Kwakiutl protest logging

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Port Hardy – With the blessing of the Kwakiutl Hereditary Chief, the Kwakiutl Indian Band held a peaceful protest last Thursday, January 9, at an Island Timberlands logging operations in Port Hardy.

Band members carried signs proclaiming the area as Kwakiutl traditional territory and gathered at the entrance of the site. Fallers in the area reportedly ceased operations and left the site, as the protestors drummed and sang.

In a release, the band said that, “This logging is symptomatic of the long-standing disregard by Canada and B.C. to act honourably to meet their commitments and obligations of the ‘Treaty of 1851’.”

A B.C. Supreme Court decision on June 17, 2013, upheld the Kwakiutl’s Douglas Treaty and “encouraged and challenged” both the federal and provincial governments to begin honourable negotiations with the First Nation “without any further litigation, expense or delay.”

Band representatives explained that logging operation along Byng Road is in the area of a cultural use trail and said they had not been consulted before falling began in the area.

“The Kwakiutl people have never ceded, surrendered, or in any way relinquished aboriginal title and rights to our traditional territories,” explained the release.

“We continue to hold aboriginal title, and to exercise our rights in and interests in all of our traditional territories. Our aboriginal title and rights are recognized and protected by Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, which recognizes our occupation of the territories before the assertion of British sovereignty and affirms our rights to the exclusive use and occupancy of the land and to choose what uses the land can be put to. These Constitutional Rights apply throughout our traditional territories.”

Economic Development Manager Casey Larochelle said that the continued failure of B.C. and Canada to recognize the unextinguished title and rights of the Kwakiutl reflected poorly on the ‘Honour of the Crown.’

Lands and Resources Coordinator Tom Child explained that current logging operations were taking place in a culturally sensitive area, including trapline sites and a medicinal plant harvest site in addition to the trail.

The representatives expressed frustration at the Crown’s minimization and “narrow legal interpretation” of the Douglas Treaty and the lack of meaningful consultation with the Kwakiutl.

“Canada and B.C. need to consult in good faith with the Kwakiutl to create a new course for comprehensive implementation of the Treaty of 1851,” said the release. “Rather than simply being an archaic document with narrow legal interpretation, this treaty should be seen as a living document to guide how the Kwakiutl and the new settlers to this land co-exist. There is a shared history and a future that will continue to bind ‘all peoples’ together.”

See more: https://issuu.com/blackpress/docs/i20140116100029732/1?e=1205826%2F6374208
 

Tree growth never slows

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Many foresters have long assumed that trees gradually lose their vigour as they mature, but a new analysis suggests that the larger a tree gets, the more kilos of carbon it puts on each year.

“The trees that are adding the most mass are the biggest ones, and that holds pretty much everywhere on Earth that we looked,” says Nathan Stephenson, an ecologist at the US Geological Survey in Three Rivers, California, and the first author of the study, which appears today in Nature. “Trees have the equivalent of an adolescent growth spurt, but it just keeps going.”

The scientific literature is chock-full of studies that focus on forests' initial growth and their gradual move towards a plateau in the amount of carbon they store as they reach maturity. Researchers have also documented a reduction in growth at the level of individual leaves in older trees.

In their study, Stephenson and his colleagues analysed reams of data on 673,046 trees from 403 species in monitored forest plots, in both tropical and temperate areas around the world. They found that the largest trees gained the most mass each year in 97% of the species, capitalizing on their additional leaves and adding ever more girth high in the sky.

Although they relied mostly on existing data, the team calculated growth rates at the level of the individual trees, whereas earlier studies had typically looked at the overall carbon stored in a plot.

Estimating absolute growth for any tree remains problematic, in part because researchers typically take measurements at a person's height and have to extrapolate the growth rate higher up. But the researchers' calculations consistently showed that larger trees added the most mass. In one old-growth forest plot in the western United States, for instance, trees larger than 100 centimetres in diameter comprised just 6% of trees, but accounted for 33% of the growth.

The findings build on a detailed case study published in 2010, which showed similar growth trends for two of the world’s tallest trees — the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and the eucalyptus (Eucalyptus regnans), both of which can grow well past 100 metres in height. In that study, researchers climbed, and took detailed measurements of, branches and limbs throughout the canopy to calculate overall tree growth. Stephen Sillett, a botanist at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, who led the 2010 study, says that the latest analysis confirms that his group’s basic findings apply to almost all trees.

