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Guest Editorial: Forest Policy Creating Investment in B.C.'s North	On the Web	Aerial Silviculture Survey Methods Help Industry Chop Costs
County of Athabasca Carries Torch for FireSmart Communities	The Cost of Forest Planning	Contact information
Email Timberline	Timberline Web Site	Previous Timber Lines Issues

Guest Editorial: Forest Policy Creating Investment in B.C.'s North Pat Bell MLA, Prince George North Minister of State for Mining New milling and value added operations are springing up in northern B.C. with the changes in forest policy by our government. These operations range from new entries to "mini majors" to the big guys, and represent everything from primary breakdown to value added. You don't have to look far to find new or improved operations. The old Canfor "Netherlands" site, closed in the late 90's, has reopened under the direction of the "Prince George Sort Yard" and Dollar Saver Lumber. In just a few short years this business has developed into almost 150 employees involved in a variety of milling and sorting activities. Continually reinvesting in new lines, this mill is producing a large volume of lumber, ranging from bridge timbers to 1" material. Combine this with the sorting and re-selling activities and they are rapidly becoming a major purchaser of logs in the Prince George area. John Brink has recently purchased a plant in Houston and has built a new finger joint plant in Prince George. The new facility complements John's remanufacturing plant across the street and will add about 90 jobs to the market when it is up to speed. Driving down to Dunkley one will notice the large addition to this mill. The project is valued at over $50 million and will almost double Dunkley's production capacity. This new site will be targeted at smaller logs to complement the large log production that this mill has done so well with for a long time. A trip out to Valemount will see the reopened Slocan mill. This mill is one of the best examples of success of our forest policy. Valemount has gone to a purchase program only, which has produced a delivered log cost savings that has allowed them to operate. Corporately, Slocan has made it clear that this mill would not be operating today if it were not for these changes. Change is never easy, but change always brings opportunity. These proactive companies are taking advantage of the opportunities that new forest policy brings and they are all benefiting as a result. Back to top

On the Web http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/statistics/ Information and statistics concerning natural resources in Canada http://www.nafaforestry.org/ Find out more about the National Aboriginal Forestry Association http://fire.feric.ca Wildland Fire Operations Research Group - projects, news and links related to fire operational research and technology development http://www.cif-saf-2004convention.org/natcon/index.cfm One Forest Under Two Flags: Information about the CIF/IFC and SAF Joint Convention - Edmonton, Alberta (October 2-6, 2004) http://www.c-ciarn.ca/ Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network webpage Know of a link that others would be interested in? Email it to our attention. Back to top

County of Athabasca Carries Torch for FireSmart Communities Gerry T. Bulmer, staff Athabasca Advocate With growing concerns about the risk wildfires pose to county residents, the County of Athabasca is seeking ways to identify and reduce wildfire hazards. At their meeting March 9, county council reviewed a proposal based on the Alberta government's FireSmart program and agreed to hire Timberline Forest Inventory Consultants Ltd. to develop a similar Wildfire/Urban Interface Plan for the county. "We're the first municipality in the province to take this initiative to this extent," said county manager Jim Woodward. "The bottom line is, Timberline will do an assessment of (about 35) communities and subdivisions in the county. They'll identify hazards and recommend mitigative measures." The cost for the study will be $127,960. "It's 100 percent funded by a provincial government municipal sponsorship program," noted Woodward. "The county, the Town of Athabasca and the Village of Boyle agreed to submit a joint application to get this done. The grant is designed to get municipalities working together on some projects that might not be possible without it." To do the assessment, Timberline will make site visits to each community and will classify vegetation fuel types as they relate to a fire hazard and the fire behavior that can be expected from those fuels. The consultant will also assess physical structures and will review such disciplines as current community legislation, emergency planning, training, inter-agency cooperation and public education, taking all of these into account for the final recommendations. "They'll make general recommendations and site-specific recommendations," Woodward advised. "For example, they'll say which direction fires come towards a town, what materials or fuel types promote fires around a hamlet, and what makes good fire blocks. "Some recommended actions may be simple. Some may be costly," he said. Once Timberline presents the plan it will be the choice of individuals and municipalities to follow through if they want. "This plan is for public awareness," said councillor Paul Ponich. For more information on this, and other wildfire related services contact Cary Gulka at Timberline, Athabasca. Back to top

