Regional District to Explore Community Forest Agreement
By 250 News
Thursday, August 20, 2009 02:00 PM
Prince George, B.C.- The Regional District of Fraser Fort George has agreed to spend up to $25 thousand dollars to look at the feasibility of applying for its own community forest agreement with the Province.
Community Forest Agreements are seen as positive assets for a community as they can create local jobs, give the region the ability to protect sensitive areas, mitigate the risks associated with forest interface areas and create recreation areas.
Director Debora Munoz says with the increasing number of wildfires in the province, such an agreement would allow communities to have better control on the protection of their communities.
Chairman Art Kaehn says such an agreement would have made it easier for communities such as Bear Lake which has had a long hard road to remove forest fuels that posed a potential threat. "In my own community of Hixon, we were able to reach an agreement with a local forest company to remove some pine that could have posed a threat."
Kaehn says he doesn't envision a community forest agreement would create any additional administrative issues. "We are charting new ground here, so we will have to see."
If the feasibility study comes back saying the RDFFG should apply, it would be the only Regional District in B.C. to have done so.
To take it one step further, if such an agreement were to be awarded, it is thought the Regional District’s CFA would be complementary to any existing agreements, by providing greater savings in operational costs, and strengthen working relationships in the region.
The Regional District has already had some preliminary discussions with some of the community forest operators within the region.
In BC there are 52 communities that are either operating or are in the process of applying for Community Forest Agreements (CFA). Within the Regional District of Fraser Fort George, there are
Agreements either under application or in operation in:
Village of McBride
City of Prince George
Village of Valemount
Lheidli T’enneh, District of Mackenzie in partnership with the McLeod Lake IB, and the community of Dunster are in the invitation to apply stage of the application process.
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Posted by: supertech on August 20 2009 8:55 PM
One always has to wonder just how much you want local Governments to do, and what it will cost you. Governments as a general rule are not cost efficient.
We need less Government involvement, not more.