Decline in efficiency

The results are consistent with the known reduction in growth at the leaf level as trees age. Although individual leaves may be less efficient, older trees have more of them. And in older forests, fewer large trees dominate growth trends until they are eventually brought down by a combination of fungi, fires, wind and gravity; the rate of carbon accumulation depends on how fast old forests turn over.

“It’s the geometric reality of tree growth: bigger trees have more leaves, and they have more surface across which wood is deposited,” Sillett says. “The idea that older forests are decadent — it’s really just a myth.”

The findings help to resolve some of these contradictions, says Maurizio Mencuccini, a forest ecologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. The younger trees may grow faster on a relative scale, he says, meaning that they take less time to, say, double in size. ”But on an absolute scale, the old trees keep growing far more.”

The study has broad implications for forest management, whether in maximizing the yield of timber harvests or providing old-growth habitat and increasing carbon stocks. More broadly, the research could help scientists to develop better models of how forests function and their role in regulating the climate.

Read more: https://www.nature.com/news/tree-growth-never-slows-1.14536
 

Kwakiutl First Nation protests BC government’s attempts to shirk responsibilities

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Eight months after the Supreme Court of British Columbia declared that both the provincial and the federal governments have failed to honour the 1851 Douglas Treaty between the Crown and the Kwakiutl First Nation of Port Hardy, BC government has launched an appeal.

Last June, the nation went to court to seek a judicial review of decisions made by the Provincial Crown in granting land tenures to logging company Western Forest Products. Under the provisions of an 1851 treaty between the Crown and the Kwakiutl First Nation, the Kwakiutl argued the province should have consulted meaningfully with them before allowing Western Forest Products to remove more than 14,000 hectares of private land from the area covered by Tree Farm Licence 6. The licence also covers roughly half of traditional Kwakiutl territory.

The province filed its appeal several weeks ago, and members of the Kwakiutl have been protesting on their traditional territory ever since, and they have no plans to stop any time soon.

“It’s conducted peacefully, and it will go on indefinitely until we reach resolution on the implementation issue with the Crown,” said Norman Champagne, band manager and spokesperson for the Kwakiutl. He said the treaty grants the nation the right to maintain its livelihood “as formerly” and “for generations to follow.”

The treaty in question is one of a group of 14 pre-confederation treaties known as the Douglas Treaties that cover much of Vancouver Island. The treaties are a series of agreements between the colonial governor James Douglas and the nations of the island in which Douglas purchased the lands for settlement expansion and the nations retained use of existing villages and fields as well as hunting and gathering rights on all of the land.

But now, 163 years after the treaty was signed, the occupation of the land by settlers and developers has made it even more difficult to enforce the right to use traditional territory in traditional ways.

“Towns have built up around the First Nations, economies have developed, businesses have grown. The impact is on the land itself and it further diminishes even the Crown’s ability to set aside land for the Kwakiutl.”

According to counsel for the nation Louise Mandell, the provincial has been acting illegally since the signing of the 1851 treaty

“During all of this time, the position of the government has been that title has been extinguished through the treaties and now the court says that’s just wrong.”

Justice Weatherill made a declaration stating that the province of BC had an ongoing duty to consult with the nation “in good faith and endeavour to seek accommodations regarding their claim of unextinguished Aboriginal rights, titles and interests in respect of the KFN Traditional Territory.”

While the federal government has so far remained silent on the issue, the provincial government is appealing the declaration.

In an email statement, the BC Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation said the government consults with all Douglas Treaty nations on “any decision that may affect their treaty rights in their traditional territory.” Spokesperson Vivian Thomas said the province is appealing to clarify the scope of consultation the Supreme Court has deemed necessary, but refused to comment any further.

A spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs said the federal arm is also declining to comment while the case is before the court.

There have been a handful of cases since the 1960s affirming the continued validity of Aboriginal rights and title alongside the Douglas treaties

While the Justice Weatherill urged the federal government to deal fairly and with the Kwakiutl to address land claim issues, Mandell believes the court should have gone further, by declaring that the provincial government doesn’t have the power to roll back rights granted through agreements with the Crown and demand that the federal government step in. The Kwakiutl plan to file a cross-appeal to ask that courts fully articulate the responsibilities of both levels of government and call them to the table with Indigenous governments to resolve the issue.

