Ts’zil - Green River heli harvesting underway
The Spel’kúmtn Community Forest is excited to announce that the Ts’zil single stem heli-harvesting project (GR902) is now under way. Commonly known as ‘standing stem,’ this is a progressive and innovative harvesting approach as it dramatically reduces impacts to the forest floor and allows for light harvest volumes.
Due to the hazards created by overhead helicopters and cut, but standing, stems, there are closures in the area:
7.5% removal of basal area
This is a light harvest plan, with 7.5% removal of ‘basal area’ (cross-sectional area of trees at breast height). The map above shows the harvest areas in yellow outline. Note that these are not cutblocks, rather the perimeter of the area from which timber will be removed. The harvest will remove trees primarily in the 55-70cm diameter range, some up to 90cm diameter, with an average age between 120-175yrs.
Due to the light harvest level in this plan, replanting is not likely to be required. Nonetheless, follow up surveys will be completed and, if any openings of greater than 0.1ha are identified or stands per hectare are lower than required, planting will occur.
Single stem helicopter harvesting involves extensive planning and approvals. Operations are a culmination of two years’ planning and consultation.
The operational process involves:
onsite selection of individual trees for harvest
climbing, limbing, topping, cutting at the tree base and wedging with holding wood remaining
‘plucking’ standing stems by helicopter for delivery at a roadside landing
There are great ecosystem benefits to this type of harvesting:
very little soil disturbance in harvest areas,
the absence of new roads and minimized hauling traffic dramatically reduces impacts to the larger ecosystem - both plant and animal
some improved resilience to wildfire through stand thinning
ultimately increased overall stand volume from improved growth of mature trees and understory plants in the canopy gaps, in this instance up to 105% of pre-harvest volume.
This harvest method removes trees without falling so it eliminates breakage and maximizes economic efficiency. Trees are individually selected so the harvest can ensure high quality control, and address special customer requirements such as cedar poles, logs for log homes, totem poles, or bridge stringers.
Some operational drawbacks to heli-harvest programs can be high cost, complexity of planning and noise in surrounding areas. The SCF will be contracting a K-Max helicopter for this operation to reduce noise impacts to neighbouring communities.