October 2007. WALDO NORTH Project Summary.

WALDO PROJECT SUMMARY
Waldo* North Grasslands Restoration Pilot Project

Notable
•    Waldo North is the biggest single ecosystem restoration project undertaken on Crown land in the Rocky Mountain Trench: 2,000 ha compared to the typical project site of 100 ha.
•    This is the first time the BC Ministry of Forests & Range has issued a timber licence for a project of this type and on this scale.
•    The Trench Society’s success in acquiring a one-time, temporary timber licence was the key element in allowing the project to proceed. The licence gives the Society authority to harvest timber on Crown land. Sale of logs from the project’s first phase produced enough revenue to cover project costs to date.
•    The Society has “one-desk” management and control of the project.
•    The Society will report to the Ministry of Forests & Range on the project’s financial and ecological results.

Project Purpose
•    A program to restore the grasslands and open forests of the Rocky Mountain Trench has been underway for almost 10 years but ecosystem restoration is a continual learning process.
•    The Trench Society anticipates that positive findings from the Waldo North project will be applied to the Trench restoration program, thus improving its effectiveness.
•    Working in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Forest District, the Society undertook the project to establish what results could be expected if fire-maintained ecosystem restoration on Crown land was carried out on a large scale within the legislative and regulatory regime of BC’s forest tenure system: i.e., financial viability, ecological outcomes, cost effectiveness, and harvest treatment/site plan match.  

Project Challenges
•    Making the case for the project.
•    Acquiring a timber licence.
•    Meeting planning & reporting requirements.
•    Removing trees according to treatment prescription to recreate the historic stand structure of grassland/open forest ecosystems.
•    Finding timber markets for “Trench” wood.
•    Avoiding trespass on potential archaeological values of the site.

Project Site
•    The north end of the Waldo Range Unit, on the northeast side of Lake Koocanusa. Roughly midway between Cranbrook and Fernie.
•    The site is a typical example of a grassland-open forest ecosystem degraded by forest ingrowth and encroachment.
•    Domestic stock has grazed the site for a century and continues to provide summer grazing for Bar X Ranch; has provided winter range for migratory elk since the 1940s; and more recently supports a year-round “homesteader” elk population.
•    Forest ingrowth has severely curtailed the site’s capacity to meet these multiple demands.
•    Total project area: 2,059 hectares (5,088 acres).
•    Operating area: 1,588 hectares.
•    Wildlife tree patches, riparian areas, roads, rights of way: 471 hectares.

Restoration Prescriptions
•    Open Range: fewer than 75 trees per hectare.
•    Open Forest: 76 to 400 trees per hectare.  

Restoration Treatments
•    Timber harvest (merchantable & non-merchantable trees): 1,588 hectares.
•    Estimated timber volume: 60,000 cubic metres.
•    Harvested to date: 22,000 cubic metres.
•    Hand slashing: 46 hectares scheduled, possibly more to follow.
•    Prescribed burns (according to a burn plan that will be established when project is complete, and in conjunction with the Trench Ecosystem Restoration Program).

Progress to Date
•    2005: Ministry of Forests & Range issues an Occupant Licence to Cut to the Trench Society.
•    In order to obtain the licence, the Trench Society was required to meet special conditions, in addition to the usual requirements of the BC Forests & Range Practices Act.
•    2005-06: Project fund-raising & planning. Site conversion & vegetation monitoring plan: Ross Range & Reclamation. Site plan: Majestic Resource Consulting and Maple Leaf Forestry. Timber cruise: Interior Reforestation. Archaeological assessment: Wayne Choquette and Eagle Vision Geomatics & Archaeology. Logging plan: Maple Leaf Forestry.
•    Feb-Oct 2007: First phase timber harvest by Mallard Logging. Seeding of landings and skid roads started.
•    Approximately 22,000 cubic metres sold as sawlogs and pulp logs, generating over $1 million in revenue.
•    Project costs to date total $976,00.
•    The Society has realized a profit to date of about $55,000.
•    Close to $920,000 has been paid out to East Kootenay contractors. An estimated 30 to 40 people have worked on some aspect of the project since it began. Almost $57,000 in stumpage fees has been paid to the BC Government.

Work Remaining
•    Phase 2 of the timber harvest.
•    Slash small conifers as per site plan.
•    Complete vegetation monitoring.
•    Prepare prescribed burn plan.
•    Compile & analyze project results and submit reports.

Preliminary Findings
•    Winter logging is preferable.
•    Transferring the site plan’s specifications to on-the-ground operations is not always easy.
•    Volatility of timber markets makes revenue forecasting problematic.
•    Logging with ecosystem restoration objectives can harvest and remove most stems, including small saplings, in one operation, thus reducing the amount of follow-up hand slashing required and reducing debris load.  
•    The conditions present with this project show that a  large-scale ecosystem restoration project can achieve slightly better than financial break-even with a volume of 40 cubic metres of timber per hectare. Typical harvest opportunities in industry prefer at least twice this volume. 

*Waldo
Waldo was a small settlement at the junction of the Elk and Kootenay rivers. The townsite was flooded in the 1970s by Lake Koocanusa, the reservoir behind the Libby Dam in Montana.