Forests are the lungs of the Earth. We humans use forests in so many ways, but we have damaged and destroyed forests in many parts of the world in the name of short-term financial profit. Ecoforestry is a kind of forestry that gives priority to sustainability and ecosystem integrity. Ecoforesters work with natural processes and harvest at rates that maintain or restore overall biomass and biodiversity of the forest.

The following points are excerpts from a larger document developed by our Ecoforesters. Click here to view the full piece.

Some of commercial forestry’s unsustainable practices:

• High rates of cut, which have depleted forest landscapes of Old Growth and mature forests plus associated biodiversity. They have also vastly diminished amounts of dead wood as well as of soil carbon in all forest age classes.

• Harvesting with too little regard for the health of soils or streams in order to keep logging costs down.

• Using herbicides or mechanical brushing to suppress deciduous trees and undergrowth. Herbicides can also poison wildlife among many other detrimental effects.

• Broadcast fertilization which can change soil ecology and harm associated wetland ecosystems among other impacts.

• Planting of trees having much less genetic diversity than would occur with natural regeneration

Damaging consequences of the above:

• We have been threatening and in some cases causing drastic declines and even extinction for an immense number of native species (aka biodiversity loss).

• Climate change has been accelerated as the amount of carbon stored in forests has hugely declined compared to natural levels. Additionally, younger forests are less effective in moderating the climate than older forests.

• Human health suffers from loss of recreational potential in forests, loss of climate moderation, loss of natural air and water filtration, loss of pharmaceutical opportunities due to biodiversity loss, and impacts from increased smoke inhalation;

• Indigenous Peoples, on whose traditional territories much of these unsustainable forestry practices have been and are being carried out, have been severely impacted by the damage to their homelands.

How we can counteract and restore:

• Manage forests to resemble natural forests in terms of tree species composition, structure, age (classes), canopy, abundance of snags and of dead wood on the ground, with a high diversity of flora, fungi and fauna.

• Strive for a close to natural forest age class distribution on the landscape level (i.e. with a much greater proportion of mature forests and Old Growth forests in Coastal BC and the BC Interior Wet Belt); this will require a substantial reduction in timber harvest for a long time, but timber quality and value will improve.

• Plant or allow for an abundance of pioneer species (including Alder, Dogwood, Willow, Cottonwood, Bitter Cherry, Arbutus, Birch, Aspen …) and natural regeneration during an extended period following harvesting.

• Embrace silviculture systems which produce similar forest structure and composition as natural disturbance processes would create.