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Forest bioenergy feedstock production and harvesting systems range from small-scale fuelwood gathering to large-scale industrial plantations and the potential removal of all available aboveground and belowground biomass from intensively managed forests. Across this wide range of options for production and extraction, there is an equally wide range of potential impacts. It is critical that forest biomass procurement systems do not adversely impact forests or the environment; therefore, effective standards and planning tools, based on the best available scientific knowledge, must be in place to prevent these impacts from being realized, and hence ensure a sustainable industry. Sustainable forest management (SFM) certification schemes are one mechanism for applying measurable environmental standards (in the form of criteria and indicators, or C&I) to forest management systems. How existing SFM certification schemes and frameworks, such as C&I and Adaptive Forest Management, can be used to help guide sustaina...

Sustainable forest management (SFM) is a cornerstone of forest management, whether the resulting forest products are destined for the manufacturing sector or for the emerging bioenergy feedstock market. In British Columbia, research on the environmental effects of forest management has generated scientific knowledge that has informed two linked areas of government responsibility: a comprehensive set of science-based regulations and policies to ensure soil and water conservation, anda monitoring program to ensure the effectiveness of these regulations and policies.An increasing amount of biomass is being harvested from British Columbia’s forests as a feedstock for bioenergy, and these removals have the potential to incrementally increase machine traffic and organic matter removals from forest sites, compared to harvesting operations focused solely on roundwood for timber or pulp. To the extent that existing standards support SFM, they may be sufficient for ensuring that biomass harvesting is also s...

Stump extraction for forest health has been carried out operationally in British Columbia (BC) for many years. Emerging bioenergy opportunities plus the anticipated need for more fibre because of reductions in timber supply may increase interest in stump harvesting, but there are numerous environmental, economic and policy barriers that must be overcome first before industrial-scale stump harvesting can be seriously considered in BC. The potential for a future change in practice provides an opportunity to learn from the existing literature and identify knowledge gaps. In this article we review the available literature on stump harvesting from the European Union within the context of BC's forests, economy, biodiversity, environment and policies. We provide recommendations on how the government of BC could move forward if they decide to enable stump harvesting for fibre and bioenergy, including assessment of net economic and carbon benefits and environmental effects, improvements in inventory and t...

Seedling growth is often hampered on sites dominated by Kalmia angustifolia. In June 2000, a trial was established on a clear-cut site in Quebec, Canada, with a high cover of Kalmia and Vaccinium species. The objectives were to evaluate how soil scarification and fertilization at the time of planting influence early growth and establishment of black spruce [Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP] and jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) seedlings. During the first 2 years, scarification reduced Kalmia cover three-fold and doubled the distance from seedlings to the nearest Kalmia stem. Scarification did not increase soil-extractable NH4-N concentration, and reduced soil potassium, calcium and magnesium. Scarification had no effect on seedling water stress. Seedling growth improved and foliar nutrient concentrations were generally higher in scarified plots than in unscarified control plots. No differences were observed between single- and double-pass scarification for any variables except for ground-level stem diameter of ...

RESUMELa regeneration de l'epinette noire (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) au centre de Terre-Neuve faisant suite a une perturbation causee par le feu ou des operations forestieres peut etre affectee par la presence de l'arbuste ericaceen Kalmia angustifolia L. La presente etude a ete realisee afin de tester les donnees de teledetection acquises en 1994 par le capteur multispectral CASI (Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager) pour la detection de differentes densites de couvert de Kalmia sur des sites perturbes dans le centre de Terre-Neuve. Une approche basee sur la classification discriminante a ete developpee pour differencier les peuplements de Kalmia, plus de trois classes de couvert de Kalmia (couvert faible, moyen et dense) et les autres grands types de couvert tels que l'epinette noire, l'aulne, les secteurs de coupe sans Kalmia et les zones humides. Des images de quatre secteurs differents ont ete utilisees, couvrant trois periodes de l'annee. Les resultats de la classification ont ete testes par ...

The regeneration of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) in central Newfoundland following disturbance by fire or logging can be impeded by the ericaceous shrub Kalmia augustifolia L. This study was initiated to use multi-spectral aerial (Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager) and satellite (Landsat Thematic Mapper) remote sensing to detect the presence of kalmia on disturbed sites. Two separate classification schemes were designed to include kalmia and other major cover types such as black spruce, alder, non-kalmia cutovers and wetlands. Discrimination of training samples revealed that kalmia could be detected and mapped with an accuracy of 96 per cent using the aerial data. Over larger areas, kalmia was discriminated—in wetlands, cutovers and burns—with 85 per cent accuracy using the satellite sensor imagery.