One individual comment pertains to the statement in the Discussion Paper that "Compared to many other timber supply areas and the province as a whole, the forest in the Prince George Timber Supply Area has a very balanced age distribution." The respondent declares that with the liquidation of mature forests there won’t be a very balanced age distribution for long. This will result in a detrimental impact on some plant and animal species. It is suggested longer rotations would help alleviate the impacts.
Another individual writes that closer attention should be paid to the economics of harvesting and regenerating higher-elevation forests and to the alternative values of the sub-alpine zones. It is suggested limited block sizes and elevation limits to harvesting should be considered. Higher-elevation harvesting should proceed slowly until we better understand the ecology of the sub-alpine forest and have acquired many years of experience with experimental harvesting methods and regeneration over a wide range of sites and weather years.
One submission recommends the government increase royalties and stumpage rates to cover the cost of enhanced enforcement of fish and wildlife regulations. Any increase in stumpage rates should be placed in a specific fund to finance solutions to forestry-related social-environmental problems and not into general revenue.
A number of individuals submitted short comments suggesting changes to forest practices:
• establish basic visual quality objectives for mountain slopes and mountain valleys since mountains are a prime recreational feature of the area
• stop the use of herbicides and chemical fertilizers because of negative environmental impacts in the long term
• stop all clearcut logging, increase buffers along waterways and allow no development around lakes
• carry out watershed assessments as soon as possible in all watersheds
• inventory wildlife and vegetation before logging starts
• use less slash burning as a method of site preparation; apart from other considerations, slash burning impacts the best mountain recreation season each fall
• close all logging roads to motorized vehicles once logging is completed
• give first choice in sensitive areas to anyone interested in horse logging or logging with small machines ; small band-saw mill operators have to have access to logs, as do log builders and small businessmen