“The table has not been set properly for the implementation of this treaty,” she said.

“All of the pre-confederation treaties have not been properly implemented.”

Oldies but goodies: The oldest establishments in B.C., and a couple of people as well

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Oldest Tree Ever

If you were expecting Canada’s longest-lived tree to be a towering monolith, you’re in for a disappointment. B.C.’s oldest tree is a 1,835-year-old yellow cedar stump in the Caren Range of the Sunshine Coast.

You might glance at the remains and think: “That’s no tree — it’s a tombstone.”

You’d be wrong. It’s no grave marker or monument to a butchered giant.

The Caren yellow cedar is as close as B.C. gets to the predictive power of the ancient Greek oracle of Delphi.

Like the oracle, it tells the future.

“You can learn a lot from studying the rings of older trees,” says botanist Andy MacKinnon, a research ecologist with B.C.’s forests ministry.

“You have a much better chance of appreciating how, and whether or not, today’s climate is different from the climate of the last couple of millenniums, and what you might expect for the future.”

The Caren cedar was 1,835 years old when it was felled in 1980. The Friends of Caren, a Sunshine Coast community group, discovered the huge stump in 1993.

How did it grow to such an age? Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance, says it would have been spared wind, fire and destructive insects.

MacKinnon says yellow cedars are naturally long-lived. Nor are the province’s oldest trees its biggest trees.

“We have discovered that a lot of the oldest trees are growing at higher elevations in more extreme environments and are growing very slowly,” MacKinnon says. “This yellow cedar is probably three times the age of the giant Western red cedar and Douglas fir in Cathedral Grove.”

Identifying the province’s oldest living tree is challenging because Western red cedars get hollow in the middle as they age, Wu says. Some reds may be older than the Caren yellow but because the rings are gone from their interior base, nobody knows, Wu says.

“It’s reasonable to assume that the oldest tree in British Columbia is still out there, unmeasured,” MacKinnon says.


Oldest Treehugger

B.C.’s oldest treehugger began to track down the province’s evergreen giants almost a century ago.

Victoria resident Al Carder, 103, has been working to identify and protect the province’s tallest trees for close to 97 years.

His devotion to big trees grew from a child’s sense of self-preservation in Cloverdale in 1917, when his father suggested he accompany him to measure a nearby Douglas fir felled by loggers. Carder did the sensible thing and went along.

“He was scared of his father’s wrath. He was rather a disciplinarian,” says Judith Carder, Al’s daughter.

As they measured the 104-metre behemoth, the seven-year-old boy caught the Big-Tree Bug. Carder has spent his working life as an agro-meteorologist — he was Canada’s first — but his fascination with big trees abided. Carder has written three books about trees. His most recent book, Reflections of a Big Tree Enthusiast, was published when he was 100.

Carder, who has lost most of his hearing but still lives independently, is an inspiration to young environmentalists.

Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance, points out that Carder has outlasted B.C.’s 80-year-old second-growth forests, which replaced its felled old-growth giants.

“I’ve heard of his work since I was a child as one of the early people who valued and promoted protection of the province’s monumental giant trees long before it was cool,” Wu says.

Judith says her father is fine with being called a treehugger but doesn’t consider himself an extremist.

“He says that at 103, he won’t be chaining himself to a tree.”

Read more: https://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/02/23/oldies-but-goodies-the-oldest-establishments-in-b-c-and-a-couple-of-people-as-well/

Conservation and industry reach agreement on protecting old growth in the Great Bear

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The B.C. government announced last week that environmental groups and forestry companies have jointly submitted recommendations to ‘increase conservation while maintaining economic activity in the Great Bear Rainforest.’

The agreement — which will preserve another 500,000 hectares of old growth — increases forest protection to nearly 70 per cent in the mid-coast region from the 50 per cent level already protected by 2009. The addition pushes the amount of old-growth forest preserved to more than three million hectares, an area larger than Metro Vancouver.

An 82 page submission from the ‘Joint Solutions Project,’ a working group of environmental groups and forest companies that includes Western Forest Products, Interfor, Howe Sound Pulp and Paper, BC Timber Sales and Catalyst, and three environmental groups ForestEthics, Greenpeace and Sierra Club of BC, contains numerous recommendations.

