Feature

The restoration of critical ecosystems is no longer a nicety. It’s a necessity. Why? Foresters, farmers, and virtually the entire supply chain for many commodity products are experiencing increasing costs and often supply limitations. Those who supply the world’s consumers are aggressively searching globally for supplies, from fiber to fuel and even water; the long-standing models, including geographic operations, are now changing. Behind many of these challenges is a range of issues having to do with conventional growing and harvesting processes, yields they produce, and changes in the availability of soil moisture, fertilizers, and soil nutrients – all of which are important in supporting reliable supplies and affordable prices, at least with existing business and production models.

It’s no secret that we need more clean energy. What’s not so well known is the contribution purpose-grown woody biomass crops can make to a sustainable energy future in North America. Short rotation crops of hybrid shrub willow, for example, can produce large volumes of woody biomass and provide an array of environmental and socioeconomic benefits. Establishing the life-cycle economic benefits of short-rotation woody crops (SRWC) is critical to their adoption and widespread use. And in that respect, some hurdles remain, including scarcity of capital, underdeveloped supply chain, lack of knowledge and misunderstanding of environmental impacts. Nevertheless, considerable progress is being made in North America in developing this sensible source of renewable energy.

Anyone who has been following the evolution of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation –‘REDD’- could be forgiven harboring concerns as to how the mechanism will perform as it gears up for implementation over the next several years. The concept of REDD is just as compelling today as it was when first announced at the COP 11 of the UN Climate Convention in Montreal in 2005,

An abridged version of a background paper prepared for the 2011 Annual Conference of the Western Silvicultural Contractors' Association on February 3, 2011. The area of inadequately restocked or reforested land in British Columbia is larger than at any point in the history of forest management in the province and is estimated to be around nine million hectares, with about half attributable to the mountain pine beetle infestation.

British Columbia has significant areas of healthy and vigorous juvenile lodgepole pine, both pure and mixed with other species. Some areas, however, are showing a range of impacts by forest health agents, from light to severe. The Winter 2010 issue of Silviculture magazine presented two articles that raised concerns about the potential of lodgepole pine at, or near, the free-growing stage to reach forecast stand volumes at rotation. Lodgepole pine's vulnerability to a range of forest health agents, added to a potential gap in the mid-term timber supply following the mountain pine beetle infestation, has created a situation that requires attention.

“Heat stress” is a term to describe the total heat load imposed on the body by a combination of factors: the type of work being done, the surrounding air temperature and humidity, exposure to sunlight, air movement, and the clothes being worn. If the heat load is too great, the body’s core temperature rises, causing a variety of heat stress disorders ranging from an irritating heat rash to a life- threatening heat stroke.

The African Community Project in Zambia is creating community forests and giving the people a chance to take back their forests.

Over the past few decades, forest managers across Canada have been using a variety of Intensive Forest Management (IFM) silviculture treatments to achieve different goals and objectives in forest stands and estates.

The global financial crisis has temporarily depressed timber demand and prices, tightened credit markets, and dampened investor appetites for risk, leaving many timber managers struggling to manage, let alone invest in growth.