We have been deluged by responses to Barry Wynsma's thoughtful essay on Forest Service leadership - or the lack thereof. Provided here is some feedback on the essay.
Alberta
| Population: | 3.1 million |
| Total Area: | 66.1 million ha |
| Land Area: | 64.4 million ha |
| Forest Land: | 38.2 million ha |
| Provincial Parks: | 1.9 million ha |
Alberta’s forests feature a breadth of landscapes and land-use considerations that pose unusual and dramatic challenges to managing the province’s forests for the long-term benefit of all Albertans.
“One important aspect of forests in Alberta and most of North America is that they must support a diversity of interests and demands,” says Howard Gray, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Forestry Initiatives division of Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD). “We have to manage the forest for the benefit of all, not just one industry or group of individuals. The result is a real layering of activity on the landscape, and a whole group of challenges around how we integrate those activities to meet everyone’s expectations.”
A few examples: an oil and gas sector that over the last five years has averaged 15,000 wellsites a year; a forest sector employing more than 54,000 people; numerous communities that depend on the stability of natural resource economies; hundreds of thousands of residents near the Rocky Mountains east slopes who want access to forests and wilderness for recreation of all types; and a keystone agriculture sector that requires leases for grazing.
“The unique challenges faced by Alberta have encouraged government and industry to be innovative in virtually all areas of forest management, from developing new seismic techniques and practices to working on integrating land management through advanced computer models,” Mr. Gray says.
Sustainability
Spectacular trademark setting in
Alberta's Canadian Rockies
Alberta faces the challenge armed with a commitment to national and international standards of sustainable forest management and to the perpetual flow of all the forest’s products, services and amenities, from clean water to
wildlife habitat to ATV trails. It’s an approach that increasingly drives the push to landscape-level, integrated management—and one that seeks to minimize humanity’s footprint and maximize the ecosystem’s ability to continue its historical patterns of renewal and change. The legislation, regulations and policies underpinning this management approach allow for input from the public and other stakeholders—as in the case of the Alberta Forest Legacy, a policy document that outlines broad management and conservation directions for Alberta’s forests. The province fosters a regulatory environment conducive to the quality of life that comes from business and economic development.
Mr. Gray says this means the government tells forest users what results or outcomes are required, and lets them decide how to meet those objectives. Failure to produce is caught by audits and check-offs, and results in penalties.
“Our regulations aren’t prescriptive,” Mr. Gray explains. “For instance, government doesn’t tell forest companies exactly how to regenerate the forest after harvest. We tell them regeneration has to happen within a certain time and trees have to be a certain size within a specified period of time—the onus is on industry to figure out how to achieve the result. “We’re telling them what the public owners of the forest demand in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability, and they have to deliver the results. We provide direction in a way that allows companies and other users room for flexibility and innovation in how our objectives are met.”
Access to timber
Forest companies harvest almost one-fifth of one per cent of Alberta’s public forest each year—about 65,300 hectares (161,363 acres) in 2000. They are granted access to timber through 20-year areabased Forest Management Agreements and 20-year volume-based Quotas, and one- to five-year timber permits for local and small commercial operators.
In exchange for rights to harvest, companies provide two benefits to Albertans: one is cash, based on the value of timber harvested; the other—equally important—is in the form of services that reduce the management burden on taxpayers and the government. These services include forest management planning, detailed public consultation, prompt reforestation, road construction and maintenance, habitat management, water and soil management and more. It’s a cost of doing business that can add $2 or $3 to the company’s price on every cubic meter (1.3 cubic yards) of timber harvested. And again, all of these activities are conducted in accordance with forest management results and outcomes specified by the Government of Alberta.
Doug Sklar, Executive Director of the Forest Management Branch, says the province’s new draft Forest Management Planning standard is structured to encourage the adoption of evolving sustainable management practices. Alberta has adopted the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Sustainable Forest Management standard as a minimum; it sets out goals for harvest planning, public involvement, dispute resolution, timber supply analysis, reforestation, wildfire minimization, forest biodiversity and more.
