FRDA II Small-Scale Forestry Program: a newsletter to assist private landowners

An informed approach to forestmanagement in the Slocan Valley

The Siocan Valley: Courtice and Fearing'sproperty is located in the middle left.

hen John Fearingand Wendy Cour­tice decided to

develop the 12 hectares offorested land they own inthe Slocan Valley, the areawas so dense that sunlightbarely filtered through andCourtice and Fearing nearlygot lost finding their waythrough the thick tangle oftrees. They quickly realizedthis was ,a task thatrequired time and expertise,and through the FRDA II .Small-Scale Forestry Pro­gram, Fearing and Courticewere able to clean up theirland with a forest manage­ment approach Courticecalls "informed rather thaninvolved."

Fearing and Courticepurchased the property,located 12 kilometres southof Winlaw, in 1981. It hadbeen badly logged aroundthe late 1970's and left toregenerate on its own. Fear­ing, a retired school teacherfrom Vancouver, and hiswife Courtice, workedaround their farm for sev-

continued on pg. 2

Slocan... continued from pg. 1

of irrigation for the freshly-plantedseedlings. Courtice said the uphill portion ofthe watering was a little tricky, but losseswere low and only five seedlings died out ofthe bunch.

Courtice and Fearing live in a highdeer-traffic area, where up to 20 or 30cotton-tailed deer can be seen on their prop­erty at anyone time. "They're quite bold.They'll come right into the yard if they can,"said Courtice. She and Fearing soon foundthe deer to be a problem when it came to theseedlings. "They love chompingon littletrees," explained Fearing. As a result,

browse guards were installed toprotect the seedlings and reduce

the damage inflicted by thescores of chomping deer.

When it came topruning the trees on theirproperty, Courtice andFearing were again faced

with a challenge. The nicestraight limb of a pruned tree

is the perfect object for a buck inthe fall, said Courtice. During the

fall, velvety material forms on a buck'santlers, and the buck attempts to rub it offon a tree or other hard surface. Courtice andFearing found that the "buck rub" waskilling their newly-pruned trees and decided

-to put the pruning on hold until the buckswere no longer a threat to the health of thetrees.

Beyond the boundaries of their prop­erty, Courtice and Fearing can see the resultof old logging areas left to regenerate in adesultory, abandoned state. "It's prettygrim," says Courtice. By looking at the over­all picture, from biodiversity to wildlifehabitat to recreation, Courtice and Fearinghave reversed the trend begun almost twodecades ago, and started to introduce nat­ural patterns back i~to their land. Courticefeels the Small-Scale Forestry Program wasa good start. "If it hadn't been for the FRDAII program, we wouldn't have been able todo any of this."

We wantedto keep what we call

the Kootenay mix.Biodiversity isvery important

to us

eral years before they made the decision todevelop the old logging area. "We have whatreal estate agents call a 'hobby farm', saidCourtice wryly. The farm keeps the twobusy, tending to the large garden andorchard they cultivate as well as taking careof the horses and doing general repairs andmaintenance.

By contracting out the forestry work,Courtice and Fearing have been able to takecare of the farm and still maintain an activerole in the development of their property."Our interest was not so much in the com­mercial value of the trees, but in the birdsand wildlife," said Fearing. Theirinterest in preserving wildlife habi-tats led C6urtice and Fearing to

. reserve one section of the landas a sanctuary for the abun­d~nt number of birds, such asthe woodpecker, which live inthe Sloean Valley. A seasonalcreek on the property was leftuntouched so the owls whichnest there every year would not bedisturbed. "The place is for wildlife asmuch as for timber," said Fearing.

Initially, they had a contractor carryout some juvenile spacing and then removesome old and diseased timber. While manypeople put an emphasis on getting rid of .undesirable trees and replacing them withcommercially-viable ones, Courtice andFearing take a different approach. "Wewanted to keep what we call the Kootenaymix. Biodiversity is very important to us,"said Courtice. They re-planted the area withyello~ pine and larch and avoided usingDouglas fir which is particularly susceptibleto root rot, a problem they encountered ontheir property.

