Summary
• More than 40% of Québec’s productive forest is certified.
• Foresters are moving away from mosaic cutting.
• The mountain pine beetle will kill an estimated 800 million m³ of timber.
• The 2010 Winter Olympics will feature several signature timber buildings.

Buzzing over the Boreal forest in a helicopter gives a unique perspective on logging practices.

Having written about Canada’s forest industry for more than seven years on TTJ, I felt I knew them fairly well – in a remote sort of way. But I was quite unprepared at the vastness of the forest stretching out to the horizon.

This first Québec leg of a sustainable forest management tour with the Canadian Forest Service was an opportunity to find out how the forests are being managed and was set against a background of Canadian mills shutting down and the industry experiencing the worst market conditions in recent memory.

Québec’s forests cover 761,000km² – equivalent to Norway and Sweden combined. Fifty-five per cent of this area is productive forest, of which more than 40% is certified, the vast majority being Canadian Standards Association or Sustainable Forestry Initiative certified.

FSC certification

The low level of FSC certification is attributed to the National Boreal Forest Standard only being developed by FSC Canada in 2004.

The Luc St Jean forest management unit (FMU) I visited covers 57,000km² (one of 74 FMUs in Québec) and sees the harvesting of 3.5 million m³ of softwood annually, and 0.4 million m³ of hardwood.

Spruce comprises about 60% (mainly black spruce) of the area, with balsam fir/white birch about 37%. About 1% of the FMU is harvested each year.

Some environmental groups are critical of industry logging practices.

One unexpected criticism was from a young passenger on a connecting flight to Québec who said it was “terrible what they’re doing up there”. “You can see they’ve left only the trees next to the water,” he said.

Images can bring judgement on a country’s forest management practices even when those practices were abandoned over a decade ago.

“Implementation of forest policy is slow,” said one Québec forester during the tour. “We are still living with the results of previous logging policies, like mosaic cutting. It remains for many years. Policy is evolving.”

As the name suggests, mosiac cutting involves the clear-cutting of sections of the forest, which has a dramatic impact on the landscape, and researchers now understand, detrimental effects on wildlife.

Natural regeneration

Most of Québec’s management practices are now based on natural regeneration, with as much as 75% of the forest growing back naturally.

Newer policies such as the Shelterwood Scheme, which is aimed at producing an even-aged forest, as well as being more beneficial to wildlife, are coming to the fore. Shelterwood, typically being used in black spruce and balsam fir stands, involves harvesting in two or more cuttings so new seedlings can grow, which maintains forest cover.

Foresters are still learning and discovering that climatic conditions, forest dynamics and spruce budworm outbreaks are all affecting growth patterns.

Pine beetle

Flying to the other side of Canada brings a different forestry environment, with larger dimension trees, a warmer climate and the mountain pine beetle outbreak. In British Columbia, about 800 million m³ (predominantly lodgepole pine) is predicted to be lost from the current outbreak.

A Canfor spokesperson stressed that beetle-killed wood is still usable – the timber roof of the Richmond Oval speed skating venue in Vancouver is perhaps the best example.The logs, with the characteristic blue stain, can still be milled several years after attack, although cracking can occur. Smaller diameter and shorter logs produce a better product.

But how the industry can harvest the vast number of dead trees and find a market for the wood in a declining market is a difficult question.

Like Québec, BC has a high level of forest certification – more than 51 million ha of the 60 million ha of forests are certified, with about 15% of the 25 million ha of old growth protected.

Vancouver Winter Olympics

This ready supply of certified timber is reflected in the construction of venues for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Buildings at the Whistler Olympic Park and in Vancouver itself, notably the Richmond Oval, showcase timber construction in a way that the London 2012 Olympics venues have not yet realised.

The Oval features Douglas fir glulam arches spanning 300ft, supporting a beetle-killed timber roof, while a visitor centre at Whistler features heavy use of cedar and Douglas fir.

At the end of my visit I was presented with a tour evaluation form which asked where I ranked Canada in sustainable forest management terms – “1, 2 or 3 in the world?”. To be honest, that’s a difficult one.

There are many variables across the globe – different forest management practices, certification schemes, habitat and species. But Canada is certainly up there. Ask most UK timber importers/traders about Canadian timber and most would probably have no worries about the forest management practices of the country.

One of the most thoughtful tour contributions came from First Nations tribal council adviser Clifford Moar, who said: “In my culture the land does not belong to us, it belongs to nature.”

Tensions between nature and industry will always remain, but if the forest industry keeps learning then it bodes well for a sustainable future.