Program
The conference will provide a unique opportunity to gather together all the working parties of the IUFRO Division 8 research group on Forest Biodiversity. The purpose of the conference is to enable participants to share knowledge, to discuss new trends, to reflect on future directions in biodiversity management for sustainable forestry, and to promote a stronger scientific basis for biodiversity management in forest landscapes.
Please note that the conference is open to all, and IUFRO membership is not required for attendance at the conference.
While attending the conference, delegates will have an opportunity to learn about grassland and forest management in the dry forests surrounding Kamloops. In addition, they will gain an overview of the enormous impact of the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) on the ecosystems of lower elevation ponderosa pine and upper elevation lodgepole pine forests. Post conference tours will provide an opportunity to visit other forest types in British Columbia.
Concurrent sessions will not be held at the conference. This will allow all participants to attend all of the presentations and to participate in multi-disciplinary discussions. An interactive poster session is also proposed. The program will include a one-day in conference field tour and there will be an optional post conference tour.
Invited speakers
The following individuals have accepted invitations to speak to the Conference:
Dr. Chris Elliott
Dr. Elliott joined WWF-Canada in October 2005 as Regional Vice President for the Pacific. He has previously worked for WWF International in a variety of capacities over the last twenty years, initially as China Programme Coordinator working on the WWF panda project and most recently as Director of WWF's Global Forest Programme. Chris was closely involved in major forest conservation initiatives in the Congo Basin and the Amazon and led the development of a global partnership with IKEA. Before joining WWF he worked in the field of organic agriculture for several years and at the World Bank in Washington, DC. focusing on forest policy.
He has a BSc from London University in plant science, a MES in forestry from Yale University and a DSc degree in forestry and ecosystem management from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Dick Cannings
Dick Cannings is Program Coordinator for Bird Studies Canada in British Columbia. Dick is currently working as a consulting biologist in Naramata. He works half-time for Bird Studies Canada, organizing Canadian Christmas Bird Counts, eBird Canada and the British Columbia Owl Survey and serve as the chair of the Birds subcommittee for the National Committee on Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC. He also teaches a field ecology course for the University of British Columbia every year, held in such diverse places as Ecuador, Costa Rica, Arizona and the Yukon. His main research interest is the breeding biology of birds, particularly small owls.
In addition to his professional and research interests Dick has had a long career in pulic education, producing regular radio items on natural history themes for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, teaching continuing education courses on birding and nature and leading natural history tours to destinations around the world, particularly in the New World tropics. He has written a number of books, including The Birds of the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia with his brothers Sydney and Robert Cannings; British Columbia: A Natural History with Sydney Cannings, The BC Roadside Naturalist, The Rockies: a Natural History, and most recently An Enchantment of Birds.
Dr. Stan Boutin
Dr. Boutin is Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, Edmonton.
His research interests include forestry-wildlife interactions in the boreal mixed woods of northeastern Alberta, the cumulative effects of disturbance and integrated landscape management. Population ecology of boreal mammals with emphasis on the relationship between behaviour and resources; parental investment and dispersal; management of boreal communities, predator-prey relationships.
Dr. Tom Sullivan
Dr. Sullivan is Professor, Agroecology, Faculty of Land and Food Systems and Department of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. His studies are concerned with integrated management of wildlife resources within agricultural and forest environments. He has concentrated on the evaluation of biodiversity and sustainability in a landscape mosaic of agro-ecosystems and natural habitats based on the measurement of vegetation, small mammal communities, and habitat structure. These research activities are conducted in the southern and central interior of B.C.
Dr. Marc-André Villard
Dr. Villard holds the Canada Research Chair in Landscape Conservation at the University of Moncton, New Brunswick. His research is focussed on studying the response of different organisms to silvicultural practices used in New Brunswick, northeastern North America and the boreal mixedwood forest of Canada. His work is based on the principle that we need to assess species’ tolerance to different levels of intensity of forest exploitation and management. Forest managers can then use this information to adjust this intensity according to the conservation objectives they set themselves. In addition he is working on the ecological effects of peat extraction.
Other invited speakers will be announced at a later date.
