“ cover forestry

Building on Suzanne’s Mother Tree Project, Suzanne and Dominik’s continuous cover forestry practices project will identify and fine-tune partial retention silviculture systems that best suit the parameters of local conditions, values and objectives. This will involve mapping and recording the carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection, forest regeneration and timber harvesting potential of the continuous cover method.

Suzanne and Dominik’s project is building consensus among different branches of forestry by combining learnings from research into the interconnectedness of trees with novel operational solutions. The end goal will be to demonstrate how this collaboration can yield positive results that can be carried forward to future projects, partners and teams.

The Mother Tree Project found that current harvesting techniques can result in the loss of 60% of forest floor carbon sequestration, along with mosses and lichens that are important stores of water and nutrients within forests.

Suzanne and Dominik’s continuous cover project will test how smaller equipment designed for the selective harvesting of trees can minimize impacts to the forest floor and biodiversity during harvesting.

“Continuous cover gives us another forest management tool,” says Dominik. “The research that we are conducting thanks to Jill and Michael’s support can set the scene, and help us understand the bottlenecks and potentialities when it comes to achieving our objectives with continuous cover forestry practices and technology in the province.”