Forest Practices > Forest Health > Forest Investment Account

Forest Investment Account, Land-based Investment Program
Forest Productivity and Improvement Component, Forest Health Activity Area

Specific Criteria and Rationale for Eligibility of Non-Obligatory Bark Beetle Management Activities  REVISED

Objectives

Approved activities are meant to:

1. augment the strategically directed beetle management efforts conducted by the MFR but specifically avoid funding obligatory licensee activities; and,
2. follow established eligibility criteria established for all activities funded by FIA Land Based Investment Program and administered by PricewaterhouseCoopers (see Aerial Photography).

The distribution of priorities and the application of appropriate management activities is described by the TSA's Beetle Management Strategy that is based on the Provincial Bark Beetle Management Technical Implementation Guidelines. TSAs are subdivided into Beetle Management Units (BMUs) and, based on beetle population size and distribution and other factors, those units with manageable populations will be identified as suppression BMUs. At this time, FIA eligibility will be restricted to activities focused on the application of single tree treatments in suppression BMUs.

Obligations by tenure

As described above, the areas in which beetle management activities are considered obligatory are defined under the Forest and Range Practices Act, individual license documents and TFL management plans. Eligible activities for FIA funding are applied in areas that are outside of these obligatory areas.

BC Timber Sales licensees have recently been made eligible for FIA funding.

At this time, there is no legally binding obligation for detection or conducting single tree treatments although some volume-based licensees may voluntarily accept the stewardship responsibility for small patch removal and some single tree treatments in specific circumstances.

For Tree Farm License proposals, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) may request a copy of the Management Plan or license document that confirms the licensee's forest health obligations to ensure the proposal's eligibility. The licensee will also have to demonstrate that they have a strategy in place that identifies the area where the proposed activities will occur within a suppression BMU (using criteria established by the MFR).

Woodlot licensees and community forest agreement holders are eligible for FIA funding (see eligibility list) to conduct detailed detection, ground surveys and single tree treatments unless these treatments are being conducted by another party.

Eligible Activities:

• Detailed aerial surveys (STANDARDS) conducted outside of a licensees operating area (i.e., survey costs that are not normally included in an appraisal estimate for Forest Management Administration or for Pest Control;
• Ground surveys (STANDARDS) whose intended objective is to lay out single tree treatments (see clarification below).
• Single tree treatments (STANDARDS) that include: fall and burn, fall and peel (note special option for small volume recovery described below).  Trap trees for spruce or Douglas-fir beetle are NOT eligible as the costs associated with them are already an eligible Tree-to-Truck cost for "Pest Control" in the Interior Appraisal Manual (see section 4.4).  Also, probing that leads to a harvest (all beetles) is an eligible Forest Management Administration Cost (IAM section 4.8.1) that includes tree marking, probing and pheromone tree baiting. 
• Pheromone funnel traps for monitoring bark beetle attack timing and for controlling Douglas-fir beetle using 3-trap clusters (standards under development)
• Information system development leading to a standardized TSA-wide reporting system that meets the reporting requirements for Provincial bark beetle strategy performance

Proposals for bark beetle management activities must be compatible with the District's bark beetle management strategy available from the District Manager or the Regional Forest Entomologist.

Licensees are not to use FIA funds on activities that are currently eligible appraisal costs under Tree-to-Truck and Forest Management Administration.

NOTE: UPDATED CRITERIA - Ground survey costs for single tree treatment will only be eligible if the work leads to a single tree treatment, specifically fall and burn or, for Douglas-fir beetle, MCH repellent pheromone treatment.  Costs for the establishment of trap trees (layout and falling) for spruce and Douglas-fir beetle are not eligible as it is already a recognized Tree-to-Truck (IAM section 4.4)and Forest Management Administration cost in the Interior Appraisal Manual (section 4.8.1). 

Harvesting of uneconomic wood is now an eligible activity under specific conditions. Long skid brood-removal single tree harvesting and helicopter logging will be eligible for FIA funding but only in very specific circumstances. See Specific procedures and criteria.

Aerial Photography and the Established FIA Eligibility Guidelines

According to the standards for LBIP funded Information Gathering and Management - Resource Inventories Activity Area:

• all resource information gathered through the FIA must be consistent with government approved data content, quality and physical storage standards; and
• all resource information gathered through the FIA will be provided to the Government (Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management) for its operational systems or the Land and Resource Data Warehouse (LRDW).

Consequently, eligibility for ALL aerial photography (conventional and digital) projects funded by FIA will be determined using Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management's Base Mapping Geomatic Services (BMGS) Branch Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for mapping projects.

The function of the SOP is to determine if the image capture methods proposed are suitable for Base Map Production and Resource Inventory Mapping and that costs and standards meet specific standards. Applicable activities are summarized in the following excerpt from the SOP posted on the FIA website:

"Before the commencement of any base mapping project, recipients must complete the Standard Operating Procedure. The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to provide direction to government agencies and partners with Government, in the documentation and procedures to be followed during the planning and implementation of mapping projects, inclusive of any aspect that relates to base mapping. The SOP will be applicable to mapping projects which have any component of Government funding for air photos, scanning, ortho photos, aerial triangulation and data exchanges involving such data." (See: http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/tib/fia/remote.htm)

The detailed Standard Operating Procedure documentation is located http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/bmgs/sop/index.html and submission forms.

For more information on this SOP, please contact the Base Mapping Geomatic Services Branch of the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management at http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/bmgs/

All photographic products funded by FIA are the property of the Province of British Columbia.

Wherever possible, duplication of photography acquisition must be avoided. Consult with BMGS to determine if suitable higher standard images are being acquired in the area and in the time frame required.

Back to the FIA forest health approved treatments Index

Last updated on June 19, 2009
The contact for this web page is: tim.ebata@gov.bc.ca