Silviculture and Timber Production

Over the past decade, millions of trees have been dying at a frightening pace across the US and Canada. Some estimate that over 60 million acres of forest – from New Mexico in the US to British Columbia in Canada – have been ravaged. It is being called an ‘unprecedented epidemic’. The culprit? The humble mountain pine beetle. But there are other factors too. Climate change and forest management, also known as silviculture, are impacting our ecosystems in ways that we did not expect.¹

This so-called epidemic impacts life across North America, from its wildlife and mountainous regions to the price of lumber and timber worldwide. It has led to devastation across local communities and added tens of thousands to house prices.² It illustrates that our lives are closely intertwined with forest ecosystems.

What is silviculture?

Silviculture is the practice of managing a woodland or forest according to its intended use. Forests protect our ecosystems and support wildlife. Furthermore, they can be used for recreational purposes, such as tourism and hiking. Forests can also be used as a timber plantations for wood products or fuel.³

These forest management skills are coming under increasing focus as the mountain pine beetle ravages trees in North America. In British Columbia alone, around 60 percent of pine trees are expected to be wiped out by the end of the epidemic.⁴ To understand how and why this happened, it is important to understand forest management itself.

How can silviculture save our trees and their inhabitants?

Silviculture is one of the world’s oldest professions. It focuses on managing a forest’s growth and composition. Practitioners are usually expected to have some knowledge of soil, wildlife, plants, geography, meteorology, and perhaps even engineering.⁵

They apply different treatments, such as tree thinning, harvesting, planting, pruning, and burning, to manage forests. These treatments create what is known as a silviculture system.⁶

Wildlife habitat management and biodiversity

Managing forests is no easy task, and the scourge of the mountain pine beetle illustrates the problem. British Columbia has three times as many mature pine trees as elsewhere. This is mostly because humans have become much better at preventing forest fires in recent years. But, forest fires can also have positive benefits. They nourish the soil, spread seeds, and allow new species to grow.

A forest packed with trees also acts as a buffet for predators, such as the beetle. The beetles lay their eggs inside the bark of a tree, and they eat the tree from the inside. They move from tree to tree, spreading their eggs, infecting thousands at lightning speed. The Canadian province of Alberta has spent over USD $320 million on beetle management in the last decade alone.⁷

Climate change has affected timber prices

Climate change has also played a large part in raising timber prices. Global warming has created a better environment for beetles to reproduce and expand their range of attack. It has made forests more vulnerable too. This is because trees are weaker due to droughts and warmer weather. Moreover, when trees are attacked by beetles, they secrete a liquid in self-defense. That liquid is highly flammable, making trees even more prone to forest fires. The vicious cycle has depleted large forests for over a decade with little respite.⁸

In this context, good silviculture practice protects forests and ensures they are healthy against predators. The practice of silviculture should ensure that a forest has a diversity of species of trees so they are not all susceptible to the same predators or diseases.⁹

Silviculture and forest management examples that work well

There are several silviculture projects worldwide that have helped to increase forest biodiversity and protect endangered species. The key to silviculture success is understanding the composition of the woodland and managing it well for its intended outcome.¹⁰

For example, in Canada, the Boreal Avian Modelling (BAM) Project worked with the Sustainable Forests Initiative (SFI) to identify important habitats for breeding birds. More specifically, they looked at how changes in forest age and type influence the olive-sided flycatcher, a species under threat in Canada, along with other breeding birds.¹¹ In the UK, the Woodlands Trust faces a different problem: slowly replacing non-native conifer trees with native broadleaf trees. Conifers are known to acidify the soil and disturb the ecological balance in areas where they are not natively found.¹²

Silviculture is the art of balancing tree proliferation

These two examples show how silviculture practices are used towards different ends: saving wildlife or protecting the soil. It is arguable that bad management of forests across North America – from allowing pine trees to proliferate too much to preventing forest fires – has made woodlands more vulnerable.¹³ This is an example of the bad practice of silviculture.

Has timber production increased in the last decade?

In the US, lumber production has steadily increased over the last decade, rising by 50 percent from 2009 to 2019.¹⁴ However, in 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns came into place, many sawmills reduced production with the likelihood of falling demand. Dealers ordered fewer materials and ran down their inventories. However, the demand actually increased.

People wanted to buy bigger houses, finish DIY projects, make garden improvements or even build home extensions. In many western countries, there was an immediate shortage of lumber and timber.¹⁵ The UK-based Timber Trade Federation (TTF) says the country is importing more softwood from abroad. It expects shortages to continue in the foreseeable future and prices to rise further.¹⁶

In other words, even as timber production has increased, the impact of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic has created huge shortages. We are unlikely to see a solution anytime soon.

