DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICAL LAND CLASSIFICATION AND MAPPING IN SUPPORT OF FOREST MANAGEMENT IN NORTHERN NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA

For the sustainable development of forest land, as recently prescribed by the Canadian Forest Strategy, a land classification project in nor thern Newfoundland was initiated to support the local forest managemen t activities. The method adopted here is a modification of the Canadia n Committee for Ecological Land Classification's (CCELC) system, and i t applies various levels of mapping to uniform areas based on geomorph ology, soils, vegetation, climate, water, and fauna. In this study, al l CCELC levels were mapped; resulting maps were digitized and imported into a Geographic Informations System (GIS). The GIS data base contai ned the following maps: 1) digital terrain model, 2) bedrock geology, 3) surficial geology, 4) forest inventory, and 5) various levels of th e ecological land classification, including Vegetation Types at the lo west level. In addition to the mapping, mensurational data were analyz ed to provide stand and stock tables for each of the forest types, inc luding growth curves that could be entered into specific forest growth modelling systems to predict wood supply scenarios based upon differe nt management interventions.