Natural Resource Management

Forcorp has nearly 30 years’ experience in developing Forest Management Plans and providing guidance and support for their implementation. We have successfully assisted organizations in navigating the intricacies of regulatory requirements while ensuring the timely submission of a plan that meets operational needs. This is supported by our in-house processes and tools to manage projects, such as using eTracker to organize and track the status of tasks. Our team uses the eLands Scenarios and Spatial Sequencing modules to enhance the following services:

• Facilitate and coordinate Indigenous consultation, public communications, and stakeholder engagement sessions.
• Create an up-to-date spatial landbase with reconciled harvest blocks.
• Develop yield curves to support timber supply analysis (TSA).
• Conduct TSA using Remsoft and Patchworks products and report on modelled impacts to ecological values.
• Generate a comprehensive spatial harvest sequence (SHS) and collaborate with multiple parties to review and edit the SHS in real time.
• Collect and manage data to aid in ongoing stewardship reporting and monitor success in achieving targets and commitments.

Forcorp has extensive experience in modelling and reporting that supports multi-stakeholder planning processes. Landscape modelling can be used to evaluate the interactions between ecological and socioeconomic values and provide insight on how management actions may affect future outcomes. We communicate complex information in a clear manner through the delivery of high-quality, scientifically robust materials including reports, presentations, and maps through the eLands Scenarios module. Services include:

• Provide flexible, custom-built modelling solutions for spatially explicit predictions including the mapping of spatial and temporal disturbances and change over time.
• Assess how policy or management actions may affect caribou biophysical habitat, including cumulative effects, potential socio-economic trade-offs, and impacts on other wildlife species.
• Generate annual Mountain Pine Beetle reports that compile survey and harvest data to report on the status of the infestation in Alberta’s working forests and forecast future trends.

Forcorp has experience processing high resolution LiDAR datasets and photo imagery to address natural resource management challenges. Our team uses strategic, economic, and provisional analyses to provide the following services:

• Develop single tree inventories with enhanced resolution to aid in forest management planning.
• Provide hydrological modelling, including producing wet areas mapping, determining soil moisture to aid in ecosite classification, assessing frozen ground operability, and identifying streams and steep slopes. 
• Support access management planning and analysis to optimize operational routing and product deliveries to mills using internally developed processes.
• Produce log population distributions and forecast operational volume deliveries.

Forcorp has extensive experience in timber yield forecasting and conducting analyses to help organizations better understand and address their growth and yield challenges. Services include:

• Develop and support the implementation of growth and yield programs that meet regulatory requirements for forest management planning.
• Develop volume sampling plans and field manuals to guide data collection appropriate for the development of yield curves or other non-timber objectives.
• Support the planning and implementation of field sampling programs including contractor selection, plot allocation, plot locations, quality control, and progress reporting. 
• Develop yield curves for timber supply analysis or other objectives using empirical data fitting techniques or stand growth models.
• Standardize and present growth and yield data and provide secure and easily accessible data storage solutions.
• Track and report on the status of achieving regulatory or organizational growth and yield objectives.

Long term monitoring and biometrics relies on consistent and sustained measurement programs. Forcorp has developed applications and data collection software to manage the process of collecting, storing, and analyzing plot and crossings data. Our team uses the eLands Plots and Stream Crossings modules to provide the following services:

• Track the status of PSP/TSP programs and RSA performance surveys and provide detailed plot data summaries and reporting.
• Standardize, manage, and store Provincial Growth and Yield Initiative (PGYI) data, ensuring signatories meet provincial commitments.
• Members of the Foothills Stream Crossing Partnership (FSCP) can collect crossing inspection data in the field and create and download inspection and watershed remediation reports.
• Provide handheld data logger software for field measurements with automatic upload to the database to save time and reduce errors. 
• Report on changes in spatial data over time to support stewardship reporting and manage landbase impacts.