The submission proposes that additional areas be set aside for conservation, that harvest levels be adjusted to maintain viable forestry operations, and advocates a new approach to landscape planning that better accounts for old growth, cultural values, biodiversity and riparian zones.

The process of protecting the central coast began in 2001 with then-premier Gordon Campbell. At that time environmentalists around the world were putting the pressure on B.C. to act by a campaign against provincial forest products, and by 2009 large areas of the Great Bear were under protection.

The recommendations will now be evaluated by the Province, Nanwakolas Council and Coastal First Nations. The government has reconciliation agreements with both these groups of First Nations. In addition, 12 other First Nations will need to be consulted since they also have traditional territory in the Great Bear Rainforest. Ministry staff will review the recommendations for legislative and fiscal implications and implications to other resource users, and First Nations will review for implications to their interests.

Coastal First Nations executive director Art Sterritt said they don’t expect to call for massive changes. Sterritt also noted that several First Nations hold tenures in the mid-coast area and will also want to protect the eco-system while participating in logging. But, he also pointed out that expects some conflict between the First Nations and industry on which areas to protect and which to log.

“We are pleased that the Joint Solutions Project has completed its work,” said Sterritt. “Coastal First Nations will now take this report to our  communities for review and discussion prior to finalizing legal  objectives with the Province for the Great Bear Rainforest.”

ForestEthics senior campaigner Valerie Langer said this is the final step in protecting the Great Bear Rainforest. “There’s never been any conservation of this scale achieved. To do this in a collaborative way with unlikely allies over an area the size of some countries, and to both protect the forest and maintain viability of an industry, is a great achievement,” she said.

Industry officials are also in support of the recommendations, reflecting on past conflicts that made it seem that an agreement of this type would be impossible to reach.

“This has been a long time coming. It was not just done in the last week, or last month,” said Interfor vice-president and chief forester Ric Slaco. “This looks to be the final chapter. That’s a big deal.”

Government is also pleased with the outcome. “I congratulate the forest companies and environmental groups for their continued cooperation and efforts in finding solutions that manage both the environment and local economies in this unique region of the world,” said Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource  Operations.

Read more: https://www.coastmountainnews.com/news/conservation-and-industry-reach-agreement-on-protecting-old-growth-in-the-great-bear/

Ancient Forest Alliance

Arbutus RV Island Adventures Ep.1 – Avatar Grove

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Shaw TV's Sucheta Singh takes us just north of Port Renfrew to Avatar Grove. A magical place full of old growth forest the size of skyscrapers.

Direct link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pMcveWnjK0

Ancient Forest Alliance

How Many Old Growth Trees Make a Forest?

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When is a grove of 600 to 800-year-old Douglas Fir trees not an old growth forest?

That's the question the Campbell family and other residents on Sonora Island will ask TimberWest Forest Corporation, western Canada's largest timber and land management company, at a meeting today in Campbell River.

TimberWest, owned by two pension funds, bills itself as “a leader in sustainable forest management and is committed to Vancouver Island communities.”

It also says it practices “stewardship that maintains biodiversity.”

But the Campbells and other coastal residents contend that the company's cutting practices are not as sustainable as advertised.

At issue are groves of stunning old growth fir and cedar on southeast side of Sonora Island, just northeast of Campbell River on Vancouver Island.

Because TimberWest owns renewable Crown harvest rights to an area that falls partly within the southernmost boundary of the Great Bear Rainforest, it must manage these forests according to Ecosystem Based Management (EBM).

It's a government approved land use system that manages human activities such as logging in a way that “ensures the co-existence of healthy, fully functional ecosystems and human communities.”

When the provincial government implemented EBM in 2009, the rules stated that 30 per cent of each original forest type had to be left intact at a bare minimum to conserve ecological integrity.

Although adhering to this principle has been touted as a success by government and industry, the Campbells say it's not being honoured or enforced.

In fact they've been raising concerns about the logging of old growth forests in the region since the 1990s.

In particular they are concerned about the survival of small groves of untouched coastal Douglas fir and cedar, that now exist, much like plains buffalo, at less then one per cent of their historic prevalence, on the islands and adjacent Mainland coast.

