FRST 557 Exam – December 5, 2013
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You have 150 minutes to write this exam. Each question is worth the same amount.
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Use sentences and paragraphs. All questions marked out of 30.
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Part 1. Answer all of Questions 1, 2 3 and 4.
1.
(DeLong) Project Management - Your consulting company has a new client and you are working with a new team of colleagues. a) How should you prepare for your first meeting with the client so that you make effective use of your client’s time and the expertise of your team members? b) As you near the end of this project a conflict develops between two members of your team who do not agree on the optimal strategy to present to the client. What steps would you take to resolve this conflict?
1. Clarify who is the team and what their strengths are.
-identify who the team consists of (include client as a team member).You will be more successful if you start any new project by making everyone’s strengths understood. Everyone has experience, ideas etc.
2. Clearly identify project objectives
-ensure all team members are involved in helping identify and clarifying project goals and objectives (a project has an identifiable beginning and end; a very clear end). Problems usually occur right at the beginning with poorly defined objectives.
3. Have a plan in case of conflict .
-can start with creating a team generated ‘Guidelines for project management’. This can include a code of conduct or basic tenants and what to do in case of conflict.
4. Have a schedule but be prepared to adjust it (expect to adjust it)
-involve all team members in project planning, involve all team members in periodic critiques or selfevaluation of the process, a well-functioning team should be able to solve its own problems and remove road blocks.
2.
(Carroll) Forest Health – a) In looking at the population dynamics of a forest insect pest over several years, what information would you need to know whether mortality is density dependent? b) For a given site, under what circumstances would you consider intervening to manage an insect pest? c) What pest management tactics would you consider?

a) If there a positive relationship between the size of the pest population and the % mortality then the pest mortality is density related. b) economic threshold is the pest density at a level where control tactics need to be executed to avoid exceeding the economic injury level; insect is affecting non-financial objectives such as visual quality, safety; sanitation to avoid spread c) use integrated pest management approach – using multiple preventative, suppressive or regulatory tactics that are biologically and economically efficient; tactics – biological control, silvicultural control, resistance breeding, exclusion, eradication, chemical control
3.
(Bendickson) Operations - When designing a road layout for a harvesting area, what can be done to a) maintain social license, b) protect the environment, c) address safety, d) minimize construction costs?
For a to d - refer to higher level plans; build appropriate class of road for volumes to be hauled, and take into account road users; follow local and provincial regulations and best practices for design, construction and maintenance a) inform local road users, stakeholders and neighbours about your access plans and respond to issues that they raise; be consistent with visual quality objectives b) be consistent with access management plans for wildlife; map sensitive habitats, minimize disturbance within riparian management areas; properly map existing drainages and streams and install culverts/bridges of appropriate size; add culverts if needed for crossdrainage and where seeps are identified during construction; manage sediment using silt traps, surfacing of travel surface and seeding of cutbanks; schedule your crossing construction for appropriate seasonal/weather windows; have experts assess steep terrain; be prepared to deactivate or debuild road if it is not needed following harvesting c) avoid over-steep grades and tight curves; maintain sight lines and install pull-outs; add signage d) estimate volumes to be hauled and ensure class of road is appropriate; optimize length and spacing of spur/in-block roads with respect to skidding/yarding patterns; minimize blasting and end-hauling, and find local sources of surfacing material where feasible; compare costs
of different crossing types, and optimize.

4.
(Larson/Mitchell) Silviculture - a) Why is growing space allocation important in silviculture? b) Describe, and explain the rationale for, the strategies/treatments that you could use to reallocate growing space for your crop trees during the following stages of stand development: i) stand initiation, ii) stem exclusion iii) understory reinitiation.
Growing space determines tree growth rates, stem and crown, site occupancy and stand growth rates, competition, self-thinning and stand density these affect the quality and value of individual trees, and the stand, and affect the conditions for non-timber values including persistence of non-crop vegetation and aesthetics.
Stage
Stand initiation
Stem exclusion
Understory reinitiation
Strategy/treatment
Site prep
Planting density and pattern
Thinning intensity, tree preference, and pattern
Thin or harvest overstory, intensity and pattern
Rationale
Number of spots/ha for planting or regeneration, reduced non-crop veg competition for growing space
Stems per hectare, regular, triangular, or clustered
Increase in growing space, consistency of growing space
Amount and pattern of light/soil resources and seed source for regeneration establishment and release
Part 2. Answer one of Questions 5, 6 and 7
5.
Silviculture/Forest Health - You have identified symptoms that you believe are due to Phellinus sulpurascens in a stand in the CWHdm subzone that you are preparing a site plan for. Discuss how you can confirm that this agent is present and how you would respond to this in your site plan.
Look for evidence of stand (expanding gaps with dead and dying trees of susceptible species) and tree-level symptoms (uprooted or standing dead trees, brashed off root systems, loss of structural integrity), look for tissue-level signs (pits that follow annual rings, wood peels away in layers).

Map affected areas
Harvest affected areas if timber production or public safety are your prime concerns
Consider stumping if site is productive and timber production is your primary goal, and you can avoid soil/stream degradation
Include resistant species in your target stand (Cw, broadleaves)
Plant susceptible species in areas of block away from infection centres
Plan a shorter rotation (pathological rotation)
6.
Integrative – How do you determine rotation age for an even-aged stand? Under what circumstances might you wish to shorten the rotation age? Under what circumstances might you wish to lengthen the rotation age?
Volume/biological rotation – age of peak mean annual increment (CAI crosses MAI curve)
Financial rotation – age of maximum net present value
Pathological rotation – age of maximum net volume (gross – decay or damaged)
Shorten for financial or pest management reasons.
Lengthen for carbon sequestration or enhancement of structural diversity
7.
Integrative - Should silviculture prescriptions emulate nature? Discuss the appropriateness and potential usefulness of this idea for stand-level management.
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Maybe – depends on objectives and context
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What is the overall impact on society? o Scale of disturbance o Intensity of disturbance
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How well will the natural process meet society’s goals? o E.g. relative monetary value of different species
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What are the redundant components of the ecosystem? o Are some species taking similar roles and functions
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We should look for natural experiments of different aspects of our prescriptions to see likely outcomes o This means learning from nature, not necessarily emulating nature.
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Usually “going with nature” takes less resources, both human and
 monetary, than deviating from nature
When our prescriptions deviate from past natural events on a site we should use adaptive management to watch for unin tended
consequences