By Adam Berls

forest thinning

Demonstrations of tree thinning showcases benefits

Jul 3, 2024 | 3:08 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — Tree thinning is a common practice in active forest management in many parts of the world, where only a portion of a stand is harvested, leaving the remaining trees better access to nutrients, water and light so they can reach their full growth potential.

At a private woodlot east of Prince George, live demonstrations of forest thinning a 35 year old pine plantation took place to show what happens when thinning takes place.

Liam Parfitt, owner of Freya Logging Company, says that the goal with forest and tree thinning is to create a sustainable and durable forest for the future.

“We want to make a forest that’s resilient for the future, and the way that looks is by taking out some of the trees, so that they don’t fight for the resources … if we have a few less trees fighting over the water in a drought period, those trees would be more resilient and more capable of living through that drought period.” – Liam Parfitt, Owner of Freya Logging Company

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The Arbor Day Foundation, says “thinning can improve a forest in a number of ways”:

• Spacing can be improved. This brings the number of trees closer to a quantity prescribed by a forester to be just right for the kind of trees being grown and the soil on which they are growing. This, in turn, concentrates growth on future crop trees.
• Trees that are less crowded add growth faster. Also, through greater vigor they are more likely to fend off insect or disease attacks.
• Less desirable species can be removed as well as trees with deformed trunks or other undesirable characteristics.
• Opening the understory prevents or slows the spread of wildfires and keeps flames close to the ground.
• Trees removed during the thinning may provide economic returns from the forest early in the life of the stand. For example, sometimes markets exist for posts or fuelwood.
• When stems are removed before they are large enough to sell, or when a market does not exist, it is called a precommercial thinning.

The hope is that commercial forest thinning will become more commonplace throughout British Columbia and Canada, in order to better protect our forests for years to come.

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X: @AdamBerls

Email: Adam.Berls@pattisonmedia.com