Maps forecasting the availability of logging residues in Canada

This publication contains a shapefile of the post-harvest forest residues in Canada for the bioenergy/bioproducts sector (ODT/yr) over the next 20 years. The maps were produced from remote sensing products at a spatial resolution of 250 m on the MODIS pixel grid and 30 m on the Landsat pixel grid. More specifically, we used forest attribute data at the 250 m pixel for the years 2001 and 2011 (Beaudoin et al 2014 and 2018) combined with forest cover changes for the years 1985 to 2015 at 30 m (Guindon et al. 2017 and 2018). Results of available biomass (in the form of harvest residues) were reported at the 10 km x 10 km scale, while the map of mature forests in Canada was prepared at the forest management unit (FMU) level.

Briefly, our methodology consisted of three steps: 1- create a map of mature forests for the year 2011, based on 2001-2010 average cut volumes within FMUs; 2- develop an annual cut rate from the area harvested within FMUs from 1985 to 2015 and; 3- define the amount of biomass in the form of forest residues available for the bioenergy sector. The biomass of branches and leaves of forest attribute data at 250 m pixel was used as a proxy to define the biomass of forest residues available.

Nationally, the average biomass of forest residues available after harvest is 26 ± 16 ODT/ha, while the total annual availability for all managed forests in Canada was 21 million ODT/yr.