Victoria_Park_Re port Final.pdf - City of Charlottetown

VICTORIA PARK COMPREHENSIVE MASTER PLAN
Final Report • June 2013
Forest Management Recommendations
Since the arrival of the Park Conservationist, significant improvement in the overall
health of the Victoria Park forest has been made. However, although generally
perceived to be in good condition by the public, the forest still faces significant obstacles
in its ongoing restoration and recovery. There are two primary factors contributing to
the present state of the forest; the predominance of invasive alien plant species, and the
species-specific health challenges faced by the stands of beech and white birch. The
beech stock within the park is severely affected by beech bark disease, and the white
birch is simply in a state of decline, partly due to age.
In a rural setting, the stand may well be heavily thinned to favour long-lived Acadian
forest species in both the mature canopy and the regeneration (i.e.., sugar maple, yellow
birch, ironwood, red oak, hemlock, red spruce, white pine). For the Victoria Park forest,
a heavy thinning is not practical or realistic for many reasons. It is important that staff
and Council continue to support the restoration work in the park through the allocation
of necessary resources. The following steps are recommendations that will support and
augment the excellent ongoing forest management work in the Park:
Beech Trees
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Short-term Management: selective removal of young beech trees (i.e., beech not forming the
upper canopy) that show signs of infection from the bark disease; this will not appreciably affect
park users’ impressions of a natural continuous forest canopy.
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Long-term Management: periodically thin out beech natural regeneration; investigate acquisition
of disease-resistant planting stock as such becomes available due to efforts of the Canadian
Forest Service in Fredericton.
White Birch
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Short Term Management: fell dead and dying selected birch trees of any size, while retaining
certain snags for wildlife habitat.
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Long-term Management: do not favour white birch in any plantings; lower the proportion of
canopy made up of white birch to a few percentage points - white birch is likely to stay in the
canopy for some time, but because it is a shade-intolerant, short-lived, pioneer tree species, it
will only persist in the canopy over the long term at the edges of the forest stands of the park.
Other long-lived Acadian tree species
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Short Term Management: favour persistence of natural regeneration of these species in any
thinning programs; underplant seedlings of species that are currently under-represented in the
canopy.
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Long-term Management: continuation of the above.
Invasive alien species
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Short Term Management: removal and control should continue to be vigorously pursued by
Parks staff.
Resource Allocation
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Short Term Management: Include budget for a week of time for a professional arborist or urban
forester to prune and thin trees under the guidance of the Parkland Conservationist.
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Medium Term Management: Provide dedicated equipment for the forest management, and
allocate an increased budget for the planting of caliper-sized trees in the Park.
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Long Term Management: Hire a dedicated staff person, even on a part-time basis, to work with
the Park Conservationist on the forest restoration.
In the interest of determining if the gradual approach will work best, an experimental
adaptive-management treatment is recommended. This would entail a heavy thinning
on perhaps a hectare of the woodland - up to 50% removal, favouring only longlived
Acadian tree species in the canopy except for beech. Under-planting may be
needed if the full complement of such species is not present and widely distributed in
the overstorey. Science-based monitoring would be needed over several decades to
determine the success of both the gradual approach and the experimental treatment in
securing a long-term development of climax forest conditions in the park’s woodland.
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