor)
2005
Integrated Landscape Management Modelling Workshop
Sound land-use decision-making requires that social, economic, and environmental values be balanced, and that any repercussions within these three areas due to a decision taken in another be identified and taken into account. Land-use planning and environmental impact assessments (both aspects of integrated landscape management) could be improved, and the decision-making process better informed, through the use of integrated landscape management models (ILMM).
Policy Research Institute
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