The Western Woodlot Services Cooperative would like to invite you to attend a forestry field tour on Saturday April 27 from 10am to 3pm. The tour will visit and discuss 40 years of ecologically based intensive forest management using natural regeneration strategies on several woodlots managed by Harold Alexander of North Range Forest Products in North Range, Digby Co.
The sites we’ll visit are predominately Red Spruce (even-aged) stands at various forest stand development stages from regenerating to mature forest that have received one or more silviculture entries. We’ll also visit portion of a neighbouring woodlot that is multi-aged and has not been worked for 30 years which just received its first harvest entry considered as uneven-aged management.
Part of discussions will include hearing Harold’s views on intensive/high production forest management as part of the triad model recommended in the Lahey report, as well as optimizing tree volume growth capabilities, quality development/optimum time to complete silviculture entries, eligible silviculture treatments, silviculture funding and rates, costs and revenues associated including challenges.
The sites the tour will visit include:
1. Red Spruce seedling establishment and development after thinning in older stands (shelterwood)
2. Stand age 15-20 years: 1st thinning (pre-commercial)
3. Stand age 35-40 years: 2nd thinning (Commercial/ Merchantable)
4. Stand age 50-60 years: 3rd thinning (shelterwood type cut)
5. Uneven aged management in old growth mixedwood forest dominated by Red Spruce.
Please join us for a walk in the woods to see various stages of forest stand development, silviculture, and to participate in various discussions. If you’re able to attend, we ask participants to please pre-register and indicate the best email address or phone number to reach you so we can notify participants in case of cancellation. There is no cost to attend although we ask that participants bring their own lunch. If you have any woodlot owner friends that may be interested in attending this event, please share this with them.