Forest Land Restoration on Vancouver Island

Forest land restoration has become a significant focus of the forest industry in British Columbia since the introduction of the Forest Practices Code (FPC) and the establishment of the Forest Renewal program (FRBC). Recognition of the ecosystem dam aged caused by past harvesting practices has lead to demands by the public and subsequently by the regulatory agencies, for tighter controls on harvesting practices and for restoration of damaged systems. The science of silviculture, and hence reforestation, is reasonably well understood in situations where forest soils are intact and damage is restricted to loss of the original tree cover. However, where sites are significantly disturbed through construction of roads, landings and other industrial activities or by landslides, traditional silvicultural systems have failed to restore the forest cover and the function of the forest ecosystems.

Restoration of forest lands seeks to establish a balance in the new forest ecosystems and thus the return of ecosystem function, both for the health of the forest and for the other values the forest ecosystems support. Steep slopes, heavy rainfall and low nutrient soils provide a challenge for restoration of forest lands on Vancouver Island. This paper explores a strategy for restoration of dam aged forest lands based on natural successional processes. Successional reclamation seeks to restore the natural successional process which, given enough time, serve to revegetate disturbed sites. The establishment of an initial pioneering cover of vegetation is critical to the subsequent establishment of later successional species. Bioengineering, which is the use of living plant materials to perform some engineering function, can often be used to provide this initial cover by solving the physical problems which are preventing vegetation from establishing.