Residents challenged TimberWest

Due to past logging, Sonora Island lies within an area where the goal of saving 30 per cent of these ancient trees remains far below target.

But in a July 2010 letter TimberWest announced plans to log on the island in an area containing many ancient trees.

Rick Monchak, operations manager for TimberWest, assured the Campbells in the letter that, “All of the proposed development is within second growth [already logged] timber and should be well away from the watersheds…”

Last year the Campbells and other families challenged the veracity of the company's assessment.

The company pushed in a logging road anyway.

In February of last year the Sonorans then hiked and explored the laid-out cut-block.

There they found survey tape labeled “Falling Boundary” wrapped around ancient stands of Douglas fir and cedar.

Some of the untouched groves contained huge trees measuring up to eight feet in diameter and over 200 feet tall. Depending on their quality some of the trees could be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Altogether the Campbells measured and catalogued 160 massive trees in one single cut-block and took pictures.

“We were furious,” says Fern Kornelsen another long time Sonoran resident.

Shortly afterwards, at a meeting in the TimberWest office in Campell River, senior registered professional foresters tried to assure the Campbells that the approved cutblock consisted of “second growth timber.”

“Oh those are big trees they said, looking at the photos, but there are not enough of them,” they told the Campbells.

Later, on a trip taken with the Campbells to the area in question, a TimberWest forester admitted “this is the nicest and largest area of this type of old growth in the landscape unit.”

Company officials then explained that their definition of old growth was a forest with more than 50 percent of the stand volume belonging to trees over 250 years old.

Forest Practices Board bows out

The Forest Practices Board was then called upon to help mediate the dispute.

But the board withdrew two months later, issuing a statement to the Sonorans, saying, “We agreed that now is a good time for the Board to pull back from direct involvement to allow you a chance to resolve your concerns with TimberWest.” 

“We thought the board would reprimand the company and uphold the law,” said Jody Eriksson, another Sonoran resident, “but that didn't happen.”

The issue, however, soon caught the attention of Greenpeace, Forest Ethics Solutions, and the Sierra Club and other industry watchdogs.

They wanted to know if the principles of EBM were being enforced in other parts of the Great Bear Rainforest.

They also wondered if TimberWest had tailored a definition of old growth that allowed them to search out and cut the last remaining stands of old forest by calling them second growth.

“How did TimberWest pull that off?” asked Valerie Langer of Forest Ethics Solutions in a blog post. “By using a bizarre, technically unheard of, definition they made up.”

In April 2013 the Sonora residents commissioned, at a cost of several thousand dollars, an independent environmental assessment by Madrone Environmental Services Ltd.

The 77-page report, which called for better mapping and verification of old growth on the island, concluded the proposed cut-block was indeed old growth:

“Based on the data collected, we conclude that the sampled 5.6 ha area of Sonora 11-370 West consists of 'old forest' as that term is intended to be understood for the purposes of the Objectives for landscape level biodiversity under South Central Coast Order.”

Doug Hopwood, one of the co-authors of the report and a Registered Professional Forester, noted that he was “unable to find any documented scientific basis” for the TimberWest's definition of old growth.

Definition 'in progress': TimberWest


TimberWest says a relevant definition for old growth has yet to be nailed down.

In a response to Tyee inquiries, Domenico Iannidinardo, vice president of sustainability and chief forester for TimberWest explained the company “voluntarily deferred harvest and began working with the Sonora Island community to develop a definition for old growth stand that the parties could agree to. An independent specialist was jointly retained to oversee development of the definition, a piece of work that is in progress.”

The company's chief forester added, “that the Forest Practices Board, the Province and First Nations are aware of the joint work on the old growth stand definition. The province also has a representative on the team that is working on the definition of old growth stand. Once the definition has been developed it will be shared with the Province and First Nations.”

But the Sonorans feared that TimberWest would continue to cut the few remaining stands while negotiating the new definition.

On Oct. 14, 2013 Iannidinardo promised that wouldn't happen.

He explained in a letter that the company would follow “a precautionary approach while this work on the definition of an old growth stand continues in adherence to the South Coast Conservation Order.”

In addition “we have no plans to harvest stands in the Thurlow [includes Sonora] and Grey Landscape Units that will or might have the potential to meet the final definition of an old growth stand.”

