What the hell, in 2001/2002 the Government gutted the FPC and handed over 80% of the control of our forests to industry and to day they along with Government are clueless on inventory, growth , true effects of the MPB also performance on roads and bridges is terrible. Government talks about more investment from companies as a good reason to consider the concept, time to call BS the last changes have resulted in 10 mill closures just in the north 26 across the province and log exports up 60% and yes even in the North thanks to new Chinese company with TSA of 16000 square Kilometres and the right to export 100 % of the logs. This is insane Check out Canada Resurgence Development LTD, they love Canadian logs and process all the by-products in China just great.

This is a bad joke being played on the people of BC. The system as it is is gamed to the point where Canfor and West Fraser can overcut to the tune of a million meters without penalty.From the Globe and Mail,

“After forestry-ministry staff raised alarms, Mr. Thomson signed an order that could have led to hefty penalties for Canfor and West Fraser for taking greenwood in an area where they were supposed to be targeting the dead and dying pine.

In defiance of the chief forester’s order, set down in February, 2008, the two companies overcut 928,000 cubic metres worth of healthy trees in the Morice Timber Supply Area, around the community of Houston, in B.C.’s northwest.

But the minister’s order was rescinded after the companies – both heavy contributors to the governing B.C. Liberal party – agreed to behave. The past is forgiven, no need for consequences.”

So evidently rules are not loose enough for the companies, they want even more latitude.

Where are the honest men to take a stand and protect the public interest?

The bit about West Fraser and Canfor overlogging green wood sounds bad, but I think there is more too the story.

There is a soft limit–a recommended amount of pine that the government wants to see harvested. It was approximately 75% I think.

The problem is that in the northern areas (Mackenzie I think), there isn’t much dead pine. It’s very hard to hit this number and that’s what it’s a soft limit–not a hard limit.

Sure Canfor and Westfraser would have been targeting cut blocks with as much dead pine as they could, but if the cut blocks didn’t have 75% dead pine? What were they supposed to do? Should they burn the green wood in that cut block to keep to the limit, or haul it to a mill?

Many on this site (Peter Ewart included) appear to prefer the former and that’s crazy.

herbster asks; “Where are the honest men to take a stand and protect the public interest?”

Answer: they are all working for the Liberal Government and getting personally wealthy doing it! When industry waves enough money in your face, who cares about the public good?

Interesting that the past Chief Forester that could of put a partition to direct a pine only cut in place the Morice TSA when he was on payroll is back on the pay roll.

Wow Peeps, interesting that you like to take stabs at the Liberal Government. If you are going to take stabs at the honesty and integrity, I think it’s reasonable to bring up the recent NDP MLA Jenny Kwan incident, the recent NDP MLA Raj Chouhan incident, the Adrian Dix Forged Memo incident, the NDP MLA Dave Stupich – Nanaimo Bingogate incident, the numberous NDP MLA Moe Sihota, etc, etc!

Nice to know that NDP MLA Jenny Kwan’s trip to Disneyworld and to Europe were for the public good! Nice to know that both Liberal MLA Linda Reid and NDP MLA Rag Chouhan’s trip to South Africa was for the public good! Nice to know that Adrian Dix’s forged memo was for the public good. Nice to know that taking money from the Nanaimo Bingo Charities was for the public good.

I guess that corruption, greed and dishonesty ignore all party boundaries!!

But, I could be wrong!

By the way Peeps, and in case you didn’t notice, my post was formed as a comment and it didn’t contain a single question!!

This does not mean that more “area” is to be logged than ther currently is. What is happening is they are pricing and harvest billing certain stands differently because the scale based system creates a burden for secondary industries like the pellet and bio fuel industries. Without writing a whole essay here to cut to the chase area bases billing sets the stumpage rate per hectare and not the volume or grade of timber. The main goal with area base billing is to get more value and use out of a harvest instead of setting a match to monsterous slash piles..The main risk here is govt might not get an accurate price for crown timber.. On the flip side a company or sale buyer could loose their shirt as well if they don’t get an accurate cruise. More $$ has to be spent up front to assess an area before buying.. The only reason I know this is because i used to be a scaler and log broker otherwise I would even comment on this..

Just one more.. Area based billing makes more sense on stands with lots of low grade timber because its very diffict to get an accurate scale. On the flip side scale based is better for stands with lots of high value high volume timber like old growth spruce and fir for example… To sum it up area based should not replace the scale base but both systems should be used where it is more efficien to do so..