DEFORESTATION:LACK OF REGENERATION IN SASKATCHEWAN'S FORESTS

by Allyson Brady and Alan Appleby
Global Forest Watch Canada - Saskatchewan Chapter

In 1965, Simpson Timber, a Seattle-based company, negotiated a Forest Management Agreement (FMA) with the Saskatchewan government to run a softwood studmill in the north-east part of the province. For the next 25 years Simpson Timber harvested the area, concentrating on mature stands of white spruce. Although the province had recommended re-planting, the company complained that regeneration costs were too high. Concerned about job losses, the province accepted arguments by Simpson executives that it would have to close the studmill if forced to re-plant. Then, citing a scarcity of softwood, Simpson eventually closed its mill in 1990 and left the province.

The company left behind an enormous amount of un-regenerated forest land. A 1993, Integrated Forest Resource Management Plan predictably found "definite softwood supply shortages" in Simpson's former area of operation and concluded "the pattern suggests a history of severe softwood over-cutting in the last 50 years and minimal softwood reforestation." Approximately 50% of Saskatchewan's understocked forest areas is located on the north-east side of the commercial forest zone.

The Simpson case illustrates a recurrent problem in Saskatchewan: a failure to re-plant and regenerate the commercial forests. Foresters call this condition "Not Satisfactorily Restocked" (NSR) which, from a timber management perspective, refers to "productive forest land that has been cleared by commercial harvest or by natural causes, and which remains partially or completely barren of its potential to be regenerated to productivity by natural or artificial reforestation".

According to the 1998-1999 State of Canada's Forest Report, Saskatchewan has one of the largest percentages of NSR in Canada: 66% of the forested land harvested since 1975 remains understocked. This compares poorly to Manitoba with 15,600 ha (6%), Alberta with 286,000 ha (34%), and the national total of understocked lands which is 2.5 million ha, only 17% of the harvested productive land base. Saskatchewan has the highest proportion of understocked forest of any province in Canada by a very wide margin.

Estimates on the total amount of Saskatchewan's NSR vary. Different government agencies calculate the NSR backlog, which has been accumulating since the early 1970's, to range anywhere from 258,000 hectares to 619,000 hectares. In contrast, Saskatchewan's commercial harvest operations clearcuts only 21,000 hectares annually. However, details about the NSR backlog, and inventory generally, are thought to be incomplete, unreliable, or not up-to-date. And the backlog prior to 1971 has not been well established.

Part of the problem is that FMAs signed prior to 1986 in Saskatchewan were not specific on how renewal would take place and who would pay for it. The responsibility tended to fall on the provincial government. FMAs signed since this time stipulate that the company is expected to re-forest areas cut. However, the province is still responsible for all NSR land created prior to the signing of current FMAs. Therefore, a backlog of NSR dating all the way up until 1994 still remains a provincial burden.

These areas of understocked forest have, in effect, been deforested, since they have not been adequately replanted or regenerated. These deforested NSR areas, while not barren of trees and other vegetation, have nevertheless been removed from the productive land base until sufficient natural regeneration occurs, or companies and government agencies meet their responsibilities for reforestation. This form of deforestation serves to lengthen the time before these lands can be harvested again, and puts extra pressure on the other forest areas to supply the trees to compensate for this shortfall.

The NSR backlog is a result of many factors. Although, the forest harvest is based on forest inventory calculations, there have been cases in which this process has been superceded by political decisions, resulting in over-harvesting. The quality of the provincial forest inventory has been weakened by budget and staff cuts in recent decades. As well, funding approved for silviculture has been less than the amount being paid in reforestation fees, a shortfall which impedes renewal work on provincial forest land outside of the FMAs.

In 1977, a national report from the Canadian Forestry Association revealed that a substantial proportion of forest harvested since the early 1960's were regenerating with difficulty or not at all. The provincial government makes the assumption that 70% of burned and 33% of harvest areas return to satisfactorily stocked status, simply through natural regeneration. Areas site prepared and planted are assumed to be 100% successful. However, a government survey of planting programs for the 1963-1990 period, found that regeneration has not been successful. A 'stocking survey' of 30 selected plantations throughout the Commercial Forest Zone was done in the summer of 1988. In the first five years, survival estimates were 69% regeneration for 14 jack pine plantations and 77% regeneration for 16 white spruce plantations. But, for the 6 to 22 year period, 46% of the jack pine and 0% of the white spruce plantations were sufficiently stocked. High competition from hardwoods combined with understocking were attributed to the failure of white spruce stands. Spruce does not regenerate well in open areas such as clearcuts, as white spruce is traditionally found in well-established forests, as it is a shade dependent during its early growing stages.

The NSR backlog is further aggravated by the potential impacts of global climate change. Recent scientific studies conclude that warmer temperatures will seriously change the boreal forest by shifting its climatic zone northward by several hundred kilometres, and could reduce the amount of forest in Canada by 14%. The northward shift would imply a net loss of 100 million hectares of land climatically suited to the boreal forest in Canada. These forests in Saskatchewan would be replaced with grasslands ecosystems.

Climate Change will exert a major stress on forest ecosystems, which could change their composition, increase the mortality of some species, and reduce rates of tree growth. Some scientists argue that stands of trees that began growing under the present climate may not naturally regenerate when harvested after the climate changes. Others suggest that the forest may become less productive, and may become more difficult to renew after disturbances - a development that argues for a conservative approach towards allocation of timber for harvest. Apparent surpluses of timber based on our present calculations may disappear. Intensive re-stocking efforts will also be needed to provide replacement for the present growing stock in order to maintain production.

On April 26, 1999, the Saskatchewan Government announced that it is doubling the forestry industry in the province within the next three years. However, timber production scenarios had already suggested that continuing the present rate of regeneration shortfall over the next 90 years could lead to a 34% reduction in the annual allowable cut from the Commercial Forest.

The renewal effort has clearly not always been adequate, even though it is fundamental to sustainable timber management that all cut-overs be adequately re-stocked. This trend in deforestation, due to poor management in the past, compounded by the future implications of global climate change and the lack of applied strategies to handle these problems, poses a substantial threat to the sustainability of Saskatchewan's current commercially harvested forests and the untouched frontier forest to the North.

This article was published in the CPAWS - Saskatchewan Fall Newsletter (2000, p. 10) and is an abridged version of a report prepared for the Global Forest Watch Canada. For a complete version of this report visit the Global Forest Watch Web site or contact the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, phone (306) 665-1915, e-mail: saskenv@link.ca