. Five hundred twenty-three seedlingswere planted in a corner of the land thathad formerly been used as a low-grade pas­ture. A few weeks later, a drought struck

. the area. Courtice and Fearing were able toirrigate the area by diverting water fromtheir pastures, bringing in an extra 300 feet

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Forestry profile

Silvicu ture ongoing atFruitvale woodland

Rainer Muenter with wife Maureen and children Luisa and Rurik

ncorporating familyphilosophies of forestland management into a

private forestry operationhas been an important partof Rainer Muenter's workover the last five years.Muenter manages AlmforestTimber Co. Ltd.; locatednear Fruitvale in the NelsonForest Region,.for a familyin Germany who also ownproperty near Hazelton andon the Gulf Islands. "Theyplace high value on bringingup the next generation toappreciate the value of theland," explains Muenter.

The family has a longhistory of land holdings inEurope, spanning over 1100years. In the wake of thePrague Spring of 1968, whenthe Russian army invadedCzechoslovakia, the familywas concerned about theirsafety. They purchased theproperty in Fruitvale as asafeguard in the event theyhad to flee the country.

Coming from a longtradition of conservativelandowners, the familyembraces several views onforestry: that risks should beavoided and the harvestcalculated conservatively,the long-term outlook takesprecedence over the short­term, and borrowing against

, the land should never bedone. Muenter sees thesegoals as reasonable and his

own confidence in soundforest management practiceshas led him to view silvicul­ture as an on-going processwhich should occur through­out the life of the stand. /"The inventory and value ofthe property should beimproved from year to year,"he said.

Through the FRDA IISmall-Scale Forestry Pro­gram, Muenter has carriedout several silviculturalprescriptions such as brush­ing and juvenile spacing innaturally regeneratedstands" most recently oflodgepole. pine which hadbeen re-established in theearly 80's after a mountainpine beetle attack. With anetwork of old logging roadsrunning through the area,and Almforest Timber being

3

, located in the watershed forthe town of Fruitvale,Muenter was concernedabout water quality and theeffect of on-going erosionfrom these roads. In order toprevent degradation of thewater quality, AlmforestTimber re-routed manyroads away from the streams.

Muenter would like tosee intensive silviculturemaintained at some levelwithin Almforest Timber.His belief in sound forestmanagement is a combina-'tion of personal philosophyand the ideals of thelandowners, and when itcomes to the land, theirscope extends far beyond thepresent. "What is unique isthat they see my work asbeing directed at futuregenerations."

Forest management planning

Speers. Under the Small­Scale Forestry Program ofFRDA II, the managementplan was strengthened andvaluable recommendationsadded to the original plan.

"We did a bunch ofcruise plots, root rot sur­veys, and we recommendedsome logging, trail mainte­nance, and provisions forwildlife," said SteveForslund, a consultant withForslund Forestry Services.Forslund's main concernswere with trail maintenanceand "danger" trees. Notingthat some sections of CampThunderbird's forests arebetween 100 and 400 yearsold, Forslund saw that someof those trees were diseasedand unless removed, therewas the. possibility theycould fall into the trailscutting through the standsof old-growth.

"We have a lot ofwildlife on the site, so we'relooking at being able tomake sure we can preservethat and not harm it," saidSpeers, describing what hasbeen an important concernto Camp Thunderbirdthroughout the past sixtyyears. "There were somevery practical hands-on

Camp Thunderbird imfor fut re generatio

Manage-,ment Committee] were

, people who'd worked this~and for a long time andalthough they knew wheretheir trees were and thatthere might be some poten­tial problems, they reallydidn't have the skills toidentify what might bewrong," said Dierdre Speers,Director of Youth and Out­door Education for theYMCA.

Realizing this, Speerssaid the Committee took theright first step and throughthe first Canada/B.C. ForestResource DevelopmentAgreement (FRDA 1), theyhired a forestry consultantto develop a managementplan. However, the finalresult was too general and"there was a feeling therewere some gaps," said

he YMCA-operatedCamp Thunderbird,located 44 kilometres

southwest ofVictoria in theSooke Hills, covers 1200acres of land and sees up to600 children go through itsoutdoor education programsand summer camps betweenMarch and November. Cele­brating its sixtieth year,Camp Thunderbird remainsa unique outdoor experiencewhere kids can participate.in activities such as archery,canoeing, rock climbing, andorienteering.

