Silviculture Reporting Silviculture business under the FRPA Act and revised FPC Ralph Winter Forest Practices Branch Feb 10, 2003

ObjectivesObjectives ä What are the business needs for information ä What’s new for silviculture under FRPA ä What’s not new ä Basic Business flow in the new world ä Linkage to other business ä Summary

Business needs requiring data ä Effectiveness monitoring and evaluation of code ä Silviculture compliance monitoring and reporting ä Information to Timber Supply Review process for young managed stands from post harvest to free growing ä Annual denudation for Area based cut control New Code of 87

TSA Cutblock Size Statistics Size Distribution of Logged Openings on TSA areas Starting FPC to for All Silvicultural Systems

Business needs requiring data

Provincial average of total cutblock area containing mature timber after harvesting ISIS Query for Tom Niemann

Business needs requiring data

ä Species conversion reports ä Report on C & I for SFM ä BC’s State of the Forest ä Forest stewardship (i.e. SFI) ä CCFM federal forestry reporting obligations (national forestry database)

Business needs requiring data: ä Performance measures/annual reporting ä Use information from existing practices to support the development legislation and policy (e.g.. modification of standards, confirmation of innovative forestry practices) ä Internal MOF workload analysis (FTE, C&E risk assessment and priority setting, etc.)

Business needs requiring data: ä Tracking silviculture obligations/liabilities on non- replaceable forest licences (NRFL) and licensees who become insolvent ä Countervail and others

Forest level Stand level FSPs and Sustainable Forest Mgmt Plans Operational Plans submits information years m 3 /ha Growth & Yield requires information uses information m 3 /yr 0 to 200 yrs age class species ha TSR AAC Scenarios supports simulation and modelling guides specifies conditions & end results inspections & monitoring reports Legal Requirement Annual report Agreements National Forestry Database Criteria & indicators Corporate Stewardship Performance measures updates inventory electronic or paper Some submissions are required by Law and some required by FIA Information systems

Current total ISIS Scope Total of number of Openings:175,000 Representing Coverage:7.7 million ha Total Timber Harvesting Landbase (THLB): 23 million ha Proportion of Total THLB:33.5% Annual number of new openings: 7,400 approx. Annual area of new openings:212,000 ha Duration of silviculture obligation until free growing: 15 to 20 years

ISIS receives significant amounts of Forest Cover/land status updates (FC) annually ä 200,000 ha of FC info on new harvest areas ä 200,000 ha of FC info at regen delay ä 200,000 ha of FC info at free growing ä 400,000 of pre-87 pre treatment and and post treatment FC info ä 3/4 to 1 million ha of Forest Cover updates annually

Current State ä Since 1987 Licensees are required to do Forest Cover and Map updates on new harvest areas ä Licensees are required to do Forest Cover and Map updates on areas treated with FIA funds ä 40% EDT transmission ä MOF staff involved in keypunching the other 60% of Basic silv data ä significant timeliness issues, some data quality issues ä FIA data is sent electronically for centralized process

Current State ä forest cover attribute info submitted on the FS 708C manually transcribed into VEGCAP - no automated transfer ä forest cover map info submitted on paper maps and then transcribed manually onto District forest cover base maps - no automated transfer ä Currently limited (or no) map up-dating by MSRM ä industry does not have easy access to own records ä limited MAPVIEW use or functionality for day-day operations

Retooling of ISIS into RESULTS - VM platform is shutting down as of July IMG is rewriting all applications to Oracle - ISIS/MLEDT applications will have to be rebuilt/redesigned and there is an opportunity align to RBC and emerging business needs - FPB will give best-approximation of business need despite RBC consultation process not complete until Nov-Dec in order to meet July 2003 target - Sufficient lead-time is required to articulate business changes, if any, to licensees so that they can prepare and make changes to their own in-house data management systems

Retooling of ISIS into RESULTS - silviculture application built based on new business requirements supplied by FPB (e.g. RBC, DFAM, etc.) - will tie to MLEDT (electronic data transfer) project to facilitate mandatory electronic submission - will be web-based (easy access for all and user-friendly menus) - will be spatially-enabled (can capture mapping linework)

The Future State ä Web-based or EDT transfer of all map and attribute info from industry (primary source) ä industry submitted digital information provided meets clear standards for quality and timeliness ä No MoF staff intervention ä ISIS will be retooled and called RESULTS ä Information in RESULTS will be easily reported on and accessed by licensees ä Information resides in RESULTS or is transferred to MSRM at set periods

What’s new for legislation ä A new Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) will be enacted - Replace FPC Act. Effective date later this spring 2003 ä Will require development of comprehensive forest stewardship plans (FSP) which articulate, objectives, values and standards for licensee performance ä the FSP will be a pivotable document. ä Has some similar content to TFL management plan but with a section which is signed off by SDM which controls standards ä Expect it will take up to 2 years for all management units and or individual licensees to develop forest stewardship plans

What’s new ä To enable the phase in and transition to the FRPA, transition provisions were made to Forest Practice Code Act ä Bill 75 will govern business during the transition period up to April ä FPC regulations have been revised to help transition the new FRPA requirements ä Regulations effective Dec 17, 2002

