The project area is located near the city of Rossland, BC. The total area of the forest land is about 2653 hectares extending down to the Canada-US border. The forest land was formerly owned by the Beaumont Timber Company and was purchased by a German family-owned company, Selkirk Mountain Forest Ltd., in 2013. The property is one of Selkirk Mountain’s 7 total land holdings in British Columbia. Monticola was appointed to manage the forest properties held by Selkirk Mountain.
The purpose of this project is to analyze a diverse set of management scenarios and provide options for the landowner to make long-term management decisions. This is done by taking into account the goals of the landowners and the current state of the forest on Sophia. From here, based on the owner’s values, we suggest management options to move forward and the client can choose to integrate those in their management decisions. Information for the management plan was obtained through a recently completed (February 2015) VRI of Sophia, a site visit, provincial archives, and interviews with the current land managers, Monticola.
The management scenarios analyzed assess various levels of harvest (clearcut vs. partial cuts) and growth treatments (thinning and fertilization) to create a portfolio of management options. With the recent acquisition of the land and no current management plan in place, Aspen Group is hoping that this wide breadth of options will give direction to Monticola moving forward.
