UBC Malcolm Knapp Research Forest and Pelton Nursery
Friday afternoon, we continued our tour of the UBC's Malcolm Knapp Research Forest before a stop at Pelton Nursery. We finished the day by returning to Vancouver for a dinner cruise around Vancouver.
UBC Malcolm Knapp Research Forest - Research Projects
Crayfish Study
After lunch, we visited two research study sites within the forest. The first, being conducted
at Spring Creek by
Carin Bondar, a Ph.D. candidate with the Centre for Applied Conservation
Research, was a crayfish study looking at the effect that various ontogenetic
stages of the crayfish have on their environment. Carin describes the study
herself:
The experiment...has 4 key players: juvenile and adult crayfish, and YOY (young of the year) and 1+ cutthroat trout. I'm looking at the impact of each player alone on the environment, as well as the interaction between different ontogenetic stages of different organisms (i.e. adult crayfish with YOY fish, adult crayfish with 1+ fish, etc.) The experiment consists of 45 1 sq. meter enclosures in 5 complete blocks. You'll see 3 of the blocks from where you're visiting, the other 2 are further downstream. Each enclosure has 4 5-gram leaf packs and a gravel basket filled with river rock.
Spacing Study, Riparian Buffer Study
We then moved to another research site that Cheryl used to illustrate how research contributes to forest management. Spacing studies, for instance, tells foresters how well trees grow under different densities. This helps determine optimal growing conditions for wildlife habitat, wood production, etc., knowledge that comes in handy when foresters plant trees and have control over the type of trees planted and the density at which they're planted. This site contained a multi-species spacing study which is more applicable to natural heterogeneous forests than typical spacing trials which usually study a single specie. The 5 hectare spacing trial begun in 1997 included douglas-fir, western red cedar, western hemlock, and paper birch at different densities and mixtures.
The other project, the riparian buffer study begun in 1995/6, is designed to evaluate the impact buffer strips of different widths (no buffer, 10m, 30m) along streams. Fully replicated study (3 of each treatment plus control areas), before and after study. Have baseline data on the streams, invertebrates, fish, vegetation, flow, and chemistry. The study will help determine what kind of buffer is necessary to protect the values of streams. Cheryl reported that only the 30m buffer has proven adequate at maintaining stable populations.
Brush Control
Also at this stop, Michael Main gave a demonstration on how understory brush control was conducted. In order to nurture the smaller trees coming up in a site it is necessary to cut back understory plants that might limit the sapling's access to light. He showed off some of the tools he used such as the weed wacker with radial saw attachment and also a Sandvich brush axe. The idea cut back the brush from saplings about 1.5 meters so that they get the light they need to grow. Teacher, Mary Jane Beaudoin took the opportunity to show off her prowess with a brush axe.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
We wrapped up the stop with a presentation by Steve Finn on Global Positioning System (GPS) and its use as a forestry measurement tool.
The UBC Malcolm Knapp Research Forest has a thriving research community which includes professional researchers and students from several UBC faculties, from Simon Fraser University, from BC's provincial government, and from the Canadian federal government. Researchers from other universities and from outside Canada also use the forest for research in their particular fields. Since the establishment of the Research Forest, over 750 research projects have been initiated on the landbase, and more than 100 of these are still active. Many of these active projects are long-term in nature, spanning close to 50 years and including some of the most extensive datasets in western North America.
Research projects that are being carried out at the Research Forest encompass many different fields. While the majority of the projects focus on different aspects of forestry and forest management, several of the more recent projects touch on other, unrelated fields, such as astronomy and forensic entomology.
Pelton Nursery Tour
The final stop on our tour was the Pelton Reforestation Ltd. Nursery in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Here we were greeted by the President of the company, Norm Pelton and his staff. They not only gave us a tour of how they grow trees but provided us with refreshments as well.
Norm explained how he developed the container-grown seedling industry which supplanted the bare-root seedling industry that existed prior to 1968. Container-grown seedlings seem to do better in the woods which results in less replanting and less overall expense. During the tour we saw the seed preparation lab, the seeding shed, indoor and outdoor growing facilities and the harvest plant.
Fernando Rey, Nursery Manager, talked about seed preparation and how seeds received from customers are cataloged and tracked throughout production. Trees here are grown from seed up to either a one- or two-year old seedling (1+0 or 2+0), and are carefully managed and monitored along the way. Seeds are provided by customers from trees at the sites intended to be replanted. Seedlings from local trees are better acclimated to grow on those sites. The nursery produces 60,000,000 seedlings per year from seed customers provide.
Next, at the soil line, Steve Pelton, Operations Manager/Vice President talked about how soil was prepared to receive the seeds in the containers. The seedlings are grown in a soil mixture of peat moss, sawdust, and/or coir (ground coconut husks.) We saw the bins where the soil components are kept and the machines where they were combined and conveyed to fill the sanitized Styroblock containers.
Vancouver Harbor Dinner Cruise
After
spending the day in Maple Ridge we headed back into Vancouver for our closing
night dinner, a harbor cruise around Vancouver. There was some concern trying to
make it to the dock due to traffic caused by the Indy races but teachers
persisted and were treated to some beautiful views of the city.
