Editor's Column
Guest Columns
Forest Facts
Some 1.5 billion trees are planted in the U.S. every year, about 5 trees for every American.
Annually, U.S. forestland owners plant about 6 trees for every tree harvested.
About one-third of America's original forest - some 300 million acres - have been converted to other uses, principally agriculture.
There are 26 million more acres of forestland in the Northeast than there were in 1900.
Today, forests blanket about one-third of the U.S. land base and about half the U.S. East.
U.S. annual growth rates have exceeded harvest rates since the 1940's.
Timber harvesting is forbidden on 50% of all National Forest lands in the U.S.
National Forests account for 20% of the nation's forestlands and 19% of its timberlands.
National Forests hold 46% of the nation's softwood timber inventory but only provide 6% of the annual harvest.
Since 1986, the harvest of timber from America's national forests has declined 70%.
In the West, 34% of all forestland and 54% of all timberlands are in national forests.
National forests in the Pacific Coast and Intermountain West regions hold 68% of the nation's softwood timber inventory, but provide less than 28% of annual harvest.
Forest density has increased 40% in the U.S. over the last 50 years.
Flying Finns
Home->Fall 2004
Fully 40% of Manitoba’s 247,000 square miles is forested. Mind you, just 60% of that forested land base is productive, in the sense of being able to support some kind of forest industry. Northern Manitoba’s forests are fretted with wetlands configured variously as bogs, fens, marshes or muskeg—and what isn’t wet on the unproductive portion is subject to frequent forest fires. The province’s stands are largely fire-origin, fire being both life—destroying and life—giving here.
Still, the annual allowable harvest for all species in 2001 was 3,760,000 cords of wood, more than enough for the three big companies together with smaller private operations and timber quota holders that presently harvest on provincially owned land, known as Crown land.
Tolko Industries Ltd. (lumber and kraft paper), Tembec Manitoba Inc. (newsprint) and Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. (oriented strand board) dominate the primary sector, each operating under a Forest Management License agreement with the Province of Manitoba. The province grants these companies operating tenure, the right to operate on a specified land base known as its Forest Management License Area (FMLA). These agreements are granted for a period of not more than 20 years.
Each company is required to prepare a longterm Forest Management Plan for the land included in its FMLA that incorporates strategic and operational considerations, as well as an annual operating plan outlining harvesting and renewal plans for each upcoming year. These plans are submitted to the provincial government for review and approval. Each company is also responsible for all the work and costs in reforesting areas it harvests, and in constructing and maintaining roads on its FMLA.
Including their predecessor companies, Tolko at The Pas and Tembec at Pine Falls are the veterans of Manitoba’s forest sector. Their primary feedstock: softwoods such as jack pine, and white and black spruce, renowned for their resilience and straight grain.
Newer on the scene is Louisiana-Pacific (L-P), which received a Forest Management License in 1994 for its aspen and poplar-based operation in Swan River. L-P’s arrival paralleled the exploding market demand worldwide for composite wood products, as well as the provincial government’s desire to diversify Manitoba’s forest industry. The mill currently produces about 440 million square feet of oriented strand board per year.
While there is more softwood than hardwood on the land base (a 60/40 split, respectively), most of the province’s softwood resources are presently allocated to forest companies under their FMLAs, or are inaccessible. Softwood’s longstanding pride of place can be traced to the premium the first Europeans in Manitoba set on softwood timbers for constructing boats, forts and the other machinery of exploration and trade.
Manitoba’s softwood resource is no less important to the province’s well being today. The province shipped about $69.5 million [Canadian] dollars’ worth of lumber, primarily softwood, to the United States in 2001. Pulp and paper exports (also primarily softwoodderived) to the U.S. that year topped $191 million.
So, softwoods continue to hold their own. But what’s this? Manitoba also shipped close to $101 million dollars’ worth of composite board products to the U.S. in 2001. Aspen and poplar, the so-called “Cinderella” trees once regarded largely as impediments to harvesting the prized softwoods, have secured more than a glass-slipper toehold in the province’s forest industry. In fact, the Manitoba government believes the hardwood resource can sustain two additional mills of L-P’s size.
