Media Clipping — Tuesday, March 12, 2002, The Halifax Herald

Too much clearcutting, many agree

By Paul Schneidereit

THERE'S TOO much clearcutting going on in Nova Scotia's forests.

That's what I heard from almost every person – including a government official, woodlot owner, contractor and several environmentalists – that I interviewed recently.

There's a lot of debate over whether we're overcutting but, perhaps surprisingly, the people I talked to basically agreed that the level of clearcutting – representing between 94 and 99 per cent of all harvesting, depending on whose figures you accept – needs to be reduced.

Let's start with Jorg Beyeler, forest planning manager at the Department of Natural Resources. Many critics charge that government and industry are in bed together on timber harvesting, so his perspective is especially interesting.

To Mr. Beyeler, too much – although he says he can't quantify HOW much – of our forest is managed on an even-aged basis. Even-aged stands consist of trees that differ by 20 years or less in age. At times, these stands may be partially harvested – called commercial thinning – but eventually all mature trees are taken, usually by clearcutting. A new stand then begins, through natural regeneration or planting.

On the other hand, uneven-aged stands consist of trees in two or three distinct age classes, he says. Harvesting only takes trees considered mature, leaving behind many younger trees.

The species considered best suited to uneven-aged management, Mr. Beyeler says, are those native to Nova Scotia's Acadian forest – like red spruce, white pine, eastern hemlock and shade-tolerant hardwoods like sugar maple and yellow birch. They are also the most sought after by harvesters, especially red spruce.

Even-aged management, he says, is more suited to balsam fir, jack and red pine and shade-intolerant hardwoods like red maple and white birch. These species, generally short-lived, are found in many areas due to past "highgrading" – destructive harvesting that cuts down only valuable trees, leaving species considered inferior behind.

Clearcutting those stands, many foresters argue and even some environmentalists agree, can help by giving species like red spruce the chance to return.

Wade Prest of the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association agrees clearcutting can help when forests have been degraded by past highgrading. But, he says, many clearcuts today are taking down even immature red spruce stands to feed the high demand for wood from provincial sawmills.

Nova Scotia has lost a lot of valuable red spruce growing stock over the last decade, he says. "It's been a lot of liquidation forestry. It really has. And the mills, even today, are still out there, competing vigorously to get those stands of red spruce off the private lands."

John Roblee of the Forest Group Venture Association of Nova Scotia says there's no question forests are being overcut. "We're going to be at that point where there's going to be some pretty hard head scratching going on, which mills stay open and which mills shut down," he says. The provincial government has to stand behind new regulations requiring industry and landowners to invest in intensive silviculture on harvested lands, Mr. Roblee says. "Just as much as you cut, you're going to have to put back on the land," he says. "Then we'll be all right. But we don't have the luxury any more of playing games. The industry knows it."

Mr. Beyeler acknowledges that between 1994 and 1998, private lands in Nova Scotia – which include over half the province's forests – were over-harvested by about 20 per cent. Cutting on Crown and industry-owned land was well within sustainable limits, he says.

With new silviculture regulations in place, the government's wood supply forecasts show the current level of harvesting is sustainable, says Mr. Beyeler.

But for how long?, environmentalists ask. No one knows if current harvest levels will, over the long term, hurt the soil's very capacity to grow trees.

Growth rates in two centuries are an unknown, agrees Mr. Beyeler. But all their data shows there should be no problems for the foreseeable future.

And so, the debate continues. Next, we'll look at industry's take on clearcutting levels.

Copyright © 2002, The Halifax Herald