Opax Mountain

A co-operative project between the B.C. Forest Service and several Universities. Funded By Forest Innovation Investments.

The Interior Douglas-fir Forests (IDFxh) of the Thompson and Nicola river basins pose special management problems. Located at lower elevations and often close to urban area, they have been extensively harvested in the past and are important for wildlife, range and recreation use. How do we balance all of these uses, and plan for expected increases in use, while maintaining a productive ecosystem?

The Opax Mountain Study, established in 1993, helps forest managers and the public better understand the options and consequences of different management systems on a range of forest values. Information from these studies will be used to improve the way the forest is managed for present and future generations.

The Interior Douglas-fir forests occur throughout the lower slopes of the the Thompson, Nicola and Columbia River basins, and the Cariboo Plateau. The climate is warm and dry in summer and cool with a moderate amount of snow in winter. Douglas-fir is the dominant tree species with trembling aspen scattered through out and lodgepole pine on cooler sites. Hotter and drier areas are dominated by grassland and open ponderosa pine forests while hybrid white spruce and white birch occur where it is wetter and cooler.

All forest ecosystems undergo periodic disturbances. In dry Interior Douglas-fir forests, the most common natural disturbances include defoliating insects and bark beetles, windthrow, root disease and wildfire.
Disturbances are important to the ecological processes that maintain the diverse flora and fauna in the Interior Douglas-fir ecosystems. Naturally occurring disturbances, along with logging, fire suppression and range use, shape the way our forests look and evolve.

In the Opax Mountain Area, six harvesting treatment were designed to create a range of structural conditions found naturally in Interior Douglas-fir forest stands.

Control, no treatment Used as a baseline area against which results will be compared.	Low volume removal (20%) spread uniformly across the treatment area; all large trees (>50cm dbh) harvested as a single tree system.	Low volume removal (20%) as patches. Three patch sizes were used: 0.1 ha, 0.4 ha, and 1.6 ha.
Moderate volume removal (35%) large (>35 cm dbh) diameter merchantable timber removed but leaving 0.1 to 1.0 ha unharvested patches centered around snags and large trees.	High volume removal (50+%) removing large merchantable timber spread uniformly across the treatment area. Large (>35cm dbh) trees harvested as a single tree system.	High volume removal (50+%) as patches. Three patch sizes were used: 0.1 ha, 0.4 ha, and 1.6 ha.

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Aerial view of Opax Walt and Bill tag mice

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