Background

Pristine landscapes dominated by mature and old-growth forests sequester and store more carbon, and higher biodiversity than any other terrestrial ecosystems on earth. This position involves identifying, mapping, describing, and developing conservation strategies to maintain healthy primary (unlogged) forested landscapes in Ontario. By conserving more primary forest, more carbon will be removed from the atmosphere and more wildlife species populations will be effectively sustained. Once protected, these primary forest landscapes will also provide more long-term recreational opportunities for people. The federal government has committed to protecting 30% of terrestrial ecosystems by 2030, which leaves only 4 years for Ontario to protect ~20 million ha. Our work is designed to facilitate this effort by providing ecological and spatial information required by planners and decision-makers to meet this objective.

The new employee will use a new dataset created by: Peter Potapov1,2, Svetlana Turubanova2, Peter A. Quinby3, Alexey Yaroshenko4, John Brandt1, Andres Hernandez-Serna2, Alexandra Tyukavina2, Elizabeth Goldman1, Nancy Harris1. A manuscript describing this work is in preparation for submission to the journal: Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/forests-and-global-change).

1 World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, USA

2 Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

3 Ancient Forest Exploration & Research, Powassan, ON, Canada

4 Independent expert, Moscow, Russia

This dataset provides GIS shape files for High Carbon Primary Forests (HCPF) in Ontario, which are defined as follows: at least 10% forested, trees at least 5 m tall, at least 1,000 ha in size, and at least 50 years old. The primary focus of this work will be to provide detailed mapping and analysis of HCPFs as they relate to the 39 forest management units (FMUs) that are in the central and northern regions of Ontario, known as the “Area of the Undertaking” (where industrial logging takes place).

Tasks

• Download, organize, and curate the HCPF dataset, and other related datasets to carry out ecological analyses over large areas (e.g., topography, water bodies, surficial geology, forest resource inventory, biomass, etc.).
• Organize and analyze data relative to (a) the 39 FMUs in the province, (b) the ecoregions and ecodistricts, and (c) woodland caribou ranges.
• Calculate and map ecological landscape metrics such as HCPF, unfragmented landscape, area protected, forest composition and surficial geology of areas protected (e.g., parks and reserves) vs. areas not protected, logging history (spatial and temporal), habitat for featured species, habitat for species-at-risk, high-carbon vs. low carbon landscapes, environmentally-sensitive areas, areas of rare species and habitats, opportunities for wildlife corridor connectivity that recognizes the need to connect to adjacent FMUs, area of planned logging, and other metrics that relate to developing forest conservation strategies.
• Assist with the development of conservation strategies for FMUs that facilitate protection of carbon sequestration/storage and ecological integrity at the landscape level including proposals for wildlife corridors, new parks and reserves, and restoration of logged/disturbed areas. The need to add 20 million ha of protected area means that each FMU will be requested to put forward plans to help achieve this. We will work with partners including Ontario Wilderness Committee, Natural Resources Defense Fund, University of Toronto, and World Resources Institute.
• Prepare reports and presentations to communicate findings including educating the public, participate in meetings with partners, regulators, and logging companies (sustainable forestry licensees), and carry out other related duties.

Must have: a GIS certifica