Situations where green-up does not apply
The first step in assessing green-up requirements is to determine whether or not the requirements apply. Situations to which green-up requirements do not apply are listed in the Timber Harvesting Practices Regulation (THPR). It should be noted that green-up requirements do not have to be considered on or adjacent to private forest land that is not in a tree farm licence or woodlot licence because the Forest Practices Code currently does not apply to these lands. Also, green-up requirements do not apply if the proposed block is adjacent to an area that has been subject to a wildfire or other natural disturbance where harvesting has not taken place.
Green-up requirements do not need to be considered when authorizing a licence to cut (i.e., hydro right-of-ways, mining activities and other Crown tenures where clearing was allowed) or a Christmas tree permit, or when proposing a cutblock adjacent to a licence to cut or a Christmas tree permit.
Section 9(2)(b) exempts cutblocks to be harvested by a partial cut silvicultural system when 40% or more of the pre-harvest basal area is to be retained because the post-harvest stand structure will satisfy green-up objectives. The requirement for "uniform distribution" is included to prevent achieving the required 40% basal area by balancing very heavy cutting in one part of the cutblock with light or no cutting concentrated in another part.
Section 9(2)(c) is primarily intended to allow for the exemption of cutblocks to be harvested by a seed or preparatory cut of a shelterwood system, commercial thinning, and other partial cuts or intermediate cuts if basal area retention is less than 40%, the residual trees are uniformly distributed, and the residual stand structure satisfies green-up objectives. The onus is on the proponent to provide sufficient detail to enable the district manager to determine whether the residual stand structure will satisfy green-up objectives.
Subsection (ii) also provides for green-up requirements being met if the residual stocking will have a green-up height of at least three metres. For the cutblock to be considered "stocked with trees" the residual stocking (species, density) must be acceptable to the district manager.
Examples of where this might apply include:
Green-up requirements do not apply as long as the total combined cutblock area remains less than the specified or varied maximum block size.
This section is primarily intended to enable harvesting along boundaries of previously harvested cutblocks that are not yet greened-up in order to mitigate visual impact as set out in a visual rehabilitation plan.
Green-up requirements may be waived by the district manager to achieve a range of cutblock sizes to better match the temporal and spatial distribution of natural openings. Larger cutblocks are to be designed to retain the structural elements of natural openings, as guided by the stand management recommendations to maintain biodiversity in the Landscape Unit Planning Guide (under development as of January, 1999).
The term "resultant opening" includes the block to be harvested as well as any previously harvested cutblocks that will become amalgamated into a single opening. This subsection can be used to authorize harvesting of leave strips that will amalgamate previously harvested areas that do not meet green-up, where the objective is to create larger openings to mimic natural disturbance regimes. This clause enables landscape-level decisions to be implemented in advance of the establishment of landscape unit objectives.
In conjunction with approval of larger cutblocks or openings, the district manager may increase green-up requirements for these cutblocks to provide for complete recovery of stand attributes - before areas adjacent to these cutblocks can be harvested in the future. Larger patches require longer green-up at the landscape level.
Green-up requirements do not apply where the harvesting is carried out for the purposes of sanitation treatments, minor salvage operations, expedited major salvage operations or emergency harvesting. The proposed cutblock should incorporate structural characteristics of natural disturbances wherever possible. Natural openings generally have some or all of the following characteristics:
