Chuck Bulmer

• Researcher at Ministry of Forests

Machine-learning is the automated process of uncovering patterns in large datasets using computer-based statistical models, where a fitted model may then be used for prediction purposes on new data. Despite the growing number of machine-learning algorithms that have been developed, relatively few studies have provided a comparison of an array of di...

The response of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. var. latifolia Engelman.) seedlings to three levels of soil compaction and water content was evaluated in raised beds filled with a sandy clay loam soil. In compacted soils, seedling survival, height, root collar diameter and root growth were reduced. Soil water regime was adjusted with irrigati...

Increased mechanization during timber harvesting activities has led to concerns that compaction may negatively affect the long-term productivity of soil. A greenhouse study was carried out to determine the effects of soil compaction under three levels of soil water content. Mineral soil was collected from a landing in central British Columbia, Cana...

The widespread use of heavy equipment during timber harvesting and site preparation can lead to reduced soil productivity and warrants development of new methods to assess compaction. We evaluated the effects of soil particle density, organic matter, particle size distribution, extractable oxides, and plastic and liquid limits on the maximum bulk d...

Cryosols with thick surface organic horizons consisting of folic material derived from forest litter and feathermosses occur on northerly slope aspects in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia. Designation of a new Folic Organic Cryosol subgroup in the Canadian System of Soil Classification would enable more realistic depiction of soil l...

Information on the spatial distribution of soil pH is essential for assessing soil quality and soil productivity. Digital soil mapping (DSM) is commonly used to predict soil characteristics over various types of landscapes. Over the past decade, researchers have made progress using machine learning techniques to provide reliable predictions of soil...

Although British Columbia (BC), Canada, has a rich history of producing conventional soil maps (CSMs) between 1925 and 2000, the province still lacks a detailed soil map with a comprehensive coverage due to the cost and time required to develop such a product. This study builds on previous digital soil mapping (DSM) research in BC and develops prov...

Silviculture systems and associated forest harvesting practices that affect the level of soil compaction and organic matter retained on a site will cause changes to soil properties and processes that may affect the growth of planted trees. We present results for soil conditions and tree growth after 15 years for 6 Long-term Soil Productivity Study...

Digital soil mapping (DSM) techniques have provided soil information that has revolutionized soil management across multiple spatial extents and scales. DSM practitioners have been increasingly reliant on machine-learning (ML) techniques; yet, methods to generate uncertainty maps from ML predictions are limited. To address this issue, this study in...

The movement and storage of carbon is a central focus across the natural resource sector due to the impact of carbon cycle dynamics on global climate change. While many of our activities on the land focus on above-ground forms of carbon, the largest terrestrial carbon pool is found in the soil. Soil organic carbon (SOC) makes up 85% of the terrestr...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the largest terrestrial carbon pool, and is an important consideration in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Land management can cause direct gains or losses of SOC, and can also have a measurable impact on the ongoing processes that affect SOC over the long-term [1, 2, 3]. However, this impact is site-specific....

Accurate soil organic carbon (SOC) maps are needed to predict the terrestrial SOC feedback to climate change, one of the largest remaining uncertainties in Earth system modeling. Over the last decade, global scale models have produced varied predictions of the size and distribution of SOC stocks, ranging from 1000 to >3000 Pg of C within the top 1...

The perhumid region of the coastal temperate rainforest (CTR) of Pacific North America is one of the wettest places on Earth and contains numerous small catchments that discharge freshwater and high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) directly to the coastal ocean. However, empirical data on the flux and composition of DOC exported fro...

Knowledge of the spatial distribution of exposed bedrock (EB) is essential for natural resource inventories, environmental monitoring, and landscape evolution modelling. This paper presents a method for the use of a Random Forest (RF) classifier and legacy land data to locate areas of EB in a mountainous landscape of southern British Columbia, Cana...

The perhumid region of the Pacific coastal temperate rainforest of North America (PCTR) is one of the wettest places on Earth and contains numerous small catchments that discharge freshwater and high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) directly to the coastal ocean. However, empirical data on the flux and composition of DOC exported fr...

