100 Mile and area residents received some good news on Nov. 7 when the province’s deputy chief forester Diane Nicholls announced the allowable annual cut (AAC) for 100 Mile House timber supply area (TSA) will remain at two million cubic metres for five years.
That news should give area residents some comfort and a feeling of security for the next five years or more.
This is especially true when we consider the fact that West Fraser is putting together a new mill to deal with the dwindling timber supply through efficiency and technology.
The company wouldn’t be making that kind of investment if it was going to be closing its doors 10 years down the road.
There are a number of potential scenarios when it comes to the chief or deputy chief foresters’ AAC determination, which are independent, professional judgments based on information ranging from technical forestry reports, First Nations and public input to the government’s social and economic goals.
The status of the AAC also depends on annual reporting and recommendations from Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations staff on when the next timber supply review should occur.
So, in that sense, AAC terms are not set in stone (number of years), but rather the state of the forests.
However, there are incentives for the industry to continue in the race to harvest the beetle-killed pine while it’s marketable and economically viable to bring it to market.
In her report, the deputy chief forester noted no more than 500,000 cubic metres of the allowable annual cut can be green wood.
That’s one-quarter of the AAC for the first five years, and half of the AAC for the next five years.
The greater incentive kicks in when the timber will be harvested the farthest from the mill, which makes it more economically viable.
Furthermore, there are other sources of fibre – private woodlots, community forests and First Nations woodland licences, which are not counted in the AAC.
There are a couple of groups researching ways to mitigate the mid-term timber supply shortages and one of the options being suggested is opening up land-use plans to harvest trees in areas that have been protected to this point.
Depending on how that works out, there may be more timber available.
However, we still have to diversify because a healthy community can no longer be a one-trick pony.
Whether it is establishing a secondary wood production industry or becoming a bedroom community, so people can live here and commute to work in the mining and LNG industries or for spinoff jobs those industries provide, we can no longer rely on forestry jobs alone.
