The current forest management practices that are approved and implemented in all of the zones are briefly described below.
• Basic silviculture — British Columbia laws require that areas which are harvested and expected to produce timber in the future must be reforested with ecologically acceptable species within a specified time frame. The typical silvicultural practice is to harvest by clearcutting, prepare the site if needed, plant and/or encourage natural regeneration to provide a mix of species, and brush to remove competing vegetation if needed. It is assumed that areas that are clearcut will be restocked within four to seven years, depending on the regeneration method.
• Rehabilitating problem forest types — Following harvesting, areas with problem forest types are reforested and managed to produce sawlog quality timber, thus increasing the size of the sawlog timber harvesting land base in the future.
• Harvest ages — Minimum harvest ages are set to define the time it takes for forests to grow to harvestable size. The minimum harvest ages used in the timber supply analysis vary by tree species: 80 years for lodgepole pine and 120 years for all other species.
• Timber utilization — Within areas clearcut for sawlogs, all coniferous trees that are greater than the following dimensions and can be manufactured into lumber must be removed:
• 10 centimetre top diameter
• 12.5 centimetre diameter at chest height for lodgepole pine
• 17.5 centimetre diameter at chest height for other species
• The utilization standards for problem forest types vary with each licence but in all cases they are more intensive than those for sawlog harvesting. For the purposes of the timber supply analysis, the following standards were used:
• 8.9 centimetre top diameter
• 10.5 centimetre diameter at chest height
• Soil conservation — Harvesting and road construction follow regional and provincial guidelines. For the timber supply analysis, it is estimated that approximately 3.3 per cent of the timber harvesting land base will become unproductive due to roads and some landings. This estimate is based on studies of local conditions.
• Forest health and unsalvaged losses — Losses of timber to fire, wind damage, insects and disease are minimized through an extensive salvage program. However, all the killed or damaged timber is not currently salvaged: annual losses are estimated to be 25,000 cubic metres.
