A New Approach To Logging In Alberta?

[jpinkster]

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/logging-on-the-eastern-slopes-prompts-debate-about-watershed-health

 

Logging gets a bad rap. Some of it is deserved and some of it isn't. A great deal of logging activity happens in the Eastern Slopes. This area is the headwaters for nearly all of the fresh water in our province.

The logging industry makes an important contribution to our economy, but water security makes a big contribution to sustaining a growing population. Finding that balance isn't easy, but it sure is important.

[northfork]

Bingo on the balance - They need to improve somewhat on cutblock placement and management for the protection of headwaters. At the same time, however, the longer the government allows every forest fire to be surpressed as soon as possible, the more fire hazard and unhealthy our forests become. Most of the east slopes now are overdue for a burn and are sick. Pine beetle can be a perfect example. Logging, when done sustainably, can help improve a forests health. We just haven't got there yet and need to.

[DonAndersen]

Trees - cut 'em down, burn 'em down or they die of old age and fall down. Whatever the method, they are going down.

 

Don

[dryfly]

Agree that trees need to be harvested and they will come down, one way or another. The precip and tree species we have here do not grow "old growth" forest like the West Coast.

 

Slightly off topic. This is an interesting read. Unbelievable fires in 1910.

http://mountainlegacy.ca/research/documents/Annand-1910Fires-FinalReport.pdf

 

1919 was also another huge fire year. One covered 2.8 million hectares on the AB-SK border.

[northfork]

Agree that trees need to be harvested and they will come down, one way or another. The precip and tree species we have here do not grow "old growth" forest like the West Coast.

 

Slightly off topic. This is an interesting read. Unbelievable fires in 1910.

http://mountainlegacy.ca/research/documents/Annand-1910Fires-FinalReport.pdf

 

1919 was also another huge fire year. One covered 2.8 million hectares on the AB-SK border.

 

Very interesting read, thank you Clive for the link. I'm not sure if the old growth comment was directed at me but you are correct the species compositions of forests here are not like the rainforest types in BC featuring hemlocks, cedars, etc. But we do have a lot of old, sick spruce forests here.

 

One of the problems in my opinion is that the government looks at timber completely as a monetary value and no further, which is why they supress so much fire. Why burn it when we can harvest it..... It would be nice if the end result of clear cutting was nicer than some ripped clay and stumps and planted lodgepole pine saplings - Fire = grass and fresh growth = elk (which are disappearing off the central foothills landscape and the govt cant figure out why??)