Such a projection is the result of thorough analysis taking in a host of issues including wood fiber quality, wood supply, forestland tenure and creation of jobs. And it’s against the broader framework of sustainable development policies set out by the Manitoba government that any decisions on forest sector development are made.
It’s the job of the province’s Sustainable Forestry Unit (SFU) to dovetail economics, environment and social development as they relate to the forest sector. By working across all government departments, the SFU facilitates the broadest and most current information flow possible into any forest development decision-making.
Created in 2003, the SFU has been charged to increase value-added processing in the forest sector (both timber and non-timber), encourage aboriginal forestry developments, and to foster interaction between primary and secondary industry.
The Forintek Canada Corp. office now open in Winnipeg shows that the SFU has been quick off the mark in addressing the value-added issue. A second office is due to open in The Pas (375 miles northwest of Winnipeg) this year. Forintek’s forte is helping companies devise solutions to problems relating to lumber manufacturing, composite wood products, value-added wood products manufacturing, market intelligence and resource assessment.
On the non-timber side, the SFU administers a provincial grant to the Northern Forest Diversification Centre (NFDC) in The Pas. The non-profit NFDC works with people in the region to sustainably harvest, process and market a wide range of forest products such as edible mushrooms, plants with medicinal properties, and twigs and other materials widely used in the floral industry.
The SFU is also helping the NFDC develop a long-term operational strategy. Given that many of the NFDC’s clients are First Nations or Métis, supporting the NFDC also answers part of the SFU’s second goal, to work with aboriginal communities.
Further to this, and reflective of overall government policy, another SFU priority is to link any new hardwood mills to economic development in aboriginal communities. The Manitoba government is currently funding a study into the feasibility of expanding the hardwood industry; part of this will zero in on aboriginal involvement from square one.
Ultimately, any such projects will likely partner aboriginal interests with conventional forest industry players, formally setting out levels of equity participation, resource management and co-stewardship for both parties.
The SFU’s third key task, that of strengthening the links between primary and secondary sectors, is designed to address a current—and significant—disconnect in the overall industry.
Manitoba has a robust secondary forest sector, with companies making a wide range of products from boxes and pallets to cabinets to high-end upholstered furniture. The value of secondary products in 2001 exceeded $1.6 billion.
Yet much of the wood used in their manufacture is presently imported. The reason: historical and consumer preferences. The door and window industry, for example, has long used Douglas fir, a species not found in Manitoba. The SFU is working to foster greater buy-in to native woods among the province’s value-adding secondary industry.
Given all this momentum aimed at growing Manitoba’s forest industry, it’s fair to ask about checks and balances. Or, more precisely: Where does the “sustainable” part of Sustainable Forestry Unit come in?
As mentioned previously, the SFU draws on the brainpower of many disciplines, and one of its key colleagues is the provincial forestry branch’s inventory and resource analysis division.
It’s this group that determines exactly what forest resources are out there on the land base, where they are, how much there is of each, the relative state of maturity of each, and myriad other nitty-gritty details used to calculate how much wood forest companies can harvest without depleting the resource, an amount known as the annual allowable cut (AAC). The information collected is also invaluable to many other users of the forested land base.
Such information is only as valuable as it is current. And these days, “current” means not only tallying the trees, but also including data relating to landforms, soils, water bodies and other key elements comprising the whole forest mosaic. Such a trend reflects the move in Canada’s larger forest community toward what is known as ecosystem-based management, managing the forest not only for timber but also a range of other values.
Furthermore, such an inventory should be a “living” body of information, not a static snapshot in time.
With these objectives in mind, the inventory and resource analysis division has embarked on updating the provincial forest inventory, so that users of the information such as the SFU can make the most informed decisions possible.
However, employing the latest techno-wizardry capable of capturing the breadth and depth of information desired over the entire forested land base is an exceedingly pricey proposition. Recognizing that such a project must be undertaken in manageable chunks, as well as for getting the best bang for the buck, the provincial government is looking to partner wherever possible to get the job done.
