The Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada (PTAC) held their annual Ecological Issues & Resource Access Forum on 27 November, 2014. The event provided technical updates on research from industry and government, as well as presentations on emerging issues for industry. The Alberta Land Use Knowledge Network recorded some of the presentations.
Dr. David Andison is program lead of the fRI Healthy Landscapes program. He begins by explaining the "Why" of ecosystem management and how current approaches to land management fragments the landscape (overlapping tenure). "Managing in pieces", "balancing values", misses the dynamic role of disturbance (e.g.fire) in understanding natural pattern principles.
The "How" of healthy landscapes means that logging is now starting to be managed to mimic what would happen with fire. Where's and Whens vary on the landscape when applying healthy landscape management principles (mimicking natural pattern disturbance patterns) to human disturbances of landscapes.
He closes by describing how an ecosystem approach would work with woodland caribou habitat recovery. At the core of a ecosystem management approach is the question: "What would Mother Nature Do?"
Dr. Andison's presentation was part of PTAC's Environmental Issues and Resource Access Forum, Nov. 27, 2014.