The Rural Voice, 2002-10, Page 34BERNIE McGLYNN
LUMBER LTD.
BUYER OF HARDWOOD BUSHLOTS
Wholesaler - Hardwood Lumber
Box 385. R.R. 2.
Wingham. Ont NOG 2W0
BERNIE McGLYNN
Ph/Fax (519) 357-1430
SAWMILL -
R.R. #5, Mildmay, Ont.
(519) 367-5789
Warren D. Moore
Forest Specialist
specializing in:
* Woodlot Management
* Timber Marking and Marketing
* Tree Pruning, Tree Removal
* Tree Planting Services
i CertifiedManagedForestPlanApproveryir�
Provincial Tree Marker
Bluth 523-9855
GREAT LAKES
FOREST • PRODUCTS
Buy • Sell • Transport
of Standing Timber,
Logs & Lumber
* FREE ESTIMATES
* ALL WOODLOTS PAID
IN FULL BEFORE
LOGGING BEGINS
(519) 482-9762
Jake or Bob Hovius
142 Maple St., Clinton, Ont. NOM ILO
"Our Money...
Grows on Trees"
30 THE RURAL VOICE
management and hiring a
management consultant might cost
money.
"Just measuring a tree before you
cut a tree down doesn't cost money."
Still. the basal area calculation
gives more flexibility in
management, Steele says. It may be
that it would be better for some trees
below the legal diameter to be
removed for the best management of
the woodlot. Under a bylaw
specifying minimum cutting
diameters this can't be done but
under a basal -area bylaw it's
permissable as long as there is
enough volume of trees left behind.
Keeso is disappointed that the
recommendations of the
group to Huron County's
planning department were eventually
ignored, pointing out that
presentation won an award. "It was a
real kick in the ass," he says. "A lot
of people gave a lot of time and came
forward with an educated policy."
But the debate turned nasty, both
in Huron and now in Bruce where a
new tree bylaw is also under
development, Keeso says. Telephone
and fax lines were burned up with hot
messages. Meetings turned ugly as
landowners and industry members
lobbied politicians. In the long run
Keeso doesn't blame the county
councillors in Huron for not being
braver and taking on a more
innovative, effective policy, though
he does feel that they couldn't make
an educated decision untilthey got
out of the county court house and
into a timber stand to see things first
hand. Some councillors had a
genuine concern tor the future of the
county's woodlots while others felt
nothing needed to be changed and the
new system would only make things
too complicated, he says.
Because the tree bylaw
discussions have become so
contentious, Keeso has declined an
opportunity to be part of a volunteer
committee of industry and county
officials involved in looking at a new
tree bylaw in Bruce County,
He did, however, find his
participation rewarding in the
terrestrial committees of the Maitland
Watershed Partnership of which the
forest health team was one of three
(along with water and agriculture)..
"The expertise within that room was
outstanding, he says of the experts
drawn together by the work. "1
learned a great deal by listening to
these people. Sometimes there was
controversy but we were always able
to find a middle ground."
He wishes people in the industry
would be more open to learning new
things. It's admirable to have
confidence in what you know, he
says, but when you get to the point
where you're sure you've learned all
you can, that's no longer to be
admired.
Part of that learning can be that a
forest is not just a stand of trees but a
system that's much more complex.
Many people, for instance, like to
have a nice neat looking woodlot
says Bowles, but the old rotting logs
are the home of many organisms
from fungi and microorganisms to
vertebrates that are important to the
health of the woodlot. Generally
undisturbed forests that are
functioning normally would have an
accumulation of coarse woody debris
in various stages of decomposition.
Heavily managed forests often have
their debris removed, the study notes.
Just leaving the tops of harvested
trees to decay on the woodlot floor is
not the same because the smaller -
diameter branches dry out and don't
have the moisture necessary for the
micro-organism growth.
"Any reputable logger will leave
some den trees," argues Bowles,
trees that may be hollow or diseased
but trees that will provide a home to
birds and animals and eventually will
fall down and rot on the ground,
putting fertility back into the soil to
promote growth of the remaining
trees. The best and healthiest forests
have large -diameter rotting debris on
the forest floor, she says.
One of the disturbing findings of
the study was the amount of logging
damage found in the woodlots that
were studied.
There was more damage than he
expected to see said Steele. There
was evidence of trees being damaged
by being rubbed by logs being
removed from the woodlot by
loggers, or damage where one tree
was felled into another in cutting
operations. This information wasn't
correlated into the forest health
study.
What the study did look at was the