Objectives

The Ecosystem-based Management Emulating Natural Disturbance (EMEND) Project is a long-term, large-scale variable retention harvesting experiment designed to investigate the ecological role of retaining forest legacies (e.g., live and dead trees, understory vegetation, etc.) on ecosystem integrity and forest regeneration.

EMEND addresses a crucial question: Can retention harvesting be used to help maintain ecosystem values (e.g., biodiversity) and processes (e.g., nutrient cycling) on harvested landscapes?

With a projected duration of one stand rotation (approximately 80 to 100 years), the project has already resulted in valuable insights and has influenced forestry practices.

Operational landscape inspired by EMEND.

EMEND Objectives

  1. To determine which forest harvest and regenerative practices best maintain:
    1. biotic communities, 
    2. spatial patterns of forest structure, and
    3. functional ecosystem integrity 
    in comparison with mixedwood landscapes that have originated through wildfire and other inherent natural disturbances.
  2. To employ economic and social analyses to evaluate these practices in terms of economic viability, sustainability and social acceptability.

Aerial view of a coniferous-dominated EMEND stand harvested to 10% retention.