NDP orders commission on resources, environment

A new B.C. Commission on Re-
sources and the Environment, an-
nounced by the Premier Mike Har-
court's government on January 21, is
the NDP’s first large scale attempt to
solve land-use disputes and institute
a land-use process.

The Commission headed by former
Ombudsman, Stephen Owen, has
placed 18 month logging deferrals on
5 contentious areas on Vancouver
Island (see map) while the Commis-
sion hears interested parties and
makes recommendations to Cabinet.

“We must have a comprehensive
land-use strategy that will bring Brit-
ish Columbians together to ensure
land-use issues are resolved without
confrontation,” said Harcourt.

Harcourt also said that the Com-
mission will recognize the special role
of natives and that land use planning
will not, in any way, interfere with the
results of treaty making processes
with aboriginal peoples.

The Commission which is set up to
be independent, will make its recom-
mendations to Cabinet where the ulti-
mate political decisions will be made.

The purposes of the new Commis-

sion are as follows: é

e development and implementation
of a land-use plan for B.C.;

e initiation of a regional land-use pro-
cess starting with Vancouver Island
to decide which lands will become
protected and which will be admin-
istered under the integrated re-
source management;

application of mediation/facilitation
techniques to resolve disputes
between interested parties;

e advise Cabinet on legislation to sup-
port the land-use planning process;

© co-ordination and dissemination of
land-use information.

As the government is first trying
he regional land-use process on Van-

couver Island, it has put a halt on
logging in several areas for 18 months,
while shifting the annual allowable
cuts to other sites pending the
outcome.

Premier Harcourt says the govern-
ment can double parks and wilder-
ness areas “while supporting a pros-
perous economy and stable communi-
ties.”

IWA-CANADA members are very
concerned about being able to main-
tain stable communities for genera-
tions to come and will no doubt, play
an important role in the Commission's
deliberations.

“Our objective is to create a climate
where parties can come together in
good faith to develop a broad regional
land-use plan for Vancouver Island,”
said Forest Minister Dan Miller in a
prepared statement. “For the most
part, redirected logging will be accom-
modated by advanced harvest dates
within the 5 year logging plans for the
alternative areas.”

Logging activity is to be either
deferred and redirected in several areas
for a period of 18 months, while the
Commission goes into action. This
should, in the short term, maintain
IWA jobs. However, if the deferral
process goes beyond 18 months or if
there are accepted recommendations
for further set asides, there will likely
be a downward adjustment on annual
allowable cuts which will have an
impact on jobs.

The areas affected on Vancouver
Island are the Walbran Valley, the
Nahmint Valley, the Tsitika Valley,
the Clayoquot Sound (Bulson Creek)
and the Tahsish-Kwois.

In the Walbran the Ministry of
Forests is deferring logging in 5 Mac-
Millan Bloedel cutblocks while all of
Fletcher Challenge’s timber harvest-
ing is deferred. Both companies will
get replacement volumes from “less

CONTENTIOUS LOGGING AREAS ON
VANCOUVER ISLAND

Port McNeill

CLAYOQUOT SOUND
(Bulson Creek)

sensitive” timber located within and
outside of the Walbran.

In the Nahmint there is to be no
logging or road building in 2 km of
valley for 18 months and an overall
cut reduction of 80,000 cubic meters
to 120,000. Miller has endorsed a
revised plan which will see harvesting
continues under the Nahmint Water-
shed Review 90 Plan of integrated
resource management.

In the Clayoquot Sound area of the
west coast logging activity will con-
tinue pending the outcome of the
Clayoquot Sound Sustainable Devel-
opment Steering Committee. Envi-
ronment Minister John Cashore says

LOWER TSITIKA

©\ Campbell River

aq

Tofino

WALBRAN VALLEY

Map Illustration by Ingrid Rice

the government doesn’t want to inter-
fere with or alter any of the conditions
which that steering committee is work-
ing under.

In the lower Tsitika Valley, logging
is deferred to upper portions of the
valley, while the lower Tsitika will be
studied even further for its values of
old growth timber, aesthetic values,
and killer whale use areas (Robson
Bight). As a result logging crews will
harvest timber in the Upper Tsitika.

In the Tahsish-Kwois, logging will
be deferred for the 18 month period to
allow “interested parties to discuss
the area’s future in context of a Van-
couver Island land-use ‘plan,” said
Miller. : i

Annual allowable cuts
rolled back by ministry

Just as IWA-CANADA members
were hoping to get back to work dur-
ing the forest industry's worst reces-
sion in memory, they get hit-by an
announcement that annual allowable
timber cuts in three tree farm licenses
on Vancouver Island will be reduced.

