The saskatchewan shelterbelt inventory

Abstract

Shelterbelts represent a significant carbon reserve on the agricultural prairie landscape, and knowledge of their extent can be of importance to atmospheric carbon mitigation strategies. We describe the creation of a detailed inventory of the shelterbelts across the agricultural region of Saskatchewan. A total of 262 000 shelterbelts covering over 51 000 km were identified by species composition, row width, stand condition, and type. This inventory is an important baseline for monitoring changes in prairie agroforestry systems arising from climate change and land use conversion.