| Natural Regeneration Natural
regeneration is the natural establishment of seedlings in a healthy forest stand.
Most mature softwood stands in Newfoundland have a sufficient amount of advanced
regeneration at the time of harvest to form a new stand.
The term "advanced" refers to the presence of
regeneration, often a dense carpet of seedlings on the forest floor, in the stand even
before it is harvested. Corner Brook Pulp and Paper's strategy is one of tending
natural regeneration rather than establishing large scale single species plantations.
Pre-Commercial Thinning (Juvenile
Stand Spacing)
The main silviculture treatment for natural stands is
pre-commercial thinning. This is a treatment carried out when stands are 10 to 15
years old to reduce the density from the natural 20,000 to 50,000 stems per hectare to
approximately 2,000 stems per hectare. This provides the remaining trees with sufficient
space for optimal growth. Pre-commercial thinning can increase the growth of
merchantable wood fiber in a stand from 1 to 2 cubic meters per hectare per year in
unthinned stands to 4 to 6 cubic meters per hectare per year in thinned stands.
Harvested areas which do not regenerate naturally are
planted with spruce seedlings grown at the Provincial nursery at Wooddale.
Plantations are established at a density of 1,800 to 2,500 stems per hectare, depending on
site conditions.
A breakdown of our silviculture program by treatment type
is shown in the figure below. Some 68,000 ha. of young forest has been
silviculturally treated by Corner Brook Pulp and Paper since 1976. The bulk of the
treatment (70%) has been pre-commercial thinning of naturally regenerating balsam fir
stands. The remaining treatments are aimed at reforesting areas that have not
regenerated naturally after disturbance such as wildfire or logging. These are
planting, seeding, site preparation and vegetation management using herbicides. To
date more than 13 million seedlings have been planted by Corner Brook Pulp and Paper and
we have a greater than 90% survival rate in our plantations three years after
planting. Our strategy of tending natural regeneration rather than establishing
large scale single species plantations gives us one of the most natural and biologically
diverse industrially managed forests in Canada.
Our silviculture program is very labor
intensive. Each year 250 to 300 people are employed by the Company on silviculture
projects providing more than 3,000 person weeks of employment. This is high
quality employment; the average earnings of our pre-commercial thinning employees is over
$18 per hour.
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Growth rate in pre-commercially
treated stands is increased 2 - 3 times
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Because almost 90% of the harvested
areas on Corner Brook Pulp and Paper limits regenerate naturally, the Company's
silviculture program focuses on the management of natural regeneration. Using a
treatment called Pre-Commercial Thinning, the growth rate within a treated stand can be
doubled and sometimes tripled. |
For more information on
Silviculture download section 9 on our FMPOPs page
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