With so much move­ment over the land, the 'Camp Thunderbird Manage­ment Committee decided athorough forest manage­ment plan was necessary inorder to clearly map out thearea and examine thehealth of the forest. "[The

'. 4

)roves forestss

things that came out of it forour maintenance staff tofollow up on, to minimizeimpact, as well as somelong-term things." Some ofthe short-term workinvolved securing the trailsfrom soil erosion by buildingthem up and lessening theimpact of the 180 or so kidswho occupy Camp Thunder­bird at anyone time.

Speers said that theYMCA is also thinkingabout developing a foresteducation component to.complement existing pro­grams. Mter participating inthe FRDA II-fundedForestry: From the GroundUp workshop, Speersembraced the idea of aforestry education programwhich covers larger forestryconcepts and avoids inun­dating the children withfacts. "1 was very inspired bythe Forestry: From the

Ground Up program," shesaid. "1 started thinkinga lot about some of thethings on the site thatthe kids walk through

daily and that they justdon't know about."

Camp Thunderbirdalready involves the chil­dren in some aspects of

forestry throughtree planting. Seedlings arebrought in from YMCACanada and each grouppicks a location where theywould like to plant a tree.Speers would like to expandon this, and eventuallyinvolve campers in thereplanting that will takeplace once the longer-termforestry work gets under­way. "Those are things' thechildren, especially some ofthe older kids, can getinvolved with and under­stand.~'

Having completed themanagement·plan and someshort-term emergency work,

5

the Management Committeewill look at the longer-termwork that needs to be done.They hope the selectivelogging of danger trees willgenerate some revenueswhich can be put into otherforestry conversions. "Wecan now look at what is theshort-term and what is thelong-term," concludesSpeers. "A lot of peoplewould have said 'this lookslike trouble' and gone in andstarted working on it andnoteven understood how tostart. [A management plan]at least brings us to thepoint of understanding thesystem."

Forest Health 101: what y~

The adult mountain pine beetle is the most serious insectenemy of mature pines in western Canada.

orest health is a con­cern to almost allwoodlot managers. A

multitude of agents cancause serious damage andmortality to our forests. It isnot practical, however, formost woodlot managers tobecome forest health experts.While the identification,biology and management offorest diseases and otherforest health concerns is acomplex field of study, it isadvisable that woodlot man­agers be able to recognizebasic forest health problemsand their, implications'.

FORESTHEALTH AGENTS

Science has developed asystem to classify all livingorganisms on earth. With somany different organisms toclassify, this system is obvi­ously complex. For a woodlot

manager, however, it shouldbe sufficient to understandthe broad groups of foresthealth agents which may beencountered on the woodlot.These are insects, diseases,abiotic agents (wind, frost,drought etc.) and animals.Insects and diseases are themost likely agents to causedamage on the woodlot andthese will be discussed ingreater detail.

The following is abrief description of the maingroups of insects and dis­eases found in the forests ofB.C. However, it is impor­tant to remember that thestudy of forest ihsects anddiseases is complex, andthese groupings greatlysimp ify t e op·c.

INSECTSForest insects can begrouped based on the area

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of the tree on which they ,feed. There are three maingroups:

DefoliatorsThese are insects whichconsume live tree foliage.Foliage that has been dam­aged or killed by insectsusually turns red or brown.Consequently, attacks bythese insects are often veryeasily recognized in theforest. In most cases, onlysome needles within thecrown of a tree are affected;therefore, the discolorationof attacked trees may not beuniform. Mature trees cangenerally withstand one ortwo years of attack withoutserious effects. However,growth loss and mortalitymay result from defoliatorattacks occurring repeatedlyover several years.