Preliminary Conference Program
AGENDA - DAY ONE Tuesday, August 4th
5.00 pm Registration opens; Poster room opens
7:00 pm Registration and Social Evening in Conference Centre
AGENDA – DAY ONE Tuesday, August 5th
8:00 am Welcome and opening remarks
Mr. Alan Vyse, Chair of Conference Organizing Committee, TRU
M. Jean-Michel Carnus, IUFRO Representative, France
Dr. Nancy Van Wagoner, Associate VP for Research and Graduate Studies, TRU
Acknowledgement of sponsors
OPENING ADDRESS
8:30 “Muddling Through” in Forest Landscapes: Reducing deforestation and degradation of the world’s forests.
Chris Elliot, World Wildlife Fund, Vancouver, Canada
1st Conference Session
9:10 Effects of land cover on indigenous forest birds in Canterbury, New Zealand. Dr. Ecki Brockerhoff, New Zealand
9:30. Bird Biodiversity in Central European Natural Forests. Dr. R. Kropil, Slovakia
9:50 am Refreshment BREAK
10:20 Life-history traits indicate species sensitivity to landscape fragmentation for birds, carabid beetles and butterflies in plantation forests. Dr. Luc Barbaro, France
10:40 Does traditional management threaten biodiversity? A concrete example using four non-timber forest products in central Menabe, Madagascar. Dr. Clemene Dirac, Madagascar
11:00 A sensitive question: biodiversity conservation with the local population. A case study in central Menabe, Madagascar. L. H. Andriambelo, Madagascar
11:20 Biodiversity conservation: Making a case for assessments highlighting governance realities in tropical forest landscapes. Dr. J-L. Pfund, Indonesia
11:40 Potential of Non-Timber Forest Products in Poverty Alleviation of Mountain Forest Dwellers Dr. Siddiqui, Pakistan
12:00 NOON LUNCH
1:30 pm 2nd Conference Session
1:30 The future of tree diversity in Swiss forests: effects of management legacies and climatic change
Dr. Harald Bugmann, Switzerland
1:50 Addressing biodiversity in a stakeholder-driven climate change vulnerability assessment.
Dr. Rupert Seidl, Austria
2:10 Using bioclimatic envelopes to identify temporal corridors in support of conservation planning in a changing climate. Dr. Phil Burton, Canada
2:30 Mycorrhizal networks and Douglas-fir stand dynamics. Dr. Suzanne Simard, Canada
2:50 pm Refreshment break
3:30 Effects of climate change on lentic habitats and associated biota in mountain forest ecosystems of the US Cascade Range. Dr. Nobi Suzuki, USA
3:50 Pilot-study on genetic monitoring in populations of wild cherry trees (Prunus avium) .Dr. Celine Jolivet, France
4:10 Response to disturbances in a montane cloud forest: decrease in biodiversity and change in functional characteristics. Dr. Alicia Ledo, Spain
4:30 The difference of nest web of cavity nesters between Cryptomeria japonica stands and deciduous forests in Jejudo Island, South Korea. Dr. C.R. Park, South Korea
6:30 pm CONFERENCE DINNER
7:30 pm Evening Speaker: Dick Cannings, Author, Bird Studies Canada
AGENDA – DAY TWO Wednesday August 6th
8:00 am 3rd Conference Session
KEYNOTE LECTURE : Tolerance of indicator species to harvesting intensity as a guide to set conservation targets.
