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By Shawn Merrithew

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Maintaining a balance between harvesting wood and keeping a proper habitat for wildlife can be difficult, but a recent forestry management project may prove helpful to the large industry players.

That was the message from Dr. David MacLean, Dean of Forestry and Environmental Management, as he talked about the Sustainable Forest Management Network Project at the annual Fundy Model Forest general meeting in Nackawic on Monday afternoon.

"It is important, as forest management includes more and more of the forests that are out there, that we are doing it in a way that is sustainable and not destroying the habitat for all of the other species that need it as well," MacLean explained.

The three-year project, nearing completion, was done by 13 graduate students from the University of New Brunswick and the University of Moncton, along with a few professors from University of Maine.

MacLean said the project looked at the influence and impacts of forest management on wildlife, essentially more intensive management like plantation establishment and pre-commercial thinning. This is one of the biggest silviculture treatments, he explained, and the technique focuses on thinning out young fir or spruce trees, so they can grow faster.

Studies showed birds and animals were using some of these thinned areas as their homes. If properly managed by the big industry players, he said, wood could still be harvested without impacting the majority of the animals' habitat.

Another part of the project focused on diversification of the forestry resource. It looked at the potential for bio-energy production, MacLean said, pointing out one student researched this on the premise of using the residue not harvested or diverting some pulp wood for use of bio-energy. The research focussed on how much of the residential and industrial energy use in the province could be off set. The result was promising.

"He found there is quite a strong potential for the use of some biomass residue," MacLean said. "With the price of gas right now, there is a lot of interest in using biomass by forest industry to off set some of their (mills) energy requirements or divert it to residential energy use as well."

On the same token, he added, the industry has to be mindful of the environment.

"We can take some, but we have to be careful about how much you can take," he said, noting taking too much could be detrimental to habitat and the animals who use it.

The project is winding down and MacLean expects it to wrap up in the next six months. After that, he would like to see the big forestry players adopt research and use it to their advantage.