4  Conclusion

The concluding recommendation of this review is to proceed with a scoped revision of both landscape guides in the short-term. A list of these recommendations for the BLG and GLSL LG are provided in section 4.1, while long-term revision recommendations for both guides are provided in section 4.2.

The core direction in the landscape guide was generally supported by participants of the workshops and surveys, as well as the review of relevant science and information. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the direction in the landscape guide, more time is required to continue implementing the guides. Changes to direction should be carefully considered in this context, as long-term monitoring and reporting is often challenged to make comparisons through time.

There are several minor opportunities for revision that were identified in these reviews, which would primarily modernize the landscape guides by adding clarity to direction and supporting consistent implementation of the guides. These form the basis of the short-term recommendations, which are intended to be delivered in time to support the next round of forest management planning. Recommendations to pursue more complex and potentially contentious changes to landscape guide direction are proposed as long-term revisions, as they are expected to take multiple years to develop.

In addition to revision recommendations, there are four general recommendations from this review that relate to landscape guide implementation and do not require revisions to the landscape guides:

4.1 Summary of Short-term Revision Recommendations

In conclusion of this review, is it recommended to proceed with the following scoped revisions of both landscape guides in the short term. The order of revisions does not indicate priority or intended sequence of revisions.

4.1.1 Boreal Landscape Guide:

  1. Incorporate the Spanish Forest into the Boreal Landscape Guide, as part of Landscape Guide Region 3E.

  2. Align texture and patch size indicator timing of assessment with recent changes in the Forest Management Planning Manual.

  3. Administrative updates to outdated references. For example:

    • Update to references to legislation (e.g., remove reference to Declaration Order under the Environmental Assessment Act, and update references related to the Endangered Species Act)

    • Update references to other policies (e.g., other forest management guides, caribou-related policies)

    • Include reference to the Validating and Revising Milestone Technical Note and Milestone Repository.

  4. Update references to science and information packages:

    • to align with outcomes of Boreal Simulated Ranges of Natural Variation Project, and

    • to clarify landscape guide application where there is disagreement between the guide and science packages.

4.1.2 Great Lakes-St. Lawrence (GLSL) Landscape Guide:

  1. Remove the Spanish Forest from the GLSL North Landscape Guide Region (to be included in the Boreal Landscape Guide Region 3E).

  2. Align texture and patch size indicator timing of assessment with recent changes in the Forest Management Planning Manual

  3. Administrative updates to outdated references. For example:

    • Update to references to legislation (e.g., remove reference to Declaration Order under the Environmental Assessment Act)

    • Update references to other policies (e.g., other forest management guides)

    • Include reference to the Validating and Revising Milestone Technical Note and Milestone Repository.

  4. Include a guideline regarding favouring non-landscape guide indicator achievement to the GLSL Landscape guide, consistent with Boreal Landscape Guide direction.

  5. Clarify landscape guide forest unit assignments to landscape classes.

4.2 Summary of Long-term Recommendations

In the long-term, this review recommends that advisory teams are established to address larger topics related to landscape guide direction. Specifically:

  • Collaborate on ways the landscape guide could be co-applied with Indigenous Knowledge and explore opportunities to enable this in the guide.

  • Identify options for the landscape guides to provide direction to planning teams regarding climate change at the landscape scale.

  • Identify options for the landscape guides to provide direction to planning teams regarding cumulative effects at the landscape scale.

  • Identify updates to caribou-related direction (Boreal Landscape Guide), consistent with results from Canada-Ontario Caribou Conservation Agreement

  • Continue to practice adaptive management and consider revisions where new science and information are available (e.g., results of effectiveness monitoring programs and projects)