Definitions:

Migration corridor: An area that animals use during migration because some or all of their habitat needs are met.

Harvest History: Areas where forests have been harvested in the past. Refer to “Disturbance History” map in the Zoom section for the harvest history of Tembec’s FML01.

Source: Dictionary of Natural Resource Management (1996) UBC Press.

Background:

Mapping Large, Intact Forests

• The concept of large intact forests was developed by Global Forest Watch, a program of the World Resources Institute. The organization produced a global map showing the condition of forests and development threats based on the intact forest concept.

• Intact forests have no visible, large-scale anthropogenic disturbances in the past 50 years. For the boreal forest, which is located in FML01, the minimum size of an intact forest is 50,000ha and 10km wide. The map produced by Global Forest Watch includes forest harvest arewsaw, mines, oil and gas well sites, pipelines, and fires, mostly based on satellite images.

There are fewer large, intact forests than originally thought…    

• The Global Forest Watch map depicting intact forest areas in FML01 indicates large areas of intact forest. To see the map, select Maps on the top bar, then Specific, then "Intact Forests".

• Using the same data set, Tembec updated the map based on recent harvest history, active roads and mining claims. This siginificantly reduced the number of large intact forests in the FML. To see the revised map, select Maps on the top bar, then Specific, then "Intact Forests Updated".

So, where are the large, intact forests in FML01?

• According to Tembec's results, large intact forests are located in Atikaki Wilderness Park, part of South Atikaki Park and in the operating area Kaneeshoot. Future development plans will potentially take place in the Kaneeshoot area, located to the north of Bisset and to the east of South Atikaki Provincial Park.

• Smaller intact forest areas are located in parts of Nopiming Provincial Park and parts of the Owl Lake caribou winter range and migration corridor in FML01.

• It should be noted that harvesting in the south part of the FML has not been inlcuded in this analysis due to lack of digital data. Some fire data is also missing, such as major fires that occured in the southern part of Atikaki Park in the 1980's. Therefore the data is partial, and is to be used as a part of the larger decision-making process.