A successful pilot project completed in 2003 with Louisiana-Pacific yielded a wealth of inventory data from the Duck Mountains and Porcupine Mountain, critical wood supply areas for L-P. The $2.2 million cost was cost-shared equally between the province and the company. The province is now distilling the essential and most cost-effective elements of this project into an approach it can successively roll out across the rest of the forested land base.
As noted, the SFU relies on numbers provided by the inventory division to accurately inform its planning. The inventory and resource analysis people, in turn, work closely with staff with the province’s Protected Areas Initiative (PAI), because any forestland taken out of production must be factored out of the inventory. Manitoba established its PAI in 1990 in response to the Endangered Spaces Campaign launched by the World Wildlife Fund. This campaign challenged provinces and territories to conserve Canada’s biological diversity by protecting a representative sample of each of the country’s terrestrial and marine natural regions by the year 2000.
Manitoba was the first jurisdiction in Canada to answer the challenge, and today 8.4% of Manitoba’s lands have protected status, meaning they are off-limits to logging, mining, hydroelectric, oil and gas development and other activities that could significantly and adversely affect natural habitat.
One of the most recent, the Bell and Steeprock Canyons Protected Area in the Porcupine Mountain, was designated in May 2004. The forestry and mining sectors, First Nations and non-governmental organizations were all consulted to finalize the boundaries of this area covering over 27,900 acres.
Formally protecting unique areas within the province removes uncertainties respecting development. With the picture clearly defined, wood supply analysis can move forward.
And moving wood supply analysis forward ultimately contributes toward sustainability of the forest industry. With the lines plainly drawn, forest companies can make strategic decisions regarding contracting, infrastructure, expansion or upgrading and other business considerations for the longer term.
You may choose, upon leaving Manitoba’s northern forests, to leave your rental car in Thompson and fly back to Winnipeg. Perhaps you’ll see a line of rail cars loaded with dimensional lumber or newsprint. Or maybe you’ll spot some caribou on the move.
Manitoba’s forests are open for business—and for the infinitely larger business we call life.
Manitoba
By: Avery Ascher
| Population: | 1.1 million |
| Total Area: | 65 million ha |
| Land Area: | 54.8 million ha |
| Forest Land: | 26.3 million ha |
| Provincial Parks: | 3.4 million ha |
Start in Winnipeg, capital of the province of Manitoba and the geographic centre of North America. Situated at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red rivers (the latter once nicknamed the ‘Mississippi of the North’), Winnipeg is the perfect place to open up the map and chart your course northward. For it’s in the north that huge, untapped reserves of trembling aspen and balsam poplar lie—the new gold of Manitoba’s forest industry, some would say.
Highway 6 northwest out of Winnipeg takes you up to Grand Rapids, where a hydroelectric dam jumpstarts 480 megawatts of power flowing south, on through Ponton then northeast onto Highway 39 to Thompson, Manitoba’s most northerly city built on nickel. By now you’ve been driving steady for 7 1/2 hours, much of that through mixed wood forest of white spruce, black spruce, jack pine, birch, tamarack (also known as larch), balsam fir, aspen and poplar, a formidable presence that shows no sign of ending at Thompson’s INCO smelter.
It just keeps on going, past 56o North, 57o, and into 58o until halted by the taiga reaching down from Nunavut, Canada’s newest territory.
 Portable sawmills like this one operate all across Manitoba |
Still, the annual allowable harvest for all species in 2001 was 3,760,000 cords of wood, more than enough for the three big companies together with smaller private operations and timber quota holders that presently harvest on provincially owned land, known as Crown land.
Tolko Industries Ltd. (lumber and kraft paper), Tembec Manitoba Inc. (newsprint) and Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. (oriented strand board) dominate the primary sector, each operating under a Forest Management License agreement with the Province of Manitoba. The province grants these companies operating tenure, the right to operate on a specified land base known as its Forest Management License Area (FMLA). These agreements are granted for a period of not more than 20 years.
