We Can Help You Create a Sustainable Management Plan
September 18 to 24 is National Forest Week. Celebrate by learning how to care for your woodlot to ensure it flourishes for generations to come.
Planting trees is an important nature-based solution to climate change. Protecting, expanding and caring for existing forests is also important as these trees have often reached maturity meaning they can capture more carbon than saplings or seedlings, provide more cooling shade and offer dependable food sources and habitat for local wildlife. Allowing existing forests to degrade and fragment can decrease carbon storage potential, disrupt habitat corridors and even cause the release of more carbon into the atmosphere.
In 2020, CVC released its Sustainable Forest Management Plan to address the threats facing forests across the watershed, such as drought, intense storms, warmer winters, invasive species, pests and disease. The plan not only guides the management of CVC-owned forests but also reinforces the need to maintain, enhance and support partnerships between municipalities and private landowners who also own forests.
Many of the forests on private land are plantations. CVC found that 84 per cent of sampled plantations older than 30 years were unmanaged and nearly one in four were at risk of declining to a point where large amounts of trees may eventually collapse.
Plantations need proper care to keep them healthy and standing. This includes removing some of the trees at the proper time and controlling invasive species. These actions improve forest health and diversity and reduce susceptibility to pests, disease, drought, wind, and ice-storm damage.
Do You Have a Plantation on Your Property?
In the spirit of National Forest Week, use the checklist below to determine whether your plantation needs help:
- My plantation is older than 30 years and has never been thinned.
- Invasive species are growing in my plantation.
- There’s serious damage from wind and ice such as broken treetops, split trunks and uprooted trees.
- There’s visible damage from disease or insects, such as discolored or missing needles, cankers and galls on stems and branches and oozing resin.
- I’ve noticed many of the trees have died or are dying.
If you checked any of the boxes, connect with us learn about how CVC can work with you to create a management plan for your forest. Together, we can help ensure your forest stays healthy for years to come.
Celebrate Forests by Planting More
Larger, bio-diverse forests are more resilient. Expand your forest and add diversity by planting more trees. CVC can help.
Together with our partners, we can cover up to 100 per cent of the costs of eligible projects in the watershed. We provide the tree stock and plant the trees for you. Learn more or connect with a stewardship coordinator to get started.
Sincerely,
Your Countryside Stewardship Team