Members of the Sonora community then travelled to a familiar patch of rare old growth in the Grey Landscape Unit on the Mainland to see if TimberWest kept its word.

That's where they say they found a recent cut-block full of tall, straight, giant trees dominated by Douglas fir over 500 years old and equally impressive stands of western red cedar.

Unfortunately, they claim, the trees were already felled and lying on the ground.

The community is meeting with TimberWest on Jan. 24 to discuss the company's reasons for the cutting of so many ancient trees.

TimberWest's Iannidinardo told The Tyee the company is “engaged in complex discussions with our neighbours on Sonora Island on a range of issues pertaining to the Gray Landscape Unit including the definition of old growth stand. As part of the discussions we are providing answers to a number of questions raised by the Sonora Island community.”

'Where is the government?'

Ross Campbell, a business owner and long-time Sonoran resident wants to see more government involvement on the issue.

“Our government relies on timber companies' commitment to 'Professional Reliance' to ensure the health and future of our public forests, but with practices such as TimberWest's it is clear the spirit and intent of EBM is not being upheld in the woods.”

Added Ross: “And just where is the government?”

Other members of the community said protecting ancient trees is one thing but policing forest companies in order to enforce provincial law is another issue altogether.

“That job that should not fall on the shoulders of citizens but appears to be required with so little government oversight or enforcement,” said Farlyn Campbell, a life-time Sonora resident.

TimberWest is owned by two Canadian pension funds, the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and Public Sector Pension Investment Board.

The company says its goal is to “earn an international reputation as an environmentally responsible supplier of forest products through stewardship of its lands.”

Read more: https://thetyee.ca/News/2014/01/24/BC-Old-Growth/

Avatar Grove

Carbon emissions from BC forests alarming: environmental group

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An environmental group is calling on the provincial government to take action as B.C.’s forests continue to emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb.

“We’re concerned this has become a long-term problem,” said Jens Wieting from environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club.

Ideally, a healthy forest will absorb more carbon in the soil and trees than it releases, for example through burning, decomposition and logging. This is sometimes called a carbon sink.

Due to a number of factors — including pine beetle infestation, slash fires, wood waste and clear cutting — B.C.’s forests have not done this since 2003, and are emitting carbon dioxide at alarming rates, the group said.

According to the province’s own data, net carbon dioxide emissions from forestland in 2011 were 34.9 million tonnes, equivalent to more than half of B.C.’s total official emissions for that year. However, only carbon emissions from deforestation and afforestation (new or replanted forests) are included in the province’s official total. As a result, forestland emissions from other sources are “not part of any policy discussions,” Wieting said.

“There’s a lack of policy, planning and awareness all around. Not to mention the lag time for this data and need for more research.”

Dave Crebo, a spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, said forestland emissions are not included in official totals because “emission estimates for this sector have a high degree of uncertainty relative to estimates in other sectors.”

Forestland emissions are also not included in national inventories.

However, an agreement recently reached under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on a new forest carbon accounting framework could change that.

“Canada and B.C. are reviewing this new reference-level based framework,” Crebo said.

Wieting has said the province has gotten away with poor forest management for the past 100 years, in part because of its temperate climate. But climate change could alter that.

Carbon dioxide is the most significant driver of global climate change. The greenhouse gas traps heat from the atmosphere and radiates it back toward Earth.

“We already have climate impacts,” Wieting said, citing the pine beetle infestation, landslides and droughts, which increase the risk of forest fires. “So we have to double our efforts to maintain healthy forests for clean water, for clean air and for our children. This requires government action.”

Wieting is calling on the province to release detailed data about forestland emissions in a timely fashion (the most recent numbers are from 2011). He also wants to see a forest-management plan that reduces carbon emissions, clear-cut logging and wood waste.

“We can do something about this,” he said. “It’s not too late.”

Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/carbon-emissions-from-b-c-forests-alarming-environmental-group-1.792564

Ancient Forest Alliance

Trees accelerate growth as they get older and bigger, study finds

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Most living things reach a certain age and then stop growing, but trees accelerate their growth as they get older and bigger, a global study has found.