What’s new ä No more new silviculture prescriptions to be submitted for DM approval ä 74,000 pages/year of officially required prescriptions will not be submitted or stored at the district ä However, licensees will be required to prepare and have on file site plans (SPs) ä Site plans must contain pre-approved stocking standards that have been assigned to the site by a forester

What’s new ä No more backlog silviculture prescriptions ä existing backlog obligations removed ä no requirement for mandatory silviculture prescriptions on current fire and pest areas ä no more stand management prescriptions

What’s new ä Pre-approved stocking standards will come from approved stocking standards contained in an Forest Development Plan or FSP ä Each stocking standard will be given a unique regime id to facilitate communication and assignment to standards units

What's not new ä Existing Silviculture prescription standards and associated obligations will continue to apply to existing cutblocks ä For new cutblocks and associated site plans, stocking standards will continue to contain most of the same elements we have had in place for 20 years ä concept of standards units remains the same ä survey procedures stay the same

What's not new ä reporting requirements largely remain the same except ä licensees must transmit all attribute and map information electronically ä no district data entry ä form A - identification of which approved stocking standards have been assigned to a block will be re- instituted

Basic Business Flow

Corporate Database RESULTS CF or FSP Standards applied to the standards units within a cutblock FS 708 Form B Harvesting Activities FS708 Form B Silviculture Activities FS658 SILV SURVEY PLOT FS659 SILV SURVEY SUMMARY FS810 FOREST COVER DATA ENTRY Polygon 123 Polygon 124 Polygon 125 Opening 82L FS 708 Form C Forest Cover Licensee X Information System Electronic Data Transfer Licensee enter information via web No Forms to District office No Data Entry

Option for FDP or FSP to contain approved stocking standards An FDP or Forest Stewardship Plan (FSP) For Defined Forest Unit Silviculture Strategy - a section contained within the FDP or FSP document Silviculture Strategy Section 1: Pre-Free Growing Standards: (e.g. Stocking Standards for SU) based on: - Regime id and objective - Species - Site Series

A defined forest unit will have its own stocking standards

On a cutblock specific basis - a forester assigns approved FDP or FSP stocking standards to each area or standards unit in the block

For each area a licensee harvests, it will be required to establish a free growing stand in accordance with standards ä All cutblocks will have licensee specific FDP or FSP standards. ä All net areas to be reforested must meet the standards

No later than completion of harvest a licensee must electronically submit Form A plus a map which identifies which stocking standards have been assigned to a cutblock

By May 31 of each year submit electronically a record of the harvested and silviculturally treated area completed in the previous fiscal year on the cutblock.

Upon completion of harvest, and on or before regeneration delay and free growing date, submit electronically a map and forest cover of the cutblock. Also declare that post harvest, regeneration and free growing obligations/standards have been met

RESULTS is the new information system to track, report and analyse progress on free growing obligations. There will be direct software linkages of system to other systems and business areas ä Linkage to forest tenure administration system ä Linkage to the compliance information management system ä Linkage to the PWC reporting system called FIRS ä Linkage to seed planning and administration system ä Vegetation inventory updates ä MAPVIEW updates ä Timber Supply Review

Transfer of information to MSRM ä Digital maps of the opening and internal polygon line- work will be regularly transmitted to MSRM from RESULTS ä MSRM will merge digital opening map information with the 1:20,000 maps ä RESULTS will be the main source of forest cover information on harvested polygons for ~0-20 years (3/4 to 1 million ha per year) ä after 20 years, the regular inventory update process will provide updated information for the area

Corporate Database RESULTS FS658 SILV SURVEY PLOT FS659 SILV SURVEY SUMMARY FS810 FOREST COVER DATA ENTRY Polygon 123 Polygon 124 Polygon 125 Opening 82L FS 708 Form C Forest Cover MSRM VEG files Forest Cover Attributes and Spatial files electronically transferred to MSRM

FS658 SILV SURVEY PLOT FS659 SILV SURVEY SUMMARY FS810 FOREST COVER DATA ENTRY Polygon 123 Polygon 124 Polygon 125 Opening 82L FS 708 Form C Forest Cover New spatial and attribute info on individual Forest Cover polygons from RESULTS are merged with overall Vegetation inventory files at MSRM Mapview

Transfer of information to users ä MAPVIEW will provide live basic queries and color theming (i.e. where are all the blocks with wildlife trees reserved) for information contained in RESULTS ä When requested, MSRM will transfer complete veg graphics and forest inventory information to TSB or the DFAM consortia

Information used for TSR and silviculture strategies and to guide future harvests and silviculture regimes and standards

Communication and Progress ä For information on the VMAR intiative see ä For a look an feel of the prototype see admin/Section1/prototype/index.htm ä design and tech documentation done ä looking for regional/district volunteers to help in testing, implementation ä training design underway ä considering centralized data entry till system up

ConclusionConclusion ä 74,000 pages of prescriptions don’t come to district office ä RESULTS must work to define which standards have been assigned to each cutblock and where. ä RESULTS will record harvesting and silviculture accomplishments ä RESULTS will provide Key veg inventory update capabilities for MSRM and TSR for second growth ä web based tool will provide ongoing licensee performance records, compliance monitoring, and code effectiveness evaluation for the ministry

The New FRPA and RESULTS