Browse Burial Related to Snow Depth and Canopy Cover in Northcentral British Columbia

Browse from 6 forest sites representing various canopy cover values following logging was marked with 5 color-coded flags in each of 5 0.5-m height zones up to 3.0 m. The proportion of browse buried in each height zone differed significantly (P < 0.001) among sites at some time during the winter. Stepwise multiple regressions using snow depth and canopy cover as predictor variables indicated that variability in browse burial was predicted best by canopy cover during the snow accumulation period from 3 December to 21 February. During the snow-melt phase (4 Mar-28 Apr) snow depth provided the best prediction of browse burial rates. Increasing browse burial generally corresponded with increasing canopy cover during both the snow accumulation and snow-melt periods.