By 1958, the year the first provincial forest inventory was published by the Department of Lands and Forests, it was reported that decades of “high-grading” the larger trees to meet the demand for sawlogs had not only changed the forest structure but had “nearly exhausted” the supply of larger trees, making it “necessary to accept smaller and smaller stock.”. [...] In the early 1900s, and even in 1958, the observations centred on the ecology and condition of the Province’s forests and on the ways in which forest structure and health were being affected by harvesting methods and levels. [...] In the early 1970s, such very young forest stands constituted only 3.8% of the Province’s forests, and this proportion has been increasing ever since—with the largest percentage point increase in the most recent period (Figures 1 and 3 below).11 The forest area represented in the 61 to 80 year-old age class has not changed much in recent years, representing 11.5% of total forest area in 1999 and 1 [...] Indeed, in a relatively short time period, the PSP data show the percentage of total forest area more than 60 years of age decreasing from 46.5% in 1994- 98 to 33.8% in 1999-2003, while the percentage of younger forests—less than 60 years of age—increased from 53% to 66.2% in the same time period.19 The percentage of forests between 0 and 40 years of age increased from 23% of all forests to nearly [...] According to Ken Snow of the NSDNR, increases in harvesting account for a “significant portion of the decline in the number of stands older than 81 year.”20 Despite this apparent understanding of the direct link between increased harvests and loss of old forests, the NSDNR has continued to support forest industry objectives to increase forest harvest levels in Nova Scotia.
Authors
- Pages
- 59
- Published in
- Canada
