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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.

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J.D. Irving, Limited is a forest products company with large forest land holdings in Eastern North America. The company has been active in tree improvement programs for many years for a number of conifer species. As well as using traditional seed orchards to produce improved seed, the company has also integrated vegetative propagation initially through rooted cuttings and then via somatic embryogenesis (SE), primarily of spruces. The objective of the SE program is to obtain tested varietal lines to be deployed in multi-varietal forestry plantations. Data are presented that show the genetic gain in height, diameter, and volume over that of the varietal test average at various selection intensities after a decade in a field test.

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Looking up for a raptor's nest or looking down for a rare plant - JDI Naturalist, Kelly Honeyman, talks about the extensive environmental training programs that the company conducts each year for over 140 foresters and contractors who work in JDI Woodlands operations.

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J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) and Dr. David Miller of Carleton University receive Synergy Award for Innovation. Greg Adams, Manager of Research and Development for J.D. Irving, Limited and Dr. David Miller will accept a Synergy Award for Innovation for their collaborative research on protecting trees from spruce budworm. Miller has studied the spruce budworm for over 25 years and has been working with J.D. Irving, Limited to reduce the impact risk of future epidemics. Miller and collaborators found that endophytes, fungi that occur naturally in the needles of conifers, are the key important to protecting improve tolerance of trees against to spruce budworm. Some endophytes produce natural toxins that slow the growth of the spruce budworm insect. J.D. Irving, Limited’s state-of-the-art laboratory in Sussex, N.B. will produce inoculum for up to 30 million seedlings per year from nurseries in eastern Canada.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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