Innovative practices

Carbonizing

For managing post-harvest non-merchantable material, Carbonizing eliminates smoke, traps carbon and creates a valuable end-product in the form of biochar

Spel’kúmtn is proud to have partnered with Skytech Yarding in an important pilot project utilizing the Carbonizer to dispose of post-harvest waste material. Much of Spel’kúmtn’s tenure is immediately adjacent to private property and community, making conventional pile burning an undesirable, almost impossible option. Extended fire seasons make burning logistically challenging, the smoke produced by piles can be a challenge for community members, and the under-utilization of non-merchantable material is unnecessarily wasteful with better options now available.

Though still substantially more expensive to operate than burning, Spel’kúmtn chose to subsidize the use of this innovative technology to demonstrate its potential and encourage government support for this essential tool in the future of sustainable forest practices.

Standing Single-stem Harvest

A selective, light-touch harvest method that brings both economic and environmental benefit

What’s so great about standing single stem harvesting?

  • each individual tree is checked for quality before falling so no wood is wasted or felled unnecessarily

  • road building is very limited so disturbances to wildlife and ecosystem disruptions are minimized in the long term

  • soils and fungal networks remain intact as no mechanical equipment enters the harvest area

  • trees aren’t felled to the ground so there are no losses due to breakage

  • small openings in the canopy lead to enhanced growth in remaining stems and in understory vegetation

  • limbs and tree tops left behind provide excellent habitat for nesting birds and other wildlife