Another $3.4 million in Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. funding was announced by the Minister of Forests this week during the BC Council of Forests Industries convention in Vancouver.
The grants will support eight projects aimed at improving low-value forests or damaged forests in 100 Mile House, Burns Lake, Terrace and Haida Gwaii, said FESBC executive director Steve Kozuki.
In the Cariboo region, Norbord Inc. in 100 Mile House is receiving $352,335 to recover wood fibre from low-value stands for the manufacture of oriented strand board.
“They are specifically addressing aspen stands or low-economic pine stands,” Kozuki said. “They are going to harvest what they can and then reforest.”
Last December FESBC announced it had received $119 million in requests and would be distributing $63 million.
Read more: FESBC receives more than $119 million funding requests
In January FESBC allocated the first $10 million.
“These latest projects in the $3.4 million are all around forest improvement,” Kozuki said, noting the plan is to announce further approved projects in batches.
“As you can imagine it takes time to go through the applications. We are releasing the ones we can release as soon as possible.”
In June, FESBC should be able to announce the wildfire risk reduction projects, and by mid-June all the $63 million should be fully-allocated. he confirmed.
“We received more applications than we ever did before, which is great.”
As of April 2019, the B.C. government has invested $235 million in the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C., with about $177 million allocated to date for wildfire risk reduction, reforestation, forest rehabilitation, wildlife habitat restoration and raising awareness of the FireSmart program
Read more: Fire break work in South Cariboo
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