Ontario, Canada’s LTSP Experience: Forging Lasting Research Partnerships and the Adaptive Management Cycle in Action

Abstract In this paper, we summarize Ontario’s Long-term Soil Productivity (LTSP) experience focusing on our efforts to forge lasting research partnerships, highlight the approaches we feel were effective in getting emerging science into forest policy within an adaptive management (AM) framework, and describe the future direction of Ontario’s LTSP program as new policy issues are emerging as part of the continuous AM cycle. Fourteen installations were established on nutrient-poor, conifer-dominated sites, considered to be the most sensitive to increased biomass removals. From 1993 to 1995, all sites were clearcut-harvested, with replicated (three reps per site) biomass removal treatments that included: stem only, full-tree, and full-tree + forest floor removal. Routine (every 5 years) measurements have been carried out to track changes in soil carbon and nutrient levels, as well as stand- and individual-tree growth and development metrics and foliar nutrition. The published results from Ontario’s LTSP program, in combination with the North American-wide LTSP synthesis outputs, have suggested that these nutrient-poor, conifer-dominated sites are less sensitive to biomass (nutrient) removals than previously thought. The evidence provided through peer-reviewed publications, conference and workshop presentations, and field tours was substantive and led to a review and revision of the full-tree logging direction within Ontario’s guidelines. We conclude with a set of recommendations (lessons learned) for the successful delivery of any new long-term, interdisciplinary research projects examining the sustainability of forest-management practices.