On January 2nd, B.C. Forests Min-
ister, Dan Miller announced annual
allowable cut reductions of between
14 - 29% on TFL's 44, 46 and 54. The
announcement was made on the
advice of the province's Chief For-
ester, John Cuthbert.

In TFL 46 on the west coast and
inland area of south Vancouver Island
there will be a 29% reduction, as the
cut will be reduced by 609,000 cubic
meters. The TFL includes private
land, timber licenses, and other Crown
lands which support IWA logging and
forestry operations at Renfrew and
Caycuse Divisions and a sawmill at
Youbou.

Local 1-80 President, Bill Routley
says that “we would have liked to see
a corresponding announcement that
there will be new programs imple-
mented such as intensified silvicul-
ture which would put our members
back to work.”

The Forests Minister announced
that some of the AAC will be returned
to the company if intensive silvicul-
ture is practised and alternative har-
vesting systems are implemented.

Roger Stanyer, National Second
Vice-President, says the major fac-
tors in the reduction of the AAC in

© B.C. Forests Minister Dan Miller’

TFL 46 are due to the creation of the
Pacific Rim Park and a faculty system
for calculating AAC’s.

Seventeen years ago when the park
was established, British Columbia
Forest Products, Fletcher Challenge’s
predecessor was told by the Social
Credit’s government of the day that it
would be compensated with timber
from another area.

Then BCFP and its successor,
Fletcher Challenge continued to cut
at a rate which assumed that the park
was part of its area. Added to this was
an outdated system for calculating

sustained yield which lead to further
reductions.

“We can’t support cutting forests at
an unsustainable rate,” says Brother
Stanyer. “It’s a shame that past gov-
ernments and forest company man-
agement have not worked on that
principal.”

Cuts in TFL 44, though less severe,
will have a devastating impact on
members of Port Alberni Local 1-85.
There is to be a total 14% reduction of
418,000 cubic meters to an allowable
level of 2,420,000 cubic meters.

The tree farm license provides
employment for Union members at
MacMillan Bloedel’s Alberni Pacific
Lumber Division, Somass Cedar Mill
and logging divisions at Cameron
Lake/Franklin River, Sproat Lake,
Estevan and Kennedy Lake Division.

Less than a week after the an-
nouncement, MB announced 55 job
cuts in Clayoquot Sound portions of
TFL 44 mainly due to the uncertain-
ties of the land base in the area.

According to the Ministry there
may be even further reductions in
AAC if it approves such cuts recom-
mended by a future report of the
Clayoquot Sound Development Steer-
ing Committee.

In addition to the uncertainties of
future logging the Clayoquot sound
areas, Chief Forester Cuthbert has
removed 20,000 cubic meters from the
AAC since Meares Island has been
tied up in a Native Land claims case.

“If there’s going to be these type of
economic decisions, then the compa-
nies involved and the government
have to assume responsibility to cre-
ate alternative jobs,” says Local
Union president Dave Haggard.
“They just can’t desert communities
without compensation.”

Brother Haggard says that “we
have to accept the reality of overcut-
ting if we are.”

“The sooner we do an inventory, the

better, then we'll know what’s out
there.”

The Ministry is also reducing the
AAC of the newly established TFL 54
by 29%. TFL 54 contains former TFL
46 Crown land handed over to Inter-
national Forest Products when Flet-
cher Challenge sold part of its TFL
early in January, 1992. TFL 54’s cut
will now be about 180,000 cubic
meters per year on land near the
Tofino and Ucluelet areas and adja-
cent to Clayoquot Sound.

For the most part, the current mar-
ket downturn and subsequent layoffs
have seen a reduction in cut which will
match future levels. Those layoffs
have been tough on local communi-
ties.

“Together, government and com-
munities must work cooperatively to
explore opportunities to minimize the
impact on communities affected by
the need to reduce the cut in order to
sustain our forest resources in the
long-term,” said Miller in a prepared
statement.

Brother Routley says there is a
desperate need to perform forestry
work to sustain future cuts. He also
says that Local 1-80 will lobby the
government to achieve such objec-
tives.

Roger Stanyer says, that with
respect to intensive silviculture,
there’s no doubt that the government
has thrown the ball into the indus-
try’s court.

“The only way the industry is going
to get more timber is to grow more,”
says Stanyer. “Intensive silviculture
and commercial thinning is a proven
way to obtain more wood fibre.”

Stanyer says that it is inevitable
that as timber becomes more scarce
and prices rise, there will be greater
economic incentives to do stand work
which is not being done when prices
are low and wood is cheap.

SSS

LUMBERWORKER/APRIL, 1992/3