J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) has partnered with Natural Resources Canada, Carleton University, and Environment and Climate Change Canada on a 5- year songbird habitat research project on JDI land in Northern New Brunswick. Researchers are collecting songbird data with auto-acoustic recording devices. During the breeding season in May and June of 2016, 323 sites were monitored across 17 different forest types and age classes. The recordings are being analyzed by bird experts or in some cases by sound recognition software to determine songbirds present at specific GPS locations. Researchers also have access to JDI’s enhanced, high resolution mapping of the entire forest study area for a range of forest structure metrics generated through LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology. The songbird data is then used along with the forest structure metrics at the location as well as in the surrounding forest area to build habitat models for individual species. Model results can then be projected across the entire landscape.

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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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