Reporting Area & Landscape Context

Introduction

The Al-Pac FMA area covers approximately 63,700 km²in the Boreal Forest Natural Region of northeastern Alberta. The region where Al-Pac’s FMA area is located includes^[1]:

a mosaic of upland forests composed mainly of Trembling Aspen, Balsam Poplar, White Spruce, White Birch, and Jack Pine, and lowland forests composed of Black Spruce and Larch;
1.9 million hectares of potentially harvestable* forest, mainly upland Trembling Aspen and White Spruce forest;
4.9 million hectares of wetlands, non-commercial black spruce stands and non-harvestable forest areas (river valleys, slopes, and riparian buffers);
large areas leased for oil and gas development and its associated infrastructures, such as roads and utilities;
socially and economically valued activities including hunting, fishing, trapping, and other recreational pursuits.

*The size of trees in a forest stand reflects a combination of time since last disturbance and the productivity of the site. Harvest age is reached by 60 to 80 years for deciduous species like Trembling Aspen and Balsam Poplar, and 80 to 100 years for conifer species.

Al-Pac primarily harvests deciduous trees (Trembling Aspen and Balsam Poplar) but also harvests small numbers of birch and conifer trees (White Spruce, Jack Pine and Black Spruce). Other forest companies (commonly referred to as quota holders) that operate in the FMA area harvest conifer species, predominantly White Spruce with some Black Spruce and Jack Pine. Between 1993 and 2019, Al-Pac and other forest companies harvested about 367,000 hectares, which represents 6% of the total FMA area and about 19% of the commercially productive forest.

Al-Pac primarily harvests deciduous trees while quota holders harvest conifers.
_{Photo: Jesse Cruz, FSC® Canada - 2017}

About the Al-Pac FMA Area

Click on a topic to find out more about the Al-Pac FMA area and surrounding region.

Area of Analysis

At the request of Al-Pac, this report covers two analysis areas:

Al-Pac FMA Area

The Al-Pac FMA area covers approximately 63,700 km² in northeastern Alberta.

The Al-Pac FMA area boundary has not changed significantly since the 2015 ABMI biodiversity report update.
Prior to 2015, portions of the FMA area were removed as a result of the treaty land entitlement process settled between the governments of Canada, Alberta and Bigstone Cree Nation.
Deletions and additions to the FMA boundary also occurred as a result of the Government of Alberta’s Lower Athabasca Regional Plan in 2012^[1,2].

Area of Ecological Influence

The Area of Ecological Influence (AEI) covers approximately 141,900 km². The AEI:

is a spatial area that is applicable to various FSC criteria and indicators (e.g. 6.1 and 6.5);
is an ecologically-based analysis unit defined by all Ecodistricts^[3] that overlap two FMA areas—Al-Pac and Mistik Management Ltd (Mistik) in Saskatchewan^[4];
extends across the Alberta-Saskatchewan border; the AEI in this status report only considers the area in Alberta.

Legend

Figure: Area of Analysis. Al-Pac Forest Management Agreement Area boundary and Area of Ecological Interest.

Ecosystems

The Al-Pac FMA area is located in the Boreal Natural Region and overlaps five Natural Subregions.
While occupying 10% of Alberta’s land area, it contains disproportionately higher areas of Central Mixedwood (27.8%), Lower Boreal Highlands (22.3%), and Upper Boreal Highlands (21.6%), and therefore has higher responsibility for these Natural Subregions.
The FMA area overlaps 12.2% of the Athabasca Plain Natural Subregion, and 1% of the Lower Foothills Natural Subregion.

Legend

Figure: Ecosystems. Distribution of Natural Regions (indicated by NR following region name) and Subregions overlapping the Al-Pac FMA area and AEI.

Wetlands

Wetlands provide a number of important ecological benefits, such as:

critical habitat for wildlife;
water filtration and storage;
flood protection, and;
carbon storage.

Over 40% of the Al-Pac FMA area is classified into five categories of wetland. Fen (also known as muskeg) is the most common wetland type, covering 28.9% of the area.

Class	% of FMA Area	% of AEI
Upland	56.6	60.9
Fen	28.9	25.6
Swamp	6.6	5.4
Bog	4.7	3.3
Open Water	2.6	4.0
Marsh	0.6	0.8

Note: The ABMI's Predictive Landcover (PLC) 3.0 dataset was used to assess wetland cover in the Al-Pac FMA area and AEI.

Legend

Figure: Wetlands. Distribution of wetlands, by category, in the Al-Pac FMA area and AEI.

Fire History

Fire is the principal natural disturbance in the boreal forest; more than 10,000 km² of the Al-Pac FMA area has burned since 2000. The frequency of fires, along with other natural disturbances like insect outbreaks and disease, results in a mosaic of stands of different ages from young forests to forests more than 150 years old.

Decade	Area of Fire (km²)	% of FMA Area Burned
1940s	5,802	9.1
1950s	1,573	2.5
1960s	1,065	1.7
1970s	235	0.4
1980s	3,302	5.2
1990s	3,358	5.3
2000s	3,931	6.2
2010s	8,126	12.8

Legend

Figure: Fire History. Distribution of fires, by decade, in the Al-Pac FMA area and AEI.

