In April 1996, the gouvernement du Québec adopted a new Regulation respecting standards of forest management for forests in the domain of the State, commonly known by its acronym RSFM.

The main goals of the Regulation are to ensure renewal of the forest, protect all forest resources (water, wildlife, vegetation and soil), and harmonize forestry operations with other forest-based activities.

This page presents some of the standards that apply to forest management work.

Ensuring forest renewal

Trees play a vital role in preserving other resources, and the forests must therefore be renewed after logging operations. During harvesting, for example, forestry workers must protect young shoots and avoid damaging the soil with their heavy machinery. The Regulation contains a number of standards for this, including the spacing of hauling trails, the maximum size of logging areas and the obligation to leave standing all trees less than 10 cm in diameter. This helps ensure proper regenaration.

	Hauling trails are corridors along which all machinery traffic must be concentrated, to protect the natural regeneration on either side.			When proper precautions are taken, approximately 80% of all logging areas regenerate naturally. If regeneration does not take place or is delayed, reforestation work is carried out.

Protecting watercourses

Québec – a country of lakes and rivers

In Québec, there are an estimated 14 km of watercourses for every 10 km² of land. Generally speaking, every kilometre of forest road crosses at least one watercourse! The drainage network and the resources it supports are therefore extremely important.

Forestry companies working near lakes and watercourses or building bridges and culverts must comply with rigorous standards to preserve the quality of the aquatic environment.

Protecting wildlife

Wildlife habitats and forestry operations

The forests are home to most of Québec’s wild animal species. They provide shelter, food, breeding sites and calving sites. Habitat needs vary by species. For example, the moose needs a range of several square kilometres to satisfy its needs, whereas smaller animals such as the hare can manage with a much more limited area.

For the hare, white-tailed deer and moose, a recently logged area is a wonderful storehouse of food, since it provides large quantities of the young shoots they love. Although fond of their food, the animals never stray far from the forest canopy, which provides shelter from predators and harsh weather. The impacts of logging therefore depend on the species’ habitat needs, mobility and ability to adapt.

Some harvesting methods minimize the impacts of logging on wildlife. Mosaic or block cutting is one such method. Instead of cutting the entire forest at the same time, logging operations are spread over time and in space. The blocks of forest left standing are harvested when regeneration has grown back to a height of seven metres in the logged areas.

The government has introduced a series of measures to preserve the quality and use of certain wildlife habitats. These measures favour species such as the moose, white-tailed deer, caribou, muskrat, great blue heron, black-crowned night-heron and birds living in colonies on cliffs, islands and peninsulas.
		The forestry companies are able to preserve the habitats of many wildlife species by applying a logging strategy based on dispersal of cutting areas.

Winter is a critical season for the white-tailed deer. Its winter habitat, known as a “yard”, must be managed so as to maintain the vegetation that serves as fodder and shelter from the wind and cold. In winter, a single deer eats approximately one kilogram of branches and twigs every day..

In a deer yard, no more than ten hectares of forest may be clear-cut (CPRS) in stands where more than half the trees are conifers. In addition, a 60-metre wooded strip must be left between cutting areas. These wooded corridors allow the animals to circulate during regeneration of the logged areas.

The great blue heron is extremely sensitive to noise. A 200-metre protective strip must therefore be left untouched around heron nesting sites. During the nesting season, between April 1 and July 31, forestry work is also prohibited within an additional 300 metres of the protective strips.

Respecting all forest users

People use the forests for many different purposes: hunting, fishing, hiking, and so on. When carrying out forest management work, it is therefore important to preserve the visual integrity of the forest landscape. Cutting with protection of regeneration and soils (CPRS), which involves cutting all trees with a diameter of more than 10 cm, is often detrimental to landscapes. A number of measures such as protective strips and limitations on the size of cutting areas have been introduced to protect visible landscapes.
		Although logging does affect landscapes, timber harvesting activities can be compatible with recreational forest uses.

			Landscape areas requiring special attention – for example, the sites of specific recreational activities – should be identified in advance so that special measures can be applied. Below are some examples.
	These cutting areas are of different shapes and are spread across the visual landscape. They must not exceed one-third of the visible area.

Visual landscape around an organized campsite

Logging is permitted, with some restrictions, beyond the protective strip that forms a visual screen around the site.

Visual landscape around a public beach

Visual landscape around an observation site