Each company is required to prepare a longterm Forest Management Plan for the land included in its FMLA that incorporates strategic and operational considerations, as well as an annual operating plan outlining harvesting and renewal plans for each upcoming year. These plans are submitted to the provincial government for review and approval. Each company is also responsible for all the work and costs in reforesting areas it harvests, and in constructing and maintaining roads on its FMLA.
Including their predecessor companies, Tolko at The Pas and Tembec at Pine Falls are the veterans of Manitoba’s forest sector. Their primary feedstock: softwoods such as jack pine, and white and black spruce, renowned for their resilience and straight grain.
Newer on the scene is Louisiana-Pacific (L-P), which received a Forest Management License in 1994 for its aspen and poplar-based operation in Swan River. L-P’s arrival paralleled the exploding market demand worldwide for composite wood products, as well as the provincial government’s desire to diversify Manitoba’s forest industry. The mill currently produces about 440 million square feet of oriented strand board per year.
While there is more softwood than hardwood on the land base (a 60/40 split, respectively), most of the province’s softwood resources are presently allocated to forest companies under their FMLAs, or are inaccessible. Softwood’s longstanding pride of place can be traced to the premium the first Europeans in Manitoba set on softwood timbers for constructing boats, forts and the other machinery of exploration and trade.
 Trembling aspen [top] is Manitoba's most common hardwood tree species. [Bottom] Protecting unique landscapes, like Bell Steep, is a critical component in Manitoba's sustainable forest management program. |
So, softwoods continue to hold their own. But what’s this? Manitoba also shipped close to $101 million dollars’ worth of composite board products to the U.S. in 2001. Aspen and poplar, the so-called “Cinderella” trees once regarded largely as impediments to harvesting the prized softwoods, have secured more than a glass-slipper toehold in the province’s forest industry. In fact, the Manitoba government believes the hardwood resource can sustain two additional mills of L-P’s size.
Such a projection is the result of thorough analysis taking in a host of issues including wood fiber quality, wood supply, forestland tenure and creation of jobs. And it’s against the broader framework of sustainable development policies set out by the Manitoba government that any decisions on forest sector development are made.
It’s the job of the province’s Sustainable Forestry Unit (SFU) to dovetail economics, environment and social development as they relate to the forest sector. By working across all government departments, the SFU facilitates the broadest and most current information flow possible into any forest development decision-making.
Created in 2003, the SFU has been charged to increase value-added processing in the forest sector (both timber and non-timber), encourage aboriginal forestry developments, and to foster interaction between primary and secondary industry.
The Forintek Canada Corp. office now open in Winnipeg shows that the SFU has been quick off the mark in addressing the value-added issue. A second office is due to open in The Pas (375 miles northwest of Winnipeg) this year. Forintek’s forte is helping companies devise solutions to problems relating to lumber manufacturing, composite wood products, value-added wood products manufacturing, market intelligence and resource assessment.
On the non-timber side, the SFU administers a provincial grant to the Northern Forest Diversification Centre (NFDC) in The Pas. The non-profit NFDC works with people in the region to sustainably harvest, process and market a wide range of forest products such as edible mushrooms, plants with medicinal properties, and twigs and other materials widely used in the floral industry.
The SFU is also helping the NFDC develop a long-term operational strategy. Given that many of the NFDC’s clients are First Nations or Métis, supporting the NFDC also answers part of the SFU’s second goal, to work with aboriginal communities.
Further to this, and reflective of overall government policy, another SFU priority is to link any new hardwood mills to economic development in aboriginal communities. The Manitoba government is currently funding a study into the feasibility of expanding the hardwood industry; part of this will zero in on aboriginal involvement from square one.
Ultimately, any such projects will likely partner aboriginal interests with conventional forest industry players, formally setting out levels of equity participation, resource management and co-stewardship for both parties.
The SFU’s third key task, that of strengthening the links between primary and secondary sectors, is designed to address a current—and significant—disconnect in the overall industry.
