Private land development on the rise Talk to the major forest corpora- tions in B.C. and you would think that there shouldn’t be anything to worry about as far as loss of the private for- est land base goes. MacMillan Bloedel, Fletcher Challenge, Canadian Pacific Forest Products, and Weld- wood all say they are really concerned about keeping either their saw and/or pulp operations going with uninter- rupted timber supply. ‘Taking land in and out of Managed Forest Land status takes place all the time they say. In fact it does. Every year hundreds of parcels are taken out or put into Managed Forest Land status, say Ron Townshend, Manager of the B.C. Assessment Authority’s Farm and Forest Services (Technical Services Division). Lands are reclassified for varied uses such as highway, hydro right of ways, and pipelines. Across the province there are over 4000 folios of Management Forest Lands which encompass over 925,000 hectares. The largest single land holder is MacMillan Bloedel which controls over 257,000 hectares of Managed Forest Lands on Vancouver Islands, the Cariboo, the Queen Charlotte Islands and New Westminster. Not far behind is Fletcher Chal- lenge Canada with over 203,000 hectares of such lands to its entitle- ment, most of it on Vancouver Island. Canadian Pacific Forest Products owns over 125,000 hectares, almost all of it being on the Island while Weld- wood Canada owns about 14,000 heetares onthe Island. Together these four major corpora- tions will have a lot of say on what happens to the working forest in the future. All of them say they are com- mitted long-term to the industry. Canadian Pacific Forest Products’ Woodlands Manager at its Cowichan division on Southern Vancouver Island said that the company will not take lands out of Managed Forest Land status. According to Keith Rush, Canadian Pacific Forest Products is not planning for development. “We have converting plants and we're committed to supply the raw materials to these converting plants - primarily Ladysmith and Mayo Forest Products on the east coast of Vancou- ver Island,” he told the Lumber- worker, “in addition to supplying pulp e Financial flipper Fletcher Challenge sold its Victoria sawmill site, here pictured in 1989, for rezoning and subdividing. @ log to the pulp and newsprint mill in Gold River.” “Getting into the real estate busi- ness in a big way doesn’t line up with that commitment to supply raw mate- rials to those mills,” Mr. Rush added. He also said that the company has looked at their land parcels and has determined that their best use is growing trees. But he did say that the Canadian Pacific Forest Products has other pieces of private land not in Managed Forest Land status “that very clearly we're going to trade or sell or do something with.” “It’s (those lands) not in managed forest units so we’re not managing (them) for forest production.” Fletcher Challenge is saying the same thing. In an interview with the Lumberworker, Gordon Littlejohn, Fletcher Challenge’s Manager of Sur- plus Properties, said the company is not planning to take land out of Man- aged Forest Land status. “At this point in time but certainly the company reviews its land holding from time to time to determine their best uses.” “Our view of our forest lands is pretty important to our business, but . . . where these pressures come upon (us) for a greater use, the lands are there,” he said. “Our prime needs is for our forest lands, we're not in the real estate busi- ness,” said Mr. Littlejohn. “We’re not like Weldwood or MANAGED PRIVATE FOREST LANDS IN B.C. HELD BY MAJOR FOREST COMPANIES COMPANY AREA IN HECTARES REGION . (% OF TOTAL MANAGED FOREST LANDS IN B.C.) MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. 257,417 Van. Island, (27%) New Westminster, Cariboo, Q.C. Islands Fletcher Challenge 203,942 Van. Island, (22%) Courtenay, New Westminster, Cariboo, Kelowna Canadian Pacific 125,828 Van. Island Forest Products Ltd. (13%) Western Forest 28,290 Van. Island Products Ltd. (8%) New Westminster Weldwood of Canada 14,123 Van. Island, (1.5%) Courtenay, Quesnel Canadian Forest 8,329 Van. Island Products Ltd. (.8%) Sechelt Source: B.C. Assessment Authority, December, 1992 MacMillan Bloedel. We don’t have a real estate group.out there developing property or out there polling people’s interests in a piece of property because that is not our motive.” Mr. Littlejohn did say that Fletcher Challenge is doing sub-division work on former industrial lands that are not in managed forests. The old Fletcher Challenge, Victoria Sawmill site, which closed operations in 1989 has been sold to Victoria based investors which are currently taking the old mill site through a rezoning, subdivision, and develop- ment process in that city. Weldwood Canada is out to make some big bucks money off their forest. managed forest lands, near the com- munity of Union Bay, about 12 kilo- metres south of Courtenay. Weld- wood is planning to go big time with a 279 hectare residential development, hotel and golf course. It has applied to Continued on next page Logging communities Continued from page thirteen CANADA, Local 1-2693, says BFP, which hauls wood from Manituage (over 200 miles east of Thunder Bay) for its Thunder Bay mills, should send timber to Domtar’s White River sawmill. To make up for the short fall in BFP’s timber supply, Domtar’s loggers could supply BFP’s Thunder Bay mill from an area which is much closer and cost efficient. Therefore BFP would get a cheaper wood supply, laid off loggers would get back to work, and Domtar’s White River mill would be able to create 50 additional jobs with another shift. Unfortunately neither Domtar nor Buchanan are being very cooperative while workers and their communities are paying the price. In a related situation, the IWA has been involved in supporting the reopening of a sawmill which was owned and operated by Kimberly- Clark. The sawmill, which is located ~ in Longlac, has been shutdown since 1987 and the IWA would like to see it opened again. A local investment group known as Longlac Ventures has approached the IWA to support it in its bid to secure a timber supply for a reopening. The group consists on local business peo- ple, investors, and IWA members who ‘want to get the mill up and running. Brother McIntyre says the group has the expertise to make the mill go and has Normick-Perron, a forest company, to help out in restructuring the sawmill. To get the mill going again, Brother McIntyre says wood is needed from Domtar’s Beardmore limits and from Kimberly Clark’s limits as well. A deal was underway between Kimberly Clark and the venture group, until BFP stepped in to take the sawmill with a promise of cheap wood for the Kimberly Clark corpora- tion. Frustrations over BFP’s interfer- ence built when this happened. “At present we have met with the Ministry of Natural Resources to express our concerns,” says Brother McIntyre. “We’ve sent a message that the mill in Longlac shouldn’t be opened up until all parties sit down to work out their differences.” “We're still favouring the Longlac Ventures to run the sawmill at this time but if it doesn’t happen we say that when the mill opens there should be a deal to purchase wood from the Domtar logging operations that were shut down last year,” adds McIntyre. If Buchanan gets the mill in Longlac then an equitable deal should be struck with IWA bush workers for timber supply. But things have been ugly between BFP and the IWA in the past and may continue that way. “Buchanan has fought us all along the way,” says Brother McIntyre. “People in that area don’t want to deal with BFP if they continue to refuse to cooperate with us.” McIntyre says the information line went along way to informing the pub- lic about the difficulties that wood- workers and their communities are facing. “The people who stopped to hear what we had to say were very recep- tive to our concerns. They read our pamphlets,” he said. “There was great news coverage in the Thunder Bay area.” One of the results from the infor- mation pickets was that more pres- sure was put on Domtar to rework tree planting jobs to laid off wood- lands employees. A deal has been made to give all workers at least four weeks of employment in tree planting and silviculture. One of the negative effects of the activity has been that Local 1-2693 has been charged with illegally obstruct- ing traffic. “T believe the local (Ontario Provin- cial) police were sympathetic to our cause, however the Ontario Provincial Police in Thunder Bay sent in their guys to do the dirty work,” says Mcin- tyre. “There was absolutely no need to film us on video or press charges when people are fighting for their livelihoods.” 14/LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1993