Climate Change Affects BC Forestry Management

by Jim Cooperman

Early in December, the Ministry organized a oneday symposium and a follow-up workshop in Prince George called “The Future Forest Ecosystems of BC – Exploring the Opportunities.” In a note to the invited workshop participants, Snetsinger noted, “…. we are facing a number of challenges in managing our forest ecosystems into the future. Factors such as climate change, the increasing impact of fire and biotic disturbance agents pose significant concerns.These concerns have raised the question of whether the current management paradigm will be able to respond effectively to the challenges.” 

The symposium was a real wake-up call. On day one, speaker after speaker outlined the problems that forestry faces and provided a litany of management failures, the impacts of which are being further exacerbated by climate change. Participants fi rst heard about the global context for BC’s future forests from UBC professor Rob Kozak. Given rapidly increasing global population growth and consumption, the rapidly growing tree plantations in more southern locations will out-compete BC for cheaper wood products in commodity markets. His solution is to move towards producing more value-added products using less volume, thus allowing BC forests to provide more ecological services.

Ministry of Forests and Range climate expert Dave Spittlehouse provided predictions for the future climate. By the year 2080, mean temperatures will have increased anywhere from two to four degrees, while overall precipitation levels may not be affected. However, the trend could likely be drier summers and wetter winters. 

UBC forestry professor Suzanne Simard explained how research has demonstrated that current management practices simplify forests and end up reducing “resilience to evolving disturbance regimes brought by climate change.” Brushing, spacing and thinning have been proven to be costly and usually ineffective and often increase the risk of disease. Broadleaf trees, especially birch, that are routinely cut to reduce competition, should often be left standing, as her research shows how conifers benefi t from underground transfers of nutrients through mycorrhizal networks linking the roots of the different tree species. The mountain pine beetles have also been attacking younger plantations and where the trees have been spaced, the damage is most severe. 

Free Growing Regulations 

Simard led the charge by laying part of the blame on the free growing regulations that require licensees to ensure cutblocks are fi lled with conifers that are growing free from competition. “Planting pine or fi r and removing birch to meet free-growing has the potential to increase disease, reduce soil microbial diversity, and alter nutrient cycles, with implications for long-term productivity and resilience to infestations,” explained Simard. As well, in BC, lodgepole pine dominates planting programs, even in forests where there was little pine prior to logging. As a result, the area with pine has tripled in size in the last one hundred years. 

Resilience became the symposium’s buzzword when Simard recommended that it serve as the goal when designing future forests that above all need to be diverse. 

With increased heat will likely come more fi res and this will impact the timber supply, reminded Brad Hawkes with the Canadian Forest Service. And fi re probability is also increasing, as the area of forest that is more susceptible to fi res due to increased fuel load and fi re suppression has increased 7 to 14 percent in the last fi fty years, and by 2032 it will increase by 29 percent. Every year the fi re season begins earlier. 

Pathogen Risk 

Kathy Lewis from UNBC also found fault with the free growing regulations that focus on stand productivity but increase the risk of disease from pathogens. Examples included root disease that increases in stands that were thinned or brushed to reduce broadleaves, and the fungus Dothistroma, which recently killed most pine plantations near Smithers. Climate change threatens to further stress forests, thus decreasing resistance to pathogens and changing the range of host species. Lewis reminded the group there was a need for more government forest health professionals. 

With climate change, foresters should disregard many of their existing plans, as insects are unpredictable, said Forest Service entomologist, Lorraine Maclauchlan. Extreme weather events trigger insect population increases, as do warmer winters, which kill fewer beetles and add more reproductive cycles. The mountain pine beetle problem is not the only one: the spruce beetle recently wiped out massive forests in Alaska and the Yukon. And in BC, spruce budworm, spruce beetle and balsam bark beetle are also increasing. Maclauchlan was optimistic that in the end, the insects will win, despite attempts by foresters to slow down infestations. 

Former longtime Forest Service ecologist Jim Pojar, who is now with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, predicts that climate change will result in expansion of Douglas fi r, coast transition and grassland ecosystems. As well, there will be a loss of alpine, and shrubs and bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) will expand. It will be diffi cult to predict or to monitor the change in vegetation that will likely occur as the climate warms up. There is a need to revive landform and soils mapping, as vegetation maps will no longer work. And there is a need for more and larger protected areas for benchmarks and conservation of biodiversity. 

Pojar did not mince any words: “Can science and research provide the foundation for forest management in BC? Yes, they could, but only if there is an institutional commitment to sustainability of a range of forest values and to sustainability in its ecological, economic and social dimensions. And only if biodiversity, ecological integrity, and resilience become management goals rather than constraints to fi bre fl ow and allowable cuts, as is currently the case. Without such commitment, science is just the handmaiden of industry and its servants in government.” 

Greentree and Broadleaf Retention 

When it comes to species selection for future planting, maintaining diversity by using “smart genetic mixtures” is important, recommended professor Sally Aitken, with UBC’s Centre for Gene Conservation. As the climate warms, western larch, blister resistant white pine, and ponderosa pine could be grown further north. More consideration should also be given to using natural regeneration, green tree retention and broadleaves for diverse forests. Faced with uncertainty, Aitlan urged that foresters should above all avoid doing the same thing everywhere. 

On the second day, Deputy Minister of Forests and Range, Doug Konkin, opened the workshop with concerns about the current forestry paradigm that focuses on timber values. Above all, he called for better cooperation between practitioners and researchers through adaptive management in order to address such complex issues. That morning, the eighty invited participants from industry, government, universities, consultants and ENGOs (environmental non-governmental organizations) broke into six groups to further explore the challenges and come up with some ideas for change. 

In the afternoon, each group leader provided power point summaries. Key recommendations included:

 • Managing for variability to improve ecosystem resilience; 

• Doing more prescribed burns and improving fi re management plans; 

• Increasing retention in beetle areas; 

• Installing more climate stations; 

• Improving biodiversity protection; 

• Improving forest health planning and monitoring; 

• Increasing diversity on the landscape, including more broadleaves; 

• Increasing partial cutting and green tree retention; and 

• Revising the free growing policy to allow for much of the above. 

The symposium and workshop served as a call to action and Chief Forester Jim Snetsinger pledged to be the champion for change. There is a website set up for this project and already many of the presentations are available as PDF fi les. The complete proceedings from the workshop should be ready by the end of January 2006. The next steps are still unknown, but it looks like BC will be in for some major changes in forestry as it struggles to adapt to global warming. 

*** 

Contact: www.for.gov.bc.ca/hts/future_ forests/#os

[From WS January/February 2006]

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