Hardwoods have long been disposed of to create coniferous forests of high quality. Recently, there have been concerns that this policy is a mistake, not only because the demand for hardwoods is growing but because of the negative aspects of growing coniferous monocultures. This analysis examined hardwood inventory, ecology, management, and use issues through a summary of hardwood inventory in the Kamloops Forest Region, a field assessment of management practices and stand conditions in two subzones in the region, and a review of literature related to paper birch and black cottonwood, the predominant species in the productive subzones. The field assessment consisted of the sampling of regeneration stands younger than 20 years to identify management practices that were successful for hardwood, conifer, or mixedwood production. Immature-mature stands older than 20 years were sampled across a range of ecosystems to assess their stand structure, species composition, and growth and yield.

Provides a comprehensive but non-technical overview of the ecology and management, for both timber production and environmental values, of hardwoods in British Columbia.

Information on the ecology and management of paper birch, which occurs in virtually all the Province east of the Coast Mountains, and Alaska paper birch, found the northeastern part of the Province east of the continental divide. Differing silvicultural practices for biogeoclimatic subzones are discussed.

Information on black cottonwood and balsam poplar, useful to foresters and woodland managers. Other broadleaf species, such as aspen, red alder or paper birch, are referred to where there are implications for management of cottonwood and poplar. Ecological values are also discussed.

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the world's leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest—a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. In this, her first book, now available in paperback, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths--that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own. Simard writes--in inspiring, illuminating, and accessible ways—how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, how they learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication, characteristics ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies--and at the center of it all, the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them. And Simard writes of her own life, born and raised into a logging world in the rainforests of British Columbia, of her days as a child spent cataloging the trees from the forest and how she came to love and respect them. And as she writes of her scientific quest, she writes of her own journey, making us understand how deeply human scientific inquiry exists beyond data and technology, that it is about understanding who we are and our place in the world.