A Delphi Study of Growth and Yield in Canada's Forests: Project Report 95-03 -- Technical Appendix: Questionnaires and Results by Region

• Main Authors: Phillips, William E., Clark, K., Beck, Jim, Booth, D., Boulter, D.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: Forestry; Delphi survey; Northwest Territories; Yukon
• Online Access: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/f7d242a2-e98e-447e-9aa9-b45164745e07; https://doi.org/10.7939/R38W09

Information on growth and yield of Canada's forests tends to be anecdotal, site specific, difficult to compile, and unsuitable for general aggregations across species and to provincial and ecological region-wide levels. Yet aggregated information on growth and yield is necessary for estimating future timber supplies for large regions in order to plan for the future of both the industry and the other various non-timber forest users. Thus, a study was undertaken using the Delphi technique to summarize the opinions of growth and yield experts and practicing foresters across the country. Survey participants were asked to fill in a series of three sequential and carefully-designed questionnaries. Feedback from each previous questionnaire was used as a basis to refine initial responses and establish a final set of growth and yield estimates for various regions across the country. The regional breakdown followed a combination of Rowe's forest regions and provincial boundaries: Atlantic-Acadian; Atlantic-Boreal; Quebec-Great Lakes/St. Lawrence; Quebec-Boreal; Ontario-Great Lakes/St. Lawrence; Ontario-Boreal; Prairie/Northwest Territories-Boreal; Interior British Columbia/Yukon-Boreal; Interior British Columbia; Coastal British Columbia-Coast; and Coastal British Columbia-Subalpine. Within each of these 13 regions, responses were broken down further by species groupings: softwood, mixed-wood, and hardwood. Also, the questionnaires were divided into two parts, existing stands and regenerated stands. Results of the Delphi survey show that existing stands are currently being harvested beyond the age of maximum mean annual increment (MAI) across the country with the exception of the Quebec-Great Lakes/St. Lawrence where harvest is at the age of maximum MAI. Estimated future harvest ages of regenerated stands were at the age of maximum MAI for all regions except the Atlantic-Acadian and Ontario-Great Lakes/St. Lawrence where estimated ages were beyond the age of maximum MAI. Estimated growth responses connected with ...