The Quesnel Timber Supply Association's technical critique provides substantial input on the Timber Supply Review process. The industry association indicates that their critique generally agrees and produces similar results to the Ministry of Forests analysis. However, they do not support the current timber supply review process because its centralized nature reduces understanding of local forest management challenges, solutions and opportunities.
The association expresses concern regarding the definition of current management used in the Forest Service analysis. Their critique incorporates the following changes:
• the western caribou deferral area was added back into the land base after 2008 based on the original Timber Supply Area Steering Committee agreement
• the 10 percent area reduction for stands in the Special Sale Area supply block used in the Forest Service analysis was not applied due to the finalization of the Dragon Provincial Forest boundary
• more immature pine types were included in the Association analysis net land base
• the minimum green-up height was revised to 2.5 meters top height based on the Cariboo Region Harvesting Guidelines.
• backlog not satisfactorily restocked areas were subjected to unmanaged stand yield projections as these areas will regenerate naturally
• old-growth constraints were applied to the total forested land base to model old forest requirements.
The Association's analysis indicates that with these above changes, the coniferous annual allowable cut can be maintained for 70 years as described in the Forest Service base case analysis. The harvest level is then predicted to fall to a long-term timber supply level of 2,220,340 cubic metres compared to 1,955,500 cubic metres in the Forest Service base case analysis.
They also suggest that in future:
• management zones should be created in a manner which accurately describes current management.
