The Forestry Sector Chapter 8 Prepared by Brad Stelfox, Bob Wynes, Frank Oberle, and Tim Barker Contributors Paul Folkman Joerg Goetsch Steve Luchkow Peter Murphy Harold Nicholson Darryl Price Tim Vinge Summary Points • During the last century, the forest sector has changed from a landuse based on small family-based operations intended for subsistence purposes and local economies to one characterized by large scale operations conducted by companies who adopt advanced woodland and mill technologies. • Small local logging operations prior to the 1960’s generally relied on diameter-limit harvest strategies intended to remove the largest most desirable trees from cutovers. • Harvest of softwood (conifer) trees has slowly grown from 200,000 m 3 in the early 1960’s to 1,200,000 m 3 in recent years. Hardwood harvest, essentially absent prior to 1993 now stands at ~1,600,000 m 3. Since 1966, ~23 million m 3 of softwood volume and 9 million m 3 of hardwood volume has been logged in northwest Alberta. • Whereas softwood harvest dominated logging operations in northwest Alberta during the last century, the harvest of hardwoods (primarily aspen) has grown rapidly during the last decade. Since the late 1980’s, the proportional contribution of softwood fiber to total volume harvest has steadily declined. • During recent decades, large forest companies have relied on 2-pass (occasionally 3-pass) clearcutting for both softwood and hardwood harvest. Some companies have begun exploring the use of structured cutblocks that allow for retention of residual green trees within cutblocks. • Cutblock frequency in northwest Alberta has varied from 300 to 600 cutblocks annually during the last several years. Annual variation in cutblock size is partially explained by annual frequency of fire and the number of attendant large salvage cutblocks. • Logging is a highly seasonal activity in northwest Alberta. Both cutblock frequency and area harvested generally increase from June through March, with minimal activity occurring during the period from April through July, when ground conditions are not conducive to harvest or trucking. Seedling planting on cutblocks occurs during the summer months. • Cutblock sizes are generally larger for hardwood than softwood cutblocks, presumably because of differing ground rules or regulations affecting harvest and regeneration strategies. • The prevailing approach to post-harvest regeneration of hardwood cutblocks is a “leave for natural” strategy where regeneration occurs through suckering or coppicing of aspen. More invasive silvicultural approaches are generally used for softwood species, particularly white spruce, to encourage an improved seedling substrate. These strategies for white spruce cutblocks generally involve different types of blades, plows, or mounders. The most common approach to establishing spruce on cutblocks is to plant seedlings following the site preparation phase. The Forestry Sector 8-1 Table of Contents Summary Points.............................................................................................................................................................1 Table of Contents...........................................................................................................................................................2 List of Tables.................................................................................................................................................................3 List of Figures................................................................................................................................................................4 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................7 A History of Logging in the Fairview Region...............................................................................................................7 Administrative Forestry Boundaries............................................................................................................................10 Locations of Pulp and Lumber Mills ...........................................................................................................................14 Summary of Logging in Northwest Alberta ................................................................................................................17 Longterm Trends in Provincial and Regional Harvest............................................................................................17 Annual Harvest Volumes........................................................................................................................................18 Harvest Patterns of Individual Forest Companies...................................................................................................21 The Softwood to Hardwood Trend .........................................................................................................................31 Annual Cutblock Frequency and Area....................................................................................................................31 Cutblock Size..........................................................................................................................................................31 Seasonality of Logging ...........................................................................................................................................31 Current Forest Companies and their harvest volumes ............................................................................................31 Harvest Strategies ...................................................................................................................................................31 Cutblock Size in different Forest Type...................................................................................................................31 Geographic Distribution of Cutblocks....................................................................................................................41 Site Preparation Strategies in the P1 and P2 FMUs.....................................................................................................47 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................47 Stage 1. The Beginning: 1960 - 1975 .....................................................................................................................47 Stage 2. The Swedish Influence: 1975 - 1980 ........................................................................................................47 Stage 3. Local Solutions: 1980 - 1990....................................................................................................................48 Stage 4. Mounding Techniques: 1990 – Present.....................................................................................................48 Regeneration Strategies used by PRPD and CanFor...............................................................................................53 General References on Forestry...................................................................................................................................57 The Forestry Sector 8-2 List of Tables Table 1. Starting year and end (where appropriate) year of selected sawmills, peeler mills, and pulp mills in northwest Alberta°. Data Source: Government of Alberta, Lands and Forest Service.........................................14 Table 2. Annual scaled log volumes (m 3) in Alberta and northwest Alberta (1930–1995). Data Source: Provincial logging summary prepared by Peter Murphy for Alberta Lands and Forest Service. .........................17 Table 3. Annual cutblock frequency by forest companies in northwest Alberta between 1966 and 1996. Data Source: Land and Forest Service, Government of Alberta...................................................................................21 Table 4. Softwood volumes (m 3) harvested by selected forest companies in northwest Alberta between 1966 and 1996. Data Source: Land and Forest Service, Government of Alberta.................................................................23 Table 5. Hardwood volumes (m 3) harvested by selected forest companies in northwest Alberta between 1966 and 1996. Data Source: Land and Forest Service, Government of Alberta..........................................................24 Table 6. Total tree volumes (m 3) harvested by forest companies in northwest Alberta between 1966 and 1996. Data Source: Land and Forest Service, Government of Alberta...........................................................................25 Table 7. Annual patterns in harvest of softwood and hardwood tree volumes (m 3) in northwest Alberta between 1966 and 1996. Data Source: Land and Forest Service, Government of Alberta.................................................32 Table 8. Annual cutblock frequency and area (ha) harvested for PRPD (Peace River) and CanFor (Hines Creek). Data Sources: Woodlands Divisions of PRPD and Canadian Forest Products Ltd. .............................................33 Table 9. Average annual cutblock size (ha) for PRPD (Peace River) and CanFor (Hines Creek Data Sources: Woodlands Divisions of PRPD and Canadian Forest Products Ltd. ....................................................................35