RE:RE:Turning Trees Into passive income streams What Are the Benefits Of Fertilization?
A single fertilizer treatment can be expected to add about 15 cubic metres of wood per hectare within 10 years. Fertilization is considered one of the most effective treatments to maximize volume production and financial return.
There are benefits to the forest understory as well. Shrubs and forage plants absorb some of the nitrogen not taken up by conifers, providing nutritional benefits to wildlife and livestock.
Understory plants with commercial value for floral arrangements have greener and brighter leaves from the increased nitrogen.
Since fertilization increases tree biomass accumulation, it increases carbon storage. Research in Ontario shows that a single application of nitrogen fertilizer to jack pine stands would store an additional 4.9 tonnes of carbon per hectare over 10 years (Colombo et al. 2005).
Although greenhouse gases generated by the production, transport and application of inorganic fertilizer could offset 5 to 10 per cent of the carbon storage gain, the net carbon gain would be at least 4.5 tonnes per hectare.
Fertilization treatments have been conducted in British Columbia on an operational scale since 1978, starting with coastal Douglas-fir. Fertilization programs began in the Interior during the mid-1980s. To date, over 150,000 hectares have been fertilized.
In response to the mountain pine beetle infestation, government and the forest industry are planning to fertilize about 130,000 hectares of spruce and
Douglas fir in B.C.'s Interior over the next five years.
It is estimated these treatments
will add 2 million cubic
metres of wood fibre over the next 10 to 15 years. This increase will help mitigate the expected timber supply decline once b