NTFPs in Gap-Driven Ecosystems

Some commercially- and culturally-important plants characteristic of gap-driven ecological communities in B.C. and their uses are shown in the following table.

Click on the English name to see a photo of the plant species and click on Map to see the species’ distribution map. The photo and map will open in a new browser window. Click the Close button at the bottom of the image before clicking on another species or map.

Note: Some plant species have a limited occurrence outside of the disturbance regime in which they generally occur. This is because any mapping exercise is, by nature, a generalization. Thus the conditions of a particular disturbance regime may exist in small pockets in adjacent regimes (e.g. small areas of dry disturbance-maintained communities may exist on dry southerly aspects within the general area of moister disturbance-driven communities).

All of these species occur on cool, moist organic soils, and all are mildly to moderately shade tolerant. For most floral greenery and horticultural species, partial shade is necessary for optimum commercial quality. For berry species optimum production seems to occur at somewhat higher light intensities. However, at least some canopy cover is required for most of these species to prevent site invasion by light-demanding pioneer seral species such as red alder and salmonberry.

Management strategies for gap-driven NTFPs will focus on the regulation of sustainable yield, protecting NTFP resources from degradation by resource extraction activities (i.e. logging), and ecosystem co-management through the manipulation of tree-canopy density to increase productivity of both commercial trees and NTFPs.