Dr. Marc-Andre Villard, Canada
8:50 Effects of increasing fire frequencies on biodiversity in human dominated landscapes. Dr. N. Kodanpani, USA
9:10 Measuring Effects of Changes in Land Uses on Ecosystem Stability of Mountain Forests Based on Forest Fragmentation Index in South Korea. Dr. J. Chung, South Korea
9:30 Characterization of Forest Fragmentation. S. Gupta, India
9:50 am Refreshment Break
10:30 Dynamics of forested landscapes: pattern assessment scheme and results over Europe. Dr. C. Estreguil, Italy; presented by Dr. T-B. Larsson, Denmark
10:50 Landscape-level habitat supply modeling to develop and evaluate management practices that maintain diverse forest values. Dr. Walt Klenner, Canada
11:10 Direction and speed of natural beech forest dynamics: A matter of scale? Dr. Caroline Heiri, Switzerland
11:30 Effects of ungulate browsing on forest composition and function. Dr. Marcus Didion, Switzerland
11:50 am LUNCH
1:20 pm 4th Conference Session
KEYNOTE LECTURE: Biodiversity Monitoring: Is anybody really doing the job? Dr. Stan Boutin, Canada
2:00 The long-term biodiversity data collection related to European forests. Dr. T-B. Larsson, Denmark
2:20 Biodiversity and Sustainability Impact Assessment of Forestry-Wood Chains in Europe. J-M. Carnus, France
2:40 Monitoring of forest biodiversity at different spatial scales using soil mesofauna (mites, Acari: Mesostigmata). Dr. M. Skorupski, Poland
3:00 pm Refreshment break and Poster Session
5:30 Poster session ends
7:00 pm Dinner in University Gardens
AGENDA – DAY THREE Thursday August 7th
In-conference FIELD Tour 7.45 am
Conference attendees will examine dry grassland and forest conditions and responses to practices on an elevation gradient from 400 to 1300m, see the impact of the mountain pine beetle epidemic and visit the long term Opax Mountain study. Participants should wear appropriate footwear for walking on uneven ground and be prepared for inclement weather.
Return to Conference Centre at 5.30 pm. Evening is open.
AGENDA – DAY FOUR Friday August 8th
8:00 am 4
th Conference Session
KEYNOTE LECTURE: Incremental silviculture and biodiversity: whither the future for managed forests? Dr. Tom Sullivan, Canada
9:00 Carabid beetles in some forested ecosystems in British Columbia, and response to harvesting. Dr. G. Scudder, Canada
9:20 Araneae responses to variable retention harvesting in North Central British Columbia. J. Lemieux, Canada
9:40 Invertebrate community response to afforestation of native grassland communities. Dr. S. Pawson, New Zealand
10:00 am Refreshment Break
10:30 Biodiversity indicators of ground-dwelling spiders in Irish plantation forests and native woodlands. Dr. A. Oxborough, Ireland
10:50 Managing dead wood to conserve biodiversity in plantation forests. Dr. H. Jactel, France
11:10 Stand diversity after MPB attack: The forest is alive. K. Runzer, Canada
11:30 Is tree species diversity a good indicator of understory vegetation diversity? A case study in some French lowland deciduous forests. Dr. F. Gosselin, France
11:50 am LUNCH
1:00 pm 5th Conference Session
KEYNOTE LECTURE: Taking Nature's Pulse: The Status of Biodiversity in British Columbia Speaker TBA
1:40 Dry forest restoration and understory plant diversity: the importance of community heterogeneity and species co-existence. Dr. E. Dodson, USA
2:00 Management of Mediterranean forests for biodiversity conservation. A multifunctional project in Sierra de Cardena y Montoro Natural Park (Spain). P. Lara-Almuedo, Spain
2:40 Impact of fires in 2007 on forest spatial pattern and functionally connected networks of forest sources in the Peloponnesus peninsula (Greece). Dr. M. Rodriguez, Italy
3:00 pm Refreshment break
3:20 Impact of repeated fires on functional biodiversity: Mediterranean forests. Dr. M. Vennetier, France
3:40 The role of riparian buffers and thinning in linkage areas to retain forest biodiversity. Dr. D. Olson, USA
4:00 The effect of ecological forest gradients on macrolichens and bryophytes on coarse woody debris in central BC. C. Delong, Canada
4:20 Impact of glyphosate herbicide treatment on species diversity, tree growth, and forest health in a sub-boreal, spruce plantation in central BC. Dr. C. Hawkins, Canada
4:40 pm CLOSING REMARKS
Saturday August 9th Post Conference Field Tour to Sicamous Creek
The tour departs from TRU at 7:30am and returns to Kamloops at 6:00 pm. The tour will visit the long term Sicamous Creek study site to discuss ecosystem responses to logging in high elevation forests. The site is 2 hours east of Kamloops. Participation is limited to 36.