The Healthy Forests -Healthy Communities – Clearwater Organizing Committee has compiled the views and perspectives of local participants. Participants expressed their opinion on how are recent changes in forestry are impacting the community.
The public dialogue was held at the Wells Gray Inn on Nov. 5 with about 60 participants. The full scope of public comments will shortly be posted on the Healthy Forest – Healthy Community website (http://bcforestconversation.com)
The main concerns can be grouped into six main themes:
* More sustainable and stable employment. Today’s jobs are tied closely to lumber manufacturing and the U.S. housing industry. The boom and bust characteristics of the global commodity markets forces workers to leave the community to find employment elsewhere. The lack of stable jobs in the community impacts housing, family lifestyle, schools, increases in social services, etc. The local forest economy must move beyond the global commodity market.
* On-going centralization of government decision making to Kamloops. The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources continues to reduce positions in the Clearwater office. The most recent changes involved the merger of the Clearwater Forest District into a larger district centered in Kamloops and the loss of the resident senior manager position. Services are no longer available in the local offices for woodlot licensees, issuance of cutting permits, or scaling for example. A similar pattern of centralization has happened with provincial parks. While Wells Gray Provincial Park is the third largest in the province, there are no resident employees. Park management and decision making is centered in Kamloops. There is a need to make Clearwater the service center for the North Thompson.
* More local influence in forestland decision. There is a lack of public consultation in resource decision-making. For example, major tenure changes recently occurred with the sale of Weyerhaeuser’s timber tenure to companies with no local manufacturing facilities. There was no local consultation or mechanism for input/consideration of local needs and concerns. There is a need to establish local empowerment of resource decision-making. Local governments have opportunities through the BC Union of Municipalities to bring about changes to current system.
* A Forestry Vision for the North Thompson. The residents need to define a vision for the forests of the North Thompson that reflects their needs and values. Forests have a wide range of values and resources for the community including timber, wildlife, recreation, non-timber products, tourism, water quality, spiritual and heritage sites, etc. Residents need to become involved and develop a forestry vision that states what they want the future forestry sector to be. This task should be assigned to the Forestry Working Group as proposed under the Community Economic Development Strategic Plan
* Changes to Current Timber Tenure. The present timber allocation is an obstacle to growth and diversification of the forestry sector. For the most part, harvest rights are assigned to a few global forestry companies. The Community Forest has only a small timber allocation and needs additional volume to be viable. Government needs to make changes to timber tenures so that there is greater incentive to invest in forests and there are more opportunities for new businesses to access logs for the production of value added and innovative forest products. There is a need for more openness to explore ways of using all wood fiber in today’s era of bioenergy.
* Education and Training. Very few young workers are entering the forestry job market and most pursue careers outside of the community. The forestry work force is aging rapidly. There is a need for initiatives to provide forestry education in local schools, awareness of opportunities, mentoring and apprenticeship training for young workers.
The public session was an opportunity to provide input and send a message to decision makers about the desired future needs for forest management. A summary report will be delivered to the District of Clearwater and TNRD area directors.
