North Island Timber Supply Area Timber Supply Review Data Package July 2020 __________________________________ __________________________________ Lesley Fettes, District Manager Albert Nussbaum, Director Campbell River Natural Resource District Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Operations and Rural Development __________________________________ Andrew Ashford, District Manager North Island Central Coast Resource District Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development North Island TSA Timber Supply Review Data Package July 2020 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1 2. BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 General ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Land use planning ...................................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Forest industry ........................................................................................................................................... 5 3. FIRST NATIONS CONSIDERATIONS .................................................................................. 7 3.1 First Nations .............................................................................................................................................. 7 4. CURRENT FOREST MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS AND ISSUES ......................... 10 4.1 Base case management assumptions........................................................................................................ 10 4.2 Climate change ........................................................................................................................................ 10 4.3 Cumulative effects ................................................................................................................................... 10 4.4 Major changes since the previous TSR .................................................................................................... 10 5. INVENTORIES .................................................................................................................... 13 5.1 Vegetation Resource Inventory ............................................................................................................... 13 5.2 Ecosystem mapping ................................................................................................................................. 15 5.3 Site productivity ...................................................................................................................................... 15 6. LAND BASE DEFINITION .................................................................................................. 17 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 17 6.2 Timber supply area boundary .................................................................................................................. 20 6.3 Non-provincial Crown lands.................................................................................................................... 20 6.4 Not managed within TSA AAC ............................................................................................................... 21 6.5 Timber licence reversions ........................................................................................................................ 21 6.6 Non-forest ................................................................................................................................................ 22 6.7 Roads, trails, and landings ....................................................................................................................... 22 6.8 Provincial parks and miscellaneous reserves ........................................................................................... 24 6.9 Recreation sites and trails ........................................................................................................................ 25 6.9.1 Sayward – Snowden Recreation Trails ...................................................................................... 27 6.9.2 Sayward – Snowden Recreation Area ........................................................................................ 27 6.10 Inoperable areas ....................................................................................................................................... 27 6.11 Unstable terrain ....................................................................................................................................... 28 6.12 Sites with low timber growing potential .................................................................................................. 29 6.13 Problem forest types (non-deciduous) ..................................................................................................... 30 6.14 Deciduous ................................................................................................................................................ 30 6.15 Landscape level biodiversity ................................................................................................................... 31 6.15.1 Old growth management areas (OGMA) ................................................................................... 31 6.15.2 VILUP SMZ mature and old seral requirements ....................................................................... 32 6.15.3 Disturbance outside of the THLB .............................................................................................. 33 6.16 Stand-level biodiversity - wildlife tree retention ..................................................................................... 33 i North Island TSA Timber Supply Review Data Package July 2020 6.17 Riparian reserve and management areas .................................................................................................. 36 6.17.1 Streams ...................................................................................................................................... 36 6.17.2 Lakes and wetlands .................................................................................................................... 37 6.17.3 Sayward – critical stream reaches .............................................................................................. 37 6.17.4 Sayward – Lakeshore reserve and management zones .............................................................. 37 6.17.5 Riparian buffers ......................................................................................................................... 38 6.18 Wildlife habitat areas ............................................................................................................................... 40 6.18.1 Section 7 Species at Risk Notices .............................................................................................. 42 6.19 Wildlife management areas ..................................................................................................................... 42 6.20 Ungulate winter range ............................................................................................................................. 43 6.20.1 Sayward - spring forage ................................................................................................................ 43 6.20.2 Sayward – Elk visual cover ........................................................................................................... 44 6.21 Archaeological sites ................................................................................................................................. 44 6.22 Cultural heritage sites .............................................................................................................................. 45 6.23 Other reserves .......................................................................................................................................... 45 6.24 Growth and yield permanent sample plots and research installations ..................................................... 45 6.25 Karst resources ........................................................................................................................................ 46 7. CURRENT FOREST MANAGEMENT ASSUMPTIONS ...................................................... 48 7.1 Harvesting................................................................................................................................................ 48 7.1.1 Recent harvest performance ....................................................................................................... 48 7.1.2 Merchantability specifications ................................................................................................... 48 7.1.3 Minimum harvestable criteria .................................................................................................... 49 7.1.4 Harvest scheduling priorities ....................................................................................................