House prices affected by tumbler shortage

In turn, house prices have been affected too. The US National Association of Homebuilders says that higher lumber prices have added nearly $25,000 to the cost of a new family home.¹⁷ Lumber traded at around USD $381 for 1,000 board feet from 2015 to 2019. By April 2021, the price hit an all-time high of $1,104.¹⁸

Climate change has made the American lumber shortage worse

The United States imports around a third of its lumber and timber from Canada. But the scourge of the mountain pine beetle, as well as forest fires, have reduced its supply. “There are people who say ‘climate change isn’t affecting me’”, Janice Cooke, a forest-industry veteran and biology professor at the University of Alberta, told The Atlantic magazine. “But they’re going to go to the hardware store and say, ‘Holy cow, the price of lumber has gone up.’”

Bad silvicultural systems and their multiple repercussions

British Columbia has restricted allowable timber production by a third since 2009. “I think it’s pretty clear that the beetle kill in and of itself is creating a supply shortage in the market for logs in a critical supplying region to the US”, says Dustin Jalbert, an economist at the market-research firm Fastmarkets. Moreover, it takes time for trees to grow back. Canadian forests take between 40 to 60 years to reach maturity because of the weather. That ensures the shortage will persist for a long time.¹⁹

In other words, poor forest management and climate change have affected not just forests and ecosystems, but the price of timber and houses. This should serve as a warning to all of us.

1. Rosner, H. (2015). The Bug That’s Eating the Woods. [online] Magazine. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/pine-beetles-forest-destruction-canada-rockies [Accessed 14 May 2021].
2. www.ft.com. (April, 2021). Lumber party: economic bounce fuels US wood price rally | Financial Times. [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/202dada4-b188-4112-9689-6fec2924efb0.
3. www.fs.fed.us. (n.d.). Silviculture. [online] Available at: https://www.fs.fed.us/forestmanagement/vegetation-management/silviculture/index.shtml.
4. Rosner, H. (2015). The Bug That’s Eating the Woods. [online] Magazine. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/pine-beetles-forest-destruction-canada-rockies [Accessed 14 May 2021].
5. Jain, T.B. (2019). The 21st Century Silviculturist. Journal of Forestry, [online] 117(4), pp.417–424. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/jof/article/117/4/417/5525722 [Accessed 19 Nov. 2019].
6. Forest Service R10, Tongass NF What Is a Silvicultural System? (2016). [online] . Available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd530429.pdf.
7. Rosner, H. (2015). The Bug That’s Eating the Woods. [online] Magazine. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/pine-beetles-forest-destruction-canada-rockies [Accessed 14 May 2021].
8. Meyer, R. (2021). Why Dead Trees Are “the Hottest Commodity on the Planet.” [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/04/climate-origins-massive-lumber-shortage/618727/ [Accessed 14 May 2021].
9. Forest Research. (n.d.). Forest tree species diversity. [online] Available at: https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/fthr/species-diversity/forest-tree-species-diversity/ [Accessed 18 May 2021].
10. Research Gate. (n.d.). Silvicultural Options to Enhance and Use Forest Plantation Biodiversity. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260277305_Silvicultural_Options_to_Enhance_and_Use_Forest_Plantation_Biodiversity.
11. Kathy (2018). Well-Managed Forests Are the Answer | forests.org. [online] forests.org. Available at: https://www.forests.org/well-managed-forests-are-the-answer/ [Accessed 14 May 2021].
12. Hornigold, K. (2018). What is a sustainable forest? [online] Woodland Trust. Available at: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2018/07/what-is-a-sustainable-forest/.
13. Rosner, H. (2015). The Bug That’s Eating the Woods. [online] Magazine. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/pine-beetles-forest-destruction-canada-rockies [Accessed 14 May 2021].
14. Statista. (2021). Lumber production in the United States 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/252698/lumber-production-in-the-us-2001-2010/.
15. Timber Industry News. (2021). Global shortage of wood products may become worse. [online] Available at: https://www.timberindustrynews.com/global-shortage-wood-products-may-become-worse/ [Accessed 18 May 2021].
16. Timber Trade Federation. (2021). TTF issues a market statement on the demand and supply of timber in the UK. [online] Available at: https://ttf.co.uk/ttf-issues-market-statement-on-demand-and-supply-of-timber-in-the-uk/ [Accessed 14 May 2021].
17. www.ft.com. (April, 2021). Lumber party: economic bounce fuels US wood price rally | Financial Times. [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/202dada4-b188-4112-9689-6fec2924efb0.
18. Meyer, R. (2021). Why Dead Trees Are “the Hottest Commodity on the Planet.” [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/04/climate-origins-massive-lumber-shortage/618727/ [Accessed 14 May 2021].
19. Meyer, R. (2021). Why Dead Trees Are “the Hottest Commodity on the Planet.” [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/04/climate-origins-massive-lumber-shortage/618727/ [Accessed 14 May 2021].