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Success is rooted in the strategy of compatibility

By Lynda Chambers

Moss and mushrooms. Bark and boughs. Ferns and roots. All are resources from the forest, even though they bear little resemblance to the planks, boards, logs and timber we usually think of as "forest products."

These "non-timber forest products," or NTFPs, play a big role in many rural communities. They are culturally and socially tied to the traditions of the local people, and they make a direct and important contribution to a community's stability and sustainability.

How?

They provide food — healthy sustenance, especially in low-income areas and, in other cases, seasonal delicacies. They are also used as an ingredient in medicine. In addition, non-timber forest products can provide meaningful employment, and they generate financial benefits for individuals, small-scale businesses and major pharmaceutical and bioproducts companies.

They also benefit the "timber forest products" industry in particular. In order to be profitable, forest companies need rural communities to be healthy. It's another important reason to manage forests responsibly so they'll continue to thrive.

"Non-timber forest products are an important part of the practice of sustainable forest management," says Natural Resources Canada research scientist Dr. Brian Titus.

Together with his research team, Dr. Titus spoke with residents and searched literature. The research showed there were immense benefits when forest managers took into account both timber and non-timber resources. "Compatible management" is key.

"The case studies we found are very encouraging for forest managers who might be considering options in their own local areas," Dr. Titus says. "We were able to find examples in North America where the local NTFP sector could benefit from almost every silvicultural treatment or forest management activity you could think of."

For example, with the help of proper forest-management techniques, some NTFP harvesters now collect boughs for cedar oil extraction, and at the same time, are able to prune stands to the forest company's specifications.

In another example on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, non-timber forest-product harvesters cooperate with local forestry companies to salvage plants from proposed roadbeds. Sought-after species such as western sword fern and Oregon grape are then sold as sustainably harvested native plants.

And on the Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii, tree harvesting in good mushroom habitat in the Skidegate Lake area is delayed to allow mushroom pickers more years in which to harvest.

Finally, in the Saguenay region near Lac-St-Jean, Quebec, where there is a demand for lowbush blueberries, forest managers have established permanent patches of berries separated by strips of forest so that they can manage the remaining stands without decreasing the amount of timber or of blueberries.

"Overall, the wide range of examples of compatible management that we have found across Canada and the United States suggests that there are many imaginative ways that the benefits of non-timber forest products can be increased as part of sustainable forest management," concludes Dr. Titus.