The CSA standard is uniquely built on a national set of criteria and indicators of sustainability, and is one of the few in the world not developed or sponsored by an industry association or special interest group. It parallels or exceeds Sustainable Forestry Institute (SFI) demands and is being considered for equivalency with the Pan-European Forest Certification body. “We are stewards of a public resource, and forest practice must be guided by society’s needs and by innovation in research and technology,” Mr. Sklar says. “Alberta has made a commitment to sustainable forest management practices. Our management principles are based on internationally-accepted standards and criteria of sustainability, and we will expect forest management plans to develop objectives, targets and indicators to meet these expectations.”
The government’s role is to conduct inspections and take enforcement actions that ensure operating standards and expectations are being met. It also encourages clear and credible scientific research into how best to ensure sustainability of Alberta’s forests. Mr. Sklar says research over the past decade has advanced understanding of how forests evolved to their present state, and how human activity can be managed to enable forest ecosystems to function effectively. For instance, repeated patterns of wildfire and pest infestations mean few forest stands in Alberta are older than 200 years; many forest areas burned on a 60–70 year cycle before modern fire suppression practices were introduced.
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The Alberta economy also boasts a vibrant secondary wood products manufacturing sector. “The secondary or value-added forest products sector is an important component of the industry, and it holds significant potential for reducing the forest sector’s reliance on the fluctuating prices of commodity markets,” says Dan Wilkinson, Executive Director of SRD’s Strategic Forestry Initiatives division. “We want to build on our strengths by diversifying into new products and markets to get more value per cubic meter of wood harvested.”
Research
Alberta contributes significant dollars to forest research and development each year. One of the key challenges is ensuring that research results influence operational practices that improve management of renewable resources, says Dr. Keith McClain, Director, Science Policy and Strategy with SRD.
Dr. McClain works closely with government, industry and research agencies to identify Alberta’s science and technology needs related to land and resource management strategies. Putting knowledge to work in a practical fashion is the only way to translate the investment in new knowledge into the long-term sustainability of the resource, he says. Research and development is making significant changes in areas such as watershed management, ecosystem-based forest management and sustainable habitat for grizzly bears and woodland caribou.
The Alberta government is a primary partner in the Foothills Model Forest (FMF), a research area covering about 2.75 million hectares (6.8 million acres) and a component of the Canadian Model Forest Network. The model forest is a living laboratory for conducting research in a range of areas from grizzly bear habitat needs to natural disturbance to socio-economics. “The model forest brings together nearly 100 partners to tackle hard management questions through sound science,” says communications program leader Lisa Jones. “The result is that some of the most innovative land and resource management ideas and tools are being used to guide forest management in Alberta.”
The Government of Alberta also contributes $1 million a year to the Sustainable Forest Management Network (SFMN), a national research organization and Centre of Excellence based at the University of Alberta. SFMN is recognized internationally for its outstanding peer-reviewed research programs, and for developing new solutions to forest sustainability challenges.
Industrial footprint reductions
Alberta is investigating the development of an access management program to work closely with existing industry initiatives and other government agencies to reduce the industrial footprint on the province’s forests. Examples of actions include energy and forest industries collaborating to plan activities, and to build and using the same road networks. Alberta leads the way in reducing forest disturbance caused by the cutting of seismic lines for the booming oil and gas sector. Some 75% of new seismic lines approved each year on public and private lands are low impact. New approaches include the use of portable Geographic Positioning System units and continuous, meandering lines that accommodate natural features and values rather than impose the traditional straight line through the forest.
Today’s seismic lines average 3.5 meters (11.5’) wide, with some as narrow as 1.5 meters —a far cry from the standard eight-meter (26’) swath cut ten years ago. Dave Bartesko of SRD’s Public Lands and Forests division believes that in five years the average will be down to 2.5 meters (8.25’) or less.
The Alberta government enforces even stricter rules in highly sensitive areas. There, lines are zero-width, allowing for no cutting or equipment. Crews walk in and seismic units are lowered by helicopter through the forest canopy.
Regeneration and reforestation
Prompt reforestation is a crucial aspect of sustainability. Alberta enforces reforestation standards that maintain the natural mix of species that were present prior to harvesting, explains Scott Milligan of the Harvesting and Renewal section of SRD’s Forest Management Branch.
