Sunshine Coast Forest District Silviculture

Overview
Introduction
Basic Silviculture
Incremental Silviculture
Album
Contact

Silviculture Overview

• Most treatments are tendered out to eligible local silviculture contractors and are supervised by staff members of the Sunshine Coast Forest District (SCFD).

• Co-ordination, planning and approval of all Forest Renewal British Columbia (FRBC) funded projects within the SCFD that are administered by Major Licensees (i.e. basic and incremental silviculture).

• Planning and approval of prescriptions for incremental treatments in free growing stands.

• Monitoring and assessing the forest health status of all forested lands in the SCFD.

• Review of post harvest silviculture prescription amendments.

• Maintenance of silviculture information systems (paper files, computer databases, etc.).

• Compliance and Enforcement, monitoring and inspection of major licensee silviculture operations. (Regeneration delay and free growing milestone obligations).

• Providing silviculture advice to licensees, public and other interest groups.

• Review and input of High Level and Operational Plans.

High Level Plans include:
- Timber Supply Review (TSR)
- Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP)
- Landscape Unit Planning (LU)

Operational Plans include:
- Forest Development Plans (FDP)
- Backlog Silviculture Prescriptions (BSP)
- Stand Management Prescriptions (SMP)
- Strategic Level Silviculture Planning - Resource Management Plans
- Conduct and assist in silviculture research

Introduction

The Sunshine Coast Forest District (SCFD) has a diverse mix of ecosystems (including 5 bioclimatic zones with 14 subzones). The Coast Mountains dominate the district with intersected coastal fjords and river systems. The climate and ecology is very diverse due to the mountainous terrain and the high rainfall common throughout the district. These conditions create a variety of ecosystems ranging from very productive, moist floodplains in the valley bottoms to high elevation alpine meadows.

For planning purposes, areas requiring silviculture treatments are separated into "Backlog" and "Small Business Forest Enterprise Program" (SBFEP). Areas harvested prior to 1987 are labelled 'backlog' while the areas harvested since 1987 fall under the SBFEP. Within the district, SBFEP areas are normally planted immediately following the completion of harvesting; this surpasses the legal requirement, under which areas must be reforested to satisfactory stocking (density) levels usually within 3 years of the harvest start date. Backlog areas in the district have proven especially challenging in the wetter portions of the district. However, virtually all backlog areas have been sufficiently restocked. The remaining backlog areas that require follow-up treatments are mow administered by the Major Licensees.

Silviculture treatments can be broken into two broad categories - Basic and Incremental.

Basic Silviculture

This category includes:

Site preparation

Planting

Brushing

Forest Health

Surveys

Site Preparation

Due to high wood utilization at the time of harvesting, most logged areas in the SCFD require little or no site preparation. The site preparation that is done is with the use of machinery and is prescribed for the purpose of creating additional planting spots by piling limbs and other debris following harvesting.

Planting

The majority of areas harvested in the SCFD are planted with mixed species plantations. Species combinations are chosen from eight coniferous species and two deciduous species, whichever are appropriate for each ecosystem. The seed used to produce the planting stock is carefully selected to ensure it is well matched to the planting site in terms of locations, elevation and performance. Seedlings are requested two years prior to the time of planting and are grown in a controlled environment in commercial nurseries. The majority of seedlings are fertilized with a blend of fertilizer at the time of planting which ensures that the seedlings have an adequate supply of critical nutrients to aid in better survival and accelerated tree growth.

Brushing

Brushing treatments using primarily manual treatments (hand tools or chainsaws) are done on many sites to control competing herbaceous plants or deciduous tree species. Generally, brushing is done once or twice on moist productive sites when trees are less than 12 years old. Brush treatments ensure that the growth of the coniferous crop trees are not impeded, suppressed, or damaged as they develop.

Forest Health Treatments

Many forest health insects and diseases are common throughout the district. Root rots cause mortality in young stands by infecting newly planted seedlings. Phellinum Armillaria are the common root rots which are managed by planting alternate tree species that are less susceptible to the disease.

White pine blister rust is a disease that commonly infects Western White Pine. Pruning treatments to minimize infection and the selection of more resistant families are being used to lessen the damage from this disease.

Animal browse damage on young seedlings from black bear, voles, porcupine, deer and elk are common problems in young plantations. Current practices of using tree shelters and cones installed at the time of planting have proven to minimize this damage.

Ground and aerial assessment of other damaging agents including defoliators and bark beetles are done to assess damage and develop strategies to deal with each situation.

Surveys

All harvested areas are monitored to ensure that they are successfully restocked with acceptable trees and eventually 'free-growing' within a legal timeframe. Stocking surveys are carried out at specific intervals to assess plantations to ensure they are adequately stocked with appropriate healthy species and not impeded by competing vegetation. A final 'free-growing' surveys is done (usually 10 - 14 years following harvesting) in order to confirm that a plantation has met the legal reforestation criteria, including:
i) stocking levels
ii) minimum age and height
iii) no forest health concerns
iv) free from competing vegetation
v) the new forest, overall is expected to continue into the future to develop into a new healthy stand of trees.

Incremental Silviculture

Incremental silviculture treatments are carried out on more productive sites that have met their legal 'free-growing' criteria. In the SCFD these activities include:

Juvenile Spacing

Pruning

Fertilization

Juvenile Spacing

Juvenile spacing is done to reduce the inter tree competition among conifers by removing the least vigorous stems, and allowing the most dominant preferred and healthy stems to increase their growth rate. In addition to accelerating growth and controlling density, spacing can also meet one or more of the following objectives;
i) increase wood quality and thus end-product quality and value
ii) reduce rotation length
iii) reduce final harvest and milling costs
iv) enhance biodiversity and wildlife habitat
v) maintain or enhance forest health

Pruning

Pruning is done to increase wood quality by reducing the number of 'knots' resulting from branches. Branches are pruned from the lower section of the tree to provide a branch free (knot free) core of at least 5.5 metres. Usually two tree pruning treatments are required with the first treatments done following juvenile spacing. Pruning also enhances wood density by allowing greater light penetration through the canopy and can be used to control disease like white pine blister rust.

Fertilizing

Fertilization treatments are done to accelerate the rate of stand development and thereby reduce the time for trees to reach a harvestable size. Generally, stands that have poorer nutrient status and are greater than 15 years old are given the highest priority. Fertilizer is also applied in very small quantities at the time of planting.

Contact

Sunshine Coast Forest District
7077 Duncan Street
Powell River, BC  V8A 1W1
Telephone:  (604) 485-0700
Facsimile:   (604) 485-0799
Email: Forests.SunshineCoastDistrictOffice@gov.bc.ca

Your comments or questions are welcome