WHY BURN SLASH in the 21st CENTURY?
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the forestry practice commonly called 'slash burning' in British Columbia, let me describe it. Thousands of the trees that are cut down in our BC forests are rejected for one reason or another, too small, not straight, damaged, discoloured. When a clearcut logging operation has finished cutting down and hauling away the trees that pass the test of quality, the rejected trees are machine piled into 'slash' heaps, some the size of a large, two story house. The entire logged off area, often hundreds of hectares, is scraped clean of debris and forest litter. The tree planters, when they finally arrive a year or 2 or 3 later, will plant the next generation of trees into soil now devoid of the natural organic matter, which under normal forest circumstances, is produced from the composted materials of dead trees, roots, leaves as well as the rotted carcasses of the animal inhabitants of the forest. When a clearcut is complete, all of these materials are destroyed, instead of being allowed to change back into the rich organic matter of the healthy forest floor, that would support the next generation of trees and plantlife. At some point, when the permit gets issued, these huge piles of wood, leaf, root and soil are set on fire and just disintegrated forever, producing as a by-product, soot, carbon monoxide, ashes and smoke that yellows our horizon all over the coast.
It has been proposed for many years now that this slash burning be abandoned as a sane forest practice. I can't even begin to imagine what the argument is now that we are hanging over the edge of a climate change crisis now and the air quality problems have really become very uncomfortable, if not fatal, to the rising population of people who suffer from respiratory difficulty. The scraped soil of the bare clear cuts are washing away in our heavy coastal rains because they are left completely unprotected from the inevitable erosion that happens to uncovered ground. I wonder if some operations, left now to police themselves, are still adding old tires and creosote soaked wood to their slag piles to get them burning. This has been common practice in the past and I suspect it still goes on.
I wonder too, what the cost of this slash clear and burn method is in terms of machine and man hours. Why do the logging companies keep on burning? It used to be thought that diseases of the tree crop would harbour in the dead material and infect the future tree plantation. This was a valid concept back in the 60s before we truly understood the whole ecology of a forest. In a healthy forest that is grown on rich soil, high in organic matter (rotted trees), the disease and insect resistance in the tree population is very strong. The very immune systems of the trees and other plants are weakened when they are grown on sub soil, chemically fertilized and containing little organic matter. The trees grow thin and weak, exhibiting twisting in the leader branch in approximately their 20th year.
So what would be the big deal if the logging companies just left the debris from their questionable clear cutting practices.; left it to rot down into rich soil, high in organic matter like it was intended to in the eco cycle of the forest. Left it to feed the future forest and also shelter the wildlife who have lost a whole forest that they were inhabiting before the chain saws arrived. Other countries around the world have banned slash burning and have not experienced any huge disasters with disease or insect outbreaks in the forests that are planted in an uncleared and unburned clear cut. Why not us here in CANADA?
WE have an election coming up in the new year here in BC. I wonder if we couldn't take another look at what the consequences have been of the present government throwing out the Forest Practices Code when it gained power 7 years ago. The Forest Practices code was put into power about 9 years ago, after years of dedicated effort on the part of environmentalists, native groups and logging interests. They finally came to a consensus on a set of rules for how to log in BC without destroying the forest systems, the fishery or the economy. We were all so hopeful then...sigh.
So let's take another look. Ask your MLA if you live in BC, to find out why we keep on burning the future soil that will grow and protect our future forests and our own future as well. Tell them you want a ban on burning slash in BC.
Cheers
Toxin Free Writer