Is selective felling possible in BC's coastal forests?

Larry Stamm larryst at
Mon Feb 9 11:10:56 EST 1998

On Thu, 5 Feb 1998 09:49:26 +0000, theo hopkins <thopkins at>

>I saw a figure in a US forestry magazine that MacBlo used 35 litres of
>fuel/cubic meter of wood carried to roadside with helicopter and 7
>litres/cu meter using conventional methods. In most countries, there is
>no tax on aviation fuel: if this is so in Canada, then that is part of
>the subsidy.
>(And the environment gives a subsidy as there are global warming
>Technical question again: is there a problem if selective logging by
>helicopter with trees to be lifted getting trapped by trees to rmain?
>Theo H

Helicopters are being increasingly used locally in central BC for single tree
selection or group selection salvage logging of bug killed timber.  There have
been as many as three different helicopter shows in operation at the same time
in our local forest district.  Since the stumpage on this wood is only
$0.25/metre and most of it is prime spruce and pine, the high cost of helicopter
time is acceptable.  Helicopters are also being used on green timber where road
costs would be excessive.  Cost is not the only factor: by logging areas that
would otherwise not be operable, the timber in that area is included in
calculating the Annual Allowable Cut.  If that timber were not being logged, the
AAC would be lowered further and the timber supply squeeze in BC would get

There is also a local contractor utilizing a skyline system with a 4 km reach
for selective cuts, but this is still experimental and he has gotten some money
from FRBC to help get it off the ground.

There are several small cable yarders that have done shelterbelt and group
retention cuts, that worked very well.  Since set-up times for these yarders is
usually under an hour, settings can be very small in area (about 2 hectares).
and the crew can work two or even three settings in a day.

Probably none of these methods would be in use today if environmental groups
hadn't been so vocal in opposition to the status quo methods.

Larry Stamm
larryst at

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