Sucking insectsThese are insects which feedby sucking the sugar-richfluids from the leaves orneedles, branches and stemsof trees. These insects arevery common, but only a fewspecies cause seriousdamage or mortality toforest trees. It is usuallydifficult to recognize thedamage caused by theseinsects.

u need to know

Woody tissue feedersThese are insects which feedon the woody tissues of atree, such as the inner bark.This type of feeding candamage the conducti~e

tissue of the tree causing agirdle at the site of feeding.The foliage of trees attackedby these insects usuallychanges colour uniformly.This group of insects cancause significant mortalityand damage to both matureand immature trees.

DISEASESForest diseases can also begrouped by the area of thetree that they attack. Thethree main groups are:

Foliage diseasesMany species of fungi usetree foliage as a host andcause needle and leaf dis­eases. Just as withdefoliating insects, attacksare often highly visible butare usually not lethal to thetree unless the infectionreoccurs over several years.Foliage diseases includeneedle casts and blights,needle rusts and broomrusts.

Branches andstem diseases

The main types of diseasesaffecting tree branches andstems are caused by fungi

that produce cankers andrusts. As with the woodytissue feeding insects, thesediseases often kill the innerbark which, if killed com­pletely around the stem,can cause the tree to die.Consequently, some ofthese diseases can causesignificant tree losses,.

Dwarf mistletoes areanother agent affectingbranches and stems. Thesediseases are caused byparasitic plants which useliving trees for hosts.Dwarf mistletoes often donot cause mortality; how­ever, they spread quickly inthe right conditions andcan greatly reduce treegrowth and wood quality.

Root diseasesMany root diseases causedecay of both the innerbark and the structuralwood of the root. As aresult, these diseases cancause very high mortalityin a stand.

RECOGNIZINGA PROBLEM

An essential part of foresthealth management plan­ning is recognizing thesigns and symptoms of ­forest health agents. Thist~sk can be easy or diffi­cult, depending on theagent involved. For exam-

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Forest health

Astand of dying hemlock and cedar treesafter ahemlock looper infestation.

pIe, the symptoms causedby defoliating insects andneedle diseases are usuallyquite obvious. In somecases,however, symptomsof attack by insects or dis­ease do not become readilyvisible until months afterthe trees were attacked.Consequently, woodlot man­agers should constantlymonitor the forest to ensurethat attacks are discoveredearly. The best times tocomplete these generalsurveys of forest health arethe early spring and latefall of each year.

One or more of thefollowing signs and symp­toms on trees may indicatea potential forest health

,problem:

continued on pg. 8

Forest health... continuedfrompg. 7

Spruce budworm larva - adestructive defoliator of conifers

Foliage ColourLook for changes in thecolour of foliage. Usuallyfoliage becoming a lightershade of green, pale y~llow,

red or brown indicates aproblem.

Needle densityUnusual loss of needles orleaves is an indicator of apotential insect or diseaseproblem. Trees with thincrowns should be ,examined,especially if a colour changeis associated with the thincrown.

Abnormal growthPatches of dense foliage or"witches brooms" andswollen stems or branchesare usually the result ofinsect or disease attack.

Tree growthTrees suffering from theeffects of insects or diseasesoften show a reduction inthe amount of growth visi­ble on the terminal leaderor branch tips.

Bark appearanceInsects and diseases cancause bark to becomedeformed or discolored.Patches of pitch on the barkor resin flowing from thebark are also indicators ofan insect or disease attack.

ConksThe presence of a conk is asure sign of fungal diseasein a tree.

SawdustSawdust at the base of atree indicates the presence

. of a woody tissue feedinginsect.

GETTINGIN THE KNOW

The Canadian Forest Ser­vice publishes a series ofPest Leaflets which includeinformation on the distribu­tion, detection andmanagement of all the majorinsects and diseases in B.C.The series is also availableon CD-ROM.

WoodlandsEditor: Lyana PatrickLayout: Dan Dunaway

Articles from this issue may be reprinted withoutpermission. Contact the Canadian Forest Service at

363-0600 for further information.

Small-Scale Woodlands is published by Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service(506 W. Burnside Rd., Victoria, B.C. V8Z IM5) through the Small-Scale Forestry Program

of the Canada/B.C. Partnership Agreement on Forest Resource Development: FRDA II.

Canada - British Columbia Partnership Agreement on Forest Resource Development: FRDA II

Canada BeQ8