A large proportion of forest land in New Brunswick, Canada (ca. 50%) and eastern North America as a whole exists in small private holdings. If biodiversity is to be conserved at the landscape and regional level, it will be critical to develop tools for involving these many landowners in large-scale conservation planning. The purpose of this project was to initiate a community forestry project for small private woodlots that encourages the implementation of landscape ecological objectives. To accomplish this, the Greater Fundy Ecosystem Research Group and the SNB Wood Co-op, Ltd., cooperated with local communities in the Fundy Model Forest, New Brunswick, to create landscape ecological management plans for two watersheds. Initiation of this landscape-level project involved four steps: (1) developing criteria for selection of candidate watersheds; (2) applying criteria to all watersheds of the Fundy Model Forest and selecting priority watersheds; (3) organizing public meetings in candidate watersheds to develop community priorities for landscape planning; (4) and developing a landscape-level watershed management plan. Important components of this plan included the maintenance of large contiguous patches of mature forest, special management areas, steep slopes, sensitive soils, wildlife corridors, and ecologically significant areas. This landscape-level plan is being used as the context for finer scale woodlot management plans in two watersheds.

andscape ecology, woodlots, watershed planning, biodiversity