Sustainable biomass harvesting in the Great Lakes St - CIF-SEEK

Sustainable biomass harvesting in the Great Lakes St - CIF-SEEK

Sustainable biomass harvesting
in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence
forests of central Ontario
What is woody biomass/biofibre?
Unmerchantable material
<10 cm DBH (conifer)
<17 cm (Hardwood)
Unused material
(branches and tops)
Unused merchantable
material
Trevor Jones
Hardwood Ecosystem Scientist
OMNR
trevor.jones2@ontario.ca
Jeff Fera
Forest Research Officer
CFS/CWFC
Jeff.Fera@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca
St. Mary’s Paper 2007
St. Mary’s Paper 2013
Job losses
2003-2010:
Job Loss: 9,000 permanent and 5,500 indefinite jobs.
Decreasing contribution to GDP
Ontario mill closures
• Mill Closures (Ontario): Approximately 35 % and 27 indefinite
mill closures.
June 2005-2010 permanent closures or operational curtailments
have been announced:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cascades in Thunder Bay: 150 jobs lost
Norampac's Red Rock operations: up to 175 jobs lost
Abitibi Consolidated in Kenora: 360 workers permanently laid off
Tembec's Mattawa operation: 120 employs reduced to a four day work
week.
Temagami Forest Products closed: with remaining 20 of 55 workers laid off
Columbia Forest Products: 63 jobs lost at Rutherglen facility near North Bay.
Weyerhaeuser: 35 jobs permanently lost
Marathon Pulp and Paper
Cascades: Thunder Bay: Announced closure for January 21, 2006
Domtar: Announced for closure in Ottawa 185 jobs lost.
Domtar: Announced January 2006 closure in Cornwall 900 jobs lost
Dubreuil Forest Products, 45 jobs lost at Chapleau.
Weyerhaeuser, Dryden. About 80 jobs lost
Bowater Thunder Bay. Between 260-280 jobs lost
Tembec, Smooth Rock Falls. 230 jobs lost in closure due to take effect July
31.
• Buchanan Northern Hardwoods sawmill
• Abitibi lays off 90 woodlands workers in Thunder Bay
(July 30).
• Tembec, Timmins -- Indefinite closure
• Red Rock (Norampac) Second paper machine closed
• Grant Forest Products, Timmins Mill, indefinite lay-off
140 to 160 employees
• Domtar, Nairn Centre employs about 140 workers, will
close on October 13, 2006.
• Bowater announced indefinite closure of its Ignace
sawmill.
• Domtar, White River sawmill began wind down
operations January 12, 2007
• Abitibi closes its Fort Mill indefinitely.
• Domtar announces the October 2007 closure of its
Gatineau mill and Ottawa.
• Hearst particle board mill indefinitely closed
• Kruger Inc. Longlac, said it will let go 350 people.
Ontario Harvest Levels
Only 2/3 of available harvest
GLSL Region Harvest Levels
Only 2/3 of available harvest
Proportion of shelterwood increasing
Sb
50%
Pj
24%
Bf
68%
Po
50%
Bw
72%
Mh
85%
He
74%
Ba
89%
Pw
44%
Pr
68%
Or
128%
Life cycle emissions
(not including changes in forest C)
Avoided coal emissions,
net of wood pellet life cycle
300
Carbon balance
(millions of tonnes CO2eq)
200
100
0
-100
-200
10 020 030 040 050 060 070 080 090 100 110
20
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Slide courtesy S. Colombo
Using pellets from live tree harvest
delays GHG mitigation
Avoided coal emissions,
net of wood pellet life cycle
Forest carbon stocks
LCA avoided emissions - wood vs. coal
Net carbon balance vs historic forest
200
100
Reduced forest carbon
-100
Net reduction in GHG
emissions after ~40 yrs
-200
0
940
-10
920
-20
900
-30
880
-40
860
Carbon change
100% harvest
Historic harvest
-50
Change in forest carbon - bars - (millions of tonnes)
0
Forest carbon - lines - (millions of tonnes)
Carbon balance
(millions of tonnes CO2eq)
300
2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2100 2110
10 020 030 040 050 060 070 080 090 100 110
20
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Year
Slide courtesy S. Colombo
Carbon neutrality of live tree forest biomass
Conclusion: Species reach break-even
carbon at different rates
Treed swamp
Spruce-fir
Hardwood
Pine
Species complex
Slide courtesy S. Colombo
Ontario’s GLSL Biomass Trial Sites
Uneven aged hardwood
Maple, Yellow Birch, Cedar
Uneven aged hardwood
Oak, Maple, Yellow Birch
Pine mixedwood
PRF Biomass Study: T.O.M Study
Map
• 130 ha harvest area (Tree Length, Full Tree)
• 26 monitoring blocks stratified by structure
(basal area, percent conifer)
Marked Basal Area
Basal area recovery
Petawawa Machine Productivity
Hours per hectare
Machine
Cost per productive
hour
Tree Length
Full Tree
Feller Buncher
$188.28
1.95
2.85
Grapple Skidder
$131.10
5.6
6.2
Slasher
$138.40
2.5
3.0
Chainsaw
$44.51
1.9
0.0
Product
Price
Tree Length
Full Tree
Sawlog
$24 m3
56 m3 ha-1
56 m3 ha-1
Pulpwood
$19.2 m3
24m3 ha-1
39 m3 ha-1
Residue
$2.5 dt-1
0
18 dt ha-1
Daily optimized machine profitability
Tree Length: 2.9 ha day-1
Full Tree: 2.6 ha day-1
Felling: 5.6 pmh
Felling: 7.4 pmh
Skidding: 8.0 pmh
Skidding: 8.0 pmh
Slashing: 7.1 pmh
Slashing: 7.7 pmh
Tree Length
Full Tree
Sawlog production
159.9 m3
144.5 m3
Pulp production
68.5 m3
100.6 m3
Residue production
0.0
46.4 dt
daily revenue
$5156.3
$5515.5
daily cost
$4376.6
$4552.7
Total daily profit
$779.8
$962.8
PRF Biomass Study: Map
• 130 ha harvest area (Control, Tree Length, Full Tree)
• 36 intensive permanent sample plots
• 420 Extensive cruising plots
Overstory damage rates
Nipissing – sapling density
(2-8 cm DBH)
Algoma – sapling density
(2-8 cm DBH)
Petawawa – sapling density
(2-8 cm DBH)
Nipissing - Substrate cover
Nipissing – snag volume
Petawawa - downed wood volume
Algoma – downed wood volume
Nipissing – downed wood volume
Variation in downed wood volumes
• Organic horizons
• Top 0-20 cm mineral soil
• Deep 40-100 cm mineral soil
Tree Length (conventional) Harvest
Full Tree (biomass) Harvest
“TEAMWORK: A few harmless flakes working together can
unleash an avalanche of destruction.”
-Justin Sewell
10 – Forest Sector
9 – Available Fibre
8 – Carbon Neutrality
7 – Harvesting Economics
6 – Damage
5 – Site Disturbance
4 – Coarse Wood
3 – Soil Nutrients
2 – Silviculture
1 – Collaboration
Where do we go from here?