By Robert Forrest
Copyright 1997. Contact publisher for permission to use.

This forest is an important research and development site, addressing many of the challenges facing forestry in Canada today. Among the issues it tackles are sustainable forest management, minimal impact harvesting and managing a forest for both industry and recreational uses.

The Haliburton Forest comprises 50,000 acres of mixed forest located in central Ontario, adjacent to Algonguin Park, about four hours north of Toronto. It was originally owned by an English land and immigration company, who in the 1860s wanted to sell 100-acre plots to European farmers. When the ground conditions proved unsuitable for farming, large chunks of the land were sold for logging.

A mill was constructed at the site to harvest and manufacture lumber from an excellent wood resource that consisted primarily of white pine, hemlock, sugar maple and yellow birch.

By the late 1950s, most of the timber was exhausted and the land was once again put up for sale. After being advertised for four years in North America, it was offered in Europe. In 1962, it was purchased by the Schliefenbaum family of Germany.

The Schliefenbaum family has forged a unique relationship with Tembec in nearby Huntsville. Selective-cut logging supplies material for Tembec's flooring plant. The trees targeted for logging are deformed or damaged; the revenue from sales to the mill supports their removal. It has been a positive arrangement for both sides.

Logging occurs in close proximity to recreational users. The property contains 50 lakes and 300 campsites. Old-growth red spruce stands help make Haliburton a popular, pristine vacation site. It is used for hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, snowmobiling, mountain biking and outdoor education programs (a wolf interpretive centre houses three wild timber wolves in a natural environment). The forest has a healthy mix of wildlife, including more than 300 bird species, as well as moose, bear and wolves.

Co-owner and manager Peter Schliefenbaum says that despite the level of recreational activity in the forest, selective logging has proceeded with few complaints. Indeed, the coexistence has been so peaceful it is used by owners of private forests in Europe as a model.

Schliefenbaum describes the goal of the harvesting operation as removing the poor-quality timber first. So poor is it, he says it would probably be difficult to find another mill that could make commercial use of the fibre. 'That's a big reason that this is such an ideal partnership. Tembec, like no other company, is in a position to be able to use lower quality than any other mill that I have seen."

Earlier logging in the Haliburton Forest left the property with more than a few scars � a big reason a buyer was difficult to find. 'These lands were ravaged," says Schliefenbaum. 'It's amazing how many trees you find in the forest that were actually partially cut at some point, then were just left standing when they were found to be defective or contained rot."

Schliefenbaum targets areas where he would like to see a selective cleanup, then Tembec analyzes the area's potential and prepares a detailed harvesting plan. Individually targeted trees, with a minimum 8'' diameter, are marked with red ink. Tembec's Huntsville-based manager of forestry and sawmill operations, Gerald Kroes, says having the flooring plant as a steady customer makes this partnership viable.

'The finished flooring is in lengths anywhere from 12 inches to eight feet long," he says. 'So what we are able to do is cut between the defects in order to salvage those good pieces of material that's between them." Among the most striking characteristics about Haliburton Forest is that logging occurs in the midst of well-used recreational areas.

"We're logging right to the roads," says Schliefenbaum, 'right to the outhouses of campsites. There is no exception, and recreational activity goes on right in the middle of logging areas."

Tembec harvests about 50,000 m3 of sawlog material annually, manufacturing three million board feet of lumber and flooring. About 67 per cent of sawlogs will end up at their flooring plant. Kroes describes their harvesting approach as, 'old-style logging", consisting of a chainsaw operator and a skidder.

'We have to be very, very careful in our harvesting practice not to damage any of the residual growing stock," says Kroes, 'because that is our future. Bigger machines such as feller bunchers would do too much damage with root compaction and also butting up against the residual growing stock." They are currently testing minimal impact logging with skidders. Tembec and FERIC are conducting an experiment in which they have equipped one of the seven skidders working in the Haliburton Forest with a double drum winch and a new cable system. They hope to minimize forest damage, make the job more efficient and make the job easier for the operator.

Kroes says they hope to set a new industry standard with their tree-marking approach. They anticipate much more demand for individual tree marking in future, considering the high volume of privately held land in the area. The Huntsville area consists of about 60 per cent privately held land, and 40 per cent public land.

Pulkkinen has spent considerable time touring other sawmills and addressing AGAWA's main priority, that is developing a log profile from an extensive inventory conducted on their Crown leases. They want to ensure that changes they make to the mill will reflect their log supply. Among their findings so far is that they can expect considerably more pulpwood and hardwood. They will harvest many more smaller and larger logs than what historically were prime quality pine sawlogs.

The harvesting approach at Haliburton Forest is a tough sell to contractors. It's physical work, unlike sitting in the quality-controlled comfort of a modern feller buncher. But Tembec offers contractors an incentive full employment and forest management training.

'The operators are employed as actual tree markers, which a lot of people shudder at the thought," says Kroes. 'But here we have people that we have been working with for many years. They know what we are after. They are not being paid by the productivity or the quality of the product."

Tembec is prepared to make an employment commitment to operators in return for a commitment from them that they abide by this unique harvesting philosophy. 'We really have to stress directional felling, and pulling of the cable rather than the skidder driving to every stump to pick up the tree," Kroes adds.

What Tembec is striving toward is developing all-around forest workers. These are employees who do more than fell and skid trees. Operators also employed as tree markers begin to resemble individual forest managers who better understand proper and sustainable forest management. Hopefully they harvest more carefully as a result. Tembec's harvesting practices go beyond felling and skidding. Initially, owner Schliefenbaum was unhappy with the size of log landings. Tembec was skidding to roadside, using a slasher to buck the material, and then transporting logs using self-loading haul trucks.

'The whole operation centred around the performance of the slasher," says Kroes, 'and if there was downtime associated with it, the landings would increase in size because more tree-length wood would be put on it." So, to avoid a number of large landing sites, Tembec employed a tree-length haul using a self-loading truck to transport logs to a central processing yard where the slasher is now located.

'That has greatly cut down the size of the landings," says Kroes, 'and it has also increased the efficiencies of the cut and skid crews."

Schliefenbaum says both industry leaders and the scientific community have high praise for what has been accomplished at Haliburton Forest. The Forest has a research affiliation with an American wildlife college, whose students conduct annual spot checks on logging operations and its impact on wildlife.

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