J. D. Irving, Limited, along with seven other partners, have begun their second year of study with the Northeast Deer Research Partnership in the forests of New Brunswick and Maine.

Read full article

Research was initiated by the J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) Forest Research Advisory Committee to understand the role of planted stands under different management regimes as habitat for small mammals, beetles, songbirds, plants, mosses and lichens. There was specific focus on organisms known to require dead trees and coarse woody debris on the forest floor. This was established as a long-term monitoring study and will serve to provide information on value of planted stands from a habitat perspective which is important for JDI to assess ecological sustainability at the landscape level.

Read full article

The Government of Canada and the Province of New Brunswick have partnered with the Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow (CAST) with a combined total of $4.7 million in research funding. CAST is a partnership of scientists, environmental groups, and industry participants. Our focus is saving wild Atlantic salmon before it's too late. Today we are working on six science projects on the Miramichi and Restigouche rivers. Our hope is that CAST will serve as a positive partnership model for Eastern Canada's wild Atlantic salmon rivers. J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) is a founding partner and proud contributor to this multi-year effort to reverse the decline of wild Atlantic salmon populations. JDI is supporting one of the six CAST science projects currently underway: ARIS Sonar Population Tracking - new underwater sonar technology in Blackville, NB which accurately counts the number of returning salmon, providing real on-time data about salmon populations in the Miramichi.

Watch video

The protection of cold water refugia within aquatic systems requires the identification of thermal habitats in rivers. These refugia provide critical thermal habitats for brook trout and Atlantic salmon during periods of thermal stress, for example during summer high temperature events. This study aims to model these refugia using thermal infrared images collected during late July 2008 and 2009 for a reach of the Cains River, New Brunswick, Canada.

Read full article

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon stock changes projected over 100 years were quantified for a company managing 2.2 Mha of forest in northeast North America. From 2010 to 2015, company forest operations, sawmills, and pulp/paper mills were forecast to contribute 21, 4, and 75%, respectively, of total emissions. Forest and products were forecast to result in an increasing cumulative net GHG (sequestration minus emissions) sink to 30.7 t CO2e ha1 at year 50. Determining the GHG mitigation potential of forest products requires inclusion of wood, paper, bioenergy, and manufacturing emissions and consideration of natural disturbances, leakage, and avoided emissions.

Read full article

An Optimistic Outlook on Spruce Budworm Impacts and Mitigation Opportunities in Maine

Read full article

Spruce budworm (SBW) infestations and defoliation in forests of eastern North America (e.g., 1910s, 1940s, and 1970 –1980s) have had significant negative impacts on growth and survival of spruce and fir. The Spruce Budworm Decision Support System (SBWDSS), originally developed by the Canadian Forest Service, can assist with SBW management planning by estimating the marginal timber supply (in cubic meters per hectare) benefits of protecting stands against budworm defoliation. We applied the SBWDSS to Maine and for two private forests (10,000-ha townships) to assess potential spruce-fir losses. Application of the approach across diverse forest types and data sets revealed dramatic differences in potential volume impacts between the two townships. The statewide analysis suggested that over 4 million ha of Maine’s forest are vulnerable to the budworm. Projections of moderate and severe intensity outbreaks reduced statewide spruce-fir inventories by 20 –30% over the next 10 years.

Read full article

An integrated forest management optimization model was developed to calculate potential spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clemens) effects on forest and wood product carbon (C) from 2007 to 2057 and to evaluate potential C sequestration benefits of alternative management strategies (salvage, biological insecticide application). The model was tested using simulated spruce budworm outbreaks on a 210 000 ha intensively managed forest in northwestern New Brunswick, Canada. Under a severe spruce budworm outbreak scenario from 2007 to 2020, harvest volume and forest and wood product C storage in 2027 were projected to be reduced by 1.34 Mm3, 1.48 Mt, and 0.26 Mt, respectively, compared with the levels under no defoliation. Under the same severe outbreak scenario, implementation of salvage and harvest replanning plus a biological insecticide applied aerially to 40% of susceptible forest area, reduced harvest, forest C, and wood product C impacts by 73%, 41%, and 56%, respectively. Extrapolation of these results to all of New Brunswick suggests that a future severe spruce budworm outbreak could effectively increase total provincial annual C emissions (all sources) by up to 40%, on average, over the next 20 years. This modeling approach can be used to identify to what extent insecticide application, as a forest-C-offset project, could result in additional C storage than without forest and pest management.

Read full article

This research was conducted in association with the J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) Forest Research Advisory Committee and was funded through the Sustainable Forest Management Network. The JDI Black Brook forest district has been managed by the company since 1945 and detailed inventories and forest stand typing has periodically been conducted. THis has provided a rich landscape description of the forest and forest change over time. The project aimed to identify patterns of change in the softwood-hardwood content of mixedwood stands and relate them to stand characteristics, succession and forest disturbance.

Read full article