Employment and community impacts
A number of the submissions suggest that the long-term economic stability and survival of local communities is dependent on the timber industry achieving and maintaining a sustainable level of harvest.
There were also suggestions that errors and omissions in the information contained in the Socio-Economic Analysis put some of the report in question. There were a number of comments made that the timber industry is an important factor in the local economy contrary to some of the findings of the report. The Kyuquot Sound Multi-Use Association in particular was concerned with the Socio-Economic Analysis suggestions that non-timber resources were of greater importance than the timber industry. They felt that the concerns and views of local businesses were not reported and the importance of the timber industry in supporting other community initiatives was also not considered.
The Sierra Club submits that one of the assumptions in the Socio-Economic Analysis is that a 12 or 34 per cent reduction in harvest levels would result in a 12 or 34 per cent reduction in direct employment. The submission suggests that the Socio-Economic Analysis implies that the only way to reduce employment impacts was to defer reductions in the harvest level and that such conclusions ignore the rest of the employment sector, the changes in future technology, silviculture practices, location of processing facilities or more value-added processing. The Sierra Club suggested increasing employment in silviculture programs, increasing wood processing employment in the area, and increasing economic diversification such as tourism by maintaining old-growth forests and scenic landscapes.
Environmental impacts
A few submissions suggest that the Socio-Economic Analysis did not go far enough in quantifying or addressing the impact of the allowable annual cut on non-timber resources such as wildlife, recreation and visual quality and therefore was not able to quantitatively compare timber to non-timber resources.
It was also suggested that non-timber resources should be quantified in order to compare their value to that of the timber resources being harvested.
Comments were made that without a locally sustainable forest, local non-forest industries such as fishing, tourism and recreation would also be adversely affected.
Allowable annual cut adjustments
Almost all of the comments received regarding the proposed reduction agreed that the immediate 12 per cent reduction in the harvest level was necessary to ensure a long-term sustainable timber supply.
The Coast Forest and Lumber Association submission recommends that the harvest level be maintained at a higher level (than indicated in the base case) for the next five years while making a concerted effort to examine the costs and benefits associated with forest management practices and the expected yields from second-growth forests. They suggest that in the meantime, further research could be carried out to provide a more accurate database for the next determination.
Submissions from the timber industry suggested that government guidelines, especially those related to visual quality objectives, played a major role in determining the harvest level. It was suggested that these guidelines should be relaxed to avoid too harsh a reduction in the allowable annual cut in the short term, and spread out declines over time to reduce negative impacts to the timber industry without affecting long-term sustainability. They suggested for example that a change in the green-up ages by five years could increase the allowable annual cut in the first decade by four per cent.
A few submissions recommend that in the first decade the allowable annual cut should be reduced by 34 per cent to the non-declining harvest level to ensure protection of non-timber resources such as fish, wildlife, recreation and conservation values.
First Nations
First Nations submit that while they support the Forest Service’s initiative to reduce the harvest to sustainable level, they are concerned that their economic well-being and traditional rights are being ignored in order to save timber industry jobs.
