Forest Co-op Fibre Optimization Project
The Forest Resource Inventory in Ontario currently does not provide data with enough detail to maximize the potential for spatial wood supply analysis and operational planning to mills to assess current wood supply and costs and project them into the future, thereby maximizing profitability.
The Forest Co-op Fibre Optimization Project is a 3-year pilot study on the Trout Lake Forest which is managed by Domtar Inc. on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Its goal is to create an operational inventory system at the forest stand level and derive data processing, compilation and reporting tools that feed into harvest allocation and optimization decision-support systems. The project aims to provide a seamless, integrated suite of tools that maximizes the value of the Crown resource.
For this project, the costs associated with acquiring stand-level data (through operational cruising) are believed to be easily recovered through:
• improved forecasting of fibre quality, quantity and product mix,
• streamlined operational planning and scheduling,
• reduced delivered wood costs, and
• improved return on capital investments.
Field design work commenced in the spring of 2009 and, through the summer, 5,300 hectares were operationally cruised in approved harvest allocations on the Trout Lake Forest. The harvest blocks that were assessed ranged from 38 hectares to 677 hectares in size. Grids were laid out in each block and point sampling was performed at a sampling intensity of approximately 1 plot per hectare. Over 25,000 trees were sampled and over 5,000 trees were graded for log quality.
Next steps include sub-sampling to determine which taper model to use to estimate the merchantable volume of trees and building the tools and linkages (forestry and economic) required to assess statistically the benefits and costs of this approach. We hypothesize that the improved inventory and associated tools will result in improved harvest scheduling and an increased profit margin through greater value extracted from the Crown resource.