WBCF PROJECTS
Biodiversity
Arguably logging will usually reduce biodiversity, but the community forest agreement requires Wells-Barkerville to harvest an average of 5,000 cubic meters of timber per year.
Given this requirement a significant start to maintaining biodiversity is selective harvest, with approximately one third of the mature trees harvested in a cut block, and the rest of the mature trees, and all of the immature trees and other plants, left behind.
Selective Harvest
When the first sale of standing timber was acquired by West Fraser the company agreed to reduce the volume of timber logged by clearcutting and to practice selective harvest to acquire the remaining volume. The timber was logged from eight clear cuts totaling 57 hectares and a “partial harvest” 30.9 hectare block.
When West Fraser agreed to a second purchase of standing timber – the trees to be cut between 2019 and 2024 – it agreed at least 50 per cent of the trees would be selectively harvested.
Selective harvest retains a far greater variety of trees, plants and animals, and ensures the forest has trees ranging from young to very old.