Monitoring and reporting
The way you begin your tree planting project connects directly to the way you want to frame your survival assessments and monitoring later on. Success is subjective, so it’s best to talk about how you will define project success early in the project planning phase between all collaborating parties and then determine how survival assessments and monitoring will be carried out after planting. For forests planted for future timber production, surveys tend to be more elaborate to ensure that the planting activities meet stand objectives over time to reach an ideal marketable volume. A tree planting project with the goal to enhance biodiversity will want to make sure to include species-level measurements of survival. The following considerations should be discussed and documented at the beginning of the project to determine if and how the trees will be monitored:
Project objectives
Target density/stocking level in future years
Plans for thinning operations later in the life of the forest
- Target species stocking level (e.g. are some species of trees or shrubs being planted as a nurse crop only to facilitate the growth of anther target tree species?)
Target species richness/biodiversity measurement
Once you have a good idea of the objectives for your forest, choose an assessment protocol and measurement. Two common ones are % survival (alive/planted) and stocking level (represented with basal area per hectare or tree density per hectare). Provinces have stocking standards for management units within public land forests. For example, in BC they are described in detail in the area’s forest stewardship plans (FSP) and in Alberta, forest managers follow the Reforestation Standard of Alberta. For planting trees on private or municipal land , project managers have more flexibility in evaluating stocking standards, and subsequently choosing a survival and monitoring protocol to use.
Species Performance
There will be variation across species in terms of growth and vigor so be mindful of these as you survey the planting site. For example, in Ontario white spruce tends to grow slower than red pine in the first few years following planting, but will catch up to the pine later on in the growing stages. Some conifers can show signs of winter desiccation like brown needles and poor vigor but often bounce back the following season. In this case, the buds will tell you how the tree is doing. Take note of these physiological observations while keeping in mind that some species display different unique patterns of conditions over their establishment and will usually prosper through the first few tough years of establishment.
Technology
Some documents, technology and equipment that make survival assessments and monitoring easier include survey templates, ESRI products such as ArcGIS, Survey123, Collector, as well as open-source platforms like QGIS. Having a reliable hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) Unit will also be a useful tool for projects with larger properties and if you need to navigate back to the same sampling plots for each survey.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is a newer metric for tree planting success but is becoming more and more important to include in your monitoring protocols due to its connection to ecosystem function and overall forest health. iNaturalist is an open-sourced tool that can assist with biodiversity reports for your planting projects.
Data management
Investing in a geospatial database management system will be a good idea if your project is very large, has many compartments, includes a lot of data, or if you are managing a program that has many projects inside of it. Having a database will help down the road with reporting to funding agencies as well. Project management can get complicated when you are visiting the same site many times for follow-up monitoring and survival assessments, then going back for refill, so technology can go a long way with making project tracking more efficient.
Summary
In the decades following your tree planting project, it’s important to keep reviewing and renewing the goals and objectives of the forest. The best projects are ones that come with long-term strategies for the mature forest into the next generations. Plan to meet with your landowner/land manager in the later successional stages of your forest’s development to re-assess and plan for any thinning operations, biodiversity plantings, or wildlife enhancement opportunities.
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The RCC is dedicated to continuous improvement of tree planting knowledge exchange and welcome feedback. To get in touch about any resource, reach out to us at resources@reforestcollective.ca
