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Getting Started

Navigating this Report

 

This report consists of two companion reports—one for the Northern Operating Area and one for the Southern Operating Area. All the features necessary to navigate within each report as well as switch between reports are included in the bookmark on the left of the screen. These features include:

Main Menu

The main menu is accessed through the hamburger menu in the "bookmark" on the left-hand side of the page. This report is divided into five chapters. From this menu, you can access each of the main chapters and their sections from anywhere in the report.

Tip: The down arrowhead expands when you are viewing a chapter within the hamburger menu. You can quickly navigate to any section within a chapter by making a selection from the expanded menu.

North and South Reports

Click these icons to navigate between the reports for the Northern Operating Area and Southern Operating Area. 

 

Information Guide

Click on the "information" icon in the left menu to access the report navigation guide. You can access this at any time without leaving the page you’re on.

The "page turner" arrows at the bottom left of your screen will sequentially take you through the report, page by page. For example, press the right arrow to move from Section 2.1 to Section 2.2.

Tip: If you’re interested in the full report, we encourage you to start with the Introduction found in Chapter 1, and use the page turner function (arrows on the bottom left of the page) to sequentially navigate through the report.

Jacqueline Dennett

Introduction

The average age of forests is a useful indicator of the balance between disturbance rates and aging of forest stands.

  • Average age in a natural environment is expected to stay roughly constant over time, as aging of undisturbed stands balances the loss of age when burned stands are reset to 0 years.  
  • Forest harvest may substitute for fire in areas with effective fire suppression, although harvest affects older stands, while a broader age range can burn.

In this section, we report the average age of different stands types in Tolko’s Northern Operating Area in 2010, 2021, and after the 2023 fires. 

Results

Change in Stand Age

The average age of all forested stands in Tolko's Northern Operating Area was:

2010

86
years

2021

83
years

2023

71
years

Highlights

  • The average age of all stands in Tolko’s Northern Operating Area dropped from 86 to 83 years from 2010 to 2021.
  • Aging of natural stands and a smaller component of aging in harvest areas was almost completely offset by decreases in age due to fires during this timeframe. New forestry dropped the average age 3.8 years, while non-forestry human footprint had a very small effect, bringing the average forest age to 83 years. 
  • Due to the 2023 fires, which burned 13.6% of Tolko’s Northern Operating Area (see Section 2.4), the average age of the forest dropped substantially, to 71 years.  
  • While variation in average stand ages is natural, continued declines in average age of stands would eventually compromise the ability to maintain species that require older forest.
 
Average Age of Forest Stands

Average Age of Forest Stands. For the Northern Operating Area, the average ages of forest stands, by stand type, in 2010, 2021, and 2023 (square symbols). Also shown is how stand age was affected by land base changes between 2010 and 2021 (green shaded area), including: native stand aging, forest harvest area aging, fires, new forestry footprint, and other human footprint. 

Graph Interpretation

For different stand types from 2010 to 2021: 

  • Deciduous stands showed a small increase in average age as aging outweighed disturbance. 
  • White Spruce and mixedwood had larger declines in average age, due primarily to forestry. 
  • Pine had a modest decline, from a mix of fire and forestry. 
  • In treed lowlands, fires resulted in about a 11-year drop between 2010 and 2021, similar to the drop from the 2023 fires. 

All stand types then lost 11–12.5 years of average age after the 2023 fires. 

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