Documenting what grows and lives here

In March 2007, we finished a comprehensive forest inventory. This project involved measuring 4,000 plots covering 30,000 acres of our upland forests and documenting over 25 features—such as tree species composition, growth, timber volumes, tree regeneration, and herbaceous ground-layer plant species—on these Trust Lands. The inventory was a crucial step in developing comprehensive management plans for our entire land base and preparing for forest certification.

Why forest certification?

Landowners and companies that sell timber or forest products seek certification as a way to verify to consumers that they have practiced forestry in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable manner. A growing number of environmental organizations, large and small businesses, and sophisticated consumers support and encourage forest certification and watch for forest certification when purchasing wood or paper products. Currently, BCPL is writing management plans based upon the Forest Stewardship Council’s CFSO sustainable management criteria, and is working towards achieving FSC certification in the near fuure.

Comprehensive management plans

Our Northern Office staff also analyzed the historical records of over 1,000 timber sales going back to the onset of logging on Trust Lands in 1943. We entered into the electronic inventory the species and volumes harvested, legal descriptions where logging occurred, the logging company, and the season of logging. We now can access details about timber harvests on any BCPL-owned parcel at the touch of a button. This information will be used to prescribe management practices that match the land’s capability. Information about tree species that once were common and are now rare or gone also will be used to inform tree planting and restoration decisions.