Reforestation standards specify requirements for tree height, vigor of regener-ation, stocking and freedom from competing vegetation. Reforestation treatment must occur within two years of harvest. A regeneration survey is conducted from three to eight years after harvest to determine whether a stand is reforested to standard.
Site preparation (mostly mechanical scarification) and tree planting are the most common reforestation treatments in coniferous and mixed-wood forest types, which are planted to a density of 1,500-1,800 trees per hectare (600-720 per acre). Some pine sites are left for natural regeneration if sufficient cones exist on site. Most deciduous sites are left to regenerate naturally due to aspen and balsam poplar’s characteristic of prolific ‘suckering’ after timber harvest. Larger companies carry out regeneration planning and operations at their own expense. Smaller operators pay a levy to the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta, which has authority delegated from the government to conduct reforestation work on their behalf. Each year, forest companies in Alberta invest CDN $140-150 million for reforestation activities and plant approximately 75 million seedlings.
Forest certification
Forest certification applies to forest products companies. The Government of Alberta supports the concept of third-party certification and has adopted the CSA’s Sustainable Forest Management standard as a minimum requirement in its new draft Forest Management Planning standard.
Alberta companies are responding to evolving marketplace demands for certified forests and products. More than 20 million hectares (49.5 million acres) of public forestland are certified, much of it under ForestCARE, a stewardship and audit program created by the Alberta Forest Products Association. Other certification programs used in Alberta include the CSA’s Z809 standard (5,230,000 hectares, or 12.9 million acres) and SFI (270,000 hectares, or 667,000 acres). Alberta-Pacific Forest Industry’s pulp operation north of Edmonton has recently been a key player in helping to develop a new boreal certification process for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Wildfires
In 2003, Alberta spent approximately $216 million battling more than 1,100 wildfires that burnt close to 78,900 hectares (195,900 acres). Over the last decade, an average of more than 1,000 wildfires have started in Alberta each year, affecting more than 196,000 hectares (484,000 acres) of forest annually.
The government strives to initiate wildfire suppression action before a fire exceeds two hectares in size, and to contain all wildfires at four hectares or less.
Alberta boasts the largest air tanker fleet in Canada as well as the country’s largest fixed detection system, featuring 131 lookout towers. Agreements with neighboring provinces and U.S. states allow Alberta to import and export resources as required. Alberta continues to work with municipalities, industry and homeowners to protect their communities from the threat of wildfire. Successful programs such as FireSmart protect Albertans and their homes by promoting activities that include fuel removal, vegetation management and public education.
Forest health
Efforts to limit incursions of the mountain pine beetle, a naturally occurring forest pest that has wreaked tremendous damage in British Columbia to the west, are paying off for Alberta.
Across Alberta’s eastern slopes (4.6 million hectares or almost 11.4 million acres) about 2.25 million hectares (slightly more than 5.5 million acres) of mature and over-mature pine trees are susceptible to the beetle. Aggressive monitoring and management strategies include pheromone baits and aerial surveys followed by systematic tree-by-tree ground surveys, says Sunil Ranasinghe, a forest entomologist with the Alberta government. Affected trees are cut and burned before beetle emergence each year.
“Ground surveys are costly and detailed, but are the only effective ways to detect infested trees before the beetles emerge and attack new trees,” said Mr. Ranasinghe, noting that ground surveys helped Alberta achieve a 70% reduction in the number of trees infected in 2003-04, compared to the totals of a year earlier.
Conclusion
Alberta’s experience with a multiplicity of land use demands, challenges and users has helped the province effectively manage its forests. Respecting the need to balance a wide range of economic, social and environmental values across a broad and varied landscape, the joint stewards of the resource have embraced sustainable forest management principles to ensure the longterm health of the province’s forests.
Forest management continues to evolve in Alberta as new knowledge and innovative techniques are applied to the province’s forests. Users of the land are succeeding in minimizing their impact on a single shared landscape. Alberta remains committed to the long-term health of the resource, and to ensuring that all Albertans share in the value and benefits provided by the province’s forests.
human need to use natural resources is fundamental to our continued presence on earth."