by Phillip Legg,
Assistant Research Director,
IWA-Canada

After holding 28 public meetings,

viewing 44 written submissions and
hearing from 55 witnesses, the Brit-
ish Columbia Legislature’s Select
Standing Committee on Forests and
Lands has issued a first report on log
export activity in B.C. The all-party
committee report proposes a number
of recommendations many of which, if
mplemented would initiate some sig-
nificant changes in the B.C. forest
industry.

The reasons for this Committee’s
report go back to March, 1989 when
the former Minister of Forest and
Lands, Dave Parker, asked the Com-
mittee to examine log export proce-
dures in British Columbia. As well,
the Committee was asked to assess

and sell them, it is difficult, if not
impossible, for companies without
logs to participate in the market. And
it is that limitation that the Commit-
tee believes to be the main constraint
of local log markets.

Another significant recommenda-
tion to the Committee was that no log
export exemptions be allowed from
either Tree Farm Licenses (T.F.L.) or
Forest Licences (F.L.). Under these
licence arrangements the provincial
government grants a forest company
long-term access to the timber har-
vest from a specific area. Typically,
these license arrangements are granted
when the company agrees to establish
manufacturing facilities to process
the timber harvest that it will have
access to under the license.

Part of the IWA’s argument against
log export activity in B.C. has been
that because so much of our current
harvest activity, especially on the B.C.
Coast, comes from the T.F.L.’s and

ining domestic log prices on the B.C.
‘oast provided a true measure of log
values.
Mr. Parker's request was in response
to growing public concerns about the

2 whether the current methods of deter-

© Three members of the B.C. Legislature's Standing Committee were, (1. to r.) Socreds’
Graham Bruce and Cliff Serwa, and the NDP’s Colin Gabelmann.

F.L.’s, allowing any amount of log
export activity simply encourages for-
est companies to side-step the obliga-
tions of the license agreements with
the provincial government.

How far these recommendations go

level and impact of log exports from
B.C. The issue had reached a crisis
point in February, 1989 when Fletcher
Challenge Canada announced the clo-
sure of its Victoria sawmill and the
down-sizing of several other opera-
tions. The reason given by the com-
pany was a shortage of timber.

The IWA argued that other factors,
especially log exports, were to blame.
In the years leading up to the clo-
sures, the volume of logs exported

The Committee’s report proposes a
number of major changes. The most
significant is the establishment of a
British Columbia Log Market to act
as a clearing house for logs harvested
from lands under provincial control.
In making this proposal, the Commit-
tee hopes to address a chronic prob-

from the province had reached record
levels.

lem in the provincial industry; the
absence of open and competitive local

log markets.

Under current conditions, the Com-
mittee believes that local log markets
like the Vancouver log market, which
services loggers and mills in the lower
south coast region of B.C., “display
features inconsistent with a freely,
competitive driven market place.” The
report notes that because so much of
the activity in these local markets
involves “reciprocal” trades in which
companies swap logs rather than buy

in terms of new forest policy in B.C. is
difficult to say. The Committee’s
report is intended to be a first report,
then a final version coming only after
interested parties have had an oppor-
tunity to respond to the recom-
mendations.

As in the first phase of the Commit-
tee’s activity, IWA-CANADA will con-
tinue to participate actively in the
policy debate and development of the
Committee. :

Silviculture is answer
to many problems

by Dan Miller

are familiar with the forest industry, that
we face some critical questions about our
| future. ;
\ For a forest industry workforce which was
© drastically cut back during the 1980s reces-
sion, the issues of sustainable harvest levels, and
overcapacity in our processing plants need to be

[ » T is generally accepted by most people who

addressed and straight forward answers given.

