The community forest license venture between Williams Lake Indian Band and the city of Williams Lake
is going through the steps to create a legal partnership that will hold and manage the community forest.
At its regular meeting Tuesday, city council authorized Mayor Kerry Cook to sign the agreement for legal services with Pushor Mitchell on behalf of the city.
The total legal budget for the limited partnership is $20,000 — with $6,000 from WLIB and the remaining $14,000 split halfway between WLIB and the City of Williams Lake.
In a report to council, general manager of planning and operations Geoff Goodall noted the total budget allocation to the community forest by the city in 2012 is $30,000 to date.
Approximately $15,000 has been spent, which leaves enough funds to more than cover the city’s share of the legal partnership fees.
Creating the business structure that will hold the license is a necessary part of the application process, registered professional forester and forest manager Ken Day told the Tribune.
Two areas would make up the license — totalling about 35,000 hectares.
One is located on Likely Road to Horsefly Road in the Potato Mountain area; the second one is located on the west side of Williams Lake between Highway 20 and the Williams Creek Valley down to the Fraser River.
“There would be forest management going on, generating timber to create some revenues that would support the management of those forests and the community values we’ve been working toward,” Day said.
Active logging has already been taking place in both areas for many years, he added.
Cook told members of council they will be updated on the progress of the license in early July.
“That will be the opportunity for council to hear where were at,” she said.
