HIGH CONSERVATION VALUES REPORT for the HEARST FOREST Version 1.2 Completed by: Brad Ekstrom R.P.F. Dated: December 9, 2010 2010 High Conservation Value Forest Report for the Hearst Forest 1 Executive Summary 2 3 This High Conservation Value Forest assessment and report for the Hearst Forest has been completed 4 in partial fulfillment of the requirement (Principle 9) of the National Boreal Standard of Forest 5 Stewardship Council certification for the forest. This is the first time the HCV report has been 6 completed and as a result, only indicators associated with 9.1 can be addressed. As further planning 7 work is completed on the forest the other indicators will be addressed. 8 9 The identification of High Conservation Values (HCVs) is an ongoing process that will change over 10 time as new information becomes available. Through this evaluation a number of HCVs were 11 identified on the Hearst Forest. 12 13 Summary of High Conservation Values on the Hearst Forest Value Designation* Attribute Monitoring Lake Sturgeon Southern Hudson Bay/James Bay Population HCV Species at Risk Sightings, OMNR Sightings, OMNR, Short eared Owl Potential HCV Species at Risk Breeding Bird Atlas Sightings, OMNR, Common Nighthawk Potential HCV Species at Risk Breeding Bird Atlas Olive Sided Sightings, OMNR, Flycatcher Potential HCV Species at Risk Breeding Bird Atlas Sightings, OMNR, Wolverine Potential HCV Species at Risk Sightings, OMNR, Bald Eagle HCV Species at Risk Breeding Bird Atlas Sightings, OMNR, Eskimo Curlew Potential HCV Species at Risk Breeding Bird Atlas Sightings, OMNR, Canada Warbler Potential HCV Species at Risk Breeding Bird Atlas Sightings, OMNR, Eastern Cougar Potential HCV Species at Risk Sightings, OMNR, Woodland Caribou HCV Species at Risk Collaring Data Edge of Range Compliance Red and White Pine HCV Populations Monitoring Edge of Range Compliance White Elm HCV Populations Monitoring Constance Lake Sources of Drinking Compliance water supply HCV Water Monitoring Large Landscape Regionally OMNR, Hearst Level Forest HCV Significant Forest Forest Management Inc., 14 * for definitions of HCV vs Potential HCV see section 2.0 15 16 17 18 2010 High Conservation Value Forest Report for the Hearst Forest 1 1.0 Purpose and Scope 2 3 This report is being completed as partial fulfillment of the requirement Forest Stewardship Council 4 (FSC) Certification to identify High Conservation Value (HCV) Forests on the Hearst Forest. The 5 identification of High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) is Principle #9 of the National Boreal 6 Standard of the FSC certification process. 7 8 By the FSC definition, ‘management activities in high conservation value forests shall maintain or 9 enhance the attributes that define such forests’. As outlined in FSC Principle 9, Criterion 9.1, an 10 assessment is required, at an intensity and scale appropriate to the forest management activities being 11 undertaken on the forest to determine the presence of attributes consistent with High Conservation 12 Value Forests. 13 14 HCV forests are separated into 6 categories. As defined by FSC, HCV forests are described as forests 15 that possess one or more of the following attributes (FSC 2003): 16 17 HCV Category 1 18 Forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant concentrations of biodiversity 19 values: Species at risk 20 Endemics 21 Wildlife concentration areas 22 Critical habitat for regionally significant species 23 Outlier or range edge species 24 Protected areas and candidates 25 26 HCV Category 2 27 Forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant large landscape level forests: 28 Large landscape level forests 29 30 HCV Category 3 31 Forest areas that are in or contain rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems: 32 Nationally rare ecosystem types 33 Declining ecosystem types 34 Remaining intact forests (where large landscape level forests are rare or 35 absent) 36 Unique and/or diverse ecosystem types 37 38 HCV Category 4 39 Forest areas that provide basic services of nature in critical situations: 40 Forests critical for drinking water quality 41 Erosion 42 Flooding 43 Fire barrier 44 Ameliorating microclimate for agriculture and fisheries 45 46 HCV Category 5 47 Forest areas fundamental to meeting basic needs of local communities: 48 Forest areas fundamental to meeting basic needs of local communities 49 50 51 52 2010 High Conservation Value Forest Report for the Hearst Forest 1 HCV Category 6 2 Forest areas critical to local communities’ traditional cultural identity: 3 4 The concept of HCV Forests is intended to identify areas of forest that are considered important and 5 may be considered as candidates for conservation based on the values that the forest possesses while 6 removing it from the debate created over definitions of a particular forest type (e.g. old growth 7 forest). 