Backgrounder: New Research On Climate Change Impacts And Solutions For BC Forests
Striking the right bioenergy balance: promoting healthier carbon stores in our forests and forest product streams
The BC government, independent power producers, and the forestry industry have increasingly advocated for the production of energy from wood, driven largely by the mountain pine-bark beetle (MPB) outbreak and the fate of an estimated 675 million cubic metres of pine in the province. However, new research indicates that attacked pine stands are far from lifeless, and in many cases are already carbon sinks, in addition to providing quality lumber as well as bioenergy fuel. Through modelling of new MBP-affected forest-carbon data, this project will compare and contrast environmental, energy generation and economic options to assist policy-makers and forest-users in achieving the best balance for this valuable forest resource. Specifically, it aims to increase the understanding of when and where it makes sense to harvest (or leave) beetle-affected forests across a range of competing end-uses.
Project team: UNBC, UBC, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Estimating carbon storage and emissions from harvested wood products from BC
Harvested wood products represent a significant carbon stock that remains stored for varying periods depending on product attributes. Lumber used in buildings, for example, has a longer life than wood fibre in paper. To date, a lack of data specific to BC has constrained quantifying the carbon stored and emitted by wood products in this province. This project seeks to remedy this shortcoming by collecting and analyzing BC-specific data. This information will be useful for a variety of applications including national and international carbon accounting schemes, carbon trading, modelling emissions from the construction sector and calculating typical lifetimes for BC wood frame houses.
Project team: UBC, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
Predicting carbon storage for BC on seasonal to decadal timescales
This project uses a dynamic vegetation model to assess how BC's land-based ecosystems may be affected by climate change. The project attempts to quantify the changes in the province's natural carbon balance as a result of year-to-year climate variability and long-term climate change. This will provide a comparison of natural carbon changes with the magnitude of carbon gains made through offsetting programs. Projected changes in the distribution of primary vegetation types and how fire patterns may change in the province will also help inform forest management practices, with implications for harvesting, reforestation, fire fighting plans, and fire-related property losses.
Project team: UVic, Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, Canadian Forest Service, Environment Canada
Developing environmental-response functions of growth and mortality to forecast forest carbon stocks in BC under environmental change scenarios
The BC forest sector anticipates changes in forest growth and carbon stocks due to environmental change, but how fast and how much will change occur? This project will address these questions by first quantifying relationships between current climate, annual volume increments, growth and mortality and second, mapping projected changes under various future scenarios. The results will yield better predictions of future forest growth, providing critical information for sound forest management.
Project team: UBC, Canadian Forest Service
Community fire-interface biomass utilization for heating fuel
This project studies the potential for domestic heat generation from tree biomass discarded when managing forests around BC’s rural communities, for example, by removing trees and undergrowth to reduce wildfire risks to urban areas. Using a combination of field work and modeling, this research will provide information on the ecological, social and economic feasibility of substituting fossil fuels with forest biomass. Such substitution could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, heating costs and energy dependence while promoting job creation in the green energy sector in small communities in interior BC.
Project team: UBC, Community Energy Association, Green Heat Initiative