‘, am Wee For years the I.W.A. has pointed out that there is not enough selective log- ging going on in the forests and that there is a complete lack of commer- a thinning happening in the bush as well. No local union has pointed this out more than Duncan B.C. Local 1-80. In 1989 then First Vice President and now local union President Bill Rout- ley, along with other representatives of the I.W.A., went to Sweden and wit- nessed that the Swedes created thou- sands of jobs by doing active brush- ing, thinning for pulp and fuel wood, and more thinning for pulpwood and sawlogs. “The reason the Swedes have creat- ed so many jobs is because they want to grow quality wood and produce high value forest products in their sec- ‘ond and third growth forests,” says Brother Routley. “To do this they have simply realized that the forests have to be intensively managed.” There is no doubt that is a major part of what the B.C. government had in mind when it created Forest Re- newal B.C. in April of 1994. FRBC has not yet delivered in motivating large scale commercial thinning. Hopefully that will change in the fu- ture so public lands will be intensive- ly managed. In Local 1-80, which encompasses the southern portion of Vancouver Is- land, about 60% of the land base is in private hands. Virtually the entire south eastern portion of the island is owned by MacMillan Bloedel, Pacific rest Products, and TimberWest. That means there will be no FRBC related work. FRBC projects are to be done on public land only. . “The irony right now is that there is More commercial thinning and selec- tive logging done on private lands as J af SN ree than on Crown land,” says Routley. “What we obviously need is this type of activity to be done on all lands.” Routley says that, on Crown lands (specifically tree farm licenses and forest licenses), forest companies are responsible to plant seedlings and get second growth regeneration to a “free to grow” phase above competing brush. Then there are no further oblig- ations to take care of the stand as far as thinning goes. Then companies go in after 60-80 years to take whole stands in clearcut fashion. Some foresters believe that more stems planted per hectare can in- crease the annual allowable cut signif- icantly on certain growing sites. Valu- able wood fibre can be commercially thinned out of a setting after 18-20 years. However, regulations say that com- mercial thinnings have to count against future annual allowable cuts on the land base. “Tt’s not rocket science to figure that foresters working for major for- est companies are not interested in trading off a second growth fibre crop that is only 20 years old against some future stand of timber,” he adds. Routley says the local union would like to see more work done in pre- commercial and commercial thinning and selective logging if rules can be changed under the Forest Practices Code. “If companies could harvest incre- mental wood, that is caused because of increased planting and if it didn’t count against their AAC’s, I think we would see a whole lot of activity going on in the woods,” says the local union president. Routley argues that the B.C. govern- ment should examine regulations and tired forwarder and loader ensure less soil damage while moving logs the bush to roadside. ¢ Near Lake Cowichan, B.C., John Deere feller-buncher/processor harvests second growth on grades up to 30%. *Selective logging slowly on rise disincentives “to do what makes sense to create more jobs and grow more cubic meters per hectare.” PACIFIC FOREST PRODUCTS Contrasting what is happening on public lands, some private land hold- ers are doing commercial thinning and selective logging. Pacific Forest Products has been doing this for some time on southern Vancouver Island as has been MacMil- lan Bloedel and TimberWest. At its Mesachie Lake Logging divi- sion in the Cowichan Valley, the com- pany is using an I.W.A. contract crew to selectively log second growth for- est stands. The contractor, Short Logging Ltd. of Duncan is using a John Deere feller-buncher/processor to harvest logs to pre-cut lengths for the Pacific sawmill in Ladysmith. The machine can go up a 30 percent grade, and lay out the felled timber in piles for a wide-tired grapple/for- warder to take the wood to roadside. To avoid breakage the feller bunch- er operator will cut the stems and “cushion” their fall against other trees. After cutting them down, the trees are delimbed and cut to preferred lengths of 4.1 meters and 6.25 meters, which is the primary diet for the Ladysmith mill that cuts for Japanese markets and glu-lam products. By harvesting this wood, more bio- mass remains in the bush as the limbs are left behind. The machine also walks on the biomass, thereby there is less damage to the soil. The workers operate on a 9 hour overlapping “Swedish shift” where they will machine operate for 3 hours, then do other duties for three hours, and finish the day off with another 3 hours of operating equipment. The system is most efficient when it is cutting uniform, telephone pole type logs, from second growth stands that are consistent in size. Both pulp grade logs and sawlogs are harvesting. That which doesn’t go to Ladysmith or the Mayo Forest Products mill in Nanaimo, is sold or traded on the open market. Local 1-80 First Vice President and business agent Carmen Rocco says the Short Log operation is nothing new for the local which has had feller buncher/processors in the local since the early 1990’s. He says that such ma- chines have their limitations in the large diameter second growth stands in the Cowichan Valley. “If you drive around Lake Cowichan you'll see that some of the second growth is huge,” he says. Some of the fir has grown to over 150 feet height at 3-4 feet in the butt or more. Such large scale timber will eventually have to felled by hand. Brother Rocco also points out that the Short Log is a relatively high cost operation in comparison to cable har- vesting systems. He says that mini-towers are very versatile and can move along a setting without towering down and can be used to selectively log with a skyline type cable system. “I think we'll continue to see a mix- ture of harvesting systems for differ- ent terrain and timber types in the second growth,” says Brother Rocco. “Most mills need longer logs so that they can cut them to the lengths that they want.” Tolko cedar mill closes due to lack of long-term supply Last ditch efforts to save another sawmill are falling short for workers at the Tolko Inlet Cedar sawmill in North Vancouver. In late March ef- forts to secure a wood supply for the mill came to a halt. The mill’s owners say they can’t purchase enough cedar logs at reason- able prices. Tolko has to buy up and barter for all of its wood on the Van- couver Log Market, which has recent- ly seen dramatically increased prices and lower volumes. I.W.A. CANADA Local 217 Presi- dent Gary Kobayashi, Third Vice Pres- ident Jim Parker, and Tolko union chairman John Noyes accompanied the company’s chief executive officer Al Thorlekson and mill manager Verne Parkstrom to Victoria on Febru- ary 20 to see what could be done to save the operation from closing down permanently. Eliminated are about 150 I.W.A. jobs. In April of 1996 the company laid off 58 workers when it downsized from two shifts to one. Lack of logs was blamed for the first wave of lay- offs. At the meeting in Victoria company and union officials met with Forests Minister Dave Zirnhelt and top bu- reaucrats from the ministry to discuss possible solutions to the wood supply problem. Tolko had promised not to tear the plant down for at least 6 months if there would have been some indication, by early to mid March, that some secure supply of timber could be found. The local found out in late March that no more wood is available for even short to medium term needs, let alone for long term stability. Tolko, which is primarily a B.C. in- terior-based forest company, has no tenured wood supply on the coast. It purchased the mill in 1988 from the Noble family of North Vancouver, and despite indications from previous gov- ernments that it would received a se- cure timber supply, has been buying its logs on the open market. Following the meeting, the forests minister directed his top staff to look through all of the Type II category Small Business Enterprise Program timber sales to see if some wood could be found for the North Vancou- ver operation. Currently there is between 1.2 - 1.6 million cubic meters of unallocated wood under the SBEP which allocates over 8.4 million cubic meters annually. Tolko sent its chief forester to sit down with ministry officials in search of enough timber which would help keep the operation up and running. Tolko was looking for any secure supply of wood and would have been Continued on page sixteen LUMBERWORKER/APRIL 1997/15