BACKGROUND
Back 100 years ago logging was a less complicated
affair than today. Suitable forests
were easily accessible and there were little or no restrictions on the
methods and amount of logging.
Forest
management is a much more complex, sophisticated process today, however.
The availability of prime old growth forest has been much reduced.
Further, our understanding and awareness of the importance of healthy,
functioning ecosystems has become an important consideration. These
factors have made the process of timber extraction and forest management
much more challenging and complex.
GIS
has been able to meet many of the current challenges of the forest
industry today and has become an integral part of forestry
management over the past twenty years. The forest industry
and the provincial Ministry of Forests are the biggest user of GIS in the province.
GIS is integrated into all factions of the forest industry, from
site analysis, timber management, timber extraction to determining growth
potential and annual forest yield. GIS is able to perform tasks in a
much shorter time than was previously possible and is able to answer
question that, before GIS, were nearly impossible to answer due to their
complexity. For example, choosing cut blocks based on site lines so
that denuded slopes are not visible by road travelers was a very complex
affair before GIS. So complex in fact that it was rarely done.
Today, GIS can calculate site lines quickly and accurately so that ugly clear cuts
are hidden from view, creating the illusion of a pristine wilderness to
residents and tourists alike. Considerations of forest ecology, such
as buffer zones around salmon streams and the protection of near shore
habitats is also easily determined by a GIS.
GIS
is also commonly applied to determine the best possible sites for forest
extraction, the focus of this project.
