Table 3 |.

Summary of factors affecting resilience of selected forestry BMPs

BMP Class	Climate Change Sensitivity	Adaptation Strategies
Wildland fire control and suppression	• Increased frequency and severity of drought will necessitate more severe suppression techniques, making it more difficult to minimize adverse effects • Drier conditions and unstable soil will increase the amount of soil disturbed and ground cover lost, further increasing erosion and runoff from suppression activities	• Increase public awareness about how wildfires may change with climate change as fire suppression efforts become more costly with warming climate • Remove active fuels from sites to control fires before they occur • Maintain natural fire regimes to reduce long-term intensities of wildfires • Manage fuel buildup by thinning or prescribed fires
Use of prescribed fire	• Increased frequency and severity of drought may limit the applicability of controlled burns as forests become drier, especially with increasing intensity and unpredictability of winds • Invasive species and pest infestations may increase difficulty in selectively administering controlled burns	• Promote use of controlled fires in areas where severe wildfires are expected • Consider use of mechanical thinning in forests with very high fuel loads and extreme drought
Road location and design	• Increased risk of road-related landslides and soil erosion due to severe and frequent precipitation, storm events	• Modify culvert size to reduce risk of flood damage • Avoid construction of roads near unstable soils to minimize risks of slope failure from precipitation and snowmelt
Stream crossings	• Changes in timing and volume of peak flows may damage infrastructure, pose threats to aquatic life, and impact potable water where stream crossings occur if they are not designed appropriately • Existing crossings may not be adequate if high flow events increase	• Increase culvert size below roads to reduce risk of flood damage to existing stream crossings and downstream resources • Evaluate established crossings to assess present suitability • Design stream crossings to be compatible with geomorphology of streams
Landing area management	• Soil is extensively disturbed at log landings, leading to erosion and runoff that is amplified by increased precipitation and storm events	• Scatter logging slash over landings and skid trails to stabilize and reduce erosion after operations • Consider placing landings a significant distance from streams likely to be affected by extreme precipitation events
Yarding operation	• Erosion may increase due to increasing frequency of heavy precipitation • Increased precipitation may also increase the hazard of slope failure in forested areas where ground-based operations are placed • Erosion may increase in select areas with permafrost melting	• Establish operational sites on stable soils • Consider precipitation and storm potential before establishing skidding and yarding infrastructure
Erosion prevention and control	• Mitigating the effects of mechanical vegetation treatment post-operation will likely increase in difficulty as changing precipitation and storm patterns increase erosion, runoff, soil instability, and slope failure	• Perform low-impact harvesting • Adjust harvest schedules to focus on winter harvesting • Consider partial harvests • Switch to pre-operation erosion prevention rather than post-operation control
Harvest unit planning and design	• Increased runoff and flooding after harvesting in response to increased heavy precipitation	• In cold areas use winter harvest to mitigate impacts of wet soils on harvesting • Reduce large-scale clearcutting • Promote natural regeneration • Increase rotation periods in coppices
Selective cutting	• Increased climatic variability, heavy precipitation and permafrost melt may lead to soil instability • Forests may require increased frequency and intensity of selective cutting due to increased prevalence of insect infestation and disease	• Modify harvest schedule to remove stands that are vulnerable to disturbance • Use persistent wood products to mitigate carbon losses when harvested • Adjust harvest schedules to winter-focused harvesting
Streamside management zones (SMZs)	• Heavy precipitation could increase flow velocity and decrease efficiency of buffer filtering and promote gullies in buffers • Increased tree mortality changes the width, density, and composition of buffers	• Increase buffer width and density where possible to enhance the ability of the buffer to absorb nutrients and filter sediment • Use Effective Function Width tool to assess and maintain effectiveness of stream buffers

Note: See Supplementary material for references.