Impacts Of Forest Harvesting On Long Term Site Productivity

The International Energy Agency Bioenergy Agreement was initiated as the Forestry Energy Agreement in 1978. It was expanded in 1986 to form the Bioenergy Agreement. Since that time the Agreement has thrived with some fifteen countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and the CEC) currently being signatories. The objective of the Agreement is to establish increased programme and project cooperation between the participants in the field of bioenergy. The environmental consequences of intensive forest harvesting have been the subject of intense interest for the Agreement from its initiation. This interest was formulated as a Cooperative Project under the Forestry Energy Agreement in 1984. It developed further under each of the subsequent three-year Tasks of the Bioenergy Agreement (Task III, Activity 3 "Nutritional consequences of intensive forest harvesting on site productivity", Task VI, Activity 6 "Environmental impacts of harvesting" and more recently Task IX, Activity 4 "Environmental impacts of intensive harvesting". The work has been supported by five main countries from within the Bioenergy Agreement: Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, UK, and USA. The continued work has resulted in a significant network of scientists work ing together towards a common objective - that of generating a better under standing of the processes involved in nutrient cycling and the development of management regimes which will maintain or enhance long term site productivity.

In August 20-23, 2004, a conference was held in Kamilche, WA, with the title S2Productivity of Western Forests: A Forest Products Focus. S3 The meeting brought together researchers and practitioners interested in discussing the economic and biological factors influencing wood production and value. One of the underlying assumptions of the meeting organizers was that management activities would be practiced within a framework of sustaining or improving site productivity; thus, several papers deal with methods to protect or improve productivity or discuss new studies designed to test the effects of various practices. This proceedings includes 11 papers based on oral presentations at the conference, 3 papers based on posters and 2 papers describing the Fall River and Matlock Long-Term Site Productivity study areas visited on the field tours. The papers cover subjects on forest harvesting activities, stand establishment, silviculture, site productivity, remote sensing, and wood product technologies.

Intensive (whole-tree) harvesting of natural forest stands is widespread in the Maritime provinces. In some cases, the goal of whole-tree harvesting is to increase usable biomass, but often foliage and branch components are discarded at the landing site. This report examines the possible effects of whole-tree harvesting on long-term site productivity, and particularly on soil fertility. The report evaluates published data collected from different parts of the world concerning potential decline in soil fertility resulting from the loss of organic matter and base cations caused by different harvesting methods. Biomass and the amount of base cations that would be removed both by conventional and whole-tree harvesting are calculated. Published data from different stands in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were used to examine the effect of species and site quality on base cation losses and the potential increase in soil acidification which would result from whole-tree harvesting. The consequences of high base cation losses, especially from the infertile acid soils of the region on long-term interfile acid soils of the region on long-term site productivity are discussed.

Describes the impacts of forestry activity on soil properties and site productivity. Includes information on assessing soil sensitivity and site rehabilitation.

Bamboo is a plant that occurs over much of the World. It is probable that billions of the World’s population see, eat and touch bamboo every day. Bamboo contributes significantly to the income generation of many poor farmers. Yet it is an “orphan” crop – largely ignored by the main landholding agencies – forestry and agriculture. This volume contains most of the papers presented at the joint Fifthth International Bamboo Congress and Sixth International Bamboo Workshop held in San José, Costa Rica, 1998, organized by the International Bamboo Association (IBA) and INBAR. The book is divided into four parts: Bamboo Resources and Socio-economics; Bamboo Propagation and Management; Bamboo Engineering and Construction; Bamboo Design and Utilization. The topics covered include varied aspects of bamboo, such as: from bamboo resources of Mexico to bamboos of Ethiopia; from bamboo afforestation of a mined area to bamboo as a food and fiber alternative in an island; from bamboo drippers to bamboo wheelchairs; from teaching architecture with bamboo to an international building code for bamboo; from silviculture of Guadua bamboo to flowering of Moso bamboo; and many more. This publication serves to highlight the usefulness of bamboo in aiding developing countries in their sustainable social, economic and environmental development.