The proof's in the planning

While the general public and forest workers often seem at odds over stewardship, there is resounding accord when it comes to the need for solid planning.

In Nova Scotia, for example, about 90 per cent of the general public and 87 per cent of forest landowners believe that a) protecting the environment is more important than protecting jobs, and b) protecting jobs and protecting the forest environment are both possible. It's also worth noting that while almost 50 per cent of the general public believe forest harvesting on Crown land is unsustainable as practised, even more forest landowners (over 60 per cent) share that belief(f.1).

Last month, we kicked off the Total Chance column by discussing the need to see the forest for the trees - to look at broad landscape level issues over multiple rotations - and to optimize our management efforts by maximizing multiple resource values and objectives. Still, the big question remains: How much of this grandiose planning stuff is smoke and how much of it is substance?

Weyerhaeuser in Vavenby, BC, had their first stab at landscape level planning in 1994, when Wes Bieber, the branch's Planning Forester, returned from a cable-logging course with an upstart idea for long term planning. Bieber thought Total Chance Planning would play out well in an area oddly referred to as the Elevator Fire, which was being laid out using techniques that today's staff calls the Braille Method.

Existing boundaries, road layouts and silvicultural prescription plots were yanked, plans on 20-metre contoured TRIM maps shelved, and a contract to build 5-metre contour maps at 1:5000 was issued. From these finer maps, a strategy was devised to provide dependable and continuous access to the entire planning unit.

The subsequent plan was corroborated by a two-person team. Vavenby called their reconnaissance work Chickening and Vectoring because of the amount of running around the scout does compared with the layout person. They needed to confirm timber chance and terrain control points before integrating ecological and social parameters like protection, water, wildlife, archaeology, recreation and visual quality objectives. Portions of the overall plan could then be presented as a five-year development plan and an annual operational plan, subject to a public referral.

Understandably, this is not an easy approach for bean counters to buy into, because the mapping and planning expenses must be written against first pass returns, but the results appear over the long term. In fact, because of an unforeseen event, Vavenby's experiment panned out early.

In 1997, a 1 600-hectare wildfire ran through the Elevator Fire area, forcing salvage operations in an adjacent area that had also been planned using the Total Chance model. Now, the results are in. In the original planning area, Total Chance took two fewer kilometres of road building to access twice the timber volume (50 000 m[Symbol Not Transcribed]3) as originally laid out. Even more impressive is the burn, where between September 1997 and September 1998, the existing Total Chance plan was used to gain approvals, develop roads, lay out blocks, and have 90 per cent of the fire salvage area harvested (170 000 m[Symbol Not Transcribed]3) and 60 per cent of it planted. Granted, the fire expedited the process, but the results still speak of goodwill with the Forest Service and a very workable plan - especially when you consider it usually takes two years just to get a cutting permit in that region.

Total Chance is not just applicable to frontier cable logging sites boasting six sticks per load. Back in Nova Scotia, where those with less endowed timberland chuckle at Westerners grumbling about recession, the folks at Stora Enso in Port Hawkesbury have begun Ecological Landscape Planning. It allows for an 80- to 200-year planning horizon, with tactical planning at 20-year intervals and operational planning every five years. This is set in the context of the province's Integrated Resource Management Plan for land use based on categories of general resource, multiple use or protected area. Even the NS Department of Natural Resources recognizes that Stora now sets the standard for long-range planning in eastern NS.

Employment and a healthy environment are not mutually exclusive, but let's face it, when it comes to making the most of the chances before us, it is going to take an "All-for-One" mentality to be responsible and effective stewards of the Total Chance.

Craig Pulsifer is a forest engineer and freelancer who carefully plans his work. If you'd like to comment on this colum or share your own planning experiences, you can email him at pulsifer@sunwave.net, or fax him at (514) 457-2558.

(f.1) Nova Forest Alliance, Perceptions and Attitudes toward Sustainable Forest Management: Central Nova Scotia, August 2000 (see http://www.novafore-stalliance.com)