The need for improved soil inventory information in the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada, was addressed using a random forest (RF) classifier that was informed using legacy soil data. RF models were prepared for 110 ecodistrict subdivisions of BC, and predictions were subsequently assembled into a final soil parent material map mosaic cove...

The Okanagan Basin is undergoing extensive hydrologic modeling in an effort to better understand regional water supply and demand issues. To assist in providing spatially explicit soil data to the modeling effort in this 8000-km2 mountainous watershed in southern British Columbia, a digital soil map based on a 25-m DEM was compiled using a variety...

There is a growing interest world-wide in an economy more firmly based on bioenergy and bioproducts (i.e., the bioeconomy). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the standard approach for evaluating environmental effects of bioeconomic activities, and therefore is a key component of product certification, market acceptance, and policy development. Given t...

Sustainable forest management (SFM) is a cornerstone of forest management, whether the resulting forest products are destined for the manufacturing sector or for the emerging bioenergy feedstock market. In British Columbia, research on the environmental effects of forest management has generated scientific knowledge that has informed two linked are...

Our objective was to produce a digital (raster) soil map for a tributary watershed within the Okanagan Basin of southern British Columba by disaggregating soil series from within polygons of harmonized legacy soil maps. Individual soil series were assigned to grid cells of a 25 m digital elevation model. We used a fuzzy membership inference using t...

McConkey, T., Bulmer, C. and Sanborn, P. 2012. Effectiveness of live soil reclamation and reforestation techniques on oil and gas well sites in northeastern British Columbia. Can. J. Soil Sci. 92: 165-177. Techniques developed for forestry landing reclamation were applied to five oil and gas well sites in northeastern British Columbia to ameliorate...

Forest harvesting operations that use portable chipping systems to generate biomass chips from logging residue are currently in use in British Co-lumbia. Leaving deposits of residual materials after harvest has been com-pleted can reduce productivity and affect soil hydrologic function. We summarize the research on the ef-fects of chipped woody mat...

Growth of lodgepole pine (Pines contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) seedlings after two growing seasons was reduced by medium and high levels of compaction in loamy sand and silt loam soils that received one of three compaction treatments (low = 0.70 relative bulk density [RBD], medium 0.79-0.82 RBD, and high 0.84 RBD). Survival was re...

Soil compaction often limits conifer regeneration on sites degraded by landings and roads, but inadequate understanding of the relationship between compaction and tree growth could lead to inappropriate soil conservation and rehabilitation efforts. We tested liquid and plastic limits, oxidizable organic matter, total carbon, particle size distribut...

Krzic, M., Zabek, L., Bulmer, C. E., Chapman, B. K. and Trethewey, C. 2009. Soil properties and lodgepole pine growth on forest landings rehabilitated by tillage and fertilizer application. Can. J. Soil Sci. 89: 25-34. Soils on forest landings are often degraded and unable to support optimal growth of planted conifers unless rehabilitation practice...

In British Columbia and elsewhere, governments are evaluating the sustainability of forest practices. This requires the development of sensitive and reliable indicators and their monitoring over time. Conserving soil productivity and hydrologic function is a key aspect of forest ecosystem sustainability. British Columbia's Forest and Range Evaluati...

Soil disturbance by heavy machinery usually causes a decrease in porosity and an increase in soil strength, which may limit access to nutrients and compromise seedling survival and growth. This study used a soil strength and a greenhouse experiment to assess the impact of compaction on lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. Ex. Loud. var. latifolia...

Rehabilitation of skid trails, temporary roads, and log landings is required for many harvested sites in British Columbia however, more information is needed regarding practical methods to return these access areas to productive forest. Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) seedlings (1 + 0) were planted into (i) fu...

We evaluated soil conditions of rehabilitated log landings in the Interior Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone of British Columbia during the first 3years after treatment and the growth of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) on these log landings over 8 years. Rehabilitation treatments included combinations of tillage...

