This week:part one

From valley floor
to alpine meadow

In our review of the past several
weeks of Forestry Insights, we
have already looked at the "Green
Illusion” and gained a better under-
standing of the word "silviculture".
Today we will conclude this sum-
mary by taking a look at the forest
ecology and management of a
typical British Columbia river
valley.

Basically, we divided our valley

into five séparate areas. The [irst
four are determined by their rela-
tive elevation above sea level. The
lowlands or river valley are the
lowest level, the mid-slopes, which
range from about 600 to 1,200 feet
above sea level are next. The
upper slopes or sub-alpine regions
follow that, and at the top of the
mountain, about where the tree line
ends, is where the alpine slopes
begin.

The fifth, "wilderness reserves",
are a little different, though. They
can be almost anywhere. The
location of a wilderness reserve is
determined more by man’s percep-
tion of nature than it is by its
physical. location or ecological
significance. But we'll deal with
that issue in a few moments.
Learning how to manage the first
four regions is far more important.

Lowlands, mid-slopes, upper--
slopes and alpine regions of our
' forests contain specific forest man-

agement problems whose solutions.

are determined by nature alone...
not mankind. And how we utilize

or ignore nature’s solutions, will

determine the long-term future of
the forest industry. Man’s solutions
of marketing strategies, financing
or the brute strength of technology
are not the masters here. Nature is
‘in charge and it’s time we accept
that fact.

The first thing we learned in our —

eight-week discussion on ecology
and management was that nature is
far more complex than we were
led to believe only a few short

years ago. We can’t go out and cut:
a forest, plant a few seedlings, rest.

on our laurels for a few years, and
_ then go back and cut another for-

est.

The second thing we learned was
that, as complicated and important
as the river valley ecology. is,
everything that happens on the
slopes above is just as important,
if not more so. As we move up a
mountainside, the ecology becomes
more complex with almost every.
step and when we get to the criti-
cal upper elevations it was sug-
gested that the best management
policy is to leave things alone.:
Nature has done a great job until
now and will continue to do so if
we leave her to her work..

ALPINE SLOPES are where
everything begins. Here we find
the primary source of nutrients and
moisture for the valley below.
Lichens, a member of the fungus

family, extract moisture and nutri- |
ents from the air and form car- |

bonic acid at their roots. The acid
breaks down the rock, releasing
minerals which will eventually
feed the forest below. _
Lichens are the first stage of
primary succession. But there are
also other more advanced plants
that fill the same role. Mountain
heather, Indian paint brush, wild
colombine, rocky mountain juni-
per, false hellebore and a few other

plant species also form carbonic.

acid at their roots which help
release even more minerals from
the alpine rock.

But the alpine regions are impor-

tant for other reasons too. Moun- |

tain goats and bighorn sheep feed

on lichens. Elk and caribou feed -

on sparse grasses during the short
two-month summer. And man also
reaps benefits from the alpine
slopes. These are the source of our
"mountain-pure" water and cooling
summer breezes - summertime
gifts from melting snow and ice. ©

In the past, however, we haven't

really thought of alpine slopes as a

source of life. They are dotted with
inviting alpine meadows, dozens of

miniature lakes, and, at higher

altitudes picturesque fields of
perpetual ice. These areas are often
considered by hikers and photog-
raphers as a source of the ulti-

Forestry does trial
—geeding locally

by Betty Barton

This month, Terrace’s Ministry
of Forests began a trial seed-
spraying program in two locations

“in this district, near Meziadin Lake

and near the mouth of the Lakelse
River, in ten-hectare plots. The
seeds being sprayed are a special
legume mixture consisting of
Alsike clover, white clover and
birdsfoot trefoil.

With the seed-spraying, Forestry
is trying to establish a mat of
ground cover which enriches the
soil with nitrogen. The purpose of
the experimental program. is two-
fold;.to replace fertilization and to
snpress some of the other brush
s; cies in newly-reforested areas.

The Lakelse River area was re-
_planted just this spring.