Manitoba has a robust secondary forest sector, with companies making a wide range of products from boxes and pallets to cabinets to high-end upholstered furniture. The value of secondary products in 2001 exceeded $1.6 billion.
Yet much of the wood used in their manufacture is presently imported. The reason: historical and consumer preferences. The door and window industry, for example, has long used Douglas fir, a species not found in Manitoba. The SFU is working to foster greater buy-in to native woods among the province’s value-adding secondary industry.
Given all this momentum aimed at growing Manitoba’s forest industry, it’s fair to ask about checks and balances. Or, more precisely: Where does the “sustainable” part of Sustainable Forestry Unit come in?
As mentioned previously, the SFU draws on the brainpower of many disciplines, and one of its key colleagues is the provincial forestry branch’s inventory and resource analysis division.
It’s this group that determines exactly what forest resources are out there on the land base, where they are, how much there is of each, the relative state of maturity of each, and myriad other nitty-gritty details used to calculate how much wood forest companies can harvest without depleting the resource, an amount known as the annual allowable cut (AAC). The information collected is also invaluable to many other users of the forested land base.
Such information is only as valuable as it is current. And these days, “current” means not only tallying the trees, but also including data relating to landforms, soils, water bodies and other key elements comprising the whole forest mosaic. Such a trend reflects the move in Canada’s larger forest community toward what is known as ecosystem-based management, managing the forest not only for timber but also a range of other values.
Furthermore, such an inventory should be a “living” body of information, not a static snapshot in time.
With these objectives in mind, the inventory and resource analysis division has embarked on updating the provincial forest inventory, so that users of the information such as the SFU can make the most informed decisions possible.
 Sort yards like this one are used to separate softwood logs used in the manufacture of newsprint, kraft paper and lumber. |
A successful pilot project completed in 2003 with Louisiana-Pacific yielded a wealth of inventory data from the Duck Mountains and Porcupine Mountain, critical wood supply areas for L-P. The $2.2 million cost was cost-shared equally between the province and the company. The province is now distilling the essential and most cost-effective elements of this project into an approach it can successively roll out across the rest of the forested land base.
As noted, the SFU relies on numbers provided by the inventory division to accurately inform its planning. The inventory and resource analysis people, in turn, work closely with staff with the province’s Protected Areas Initiative (PAI), because any forestland taken out of production must be factored out of the inventory. Manitoba established its PAI in 1990 in response to the Endangered Spaces Campaign launched by the World Wildlife Fund. This campaign challenged provinces and territories to conserve Canada’s biological diversity by protecting a representative sample of each of the country’s terrestrial and marine natural regions by the year 2000.
Manitoba was the first jurisdiction in Canada to answer the challenge, and today 8.4% of Manitoba’s lands have protected status, meaning they are off-limits to logging, mining, hydroelectric, oil and gas development and other activities that could significantly and adversely affect natural habitat.
One of the most recent, the Bell and Steeprock Canyons Protected Area in the Porcupine Mountain, was designated in May 2004. The forestry and mining sectors, First Nations and non-governmental organizations were all consulted to finalize the boundaries of this area covering over 27,900 acres.
Formally protecting unique areas within the province removes uncertainties respecting development. With the picture clearly defined, wood supply analysis can move forward.
And moving wood supply analysis forward ultimately contributes toward sustainability of the forest industry. With the lines plainly drawn, forest companies can make strategic decisions regarding contracting, infrastructure, expansion or upgrading and other business considerations for the longer term.
You may choose, upon leaving Manitoba’s northern forests, to leave your rental car in Thompson and fly back to Winnipeg. Perhaps you’ll see a line of rail cars loaded with dimensional lumber or newsprint. Or maybe you’ll spot some caribou on the move.
Manitoba’s forests are open for business—and for the infinitely larger business we call life.
"We must always consider the environment and people together, as though they are one, because the
human need to use natural resources is fundamental to our continued presence on earth."
P.O. Box 1290, Bigfork, MT. 59911 • Tel: (406) 837-0966 • Fax: (406) 258-0815 • Email:
human need to use natural resources is fundamental to our continued presence on earth."