Forestry Open House

By Vicki Winger

A joint Forestry Open House was held April 24 at the Allan & Jean Millar Centre. It gave the public an opportunity to speak with representatives of the four major mills operating in our region.

ANC Timber, Millar Western, Blue Ridge Lumber, and Weyerhauser had booths set up in the Fieldhouse displaying their mapped Forest Management Area (FMA) and where they will be focusing most of their work for the 2019 season. The planned activities include road development, harvesting, hauling, reforestation, and herbicide treatments.

Ian Daisley, Woodlands Manager for ANC said, “We are presenting a number of our plans to the public which includes the annual operating plan which shows where we will be harvesting and carrying out reforestation. Our annual year runs from May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020 which is our timber year. Our main FMA is located southwest of Fox Creek and a portion down the Wolf Lake Road off Highway 16 with a bigger harvesting project centred in the Tony Creek Road area which is northwest of Fox Creek.

“Our goal for the Open House is to get public input on our planned harvesting area. Some concerns may come from outdoor groups, quadders, hunters, trappers, and people who enjoy recreation. As the Caribou Range Plan falls in the middle of ANC’s FMA. It has had a huge impact as we can’t operate on a third of our area right now. Even though it’s still in the draft phase, most restrictions have been implemented already for the forest industry. Hopefully, with a new government this will change.”

Alberta Newsprint is typically known for being a paper mill; however, as Daisley explained, “We do our own logging and all our trees go to other facilities. We trade the logs for chips. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

“Millar Western’s projection for the year is to do lots of tree planting. About 70 per cent of our saplings are sourced out of British Columbia. This year we will be planting 7.3 million trees. The spring planting begins mid-May and runs to June 10, the summer plant runs from June 25 to the end of July. The saplings are monitored on a long-term basis. Survival studies are done after planting for any concerns and are then mandated to do an establishment survey by year eight, then at year 14 we do another survey to put it on a growth yield curve. For a full tree to be harvested again takes about 60 years depending on the area but more commonly it’s about 80 to 100 years,” said Silviculture Supervisor Brent Huizinga.

Blue Ridge Lumber brought out several members from a variety of departments. Roxanne Smestad, Management Forester for the mill, attended to show the public its annual general plan. “Our maps show our blocks laid out of where our activity will be taking place for our timber year which is June 1 to May 31. The purpose is to let the public know where we’re proposed to work and to get feedback on any issues we may not be aware of such as bird nesting places that recreational users may be aware of,” she said.

In the lumber Industry, the Mountain Pine Beetle is one of the biggest concerns and most widespread problem. Shay Yaskobitch, Operations Forester for Weyerhauser who has FMAs south of Whitecourt to Rocky Mountain House with Obed Lake being the farthest west. The biggest annual goal for the upcoming timber year is to get ahead of the beetle. “We are seeing it somewhat heavy in the western part of our FMA and over to the Lodgepole area, so we know it’s all the way across. We can’t eliminate it, but we can get in front of it to slow it down as much as possible,” said Yaskobitch.

The plan of attack for Weyhauser will be to create buffer zones around its block edges making it more difficult for the beetles to cross. The company has crews that assess the trees for any damage. If any holes are noticed with sawdust coming out, it means the beetles were successful in penetrating the tree. Sap indicates the tree pushed them out and survived the attack. The information is collected and shared with the government. When it comes time for harvesting, affected trees will be separated and dealt with accordingly which typically results in being cut down and burned on site.