Northern Mountain Helicopters
was contracted to distribute the
seed mixture from their fertilizer
bucket.

The seed-spraying program was
established in the Smithers forestry
district a few years ago. Local
resource officer of silviculture Bob
Wilson says, "We'll have to
monitor the results for two or three
years to determine the effective-
ness of the program." Wilson says
they may do a few more areas next
summer, just 10 have a compara-
live crop. For 1990, the program
is complete except for the watch-
ing and walting.

mate summertime experience.

This calls for strict management
policies in these areas, Forget
about logging and mining activity;
hikers, photographers, skiers,
bikers and snowmobilers can do
enough harm alone. Pick a few
flowers and you kill the plant;
alpine flowers are perennials. Mo-
torized vehicles leave bits of metal,
rubber, spilled fuel and exhaust.
And. many people leave behind
litter - bottles, cans, paper, plas-
tics. .
Industrial interests can do some
work in alpine areas if they follow
appropriate management pro-
cedures but for most of us the
basic rule of thumb is to simply
leave things alone. Stay away from
these areas because no manage-
ment at all is the best management
policy of all.

But if we must go there, if we
must interfere, we must do it in an
educated, and responsible way.
These, however, are lessons we
have yet to learn. In the meantime,
any damage we cause will take
nature several decades to cure.

‘UPPER SLOPES are also critical
to the survival of the forests below
and extremely difficult, if not
impossible, to manage. Here you
will find only about a half inch of
soil clinging to windswept rock, a
growing season that is only about
two months long, and an annual
mean temperature of only 50.
degrees Fahrenheit. But even
“though soils are thin. and the

weather harsh, the forest industry

has found a few merchantable trees
here. .

Amabilis fir (balsam) and moun-.
tain hemlock (a cousin of western

‘hemlock) survive quite nicely here.

And there is other growth less
attractive to industry; a stunted
version of slide alder and brush--
like heather, rocky mountain juni-
per and vaccinium (blueberries and
huckleberries).

But. these plants survive with
meagre resources. There are few
basic nutrients. As in the alpine
regions, fungi, not animal life and
bacteria, provide the process for
releasing nutrients from rock. Also,
similar to the alpine regions, this
process is very susceptible to dis-
ruption by man. This makes any
kind of development a very risky
business -- even with the most
carefully controlled management
techniques.

But this fact hasn’t kept the
forest industry out. In many areas

-the upper elevations: are being —

logged and the implications of that
practice are just becoming appar-
ent. The thin layer of soil that took
hundreds of years to collect is
open to the elements and much of
it washes down the mountainside
or simply blows away. Slope fail-
ure (slides) are also common.

And the climate has changed. No

longer protected by trees from
neighbouring glaciers, temperatures
plummet. In some cases, by as
much as 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

by Tod Strachan, in consultation with Rod Arnold and Doug Davies _

This cools what little soil remains
and it can no. longer host any
significant forms of plant life.
What was once a sub-alpine
meadow, has become an alpine
desert; it’s development set back
perhaps 200 years.

This is a worst-case scenario,
though. There are some areas here
that can be logged if the job is
done right. Small,

selectively-logged or clear-cut sites
no larger than five hectares can be
successfully logged. At the same
time, though, management pro-
cedures are both complex and
expensive.

Immediate reforestation is a
must. Nature simply takes too
long. But through ignorance, there
have been many failures. In order
to grow the seeds to produce the
seedlings for replanting, these
seeds must come from the same
site. This means using enough
foresight to collect seeds and begin
growing scedlings years before
‘harvesting. Even with this fore-
sight, however, there are still many
unanswered questions and no
certainty of success.

- Given these facts, then, why are
we logging these slopes at all?

Forestry Insights is regular
weekly feature of the Terrace
Review, written by staff reporter
Tod Strachan in consultation with
Registered Professional Foresters
Rod Arnold and Doug Davies.

MINISTRY OF FORESTS commenced a trial seed-spraying program near the mouth of the Lakelse
River this month. Here a Northern Mountain helicopter distributes the seed mixture from a fertilizer

bucket.

at