National forestry journal turns spotlight on Millar Western DFMP
Approved in April 2008 by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, which praised the plan’s high quality and described its research component as exemplary, Millar Western’s 2007-2016 detailed forest management plan (DFMP) is now being implemented, and gaining national attention.
The Forestry Chronicle, official journal of the Canadian Institute of Forestry (CIF), devotes most of its June issue to a case study of the Millar Western DFMP. In an editorial, CIF Executive Director John Pineau lauds the plan’s “powerfully innovative and visionary quality,” noting that it incorporates information and impacts most DFMPs have avoided in the past, due to their complexity.
The Forestry Chronicle case study encompasses eight technical papers that explore various features of the Millar Western DFMP, including the plan’s cumulative impacts assessment, integrated land management and water research, as well as its novel approaches to embedding science in forest management, identifying biodiversity values and integrating multi-discipline teams in plan development.
Developed over three years with the involvement of scientists, forest specialists, government representatives, aboriginal community and general public representatives, as well as other companies operating in the company’s Whitecourt Forest Management Agreement (FMA) area, Millar Western’s 2007-2016 DFMP is one of the first to be developed under the Alberta government’s new Forest Management Planning Standard. The DFMP tracks an unprecedented number of forest values – over 50 in all – identified and approved through an extensive public consultation process.
The DFMP also affirms Millar Western’s commitment to continuously incorporating new scientific knowledge derived through research. Among the company’s ongoing research initiatives are the Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance (FORWARD) project, which is enhancing understanding of the effects of different harvesting scenarios on water flows and water quality, and the Biodiversity Assessment Project (BAP), which is identifying management techniques to help maintain wildlife habitat.
More information about the DFMP is available through Millar Western’s “virtual open house,” which can be accessed through a special icon on this site’s home page.