Standing Stem Project Overview

If you’ve been following the Sunshine Coast Community Forest, you may have noticed references to our standing stem harvesting project in AN27. This work has been unfolding over the past year and represents both a careful approach to harvesting and a commitment to low-impact techniques. Here’s an overview of what standing stem harvesting is, and how our first project using this harvest practice progressed from 2024 into 2025.

What Is Standing Stem Harvesting?

Standing stem harvesting is a selective method used to remove individual high value trees without disturbing the surrounding forest. Instead of falling trees onto the ground, skilled crews limb and top the tree while it is still standing, preparing it for removal by helicopter. This avoids the need for heavy ground equipment and keeps forest floor disturbance to a minimum.

It’s a technique that requires planning, precision, and collaboration between fallers, pilots, and foresters, and it’s well-suited to areas where environmental protection and careful stand management are priorities.

A Project Many Months in the Making

Barry Watson, Pole Buyer at Stella-Jones and his puppy Aspen

The AN27 standing stem project didn’t begin with helicopters—it began on the ground in 2024.

In September 2024, crews completed road reactivation work and prepared a helicopter landing area, anticipating the start of the project once the cutting permit was in place. By October, the cutting permit for was approved, and crews began the early stages of the standing stem work.

Detailed marking of each individual tree planned for the selective harvest was done by a professional forester, in coordination with the buyer, Stella Jones. In November, fallers carried out the careful, labour-intensive work of limbing and topping the selected trees preparing the stems for helicopter removal. Limbing and topping the trees has a couple of important purposes - it, improves lift safety as the grapple will be attaching to a strong stem without any interference,, and it will fly cleanly without snagging surrounding trees. During this work, the fallers identified some trees which would not meet the quality specifications required - forked tops or other imperfections that hadn't been visible from the ground. These trees were removed from the harvesting plan and were not topped.

Originally, a K-Max helicopter was scheduled to begin flying in December 2024. However, early winter storms, snowfall risk, and safety considerations required postponing the flights. All ground-based preparation was complete, and the project was poised to move forward when safe flying conditions returned.

Two interesting things we learned as a result of this delay.

1. Once weather windows were safe for helicopter activity, the ground crew came to cut the trees. On their initial visit, while there was no snow on the ground elsewhere, within the tree wells of the limbed and topped trees, snow was waist deep and they were unable to make the cuts. They left and returned about a month later. Small openings in the forest canopy allow snow to make it onto the forest floor where it is cool and shady, storing that snow for a much slower release of water as it melts. This was a small hiccup for the project, but was a good demonstration of how a forest can be managed for both logging and hydrologic stability.

2. When the trees are limbed and topped in advance of being logged, they start to dry, losing a lot of water weight. We heard that this can significantly reduce the helicopter's fuel consumption, by as much as 30%.

Flying – Winter 2025

The helicopter operations took place In February 2025 when the weather window allowed crews to safely lift the prepared stems out of the forest. At this point, experienced fallers carry out a specific sequence of cuts at the base of the tree which is quite different from conventional falling and requires high precision. First, they start making a standard cut but don't complete it. Then they notch the face and begin the back cut, with a specific direction of release in mind. A small section of wood called the holding wood is deliberately left in place to keep the tree standing after all other cuts are complete. Size and placement of this wood is critical; too little holding wood and the tree might fall prematurely, too much and the helicopter can't break it free. The productivity of this process was up to 80 logs per hour, so the pilot was able to grapple, snap, and deliver a log to the landing in less than one minute.

Warren Hansen observing the cut end of a cedar pole log. Note the jagged area on the upper left of the cross section - this is the holding wood, the small amount left to keep the tree standing until the helicopter attaches a grapple and does a directional lift to snap the tree off the stump.

We heard about another project where fallers had completed these cuts preparing for helicopter logging, and suddenly and unexpectedly the helicopter was diverted for emergency use elsewhere and logging was postponed for months during which there were several wind storms. Incredibly, not a single one of the prepared trees had fallen, demonstrating the experience and skill of the fallers doing this work.

The result? A clean, efficient harvest with:

• Minimal disturbance to the forest floor

• Preserved understory plants and surrounding trees

• High-quality poles —100% of the logs delivered to Stella Jones made specification, which is almost unheard-of in the pole industry. Once they get there, the logs are evaluated by skilled graders who sort the logs and mark where to cut them to get the highest value out of them, with cut offs going to local saw mills, and bark and peelings going to local mulch and compost business.

  
  

Why Standing Stem Works for This Area

Warren Hansen, Sara Zieleman, Barry Watson, along with Maryann Kamphuis, Steve McKenzie from the Community Advisory Panel, on a field tour during flying and hauling

Standing stem harvesting is especially valuable in places where:

• Soil disturbance must be minimized

• Maintaining forest cover is a priority

• High-value poles can be safely and efficiently removed

• Protect log quality, ensuring high potential trees go to their best value use

• Helicopter access reduces the need for new road construction

The method reflects SCCF’s broader approach under Ecosystem-Based Management: matching the harvesting method to the conditions on the ground and the values at play.

What Comes Next

With the helicopter work complete, AN27 still contains some trees which are part of planned harvest including a faller training opportunity for BC Wildfire Service Fallers. In the meantime, the area will be monitored and assessed for regeneration, wildlife use, and future planning.

Standing stem harvesting is just one example of how careful, selective approaches can support both ecological values and local economic benefits—while showcasing the skill of the people who do this work. This project was a success thanks to a wide arrange of skilled workers every step of the way.

As always, we welcome community questions and look forward to sharing more about this and other projects at upcoming open houses, events, and CAP meetings.