This week:

One forest

leads

to.

another

Hundreds of years ago, our for-
ests began growing from a base of
nothing more than rock and water.
The process was called "primary
succession” and a present day
example of this natural phenom-
enon can be found at the Nass
Valley lava beds. The words
"primary succession" simply
describe the stage-by-stage growth
of.a forest from simple rock and
mosses to fertile soil and hemlock
or Douglas fir. Because it is one of
the final species in the process of
succession in the Northwest, hem-
lock is described as “climax speci-
3", With these terms defined, let’s
look at the sucession of an imagin-
aty Northwest forest.

Imagine a landscape barren of
any growth. A landscape of noth-
ing more than rocks and water.
The only thing this apparent waste-
land has going for it is an atmos-
phere with wind to distribute plant
life and oxygen to help it grow.

In the beginning, dust and
Organic matter are. blown in from
adjacent forests. This organic
matter biodegrades and mixes with
pockets of dust in sheltered depres-
sions, and from this meager begin-
ning lichens (basic mosses) grow.

As they grow and die, these
lichens provide nutrients to the
growing layers of dust and in time
there is "soil" where more compli-
cated mosses grow. Aided by
surface water, these mosses begin
breaking down the base rock and

Forestry Insights;
I have a question for your con-

sulting foresters
silviculture.

Along the Terrace to Kitimat
highway corridor, starting at
Onion Lake, there is a pruning and
thinning method I don't unders-
tand. Namely, why have the trees
been pruned halfway up the iree,
with their slash left on the ground
exposing all the stumps from previ-
ously logged timber?

Isn’t this a fire hazard and aren’t
the trees exposed to disease from
such severe pruning? Directly
across the highway is an area left
untouched. Could you please
explain this as I find ithe untouched
area more aesthetically pleasing.

regarding

Ms. S. Rosang, Terrace B.C.

The pruning is being done to
create clear wood in the first or
"butt" log when it’s harvested. If
the branches were left, they would
continue to grow and when har-
vested the tree would produce

lumber with large knots. By trim- -
ming the* branches, -the: tree will:
eventually surround the remaining .

the soil depth eventually grows to
two or three inches, allowing
grasses and small herbs to take
root. These grasses and herbs help
to further break down the rock,
and as they die add even more

‘fhutrients. This sets the stage for

the next level of succession.

Shrubs, like huckleberry and
blueberry, begin growing, And as
the soil depth grows, deciduous
(leaf bearing) trees ‘take root. This
is the early beginning of our fore-
st. In the Northwest, these decidu-
ous trees would consist of species
like poplar, aspen, alder and
cottonwood. What species grows
where depends on the specific
biogeoclimatic conditions — the
elevation, the type of soil and
nutrients, the amount of shade and
shelter, and the amount of precipi-
tation in a specific area.

After a few years pine, which are
sun-loving conifers (needle bearing
trees), begin growing. Again, the
exact location depends on biogeo-
climatic conditions. In low-lying
wet areas cedar might be found.

In time, shade-loving conifers |
take root under the pine. The first

species to grow will normally be
spruce. A while later, the spruce
are followed by balsam and the
balsam are followed by hemlock.
In a hundred years or more, most
of the pine and all but about 20
percent of the spruce are gone, In
about 500 years, virtually all the
| Spruce a and t pine will be gone — if

=-RS

stubs and the knots in the manu-
factured product will be no larger
that the branches that existed
before pruning. In other words,
you will have virtually "clear"
lumber.

The forest service advises that
the pruning will be done in two
phases because the trees are cur-
rently too short to prune to the
height of one log. One log
measures five meters, or about 16
feet, which is an ideal length for
the production of standard cuts of
lumber. In order for the trees to
continue . growing normally,
though, at least 40 to 50 percent of
the original foliage must be left
after pruning,

The cut branches are being left
on the ground to decompose and
provide nutrients to the site. To
reduce the fire hazard, the cut
branches are being removed for a
distance of 15 to 20 meters back
from the highway and main roads,

In a few years, this area will be
as aesthetically pleasing, if not
more so, than the untreated stands
in the same area. ,

by Tod Strachan

‘there is no interference by nature

or man -—- and we'll have a forest
that looks much like what we see
in our area today. All future regen-
eration will be primarily balsam
and hemlock, and our forest will
be referred to as a "climax forest",

And this whole process has taken
only a few hundred years. Taken
in perspective, though, the growth
of our forest has spanned 25 or
more generations of human life.

But not every forest reaches this
stage of growth. Sometimes the
process of primary or natural suc-
cession is interfered with. Fire,
blowdowns from wind storms and
logging can all change the natural
growth of a forest. At this point,
we begin a process called "secon-
dary succession", and the initial
growth of the new forest depends
on what species of plant life are
left behind. .

After a fire or logging... only the
species left continue to exist. In

most cases these will be shrubs”

and trees like alder, aspen and
cottonwood. Again, the particular
species in a specific area depends
on biogeoclimatic conditions.
There is always plenty of sunlight,
though, and whatever takes root

Request —
for fee
waiver

declined

by city

A request from Terrace and
District Community Services for a
full fee waiver at the swimming
poo! and the arena for 30 special
needs clients has been denied by
city council,

In making their recommendation
to deny the request, it was noted
by the Community and Recreation
Service Committee that Commun-
ity Services js already taking ad-
~vantage of a 50 percent discount
offered by the city and are present-
ly paying only $55 a month for the
use of these facilites. "There was
some. discussion about setting a
precedent in awarding one group a
100 percent waiver for the use of

~ our facilities, as we could see other
. equally needy groups requesting

the same in the future," the com-

- mittee concluded.

will often triple and quadrupie in
the first three to four years. There
will be few balsam or hemlock,
however. These trees like. shade
and at this point in the secondary
forest there is none. —

If left, pine will begin growing in
well-drained areas and cedar will
take root in low wetlands in about
five years. This, of course, is in

the Northwest. On Vancouver

Island and the the Lower Mainland
north to Kemano it might be
Douglas fir. In the Kootenays,
lodgepole or white pine. In the
interior, you will likely find
ponderosa or lodgepole pine. But
let’s stay with our imaginary
Northwest forest.

Pine has a relatively short life-
span. It’s period of vigorous
growth ends after about 80 years
and it is then susceptible to disease
and the pine bark beetle. But about
15 to 20 years after the pine takes
root, the next order of succession
begins. From middle elevations
down, this would probably be
spruce.. At higher elevations, it
might be hemlock. ;

In about 100 years, the spruce
and hemlock begin outgrowing the
original pine, and nearly 200 years
after the fire or logging has taken

place we have a new forest ready
for harvest.

If done properly, man can change
the course of this secondary suc-
cession, though. If well managed,

spruce, which would normally be ~

ready for harvest in about 100
years can be cut in 50 to 60 years.

And Hemlock, which normally
. Matures in 100 to 150 years can be

ready in about 80 years.

But this forest management is
critical. Many of the things we do
must duplicate nature. Some trees
were never meant to grow and
never will grow in certain areas.
We can’t play games. We have to
learn the lessons of nature and
obey the rules. What ever we do
during secondary succession dic-
tates what we get out of it and this
could be either a forest of great
wealth or nothing at all.

If we understand this, though,
why have we seen "failures" in our

attempts to grow new forests. And

if we admit to failure in some
cases, what do we do? How do we
deal with a specific sites? What do
we put there? How do we pet back
to harvestable trees? Next week,
we'll begin looking at more site-
specific examples.

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DIRTY SHIRT

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