BASIC CASE COMPARED TO ENHANCED REGIME

Basic Forestry
(Base Case)

An all too familiar
story these days is the
announcement that an-
other mill is closing its
doors and throwing peo-
ple out of work. Victo-
ria, Sooke, Lillooet,
Princeton, Hazelton,
Kitwanga; the list is
long, the numbers high,
and no one knows which
is next. These closure
announcements are all
4 accompanied by more or

less the same statement, that there is not enough
timber of size and quantity to continue operations. |

Forest workers have to wonder who is manag-
ing the resource, when the chairman of the Forest
Resource Commission announced that they had
hired private consulting firms to check inventories
in selected Tree Farm Licences and Timber Sup-
ply Areas. The Commission clearly has no faith in
the inventories supplied by industry and govern- |
ment, many of which are more than 20 years old.

In a move that dem-
onstrated real concern
for the accuracy of gov-

ernment information,
Jack Munro and Mac-

Intensive Forestry
Pilot Project

Average $ Spent c 2
cubic metre of Harvest $3.51 $6.21 Mallen Bleeder Bey
Harvested Areas: 2
— Percent Replanted 12% 84% ereageedl tite oles
Rs ment, to request im
— Percent Natural Regeneration 28% 16% proved forestry inven-
ery Delay _ aM as tory information.
— Natural Regeneration -8 years -6 years 8
— Plantations 4-5 years 2 years 3 The fact is, that the
otal processing capac-
Average Mean Annual ity of all of the mills in
Increment (MAT) British Columbia is ap-
(cubic metres/ha./yr.) 2.4 3.9 proximately 100 million
Annual Harvest 88,000 130,000 cubic metres per year.
Long Run Sustained Yield In contrast to this, the
(cubic metres) 81,000 135,000 allowable annual cut set
by government on Crown
Area Harvested/Year and regulated private
(hectares) 320 ha 390 ha lands is between 72 and
ppiviculeiire Program 75 million cubic metres
10 yr. total) per year.
Hin — Backlog $ 628,000 $8,155,000 However, for the last
— Current $2,462,000 $4 9001000) Weems, atthe arntiall
Employment Benefit* harvest from regulated
(direct jobs) 99 151 lands has averaged
“A 1988 Price Waterhouse study indicated 1.126 direct jobs per 1000 cubic metres of 83,836,000 cubic metres
timber harvest. per year.

7

It appears we are on a collision course which
will result in more mill closures and more workers
thrown onto the employment lines.

The question then is: do we just wring our
hands and wait for the inevitable, or do we
identify solutions and put plans into action that
will help alleviate these problems?

I believe one of the solutions is higher level of
silviculture. We must move beyond basic planting
to other activities that can significantly increase
the volume of timber that we grow. Unfortunately,
intensive silviculture is not being practiced, and
what little has been done was under the Federal/
Provincial Forest Resource Development Agree-
ment (F.R.D.A.).

A comprehensive program to eliminate the
backlog of Not Sufficiently Restocked (N.S.R.)
land, and to implement brushing, conifer release,
spacing and fertilization programs could create
additional timber volumes, particularly on good
growing sites.

The following table describes a pilot project on
intensive silviculture compared to the basic silvi-
culture which is normally practiced.

. Note that the annual harvest increases by
almost 50%, from 88,000 cubic metres up to
130,000 cubic metres, and the number of direct
jobs increases from 99 up to 151.

Given the obvious benefit of these types of
intensive silviculture programs, why aren’t we
doing more of it?

Well as I said previously, the government which
is responsible for managing Timber Supply lands
has no ongoing intensive silvicultural programs.
Similarly, a University of B.C. study in 1988
showed that there are no ongoing intensive silvi-
culture programs on Tree Farm Licences.

New Democrats believe that the forest resources
and forest land base has not been well managed.
Through a proper intensive forest management
program, we can secure jobs in manufacturing,
increase jobs in silviculture and over the long
term, add to our timber base.

It’s time to get on with the job.

Dan Miller is the Forestry Critic for the New
Democratic Party of British Columbia. He is a
member of the provincial legislature (North Coast)
and is a millwright who is on leave of absence from
Skeen Cellulose’s pulp mill in Prince Rupert. This
is the third in a series of articles Mr. Miller has
agreed to write for the Lumberworker.

—————E

LUMBERWORKER/JULY, 1990/3