8 9 For the forest manager the presence of high conservation value forests carry increased obligations 10 which require a higher level of care for those areas that other portions of the landscape and a 11 management strategy that maintains those high conservation values as well as institution of a 12 monitoring program to ensure those values are maintained. 13 14 The FSC standards recognize that forest managers may make decisions with incomplete knowledge or 15 information on how those management decisions may impact other processes on the forest and offers 16 the use of adaptive management and the precautionary principle as partial solutions. To determine 17 the effectiveness of various management prescriptions monitoring protocols are intended to ensure 18 mitigative measures are taken at the earliest possible time. 19 20 As this is the first HCVF report completed for the Hearst Forest it will only serve criterion 9.1 which 21 is the identification and assessment of the values on the forest. This assessment should be interpreted 22 as a work in progress that will be updated from time to time as continued consultations with the 23 various stakeholders on the forest including First Nations members will produce new and more 24 accurate information over time. Indicators 9.2-9.4 from the FSC Principles and Indicators involve the 25 maintenance, enhancement and monitoring of the values on the forest that will be carried out in future 26 reports. 27 28 2.0 Methodology 29 30 The identification of HCV characteristics and areas is based on a multi-scale analysis approach of 31 defining indicators and thresholds of global, regional and landscape scales. 32 33 In this report values are identified as HCV, not HCV or potentially HCV depending on following 34 variables: 35 36 HCV may be impacted by forest management activities, and may require 37 special care to maintain or enhance the value, or the impact of the current 38 forest management prescription is unknown at this time 39 40 Not-HCV is not impacted by forest management activities or can be maintained by 41 following standard forest management practices and government 42 guidelines already in place 43 44 Potential HCV the possible impact of forest management impacts is unclear at this time 45 or the distribution and abundance of the value on the forest is not known 46 at this time 47 48 49 50 51 52 2010 High Conservation Value Forest Report for the Hearst Forest 1 3.0 Introduction 2 3 The majority of the area of the Hearst Forest is located in the Northern Claybelt of Northeastern 4 Ontario. The topography and surficial geology of the HF is the result of several glaciations. The 5 majority of the area has very little topographical relief having been overridden and depressed by 6 glacial ice and then buried beneath lacustrine deposits of glacial lake Barlow-Ojibway. However, in 7 the south and south west portions of the forest and along the northeast boundary, a mixture of glacial 8 till and lacustrine deposits and pre-Cambrian bedrock exposure causes topography to vary from 9 gently rolling to very hilly. 10 11 The Hearst Forest falls entirely within Hill’s Site Region 3E. The majority of the forest is within 12 Hills Site District 3E2 with portions of the northern section within Site Districts 3E1 and 3E3. 13 14 Figure 1 Map of Ontario showing Hill’s Site Regions in Relation to the Hearst Forest 15 16 17 The Forest is divided into two main regions of soil classification. The difference between the regions 18 is primarily the influence of glaciation: 19 20 • The north and central portions of the Forest are part of the Great Clay Belt with soils 21 generally consisting of clays through silt clays to clay loams having been deposited as 22 glacial-lacustrine sediments, and 23 • The southern, southwest and northeast portions of the Forest which have soils varying 24 from clays to loams to sands resulting from a wide range of types of glacial deposition. 25 26 Interspersed throughout the regions described above are areas of organic soils and poor drainages. 27 The extents of these areas varies ranging from insignificant to expanses large enough to influence 28 operational planning of forest management and would also have a significant impact on fire 29 occurrence, spread and behaviour. 30 31 Beyond the northern boundary of the forest are areas of poorly drained, deep organic soils that are the 32 James Bay Lowlands. 33 34 The variety of soils and landform conditions had a powerful influence over the periodicity that fire 35 would have occurred on any given piece of land on the forest. This, along with the result of fire 36 suppression in recent years has resulted in an abundance of mature and over mature forest on the HF. 37 2010 High Conservation Value Forest Report for the Hearst Forest 1 Black spruce is the species that dominates most of the forest occurring in varying degree as pure and 2 mixed stands on much of the forest.