Using the Past to Guide a New Way Forward

A commonly held idea in forestry is that whether you’re logging, burning, replanting, or whatever else, it’s best to do so in ways that mimic nature. Imitating the patterns of nature tends to decrease unforeseen ripple-effects. It seems that globally, we’re at a moment of reckoning. With uncontrollable wildfires lighting up the headlines every summer, the world is finally coming around to an understanding of forest stewardship that’s been held by Indigenous peoples for millennia: fire has its place on the land and interfering with that is interfering with nature.

WLFN recently completed treatments near Bond Lake and Thunder Mountain, and a similar treatment is in progress near Brunson Lake. The total area of these three treatments is about 505.3 hectares (180.3 ha for Bond Lake, 124.4 ha for Thunder Mountain, and 200.6 ha for Brunson). The three land treatments have a common goal: they impart a holistic view of land-management by rolling forestry, environmental stewardship, biomass production, and wildlife preservation into one. Stemming from these treatments, WLFN has already been asked by the Ministry of Forests to conduct a similar treat- ment in an area affected by spruce budworm near Pablo Creek.

The process starts with a question: what did forests look like 150 years ago? WLFN’s recent treatments seek to provide an answer to this question.

Driving around the Thunder Mountain lands, WLFN Stewardship Forester John Walker points out a dense patch of non-treated forest. These small islands of thick brush are left every 125 meters or so, as a visual break for animals. They give wildlife protection by obstructing sightlines from predators. These untreated patches are so dense, even walking through one would be difficult.

In a traditional clearcut, larger trees are the cashcow. But in the style of treatment WLFN has been conducting recently, the larger trees are left exactly where they are. Most trees under 25cm in diameter are taken out. A few trees (less than 10%) that are 35cm are taken out as well. The goal is to nurture the older, larger trees, while opening the landscape for other species. The smaller trees are the ones that would have previously been knocked back due to wildfires and cultural burning.

Moss doesn’t require much sunlight and is incredibly hearty. Starving an interior forest of fire results in a forest floor that’s almost entirely moss. Once the area has been cleared by burning, interior forests welcome new growth of arnica, rose, raspberry, sxúsem, varieties of grass, numerous species of mushroom, and myriad other species. Mycelium networks underground becomes stronger, having a greater variety of proteins and nutrients to exchange between plants and fungi.

The trees that are left behind are also rewarded. An overabundance of trees means there isn’t enough moisture to go around. With their longer, deeper roots, big trees do a better job of collecting and storing moisture, safeguarding the landscape against drought. Once their dripline has been cleared of competition, larger trees have an easier time gathering and retaining moisture. Similarly, large trees grab more carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the ground more effectively than smaller trees. Once the small trees are cleared, large trees can perform this task better as well.

A combination of feller buncher and hand-treatment with chainsaw and brush-saw is used for the initial clearing process. Walker notes that it takes a great deal of skill with a feller buncher to carry out this type of work; the operator must regularly navigate tight spaces barely larger than the machine itself.

After the initial clearing is done, a processor sorts the wood by size and quality for market. Timber that isn’t up to par for the sawmill is later ground or shredded. The pulp can be sold off to Atlantic Power as hog-fuel for the biomass-fired generating facility in Williams Lake, or to Pinnacle Pellet to be turned into wood pellets. Adding this step means a huge amount of wood waste is removed from the land and converted into energy in a sustainable way, greatly reducing the carbon footprint of the whole operation.

While beneficial from the environmental angle, it comes at a cost: even with income generated from pulp-sales, the added expense of grinding or shredding the culled timber pushes a treatment like this into the red, making it unfeasible without external funding. WLFN has received extensive funding from government agencies like the Forest Enhancement Society of British Columbia (FESBC) for projects like Brunson, Bond Lake, and Thunder Mountain. For the Brunson fuel break project alone, FESBC contributed $1.5 Million, making projects like these financially viable for WLFN. Which brings us to burning.