Saving Canada’s old-growth forests, one woodlot at a time (Christian Science Monitor)
On a sloping patch of forest in the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick, Mike Hickey is on the hunt for red oak. They’re not overly difficult to find on his 156-acre woodlot, even though it’s something of a scavenger hunt: The number of mature oak on this thickly wooded expanse can be counted on one hand.
Mr. Hickey is dressed for the task with camouflage gloves and a maroon stocking hat. His Santa Claus beard tickles the top of his jacket, which is zipped all the way up against the cold. He walks down a road past a pile of logs cut from red spruce and other species, many of which were harvested from trees blown down during storms. He uses them to produce his own lumber.
Mr. Hickey scans the surroundings as he walks with the practiced eye of someone who knows both the delights and dangers of the woods. Once he surprised a black bear and her cubs in this area. Fortunately, the mother appeared more spooked than he was and scampered off into the woods.
Finally, he arrives at a slope where a slender tree is still hanging on to its auburn leaves despite the winter chill. “One of them is up there,” he says, pointing to a red oak. “One of my projects.”
For the past 10 years, Mr. Hickey has been attempting to restore this woodlot – which has been in his wife’s family for a century – clearing space for long-lived native hardwoods like this oak tree. He’s done this by cutting away competitors, and planting other climate change-tolerant species such as white pine, to restore this land to the forest that would have existed prior to colonization.
In doing so, he’s part of a coalition of woodlot owners, Indigenous groups, and community organizations in the Canadian Maritimes that is attempting to protect a globally rare forest ecosystem from disappearing.