Aerial Silviculture Survey Methods Help Industry Chop Costs Chris Valaire - Timberline, Edmonton As appeared in The Edge Forest Business magazine, April 2004 In Alberta, regeneration establishment surveys are a legislated requirement for forestry firms operating on public lands. Remote or winter harvested settings are costly to survey with conventional ground survey methods. Substantial cost reductions to forestry firms can be observed through Timberline's unique combination of aerial-based estimates and ground-based field plots. Timberline's large-scale 70mm photography provides a permanent record that can be used for a variety of different applications; its primary function is conducting aerial regeneration surveys that can be applied on deciduous, conifer, and mixed-wood stands. The aerial regeneration survey involves these steps: Pre-stratification of current 1:10,000 photos of cutover areas into stocked (SR), and not satisfactorily stocked (NSR) polygons. Sampling design and intensity are assessed from the stratified photos to sufficiently represent all the polygons in the cutover. Field capture of stereo photo plots is acquired using a helicopter-mounted boom that carries two computer controlled 70mm cameras. Height, stem density, and stocking percentage measurements are interpreted from the stereo photos on a device that was engineered specifically for 70mm-film format. A program of ground sampling plots (double samples) can augment this phase of data acquisition. The aerial results are verified by an independent subset of conventional ground regeneration plots. Timberline has historically completed this sampling method with pre-stratification in deciduous stands; however, trials this spring will test a strata-less based sampling regime in conifer stands. Timberline large-scale photography can also be utilized for other complementary remote sensing applications such as: riparian assessments, coarse woody debris volume estimates, and performance surveys. In the future, this type of survey methodology will move into the digital environment and could lead to more effective resource management at the landscape level. Back to top

The Cost of Forest Planning in British Columbia Juan Pablo Cerda - Timberline, Vancouver Based on 2001-2002 data, about 300 Forest Development Plans (FDPs) are reviewed each year, province-wide, by the B.C. Ministry of Forests (MoF)1. Revision of these FDPs costs approximately $12.4 million. Reviewing each FDP is about $11,000; if there is the need for extra field assessment, as occurs in about one third of revisions, this cost increases to $25,000. Other increases arise from adding other costs such as appeals, monitoring, B.C. Forest Practices Board audits, etc. Production of these FDPs costs licencees approximately $25 million. To produce a FDP costs about $40,000. After adding costs of the review process, such as public participation, publishing, and field assessments, licencees estimate that these costs are at least double that amount. The B.C. MoF reviews about 2,700 amendments to FDPs each year. The average FDP goes through two major amendments (some individual FDPs have 10 major amendments) and 8 minor amendments (some more than 100). Revision of amendments to FDPs costs between $2,500-$7,000 (major) and $250-$2,500 (minor). Production of amendments costs licencees between $4,000-$6,000 (major amendment, including complying with the required public participation and First Nations consultation) and $400-$2,000 (minor). "We have processed in the order of 300 FDP amendments each year for the last three years… we amend each FDP between 50 and 100 times per year." (B.C. Forest District Official) In summary, the current context for forest development planning represents considerable costs to both planners and reviewers. The annual cost of producing and reviewing FDPs in B.C. is about $37.4 million. The annual cost of producing and reviewing amendments to these FDPs is about $12 million. The total annual cost of development planning in B.C. is $49.4 million. This is $269 per hectare intervened, or $0.76 per cubic metre harvested2. Is this process effective at planning harvesting? Analysis of internal planning efficiency done for forest companies in B.C. shows that, on average, 7 hectares have to be planned for 1 to be harvested in some areas of British Columbia. Six hectares are "lost" between being proposed in FDPs and harvesting, due to various reasons arising within the B.C. development planning framework3. Further, only half of the hectares for which cutting permits have been issued are harvested. Is this news to the players in the B.C. forestry sector? "Many of the assessments required at the FDP stage require a great deal of up front work and risk in order to entertain approvals… you cannot develop accurate and effective assessments unless your cutblock design is implemented in the field." (Licencee operating in B.C.'s Interior) "(Licencees) are reluctant to do too much fieldwork up front because of the cost. If they invest too much money and do not get approval, it is a loss… At least ninety percent of the CP applications that come in are accompanied with amendments." (District Official at the former Cariboo Forest Region) 1 Numbers based on a survey to 5 licencees and the B.C. MoF Forest Regions, conducted in 2001-2002. More detailed numbers in the 2002 UBC Forest Sciences M.F. Thesis "Addressing Uncertainty in Forest Planning" by Juan P. Cerda. 2 Based on 184,000 hectares and 65 million cubic metres of timber resulting from annual harvesting in public land. 3 These analyses are done using the SAFEPLAN tool, developed at UBC Forest Sciences and recently updated for commercialisation by Timberline Forest Inventory Consultants. Back to top

Showtime! Stop by and visit Timberline's booth at the following events in June:
June 8-10, 2004 Calgary, Alberta	June 24-26, 2004 Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

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