Announcing New Boreal Forest Research: Crooked Lake Biophysical Survey 2000

Crooked Creek Conservancy Society of Athabasca

Introductory price of $70 (plus $10 handing) if ordered before September 1, 2005

Crooked Lake Biophysical Survey 2000
ISBN 0-9730835-0-6
330 pp.; 9 colour maps; 39 colour plates; figures; tables; references
Wiro binding
Available June 2005
Report: $90 (Postage and handling, add $10)

Make cheque or money order payable to:
Crooked Creek Conservancy Society of Athabasca
P.O. Box 2072
Athabasca Alberta Canada T9S 2B6
or contact [email protected]

Summary and Table of Contents available online:
http://fanweb.ca/clubs/CLRptAnnounce6pg.pdf

Abstract

Little is known about the flora, fauna, and significant natural features of the Central Mixedwood Subregion of the Boreal Forest Region of north-central Alberta. The complexity of natural environments is a major challenge to ecologists attempting to understand them, particularly the dynamics of change at both the local and landscape/ ecosystem levels. In the 11km2 Crooked Lake Study Area, vegetation types and associations (their species composition, age, and extent) are extremely diverse and form a mosaic in which old-growth stands predominate.

This diversity is due less to disturbances such as wildfire, and more to glacial origins: topography, soils, wetland distribution, hydrology, and microclimate variability, together with intervals of beaver and ungulate influences. To date, a total of 309 native vascular plant species (clubmosses, horsetails, ferns, trees, shrubs, and herbs) and only 13 introduced (non- native) species have been identified. Approximately 56 non-vasculars (lichens, liverworts, mosses, and algae) have been recorded, although a complete survey of this group was not feasible. To date, a number of rare, edge of range, hybrid, and otherwise scientifically significant plants have been recorded, as well as one rare plant association. The survey includes 233 vertebrate species: 35 mammals, 190 birds (of which 116 nest), 3 amphibians, and 5 fish. Significant ecological features, many of regional or provincial importance, are described and recommendations for further studies are listed.

About the authors

Graham C. D. Griffiths has a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Alberta, and is the author of many books, journal articles, and reports in the fields of entomology, botany, and conservation of natural areas. He is currently translating The Flora of the Russian Arctic. He has a special interest in rare vascular plants and has discovered several additions to the Alberta flora in the Boreal Mixedwood Subregions.

Deirdre E. Griffiths is a graduate of Queen's University where her thesis focused on fish morphology in relation to feeding ecology. In the early 1970s she was Chief Park Naturalist at Elk Island National Park. Later she became an ecological consultant involved with biophysical surveys of parks and natural areas in Alberta, one of her major studies being a cumulative impact ecosystem assessment (1900-1991) of Strathcona County's southeast watershed for its Lakes Management Plan.

Crooked Creek Conservancy Society of Athabasca is a not-for-profit volunteer organization established on the principles of nature restoration, conservation, and preservation. Crooked Lake Biophysical Survey 2000 is produced as part of the Society's scientific and educational mandate.