Towards Understanding the Impacts of Industrial Forestry on Moose: A Review and Synthesis
Roy V. Rea1
University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada
Abstract Much of the circumpolar distribution of moose overlaps forests where commercial timber harvesting regularly disrupts forest succession, stand dynamics, and ecosystem services. Throughout much of the range of moose, moose take advantage of the consequences of forest harvesting and post-harvest silvicultural practices implemented by forest companies extracting timber. Forest harvesting practices, however, do not always benefit moose. This knowledge comes to us from several jurisdictions in which research, meant to answer questions about moose-forestry interactions, has been conducted. Here, I will attempt to summarize what we know about the impacts of forestry on moose, leaving other conference delegates to discuss the impacts of moose on forestry. I will attempt to acknowledge the many jurisdictions that have contributed to our understanding of the working forest-moose system and summarize the major impacts of forestry on moose while being careful to distinguish how those impacts can be influenced by factors other than forest management, such as but not limited to, the presence of predators, natural disturbance factors, climate, human populations, and hunting pressures. I will address the ‘so what’ that everyone will ask themselves at the end of my talk by providing some management implications and directions for future research.