Soils on forest landings (areas of cutblocks where harvested trees are processed and loaded onto trucks) are often degraded and unable to support optimal growth of planted conifers unless rehabilitation practices are applied. In British Columbia (BC), cattle often graze forage on forest landings. This study evaluated the effects of cattle grazing o...

Blouin, V. M., Schmidt, M. G., Bulmer, C. E. and Krzic, M. 2005. Mechanical disturbance impacts on soil properties and lodgepole pine growth in British Columbia's central interior. Can. J. Soil Sci. 85: 681-691. Forest landings are areas located adjacent to haul roads where harvested trees that were skidded from the cutblock are processed and loade...

We studied the effects of commercially,available (Laccaria laccata (Scop.:Fr.) Berk. & Br. and Rhizopogon parksii Smith (Oregon source)) and native (R. parksii (British Columbia source)) ectomycorrhizal,(EM) inoculants on the survival and growth,of commercially,grown,interior Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga,menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco) seedling...

Rehabilitation of temporary landings and roads constructed on fine-textured Alfisols must ameliorate poor soil structure, high bulk densities, and greatly reduced organic matter. A long-term field experiment in the central interior of British Columbia (BC) was begun in 1995 to compare soil properties and seedling growth on landings rehabilitated wi...

The widespread use of heavy machinery during harvesting and site preparation in timber plantations in British Columbia (BC) has led to concerns that compaction causes a reduction in long-term soil productivity. Impacts of properties such as total C, water content, and texture on compactability of forest soils in BC were assessed. Two compactability...

We determined post-establishment tree growth and soil properties on rehabilitated log landings and forest plantation sites with medium texture in northeastern British Columbia. Six years after rehabilitation treatments were applied, 60% of rehabilitated landing plots had more than 1000 stems ha -1, while 17% had fewer than 600 stems ha-1. The avera...

Two-year field performance of lodgepole pine seedlings: Effects Abstract Interior lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) seedlings were grown in Styroblocks™, Copperblocks™, or AirBlocks™, and inoculated with Rhizopogon rubescens or Hebeloma longicaudum, or left as non-inoculated controls. Seedlings were planted into different rooting envir...

We studied operational landing rehabilitation programs in three forest districts of interior British Columbia (BC). Winged subsoiling and grass/legume seeding, followed by planting of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. Latifolia) generally resulted in successful re-establishment of forest cover on landings. In the Boundary district, fifth year tre...

In early 1994, a research project was initiated to evaluate the success of several techniques aimed at restoring productivity to degraded soils on landings near Vama Vama Creek, 44km east of Prince George in Central British Columbia. Soils were developed from morainal parent materials, the usual surface soil texture was silt loam. Two organic amend...

A number of investigations have been carried out to improve our ability to predict the effects of machine traffic on soils and forest productivity. In year 1: • The variable response of planted seedlings to soil conditions representing undisturbed plantation soils, unrehabilitated access, and rehabilitated access structures highlighted the need for...

We present a conceptual approach for an integrated system to evaluate soil physical conditions and the effect of forest management on the productivity of BC's forests. The proposed approach addresses the need for improved methods both to prevent compaction and to better interpret soil compaction status. Our efforts complement existing systems for e...

In 2005-06, we continued efforts to improve our ability to predict the effects of machine traffic on soils and forest productivity.

Soil rehabilitation is an important strategy for enhancing timber supply where productive forest land is limited, as it is in much of BC. The benefits and costs of reclaiming roads and landings need to be documented so that managers can implement the best options for keeping roads active, deactivating them, or restoring them to establish a new fore...

Forest management practices often result in soil disturbance and compaction, which in turn strongly affect ecosystem stability and site productivity. Bulk density (BD) is traditionally used to measure soil's compaction state, but BD is strongly influenced by texture, organic matter content, and other soil properties. Consequently, it has been diffi...

We visited 27 reclaimed oil and gas well sites in northeast BC that were decompacted and planted with lodgepole pine between 1994 and 1999. The reclamation work was carried out as part of an effort to gain experience with reforestation as a potential strategy for improving abandoned oil and gas sites. Reclamation techniques included decompaction ei...