Over a 50-year period, logging on British Columbia’s Central Coast preferentially targeted the highest value locations on the landscape, according to new research from Simon Fraser University. The systematic depletion of high-value components of the environment raises concerns about future sustainability and intergenerational access to natural resources.
October 5, 2022
Over a 50-year period, logging on British Columbia’s Central Coast preferentially targeted the highest value locations on the landscape, according to new research from Simon Fraser University. The systematic depletion of high-value components of the environment raises concerns about future sustainability and intergenerational access to natural resources.
Led by SFU Ph.D. graduate Jordan Benner and professor emeritus Ken Lertzman and published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research shows that, over time, harvesting operations moved to forest stands of increasingly lower productivity and accessibility, which they refer to as «harvesting down the value chain.»
«While the approach, sometimes known as ‘high grading,’ is economically efficient, it is contrary to many ideas about the stewardship ethics that are part of forest management,» says Benner. However, the cumulative effects of this historical pattern, combined with policy changes starting in the mid 1990s, led to shifts in the pattern of logging that reflect a more stewardship-oriented approach.
