|
The Timber Supply Review for the 100 Mile House Timber Supply Area began in September 1993. The Cariboo-Chilcotin Land Use Plan, announced in October, 1994, could not be taken into account in this review. It may be possible to assess the timber supply impacts of the Land Use Plan in the 100 Mile House Timber Supply Area before the maximum five-year period required by the Forest Act. |
• The British Columbia Forest Service is reviewing the timber supply in all timber supply areas* and tree farm licence* areas in the province. This review examines the impacts of current forest management practices* on the timber supply*, economy, environment and social conditions of the local area and the province. Based on the results of this review, the chief forester may decide to maintain or adjust the allowable annual cut* for the 100 Mile House Timber Supply Area.
• The current allowable annual cut in the 100 Mile House Timber Supply Area, set in 1981, is 1.25 million cubic metres. This harvest level supports approximately 779 person-years* of direct forestry employment in the local area and a total of 2,474 person-years of employment provincially. (page 5)
• The base case timber supply forecast indicates that, based on forest management practices being implemented in 1993 when the analysis was initiated, the current allowable annual cut could be maintained for approximately 30 years, followed by a projected 2.8 per cent reduction to reach the long-term sustainable timber supply level. (page 8)
• Current integrated resource management practices which may impact the short-term timber supply more or less than estimated include:
• restricted harvesting in critical caribou and grizzly bear habitats and deer winter ranges
• practices being developed for the special management area
• the amount of older forests that must be reserved from harvesting at any time (pages
8-9)
• Several factors may influence the estimated size of the timber harvesting land base, which in turn may affect the projected timber supply:
• the area that will be reserved from harvesting to protect non-timber resource values
• some of the forests that have not been economical to harvest for sawlogs are now suitable for other products
• alternative practices could be developed to harvest environmentally sensitive areas (pages 9-10)
• Opportunities may exist to increase the timber supply by:
• improving timber recovery from harvested areas
• harvesting residual pine timber from areas harvested in the past
• implementing a commercial thinning program
• intensive silvicultural treatments (page 10)
• The chief forester must determine an allowable annual cut as part of a strategy to achieve the projected long-term sustainable timber supply level. The base case forecast provides one alternative, but the chief forester could select another harvest level based on his consideration of the factors required under Section 7 of the Forest Act.
|
Recently, an error was identified in the computer coding used to define the timber harvesting land base for the timber supply analysis that was released in the Timber Supply Analysis Report. This error resulted in a small reduction in the size of the timber harvesting land base which did not influence the short-term timber supply forecasts. The data and forecasts included in this Discussion Paper are from the revised analysis. |
|
* Throughout this document, an asterisk at the end of a phrase indicates the phrase is defined in the definition section on the back of this page. |
