Private Forest Matters

The Winter Lift at Arbutus Grove Nursery

Spring 2013

In This Issue

The Winter Lift at Arbutus Grove Nursery 1

6 Steps to a Successful Management Plan for Your Woodland 2

The Secret to Getting the Best Valuefor Your Forest Products 3

Important PFLA Dates to Remember 3

PFLA Hometown Tour: That’s A Wrap 4

5 Messages Every Candidate ShouldKnow About Private Forestry 4

Everything starts somewhere — ideas, au-tomobiles, toaster ovens, plaid pants, eventrees. All of the trees planted here on the coast of British Columbia owe their start to the skill, care, expertise and dedication of nursery workers. Arbutus Grove Nursery, Pacific Regeneration Technologies (PRT) and Sylvan Vale Nursery, all provide great products and service, but when PFLA nee-ded seedlings in a hurry we swung by our closest source, Arbutus Grove Nursery. Impressed by the hustle and bustle of the winter lift, we couldn’t resist inviting ourselves back for a closer look (armed with digital cameras and hand-held video devices).

Thanks to Nathaniel Stoffeslma for taking the time to tour us around their North Saanich nursery—family owned and operated since 1981 when Nathaniel’s father planted their first crop of trees in a lone half-greenhouse. More than three decades later, the nursery boasts seven guttered-greenhouses, of va-rious sizes, and a reputation for growing Coastal Douglas-fir well.

Over the years, Arbutus Grove Nursery has adapted and persevered to survive uncertain economic times in the coastal forest industry. Along with shifts in capacity, they’ve noticed a significant change in expectation, “30 yearsago foresters expected 50% of trees to succ-eed in the field.” Today, customers at Arbutus Grove Nursery expect much more from their trees. Nathaniel estimates their trees have a growing success rate of close to 95 percent.

A common misconception about Arbutus Grove Nursery is the perception that they grow trees for ornamental use. Nathaniel explains, “People don’t understand how thorough the reforestation industry is —probably 35 million trees are planted, every year, here on the coast. Across B.C., it’s pro-bably closer to 200 million trees, every year. That’s 100,000 times more trees planted each year than the ornamental tree industry.”

As a contract grower, customers provide the seeds (generally) and Arbutus Grove Nursery grows the seedlings to the customers’ spe-cifications. Coastal-Douglas fir is the most popular species they grow, but they also grow other coastal species like Western red-cedar. The winter lift is their busiest time of year. Seedlings are lifted, in December and January, when they’re at the ideal condition for planting and then preserved in cold stor-age until the spring planting season begins.

The lifting shed is the epicenter of this bustling operation. Millions of seedlings, transferred from trays, travel along conveyor belts to be checked for quality, wrapped in packs of five or ten, packed into boxes andstacked onto pallets before being transpor-ted to cold storage. To accomplish this, they employ about 70 people, on two shifts, from 7 a.m. until midnight.

This year, Arbutus Grove Nursery will produceabout 50,000 boxes of seedlings (approxima-tely 12 million trees in total), and roughly 60to 70 percent of those seedlings will be planted on private forest land.

Contact Information

P.O. Box 48092Victoria, BC V8Z 7H5

Tel: 250 381 7565Fax: 250 381 7409

www.pfla.bc.ca

Rod Bealing - Executive Directorrod.bealing@pfla.bc.ca

Ina Shah - Office Managerinfo@pfla.bc.ca

6 Steps to a Successful Management Plan for Your WoodlandPlanning is a big part of getting the most out of your woodland. Once you’ve conducted your forest inventory and identified your per-sonal goals and objectives, the next step on the path to a successful management plan is to consider the range of management options available and develop a plan to connect your options with your objectives.

To help you out, we’ve summarized some of the thorough and thoughtful advice from “Managing Your Woodland: A Non-forester’s Guide to Small-Scale Forestry in British Columbia” for your easy reference.

1. Identify your management strategy. Your management options are the range ofpotential and alternative management appr-oaches, actions, and techniques available toachieve your goals. Your management strate-gy represents the overall plan for achieving the goals and the forest inventory helps ground your expectations in reality.

A number of factors determine what is possible:

• Practical considerations (operational feasibility)

• Financial considerations (cost and return on investment)

• Woodlot conditions such as age of your forest

• Biological/ecological characteristics of the site

This is also a good time to consult a prof-essional expert for assistance and advice inchoosing your management options. A mis-take at this stage could prove costly later on.

2. Divide your woodland into management areas. It’s useful to divide your woodland into areas that are similar in terms of how you’ll manage them. Each management area is comprised of stands that are similar enough in species, age, sto-cking and site characteristics that they can be treated as one unit. Management areas can also consist of areas of your woodland that you wish, or need, to manage for other values, such as wildlife habitat, riparian protection or visual aesthetics.

