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VICTORIA – The allowable annual cut for the Kamloops timber supply area will be decreased by about eight per cent to four million cubic metres, chief forester Jim Snetsinger announced today.
The previous allowable annual cut
(AAC) was 4.35 million cubic metres. Roughly 1.67 million cubic metres of that
AAC was from temporary increases introduced in 2004 to help manage the mountain
pine beetle and to salvage fire-damaged timber. The beetle has attacked a
cumulative total of about 30 million cubic metres of lodgepole pine in the
Kamloops timber supply area.
“Since the last AAC determination, most of the fire-damaged timber in the Kamloops timber supply area has now been harvested,” said Snetsinger. “The new AAC has provisions in place that will continue to focus harvesting in beetle-damaged stands while protecting non-pine timber for the future.”
The new allowable annual cut includes:
· 1.994 million cubic metres per year concentrated on harvesting pine, to help manage the beetle’s spread and support the salvage of attacked trees while they’re still merchantable.
· 200,000 cubic metres per year for harvesting in older cedar and hemlock-leading stands.
· 86,000 cubic metres per year for harvesting in pulpwood agreement area 16.
· 20,000 cubic metres per year for harvesting deciduous-leading stands outside pulpwood agreement area 16 in the Headwaters Forest District.
· A maximum of 1.7 million cubic metres per year for harvesting non-pine outside of the cedar and hemlock, pulpwood agreement, and deciduous partitions. This will be mostly Douglas-fir, spruce and balsam, giving licensees the flexibility to address customer demands. The maximum limit helps protect environmental sustainability and sufficient levels of non-pine stock for mid to long-term needs.
The Kamloops timber supply area covers approximately 2.77 million hectares in south central B.C. Administered by the Headwaters and Kamloops forest districts, it spans several communities, including Ashcroft, Barriere, Chase, Clearwater, Kamloops, Logan Lake, and Vavenby.
The chief forester’s determination is an independent professional judgment based on information ranging from technical forestry reports, First Nations input, and public input to the government’s social and economic goals. The timber supply review accounts for environmental factors such as biodiversity (which includes old-growth forests), water quality, and scenic values, in addition to social and economic issues.
Under the timber supply review, the chief forester or deputy chief forester must determine how much wood can be harvested in each of the province’s 37 timber supply areas and 33 tree farm licences at least once every five years. A new allowable annual cut may be determined earlier in response to abnormal situations or postponed for another five years if a harvest level is not expected to change significantly.
Copies of the chief forester’s allowable annual cut
determination are available on the Ministry of Forests and Range website at www.for.gov.bc.ca/hts/ or from the Kamloops
Forest District office in Kamloops or the Headwater Forest District office in Clearwater.
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Chief Forester Victoria 250 387-1296 |
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