APPENDIX 2
SILVICULTURE PRESCRIPTION TEMPLATE

In 1998 the Operational Planning Regulation of the Forest Practices Code was amended, resulting in new content requirements for silviculture prescriptions. Silviculture prescriptions are the main operational plan at a forest stand level, required before any logging may take place. Anyone wanting to know specific details about how a cutblock will be logged must look to the silviculture prescription.

Silviculture prescriptions illustrate, in detail, the operational activities and reforestation requirements for a specific cutblock where harvesting is proposed. They contain objectives and strategies for the management of a proposed cutblock, as well as ecological information, harvesting and reforestation information. As a result of 1998 changes to the Code, the focus of silviculture prescriptions is now more on describing the end results and site conditions that must be maintained after logging and replanting, rather than the operational strategies for achieving those conditions. Former requirements to provide details and descriptions of harvest methods and silviculture treatments have been deleted.

These changes are part of the government’s overall effort to have a "results-based" Code; to reduce the required amount of paper work; and, to increase its reliance on the professional foresters who must sign silviculture prescriptions. Critics of the changes are concerned that reduced information on operational strategies lessens the ability of government (and the public) to assess the likelihood of a prescription’s success and enforceability. The detailed content requirements are set out in section 39 of the Operational Planning Regulation.

A sample template for the new silviculture prescriptions has been included in this appendix to illustrate these requirements. The sample template is in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. The free Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from Adobe.

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