Overcutting Supernatural BC

"Intuitively, sustained yield is a logical and laudable goal: no more is taken than can be replenished. As it has come to be implemented, however, the concept of sustained yield has been modified to mean taking the maximum supply a system can withstand (i.e., the furthest point to which production can be pushed without impairment of the resource’s ability to reproduce). One of our colleagues calls this ‘management at the edge of harm.’" The Politics Of Ecosystem Management, Hanna Cortner and Margaret A. Moote 

Sustained yield forest policy was first introduced to British Columbia in the 1947 Forest Act in order to conduct the systematic conversion of old growth forests into plantation tree farms. The language of sustained yield provides a chilling illustration of its perspective on the value of forests. Old-growth forests are referred to as “decadent” and “over-mature” while second-growth forests are referred to as “normal” or “productive.” The mandate of sustained yield is to maximize timber volume.

The David Suzuki Foundation believes that this antiquated method aims to reproduce timber crops in rotations without considering ecological sustainability. Although sustained yield was developed in Germany in the 19th Century, it continues to dominate land-use planning in Canada's western-most province to this day. The first stage of the sustained yield method is the "conversion" of old growth forests to even-aged stands or tree farms. Once trees reach marketable age or maturity they are harvested like an agricultural crop.

The difficulties with this practice are myriad because forests provide a vastly more complex ecological function for the entire planet than do fields of wheat or cotton. Sustained yield is designed to ensure a steady supply of timber to mills, not a stable forest ecosystem. Unfortunately, sustained yield continues to be the foundation of BC forest policy.

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