Chemical Spraying

[adriaticum]

^^^^So take a stand and sell your wood framed home....unless the lumber came from elsewhere.

You're missing the point.

[Hunter gatherer]

False! People are. If we are here, we need resources, and to call one of the only renewable resources on the planet an environmental disaster is ignorant and silly. I hope your home is made of plastic and other non renewables.

It's not so much people as it is GREED .

[Throwaway]

You ever hear of steel studs bro? Welcome to 2019, where 85% of lumber in homes has been replaced by recycled steel studs. If it ain’t a window or a door way why would you ever use lumber? You like things that are heavier, more expensive and catch fire?

[Darksith]

You ever hear of steel studs bro? Welcome to 2019, where 85% of lumber in homes has been replaced by recycled steel studs. If it ain’t a window or a door way why would you ever use lumber? You like things that are heavier, more expensive and catch fire?

Hahahaha, that is simply not true...85% you say. Maybe if you count condo's in high rises in the LML but the rest of the province is still building with wood

[Ron.C]

You ever hear of steel studs bro? Welcome to 2019, where 85% of lumber in homes has been replaced by recycled steel studs. If it ain’t a window or a door way why would you ever use lumber? You like things that are heavier, more expensive and catch fire?

Have to echo Darksmiths comment. Steel stud construction in our area is by in large used in commercial construction. Lots of residential buildings going up in my area, have yet to see one with steel studs.

[HarryToolips]

Totally agree with original poster. Good on you for writing to your MLA! Spraying the aspen (primary moose, beaver, deer etc. food staple) with glyphosate is absolutely obscene. And we wonder why moose numbers are down in most areas while at the same time we're deliberately poisoning and killing off one of their staple food sources. It's so hard to believe this is still occurring.

I also think it should be a requirement for timber companies to control burn each cutblock after they clear them to trigger a quicker natural "re-gen" of the forest, and then re-plant with the coniferous trees that they want to harvest again in 70 years; and stop the spraying of glyphosate on the aspen immediately. To me this is common sense.

For the record, I worked in the forestry industry for 8 years '98 - 2005. I planted over 1.2 million trees over that period, across 5 provinces and down in Washington. I also did a number of brushing contracts, I girdled the aspen, and yes, regrettably I also sprayed them on a couple contracts one season. (At the time I had no understanding of the negative consequences of killing the aspen - now I do). Little bit of layout. Some burning of slash piles. So I have a decent idea of how the silviculture part of the industry functions.

Yes forestry has been a giant reason why BC has prospered for so long and its a very important component of our economy - nobody is disputing that. All I'm saying is we can do SO MUCH BETTER at how we manage our most precious resource - our forests. Why are we spraying glyphosate in our forests? This has to end

I agree the spraying has to end...good letter OP...

[walks with deer]

darksith...knows what i do for a living...i construct a large percentage of kamloops buildings out of wood!!
now with mass timber regs changing i will be doing more...that said i agree spraying has to stop..

there are numerous papers on the subject i was reading one yesterday from a mr hall in pg..look it up.

[Treed]

Foresty practices in BC are a mixed bag. Some stuff we do is okay. The annual allowable cut is set by the province and was originally based on the concept of turning decadent old forests into more productive managed stands. In my opinion, the rate of cut has been ecologically unsustainable for 50 years. Beetles and fires have just pushed us faster down the path. The use of chemicals on our forests isn’t limited to non-crop control. The amount of fertilizer that is being spread to reduce mid-term timber supply problems is an eye opener. We know a lot about how it effects tree growth but not much about how it effects ecosystem functions.

[Dukeoflawnchair]

I would like to suggest that many people have a misguided understanding of modern forest practices. A lot has changed the past 10 years, let alone the past 30 years. For the record, silviculture practices no longer leave barren conifer monocultures - I know that the “old boys” would spray once for site prep, once for establishment, and a final administrative treatment or two for good measure, but nowadays, “pure” conifer stands usually include 10+% deciduous composition, let alone mixedwood declarations.

I’ve officially been managing reforestation for over a decade now, and not just on the ground planting trees or leading crews. As a Silviculture Forester, (RPF with Masters degree), I’m the one who’s been prescribing what treatments our cutblocks get - including the budgets, signing and stamping of declarations, and meeting the legal objectives and sustainability certification standards as required. For the operations that I manage, we will be using somewhere around 15% of the aerial herbicide this summer that we would have used a decade ago. I’ve been aggressively pioneering mixedwood stand management (actually) and I imagine most of you would be floored by how much more money I’ve been allowed to spend to do things “right” as opposed to doing things cheap. I think you’d all also be surprised by how biodiversity is being maintained these days under proper management.

Harvest The Land, I would like to suggest that your proposal of prescribed burning would be detrimental to establishment in many, many circumstances. If you’re up north hunting one of these years, I’d be happy to show you what reforestation of fire salvage blocks look like. In a nutshell, 2+0 512’s don’t have a chance in hell and no amount of manual brushing would help. While I am most certainly familiar with nutrient release and serotinous cones, I think you’ll find that the herbaceous layers (calamagrostis, fireweed in some cases, etc) would capture these nutrients first and strangle out planted seedlings far quicker than natural regen would benefit in regions like mine. This creates circumstances where herbicide is the only way to get seedlings started.

In the end, herbicides used correctly are fantastic at what they’re supposed to do. There are many circumstances where there are no other options. I think instead of fire bombing the industry as a whole for what misconceptions many have, I would instead suggest that you find the companies who rely exclusively on herbicide for brushing practices, in lieu of companies who utilize herbicide judiciously as a component of a truly integrated pest management strategy.

If if anyone would like to know more or to see how biodiversity is maintained and can find their way up this direction, I’d be happy to show you what I mean.

Happy Thursday,

[slowjo]

I believe the topic that is NOT up for debate is the key role that forestry plays in BC, through economics or otherwise.
To make a point that wood is so all encompassing in our lives that forestry practices should be kept free from criticism is asinine.

Thank-you to @dukeoflawnchair for the very insightful post. In my next letter to my MLA I will stress that diligence is required when choosing silviculture companies to carry out work, as per your point:

"In the end, herbicides used correctly are fantastic at what they’re supposed to do. There are many circumstances where there are no other options. I think instead of fire bombing the industry as a whole for what misconceptions many have, I would instead suggest that you find the companies who rely exclusively on herbicide for brushing practices, in lieu of companies who utilize herbicide judiciously as a component of a truly integrated pest management strategy."