Forest management studied. (Forestry).

SAULT STE MARIE-Over $4 million has been pledged for a long-term forest management program designed to determine what levels of forest management make sense.

"We think the answer to long-term forest management is in practicing intense forest management...that will include things you do after you plant the trees, things like thinning for select seedlings, irrigating, fertilizing, and keeping weeds down," says Margo Shaw, director of Upper Lakes Environmental Research Network (ULERN).

The project, NEBIE, has been in the planning stages for 2 and a half years and recently received a $903,000 donation from the Living Legacy Trust (LLT). The LLT is a $30-million fund established, by the province of Ontario to invest in natural resource management projects as a result of the agreement made during Lands for Life meetings that ensures the increase in the amount of preserved land, which would take land away from foresters, would not result in any net loss to the foresters.

NEBIE is being managed by ULERN with Sharon Cuddy serving as the project co-ordinator. They will be working in conjunction with a number of government, academic and industry partners.

Additional funding includes another $1,373,200 in cash and in-kind contributions from six participating forest companies, as well as another $650,000 from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).

Shaw says the program will be operated from six sites and will include sections tended by the participating forest companies in varying degrees.

"As well as determining the levels of care that work best, we'll be studying the ecological aspects of each level," Shaw explains. Each site will be divided into sections for the five levels as set out in the NEBIE acronym: natural disturbance, extensive, basic, intensive and elite.

Shaw says an experiment of this size and magnitude, if managed properly, tends to attract expertise and says they get calls regularly from interested parties.

The current partners have committed to long-term relationships and they are seeking other funding sources as well.

"Given the life cycle of trees, we will have to monitor the sites for several decades, although preliminary results will be available in 10 years time," says Shaw.

Although the money goes to ULERN, which is in charge of co-ordinating the project including hiring and paying out costs, Shaw says MNR is handling the scientific side of things.

Wayne Bell, research scientist with Ontario Forest Research Institute, a branch of the MNR, says varying degrees of care will be done at the sites ranging from leaving an area untouched to intensive thinning, to making sure it is free of such habitats as raspberries. They will also be studying a number of treatments that are marginally acceptable, such as fertilizing and tree improvement.

"At each level the stand composition will be increasingly controlled to increase the fiber," Bell explains.

Various university partners will also be studying the sites looking at a variety of areas including plant diversity and the effects of each level of management on the plants.

Bell says they will plan so that they can still produce two or three species of large trees within an area without losing the wildlife and natural habitat in an area.

"We don't want to lose the natural plants," Bell says. "Some are sensitive to moisture, drought, etc. We'll lose some mosses at some levels, but those usually will come back in as trees grow."

While Bell says they cannot control exotic or invasive plants, they can monitor how long these plants stay at a site. He explains that they will try to avoid losing native plants, but do not want persistent exotic plants to invade.

"We will start with about 400 of the best trees and grow seeds," Bell says. "There will not be any exotic trees, nor will there be any genetically altered ones."

Bell says soils and water conservation will be an important part of the studies and says a fair amount of funding will be used to study the soils. University partners are doing studies in this area and more partners are being sought.

"We need to watch that we aren't doing long-term damage and, much like composting, we'll try to retain the organic and nitrogen levels of the soil," Bell says.

Economics is also a small part of the program and it links to other projects that are looking at wood and non-timber forest products such as birch bark and berries, pharmaceutical and crafting products like berries, willows, young birch and Christmas tree boughs. The energy sector may also be looking at ethanol, which may be produced from thinning materials.

A study of insects and disease may be considered by the Ontario Forest Research Institute in the future, and Bell says they will probably come up with more goals as the project progresses.

Four of the six sites have already been selected and include: 60 year-old jack pine site at Sioux Lookout; a Dryden site that features balsam fir and white spruce; a white birch site located an hour east of Wawa; and a black spruce and jack pine site one kilometre outside of Timmins.

The other two sites are expected to include a white pine site in the Petawawa forest research area and a plot of maples and yellow birch at Algonquin Forest Authority.

Sites will be monitored according to their individual features. Bell says some will be monitored for sawmill log production, blueberry production and conifer enrichment, while others will be monitored for veneer and oriented strand board production. Factors such as thinning and problems such as bud-worms, honeydew mushrooms and forest caterpillars will be looked at in some areas. Several of the areas are also in a close proximity to communities that will allow tours for the public, as well as for various interest groups.

Specific details about the four northern sites and what is intended for each one will be provided in the first report to the Living Legacy Trust in March.

A report in March 2003 will detail what was done at the four sites, as well as the plans for the other two sites.

Bell says the "demo areas" will enable them to provide economic analysis and environmental impact statements on all aspects of the program. There will be an opportunity to share information on white birch and to bring in international experts to help with the analysis.

Partners in the project also include the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada, Buchanan, Tembec, Weyerhaeuser, FERIC, Algonquin Forest Authority and Clergue.