Wildfires are a common disturbance event in the Canadian boreal forest. Within event boundaries, the level of vegetation mortality varies greatly. Understanding where surviving vegetation occurs within fire events and how this relates to pre-fire vegetation, topography, and fire weather can inform forest management decisions. We used pre-fire forest inventory data, digital elevation maps, and records of fire weather for 37 naturally-occurring wildfires (1961 to 1982; 30 to 5500 ha) covering a wide range of conditions in the western Canadian boreal forest to investigate these relationships using multinomial logistic models. Overall, vegetation mortality related to a combination of factors representing different spatial scales. Lower vegetation mortality occurred where there was lower fuel continuity and when fires occurred under non-drought conditions. Higher classification accuracy occurred for class extremes of no mortality (i.e., unburned areas within the burn event) and high mortality; partial vegetation mortality classes were harder to distinguish. This research contributes to the knowledge required for natural pattern emulation strategies, and developing responses to climate change.

Tree improvement programs can improve forest management by increasing timber yields in some areas, thereby facilitating conservation of other forest lands. In this study, we used a meta-analytic approach to quantify yields of alternative white (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) and hybrid spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelmann x Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) stocks across planting sites in the boreal and hemiboreal forests of Canada. We extracted meta-data from published tree improvement program results for five Canadian provinces covering 38 planting sites and 330 white and hybrid spruce provenances. Using these meta-data and a random-coefficients nonlinear mixed-effects modelling approach, we modelled average height over time trajectories for varying planting site characteristics, as well as climate transfer distances between planting sites and provenances. Climatic transfer distances had strong effects on the height trajectory parameters. In particular, the asymptote parameter had a nonlinear increasing trend with planting site versus provenance mean annual temperature differences. We incorporated the height trajectory meta-analysis model into an existing growth and yield model to predict volume yields. Overall, this research provides a mechanism to quantify yields of alternative provenances at a particular planting site, as a component of decision support models for evaluating evaluate forest management investment into improved planting stocks alternatives under current and possible future climates.