How an experiment in Maple Ridge is helping change B.C.’s logging status quo

At the Malcolm Knapp Research forest, researchers tried out a European logging approach to see if a more sustainable method would be possible in B.C.

In what was called the Kantelberg Trials, UBC forestry faculty Dominik Roeser and Suzanne Simard looked at both the economic and ecological impacts of a logging method ‘cut-to-length’, compared to clearcutting.

Roeser, the associate dean of research forests and community outreach at UBC Forestry, is from Germany and worked in Finland for over a decade. There, he said, there’s a “very different tradition of forest management” from B.C.

Instead of clearcuts, loggers go into forests and complete two or three ‘intermediate harvests,’ taking out both damaged and lesser quality trees — a process known as thinning.

“And so you continuously improve the value of the stand by removing trees . . . that would have died otherwise,” he explained.

Even the final cut is much less in Germany, where biggest clearcut allowed is about one hectare.

While Roeser said B.C. “can’t just copy and paste” what’s been done in Europe, there’s opportunities to learn and see what options might work for local forests.

The Kantelberg Trials

The Kantelberg Trials (named after the project donor) happened over the course of a few months, trialing the European methods and then comparing that data to clearcutting.

When clearcutting, loggers use large machines to cut down trees and then move them to the roadside, where another machine cuts off its branches and slices the trees into pieces.

But with the European cut-to-length system, loggers use a machine to cut down trees and immediately cut them into pieces on site, before a second machine takes them out to the road. This method uses less machinery (creating less impact_ nd the loggers can be selective about what trees they choose to fall.

Roeser said that while common perception is that this system doesn’t work in B.C., these trials demonstrated that it “performed much better than anybody had thought.”

They did two trials: one where they left ten per cent of the trees on site, and another where they left 30. Currently, Simard, a professor of forest ecology and known for Mother Tree project, is looking at how the remaining trees are doing from an ecological perspective.

Roeser said their initial results suggest that the cut-to-length caused less damage than clearcutting to the remaining forest. 

Leaving trees behind also means there’s less overall impact to the site, with more biodiversity and the forest understory intact. 

From a logging perspective, this is important “because you’re protecting your future crop trees,” Roeser said.

They also compared the cost of cut-to-length to clearcutting, and proved it was similar.

He added that one limitation they found is that there was a limited market for the cut-to-length logs, since they’re shorter than the clearcut logs. To sell them, they had transport the logs farther.

Changing old habits

Clearcutting is the standard practice of logging in B.C. due to the province’s abundance of forest, said Roeser. 

“It’s just almost a bit too easy,” said Roeser. “We’ve never really had the need for looking at different practices,” he said,

“It’s worked, and it’s been what we have done for the last hundred years.”

It’s also a productive and efficient way to produce lumber, and so the perception has been “that there’s no room for anything else,” he said.

He predicted clearcut logging will remain a part of the industry, but given the increase in floods and fires — and the fact that alternative methods exist — there’s opportunity for change.

“There’s always this perception when you try to bring in some new technology,  that it doesn’t work here. And I think what we’ve proven out here [is] that there is an opportunity for these systems from Europe to have their place in B.C.”