ICF Silvicultural Prize Honours Canadian Research
ICF’s prestigious prize for silviculture has been announced, with this year’s award honouring Canadian research. Arun Bose, Brian Harvey, Suzanne Brais, Marilou Beaudet and Alain Leduc have been jointly awarded the 2014 Percy Stubbs, John Bolton King and Edward Garfitt Prize for Silviculture (The Silvicultural Prize). The award was given in recognition of their paper entitled Constraints to partial cutting in the boreal forest of Canada in the context of natural disturbance-based management: a review, published in Forestry, 87(1): 11-28.
Clockwise: Arun K Bose, Brian D Harvey and Suzanne Brais,
Alain Leduc and Marilou Beaudet.
This is the second year running that Canadian research has attracted the accolade, with the 2013 award having gone to Dr Stephen Mitchell, for his work on wind as a natural disturbance agent in forests.
Forestry is ICF’s respected international journal of forestry research, produced by Oxford University Press. The Silvicultural Prize is awarded annually by the Institute to the author(s) of the paper which, in the opinion of the Editors, best meets the criteria set down by the anonymous donor of the prize fund.
Gary Kerr, Editor-in-Chief of Forestry, described the significance of Bose et al‘s paper:
“This paper is a significant advance in knowledge at the international level. It describes how a greater understanding of natural dynamics in the boreal forest has informed forest policy in Canada and how this has led to changes in silvicultural practice. The new approaches to silviculture, including variants of partial cutting, are increasingly being applied in the boreal forest to balance economic, ecological and social management objectives. The paper is an authoritative review of the factors that limit the application of these practices, highlights a number of operational challenges and proposes new research to address the gaps in understanding.”
Upon hearing of the award, lead author Dr Arun Bose said:
“We are honoured and expressing our gratitude for such a prestigious recognition. Natural dynamics inspired silviculture would probably be tested across the globe in coming years. Our paper reviewed the probable constraints associated with this forest management approach. We believe this award will help our work to reach greater audience”.
The Silvicultural Prize-winning article is available to read in full on the Forestry website.
