4. When.a. stand. of forest is. clear cut; what. remains

~ looks like a vacuum compared to what was there before.
But between the stumps lies the potential for anything in

the apparent chaos of. nature to > spring up and take over: 7

‘the vacant land.

" by Michael eaiy

Repressing that chaotic.
growth and controlling the after-

math of clear-cutting to produce
another forest that will eventual-
ly ‘produce trees with commer-
cial value are the primary objec-
‘tives. of the B.C. Ministry of
Forests silviculture operations.
It’s a complex undertaking, and
the results are unpredictable.
‘Much of the forest lands that
were logged in B.C. in the past

several: decades .weren’t ‘re- |

_ planted. The natural processes
took over, much like ..the
regrowth that begins in the wake
of a forest fire, on their way to
. the climax, old-growth forest
cover that takes hundreds of
years,

Hundreds of years, however,
is too long for commercial
_wood-consuming enterprises to
wait for another cover of trees to
harvest, so the government,

through the B.C. Forest Service,

and the woods industry are busy
cultivating new.forests that will
be ready to log, process.and sell
in less than 100: years;-It’s a

learning process, a process that

spins off new technologies, a

process that’s full: of surprises -

and paths to new concepts i inthe
science of how life interacts and

grows in the forest, an expensive.

process, and one that’s absolute-
ly necessary if the woods in-

dustry ‘is going to survive in -

anything resembling its present
form in B.C. after the available
old-growth forest has been cut.
“In 1985 the provincial and
federal governments signed a
five-year, $700 million agree-
ment to fund the replanting. of
clear-cut forest lands in B.C. —
the Forest Resource Develop-
ment Agreement, That agree-
ment expires in March of next
year. In the first FRDA, a sort
of declaration of intent was

struck that the agreement would:

be renewable at its coriclusion,
_ it appears now that FRDA II,
if it comes into being at all, will
be a rather different agreement
than: the original.. In Terrace
recently the federal Minister of
State for Forests, Frank-Oberle,
expressed conviction that there

will bea FRDA II, but with a

stronger emphasis on intensive
cultivation of planted forests
and a more long-term outlook:

$1 billion over 10 years, with the
cost-sharing ratio between the -
feds and the.province subject to -
. * quent
The first FRDA was a 50-50 .

negotiation.

agreement for $700 million over

five years; the FRDA II that_
Oberle hinted at would be less.

money per year, with. the prov-
ince probably paying a higher
proportion.

Out In the woods .

-Last week the people who. -
look after the forests and use the.

FRDA. money around here —
the Kalum. Forest. District and
the Prince Rupert Forest Region
staff — invited local media
reporters and representatives of
local. governments and industry

to take a first-hand look at what

FRDA has done and why a

rénewal of the agreement. is

necessary to keep doing it. —
Under cloudless blue skies and

a benevolent August sun we |

boarded a bus at Onion Lake for’

a dusty ride to the first site in the |
_Nalbeelah area near the Kitimat |
- River valley. The bus stops a few

kilometers down a logging road

‘to the east of Highway 37, next | -
to what appears to be a pasture

of fireweed behind a sign
informing visitors that this is

-part of the FRDA effort.

Although there are a number
of high-powered officials along
on this trip — Forest Minister
Dave Parker, Prince Rupert
Forest Region manager Brian
Downey, Kalum Forest District

manager Gerry Dodd — it’s |

Kalum district silviculturalist
Kim Haworth who does most of
the talking. Replanting and nur-
turing these struggling forests
are his turf.

Hidden among the waving
stalks of fireweed are tiny seed-

lings of Western Red. Cedar,

each marked with a flagged post
about the height of a tall man’s

“shoulder, barely projecting

above the fireweed, «with the
seedling tied for support to a
small stake at ground level, They
look small and vulnerable, bare-
ly a hand’s width high, but with
a long leader of green growth,
Haworth explains that the
seven-hectare site was logged if
1965 by Crown Zellerbach under
a type of timber license that has

- since passed into obsolescence.

The site was burned the same

year. Natural regeneration was [¥

allowed to take place, resulting

- in a mass of impenetrable brush

that was cut down and burned
{under FRDA) during the sum-
mer of 1986. .

Two thirds of the site was

“replanted with spruce,. hemlock,

cedar and amabilis fir, some of
the first container grown. seed-
lings produced in B.C. nurseries,
the following year. The year
after that, the entire block was
treated with the herbicide Vi-
sion, otherwise known as Round
Up. During those years’ the flat,
low-elevation site. also experi-
enced sudden and severe
flooding.. This year the entire
area was replanted again, mainly

. with cedar.
Next: year the site will get
‘another: herbicide treatment for

brush control, along with fre-
prayers from. silvi-
culturalists that spring freshets
don’t flood it again. It’s been
planted with 1,200 trees, com-
‘mercially valuable species, per
hectare. Forest Minister Parker
noted that Western Red Cedar
has only been a viable replanting
proposition in the past five
years. Before .that, the
technology to collect and grow
‘seeds didn’t exist,

sidered to be of-any. significant
commercial value. ;.

Every site Is an island

The. next. stop is along

( possibly .
because the species wasn’t con. -

recently found can be sold for a
tidy profit, almost exclusively as
raw log exports. This type of
sale helps prop up sawmill
finances. during periodic slumps
in markets for dimension
hemlock and spruce timber, the
meat and potatoes of B,C.’s ex-

Highway 37 a “few kilometers
north of the Nalbeelah project.
It’s a cottonwood spacing ex-
periment, and we don’t even
have to get off the bus to see it.

Cottonwood is another
species of trees in the Northwest
that the woods industry has

Kinsmen Club

ermod oan Society
WEDNESDAY Terrace Blueback Swim Club

‘Ladies of the Royal Purple
inadian Paraplegic Association

: B.C. Paraplegic Foundation
Terrace Peaks Gymnastic. Club
(Alternate).

youl Have a Nice day!

port sales,

The cottonwood seedlings
were planted over a large area at

densities from 600 to 1,100 per .
Haworth says their

hectare.
growth and health will be

continued on page 23°

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