Prince George, B.C. – The provincial government has boosted the annual allowable cut in the Mackenzie timber supply area by almost fifty percent.

Following an extensive review, deputy chief forester Diane Nicholls announced an allowable annual cut of 4,500,000 cubic metres, an increase of 47.5% over the 3,050,000 cubic metres per year set in 2001.

The ministry says the immediate increase is due to targeted salvage harvesting of large volumes of accumulated dead pine. Most of the lodgepole pine in the area has been attacked by mountain pine beetle resulting in the death of approximately 75% of the mature trees. This new cut level accounts for the ongoing salvage harvest. Nicholls says “the mountain pine beetle began in the Mackenzie timber supply area much later than in the central interior, so the cut level is increasing in the short term in order to recover as much economic value as possible from the dead pine and accelerate reforestation.”

Within the new allowable annual cut, a maximum of 950,000 cubic metres is attributable to non-pine coniferous trees. Of this partition, no more than 300,000 cubic metres can be harvested from the southwest portion of the timber supply area (west of Williston Lake and south of Omineca Provincial Park and Omineca Arm). Most of the timber harvesting to-date has been concentrated in this area and it is at risk of being over harvested.

The Mackenzie TSA covers 6.41 million hectares, of which, 1.5 million hectares is considered suitable for timber harvesting. The primary tree species are lodgepole pine, spruce and subalpine fir (balsam) with several deciduous species present in smaller amounts.