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VICTORIA – Changes to the Forest Act will cut red tape for woodlots and improve operating certainty for community forests, Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell announced today.
“These
improvements provide better tenure certainty for community forests, reduce red
tape for woodlot licensees, and allow for more flexibility to postpone cutting
permits,” said Bell. “Through the regulatory review and discussions with
stakeholders, we identified ways to reduce red tape, which allows small and
community tenure holders to spend more time on forestry, silviculture, and
creating new jobs and opportunities in our forests.”
Under Bill 13, the Forest Amendment Act, 2009, community forest agreements will be issued for a replaceable term of 25 years, and five-year probationary community forest agreements will be eliminated. Current probationary agreement holders will be able to transition to a 25-year term at any time prior to the expiry of their agreement.
“The 25-year term provides community forest agreement holders with the security they need to attract new investment and facilitates stewardship of the land around their communities,” said BC Community Forest Association executive director Jennifer Gunter. “We will be able to pursue long-term planning, contracts and financing, which will lead to more jobs, and economic, social and environmental benefits in communities throughout British Columbia.”
Another legislative change enables holders of two woodlot licences to consolidate them into one, subject to the maximum allowable sizes of 800 hectares of Crown land on the Coast and 1,200 hectares of Crown land in the Interior. The change enables licensees to combine the woodlots’ administrative and reporting tasks and allows a holder to apply for an additional woodlot.
“Allowing the combination of woodlot licences reduces office work and allows us to spend more time in the forest managing our woodlots,” said Federation of BC Woodlots Association general manager Brian McNaughton. “Woodlot licensees are basically small business owners, so the opportunity to streamline and possibly expand our operations is always welcome.”
An additional amendment allows for further changes to the Cutting Permit Postponement Regulation. Cutting permit postponements are currently issued for a specific area to allow licensees to harvest beetle-attacked timber in other areas, or if continued harvesting is deemed likely to adversely affect reforestation or pose an unacceptable risk of fire hazard. The amendment will allow the minister of forests and range to add additional reasons why a permit postponement can be issued.
To view the proposed amendments, please visit www.leg.bc.ca/38th5th/1st_read/gov13-1.htm.
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Public Affairs Officer Ministry of Forests and Range 250 387-4592 |
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