About Protected Areas

Protected areas are an important landscape-level management tool to conserve biodiversity. Resource managers and conservationists are often interested in protecting natural ecosystems with little or no human footprint to maintain the biodiversity within these naturally functioning systems. Protected areas also serve as ecological benchmarks to better understand and sustainably manage other parts of the landscape impacted by human activities, such as forest harvesting^[5].

FSC Standard: Principle 6. Environmental Values and Impacts

Indicator 6.5.7: Conservation Areas Network

Reporting on protected areas within the AEI broadly supports FSC Indicator 6.5.7 by providing best available scientific information to inform conservation targets.

The Al-Pac FMA area, as a designated forest tenure, is managed for timber resources, and by legal definition does not contain protected areas. In fact, in 2011, areas were removed from Al-Pac’s former FMA area boundary to create new conservation areas as part of the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan 2012-22. Al-Pac is currently undertaking a collaborative conservation areas network project with Mistik Management Ltd, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (Northern Alberta and Saskatchewan Chapters), and Ducks Unlimited Canada. The goal of this work is to assess the representation of multiple biophysical features within the existing protected areas network in the AEI and develop recommendations for addressing any gaps.

Protected areas are summarized for the AEI.

Highlights:

Within the AEI, 13.7% (or 18,270 km²) of the total area is managed as protected areas (Figure: Protected Areas; Table: Protected Areas).

Natural Subregions are not equally represented in protected areas, provincially or in the AEI.
The Athabasca Plain and Upper Boreal Highlands at 48.9% and 37.4%, respectively, are well-represented in protected areas in the AEI.
TheLower Boreal Highlands and Central Mixedwood Natural Subregions have lower representation in protected areas at 12.8% and 10.4%, respectively.
The Lower Foothills Natural Subregion is, in general, under-represented in protected areas in Alberta but only 1% of its total area overlaps the Al-Pac FMA area.
The Al-Pac FMA area, while occupying 10% of Alberta’s land area, contains disproportionately higher areas of Central Mixedwood (27.8%), Lower Boreal Highlands (22.3%), and Upper Boreal Highlands (21.6%), and therefore has higher responsibility for these Natural Subregions.

Legend

Figure: Protected Areas. Distribution of protected areas in the AEI.

Table: Protected Areas. Amount and distribution of protected areas in the AEI for Natural Subregions (NSR) that overlap Al-Pac’s FMA area.

Natural Subregion	Total Area of NSR in Alberta (km²)	% Area of NSR¹	% of NSR managed as a Protected Area in AB²	% of NSR in AEI³	% of NSR managed as Protected Area in AEI⁴	% of NSR located in Al-Pac's FMA area⁵
Athabasca Plain	13,525	2	32.4	50.1	48.9	12.2
Central Mixedwood	167,856	25.3	13.6	58.4	10.4	27.8
Lower Boreal Highlands	55,615	8.4	8.7	30.8	12.8	22.3
Lower Foothills	44,899	6.8	0.8	5.1	0.6	1
Upper Boreal Highlands	11,858	1.8	19.7	50.7	37.4	21.6
Total	293,754		11.8		13.7

¹ Per cent area of NSR in Alberta = total area of NSR / total area of Alberta × 100%
² Per cent of NSR managed as Protected Area in Alberta = total area of NSR in Protected Area / total area of NSR × 100%
³ Per cent of NSR in AEI = total area of NSR in AEI / total area of NSR × 100%
⁴ Per cent of NSR managed as Protected Area in AEI = total area of NSR in Protected Area in AEI / total area of NSR in AEI × 100%
⁵ Per cent of NSR located in Al-Pac’s FMA area = total area of NSR in Al-Pac FMA area / total area of NSR × 100%

References

1.

Government of Alberta. 2012. Lower Athabasca Regional Plan. Available at: www.landuse.alberta.ca.

2.

Alberta Pacific Forest Industries. 2012. Forest Stewardship Report Overview: Reporting Period 2006–2010. Available at: https://alpac.ca/application/files/3014/1876/0531/Overview_-_2011_Al-Pac_Forest_Stewardship_Report_v5_4_bb_-_dds_September_2012.pdf.

3.

Anonymous. 2018. Introduction to the Ecological Land Classification (ELC) 2017. Statistics Canada. Ottawa, ON. https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/subjects/standard/environment/elc/2017-1.

4.

DUC, CPAWS, Al-Pac, Mistik. 2018. Protected Areas Gap Analysis – Phase 1 Report, North East Alberta & North West Saskatchewan. 46 pp. Internal Report.

5.

Arcese, P. and A.R.E. Sinclair. 1997. The role of protected areas as ecological baselines. Journal of Wildlife Management 61(3):587:605.

Spruce forest
_{Photo: ABMI}

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Information Guide

Reporting Area & Landscape Context

Al-Pac FMA Areamakes up 10% of Alberta's land area.

Forest harvesting is one of several land uses in the Al-pac FMA area.
^{Photo: ABMI}

Wetland ecosystems cover about 40% of the Al-Pac FMA area.
^{Photo: ABMI}

Fire is the principal natural disturbance in the boreal forest.
^{Photo: Caitlin Willier}

Introduction

About the Al-Pac FMA Area

Click on a topic to find out more about the Al-Pac FMA area and surrounding region.

Area of Analysis