Site productivity

Site productivity and timber-growing potential in B.C. 

The site productivity project characterizes the timber-growing potential of forested sites across British Columbia. Inventory staff works with clients, ecologists and site-productivity researchers to plan and execute this program. The site productivity project has been funded under the Land Based Investment Strategy (LBIS) funds.

Site productivity projects include SIBEC (site index estimates by BEC site series), PEM (predictive ecosystem mapping) and TEM (terrestrial ecosystem mapping). Many projects are considered for the multi-year site productivity project.  The projects that are selected are those that best satisfy the criteria outlined below, in addition to meeting published data standards and procedures. 

The principal selection criterion is that the projects are consistent with, and make a significant contribution to, the objectives and priorities of LBIS as described in the 2015/16 to 2017/18 land based investment strategy.

Additional considerations that guided project selection included the following provisions:

• Improve data availability
• Timely delivery
• New before improve
• Complete projects
• Mapping (provision of spatial information is preferred)
• Multiple benefits across a number of business areas (e.g. timber supply review, silviculture, habitat modelling)

The focus of the site productivity work from 2021 to 2022 is on continuous improvement of SIBEC and PEM data. SIBEC-PEM/TEM provides the most efficient approach to estimating site productivity, as it can be used across multiple administration units, plus the data have multiple applications.

Some planned activities have been linked to commitments to complete BEC revisions in coordination with other site productivity work. A stable BEC classification is a fundamental precursor to efficient investments in PEM, TEM, and SIBEC. Updates to BEC are required prior to subsequent site productivity actions in many of the priority and non-priority units.