3. Identify your short-term objectives. Once you’ve defined the management areas, you can identify your objectives for each area.

Your objectives should be consistent with your goals and focus on what you need or intend to do in the management area over the short-term (five years). These objectives set the stage for scheduling specific mana-gement activities you intend to follow (e.g. road building, harvesting, planting, stand tending treatments).

• Will you manage an area as even-aged or uneven-aged?

• Do you plan to manage for conservation or agroforestry?

• What products will you produce (sawlogs, firewood, botanicals, grazing)?

4. Make a schedule for your short-term management activities. A surefire way to achieve the long-term vision you have for your woodland is to follow an activity plan — a list of short-term management activities you develop for each management area on your woodland.

The activity plan provides the detailed steps and activities you plan to undertake on a year-to-year basis. It covers the who, what, when, where and how:

• Who will do it: owner, manager, contractor, family members, volunteer group

• What will be done: road construction, harvesting, stand tending, reforestation, etc.

• Where it will be done: the management area location

• When it will be done: year, season

• How it will be done: methods, equipment, treatment, special guidelines

You might also want to include:

• An estimate of the cost for each activity, and where the money will come from.

• Flexibility to allow for unplanned circumstances (changes in markets, weather, new opportunities).

• Contingencies in case you’re unable to follow through with an activity.

5. Define your management standards and guidelines. It’s a good idea to set standards and guidelines to ensure your management plan meets the goals and objectives you have for your woodland. Anyone who works on your land should know what these standards and guidelines are. Examples of basic standards include:

• Target seedling densities for reforestation work

• Wet-weather and fire season working criteria

• Maximum skid trail widths

There’s lots of good information available from a variety of sources (e.g. provincial, federal and U.S. state governments; local woodlot associations; forestry professionals; Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Reso-urce Operations offices). If you’re a managed forest owner, “The Handbook of Best Manag-ement Practices for Private Forest Land in British Columbia” recommends standards to help ensure you meet the forest practices requirements set out in the Managed Forest Land Act.

6. Measure your activities as you proceed with your plan. Remember: “If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Planning is a continual process. It doesn’t stop once you’ve produced a hardcopy, hold-it-in-your-hands plan. As you go along, keep track of how well your plan is working — are your management activities achieving the intended results? The character of your woodland, and your needs, will change so adjust your plan to reflect these shifts.

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The Secret to Getting the Best Value for Your Forest ProductsThe most important thing to remember: you’ve spent a long time growing your trees, it makes good sense to spend some time ma-rketing them to make sure you get the best return on your investment.

A number of factors can influence the pro-ducts you choose to produce; for example:

• The short- and long-term objectives you have for your property

• The species mix, age and quality of your forest

• The markets you can sell to

Like any decision-making process, a good way to begin is to make a list. Start by ide-ntifying the personal goals and objectives you have for your woodland. In a separate list, you can itemize the potential products available from your woodland (based on the species mix, age, size and condition of the trees in the stand). The next step is to find the most effective way to use your inventory to achieve your goals.

If you’re wondering how, we’ve compiled a list of 6 important principles to help along the way. Thanks again to “Managing Your Woodlands: A Non-forester’s Guide to Small-scale Forestry in British Columbia” for the inspiration and the information.

Educate yourself. The more you know about your forest inventory, the harvesting process in general and available markets the better situated you are to make informed decisions

that will help you get the best value for yourforest products. Start by talking to your neighbours, other forest owners, woodlot licensees — people who have firsthand experience selling small parcels of logs. Askthem for references, suggestions, tips, mis-takes they wish they hadn’t made. Collect as much information as you can.

Do your research first. You’ll get the best value for your timber if you know where it’sgoing before you harvest it. Different mark-ets have different specifications: by cutting to match your buyer’s preferences you ensure the best value for your forest products. Alt-ernatives almost always exist. Find out how much you can get for different products soyou can compare their values, costs of production, and the impacts of their production on your woodland.

Contact a local broker. If you’re a small owner, who doesn’t have a lot of recent experience selling forest products, dealing with a broker is often your best bet. Invite potential buyers out to your woods. Walk them through your stand and show them what you’re thinking of doing. Take notes. You’ll learn a lot from this discussion about what products your stand can produce, as well as prices and marketing options for those products.

Pay attention to market conditions. To some extent the market is cyclical, but it’s dynamic. What was hot last month might be an over supply this month. Market conditions will

affect the price you get for your products. Since production costs remain fairly constant, the ability to take advantage of high points in the market cycle will make a difference in the profit you receive.

Be prepared to take advantage of market conditions. If you follow the ups and downs of the markets you’re selling to, and you’re ready to act when markets are paying top prices, you’ll get the best value for your pr-oducts. To do this, have your roads in placeand your production processes clearly out-lined. Decide, as early as possible, what your role is and identify potential sub-contractors for felling, skidding or hauling.

