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With the recent changes to BC's forest legislation, DFAM participants in each Timber Supply Area
(TSA) will be required to collaboratively carry out a Timber Supply Review (TSR) at least once every
5 years. The chief forester for BC will continue to hold responsibility for the determination of the
Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) in TSA’s. Under the direction of the Chief Forester for BC, activities
for TSR3 for the Fort Nelson TSA were initiated in the spring of 2003.
On November 10, 2006 BC's Chief Forester announced a new AAC that was determined at the
end of the TSR3 process. The Chief Forester's decision increased the AAC to 1,625,000
m3 per year. And at the same time he removed the requirement for
separate harvest flows from the conifer and deciduous forest components. For more details please review
the
Rationale for AAC Determination (click here for the report in pdf format), or go to the
Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch website - for Fort Nelson TSR.
To this end, Canfor as the DFAM lead licensee, has been working to improve the inventory to be used
in this round of TSR, TSR3. They have estimated the vegetation characteristics by completing a
Vegetation Resource Inventory
(VRI) photo-interpretation of 32.7 percent of the maps that make up the Fort Nelson Forest District/TSA.
This is equivalent to 273 out of a total of 835 mapsheets that cover the entire district/TSA.
For TSR3, only 249 out of the 273 VRI photo-interpreted mapsheets were available to be included in
the analysis.
A VRI ground sampling project then followed on the area covered by the newly VRI photo-interpreted
mapsheets to statistically determine how much of a given characteristic or attribute is within the
same photo-interpreted area. The VRI provides the information that is sometimes known as the forest
cover inventory.
Canfor has collated the various pieces of information that make up the
Data Package for TSR3
[pdf]
. With the assistance of their consultants they have pulled together the VRI information, the
depletion files (i.e. forest cover update files) and other information that are used to produce the
Data Package. This is then submitted to the
Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch for final approval.
During 2004 and early 2005, the TSR3 process continued with the analysis of the information within
the Data Package.
On November 16, 2005 Canfor representing the Fort Nelson DFAM group advertized the availability of the
Fort Nelson TSR3 Analysis Report
[pdf]
. This was the start of the public review period which is required for sixty (60) days. And therefore
ended on January 16, 2006. This is the final Analysis Report that includes the "base case" and various
sensitivity analyses. This is only a part of what the Chief Forester for BC considers when he/she makes
their final AAC Determination.
TSR3 covers the entire landbase of the Fort Nelson Forest District/TSA of 9,868,067 hectares [98,681
sq.km.]. This is equivalent to 24,384,486 acres [38,101 sq. miles]. Roughly 11 percent of BC's
land area. This is roughly half the size of the Canadian province of New Brunswick and roughly
the same area as the US state of Virginia. [This equates to the district being roughly equal in
size to the country of South Korea, slightly larger than Hungary and slightly smaller than Iceland.]
For further information on the TSR process please visit the Forest Analysis Branch website for
Timber Supply Review.
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