The findings, reported by an international team of 38 researchers in the journal Nature, overturn the assumption that old trees are less productive. It could have important implications for the way that forests are managed to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

“This finding contradicts the usual assumption that tree growth eventually declines as trees get older and bigger,” said Nate Stephenson, the study's lead author and a forest ecologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS). “It also means that big, old trees are better at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere than has been commonly assumed.”

The scientists from 16 countries studied measurements of 673,046 trees of more than 400 species growing on six continents, and found that large, old trees actively fix large amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees. A single big tree can add the same amount of carbon to the forest in a year as is contained in an entire mid-sized tree, they found.

“In human terms, it is as if our growth just keeps accelerating after adolescence, instead of slowing down. By that measure, humans could weigh half a tonne by middle age, and well over a tonne at retirement,” said Stephenson.

“In absolute terms, trees 100cm in trunk diameter typically add from 10-200 kg dry mass each year averaging 103kg per year. This is nearly three times the rate for trees of the same species at 50cm in diameter, and is the mass equivalent to adding an entirely new tree of 10-20cm in diameter to the forest each year,” said the report.

The findings back up a 2010 study which showed that some of the largest trees in the world, like eucalyptus and sequoia, put on extraordinary growth as they get older.

“Rapid growth in giant trees is the global norm, and can exceed 600kg per year in the largest individuals,” say the authors.

The study also shows old trees play a disproportionately important role in forest growth. Trees of 100cm in diameter in old-growth western US forests comprised just 6% of trees, yet contributed 33% of the annual forest mass growth.

But the researchers said that the rapid carbon absorption rate of individual trees did not necessarily translate into a net increase in carbon storage for an entire forest. “Old trees can die and lose carbon back into the atmosphere as they decompose,” says Adrian Das, another USGS co-author. “But our findings do suggest that while they are alive, large old trees play a disproportionately important role in a forest's carbon dynamics. It is as if the star players on your favourite sports team were a bunch of 90-year-olds.”

“It tells us that large old trees are very important, not just as carbon reservoirs. Old trees are even more important than we thought,” said University College London researcher Emily Lines, another co-author of the paper.

Understanding of the role of big trees in a forest is developing rapidly even as they come under increasing threat from the fragmentation of forests, severe drought and new pests and diseases. Research in 2012 showed that big trees may comprise less than 2% of the trees in any forest but they can contain 25% of the total biomass and are vital for the health of whole forests because they seed large areas.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/15/trees-grow-more-older-carbon

Ancient Forest Alliance

No sale for Dakota Bowl cutblocks

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BC Timber Sales (BCTS) removed more than 50 hectares of old-growth forest from its harvesting plans for Mount Elphinstone last week after failing to receive any bids from logging contractors.

Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) announced the removal of the four Dakota Bowl cutblocks from the BCTS notice list after BCTS forest manager Don Hudson contacted the group on Nov. 21, the closing date for bids.

“We did not receive any bids today. We will likely retender next spring,” Hudson wrote ELF in an email.

Ross Muirhead of ELF said the group was not surprised that logging companies took a pass on the four cutblocks.

“We always thought the road-building in there was pretty extreme, and since the contractor would have to pay for it, it could be very expensive,” Muirhead said. “I think the contractors looked at the road-building plan and just gave up on it because of a lot of the unknown factors related to building on such steep slopes.”

Muirhead said ELF would continue to lobby to have the cutblocks permanently removed from BCTS’s harvesting plans and was awaiting a report on bear dens in Dakota Bowl after a Ministry of Environment biologist surveyed the area last month.

The group said it has also discovered culturally modified trees and record-sized mountain hemlocks in Dakota Bowl, with ELF member Hans Penner calling it “the largest remaining old-growth forest of its type, at this elevation, on the Sunshine Coast.”

Among the area’s natural treasures, Muirhead said the group discovered the widest known mountain hemlock in the province, at 6.63 metres in circumference. The Ministry of Forests’ big tree registry lists the next widest mountain hemlock, found on Hollyburn Mountain, at 5.99 metres.

In late October, after heavy lobbying by ELF and other groups, BCTS announced it was dropping the 15-hectare cutblock known as the Roberts Creek headwaters ancient forest from its future harvesting plans due to its “unique ecological/cultural attributes.”

At the time, BCTS planning forester Norm Kempe said logging plans for the remaining four cutblocks addressed concerns about slope stability and impacts on the Dakota Creek watershed.

Link to online article.