Look for opportunities to increase the value of your products. Market conditions will largely determine selling prices, so look for opportunities to increase the value of yourproducts (e.g. forest certification, log exports, specialty products). A process like forest ce-rtification or a change in production may create a higher value product that appeals to different markets. Adding value can be as simple as bucking or as complex as handcrafting furniture.

Want more information? We’ve compiled alist of contact information for local buyers and brokers. If you’re a forest owner who’d like more information, or if you’re a local buyer who’d like to be added to our list,

please email: info@pfla.bc.ca or call: 250 381 7565.

Important PFLA Dates to RememberPFLA Annual General MeetingJune 19th & 20th, 2013Save the Date! We’re pumped to announce the 18th Annual PFLA Field Tour, Forestry Forum and AGM will be held June 19th and 20th, 2013 at the Coast Bastion Hotel in Nanaimo, B.C. We’re gearing up for another informative and engaging event chock full of interesting opportunities to connect. Look for more schedule and registration information in your mailbox soon!

Rudi Kind Memorial ScholarshipJune 1st, 2013 deadlineThe Rudi Kind Memorial Scholarship celebrates founding PFLA member Rudi Kind’s contributions to private forestry. Applicants must be entering a forestry-related, natural resource program and preference is given to family members

of managed forest owners. For more information, please contact info@pfla.bc.ca or visit the www.pfla.bc.ca to download an application.

Private Forest Stewardship AwardJune 1st, 2013 deadlineCalling all nominations! Each year PFLA recognizes a managed forest owner for outstanding commitment to private forest stewardship in B.C.

Please submit nominations for the 2013 Private Forest Stewardship Award, via email, to info@pfla.bc.ca. Include the name of your nominee, and a brief description illustrating why they make an excellent candidate for the Private Forest Stewardship Award.

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PFLA Hometown Tour: That’s a Wrap!The PFLA hometown tour is all wrapped up for 2013. We traveled up and down the island, and across the province, to meet face-to-face with forest owners and hear firsthand what’s important to you. We’re gushingly grateful toeveryone who took time out of your busy schedules to join us. We can’t emphasize enough what an integral contribution your feedback makes to the overall wellbeing and direction of the organization.

As always, we found managed forest owners committed, engaged and keen to hear aboutpolicy development issues. Reported impro-vements in lumber markets have spurred an increased appetite for timber harvesting and owners are interested to learn more abouttimber harvesting, reforestation and stand tending. We look forward to incorporating some of this information into the upcoming field tour and forestry forum at the AGM inJune. We’re also working with the Private Managed Forest Land Council to put tog-ether a technical workshop. PFLA continues to meet with the Wildfire Management Branch and advocate on behalf of forest owners about changes to the firefighting cost sharing agreements.

Thanks again for your continued interest and support for PFLA activities and programs.

5 Messages Every Candidate Should Know About Private ForestryWith any election comes a swarm of pre-election activities — candidates are selected, platforms are decided, campaigns are forged, community meetings are plan-ned, doors are knocked on, information is distributed and babies are kissed.

Because B.C.’s private managed forest lands are located around some of Canada’s fastest growing communities, we can be certain private forestry will be talked about in the upcoming provincial election.

You can imagine a host of new candidates — bombarded by 30-second sound bites, conflicting opinions, varying perspectives and deliberate misinformation — might feel overwhelmed. Our goal is to make it as easy and painless as possible for candidates to learn the facts about private forestry.

If a candidate knocks on your door, or you’re inclined to knock on their door, or for some other reason you find yourself with 60 seco-nds to talk to your local candidate, here are

five key messages to share about private forestry in B.C.

1. Private managed forest owners are the only landowners in B.C. committed and legally bound to grow and harvest trees. We’ve planted more than 100 million trees on private forest land in the past 10 years (that’s a lot of trees!).

2. Private managed forest land is governed by over 30 acts and regulations that protect key public environmental values including water quality, fish habitat, critical wildlife habitat, soil conservation and reforestation.

3. Forest owners are responsible neighboursto some of B.C.’s fastest growing communit-ies. The timber crops we’re harvesting today were planted decades ago, long before expanding communities built subdivisions next door to our forests.

4. We have a solid track record of resp-onsible practices and community comm-unications. Nobody likes surprises (except maybe lottery winnings) so we make everyreasonable effort to talk with our neighbours and let people know what’s happening with our operations.

5. We value healthy dialogue. Invite your candidate out into the woods to see first hand how we manage our forests. Offer to help with any other questions they might have. Let them know: we’re part of the solution and we’re here to help.

Keep it simple, keep it positive, keep it friendly!

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