P.G. and Quesnel Annual Allowable Cuts Reduced

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C.- The annual allowable cut of timber for the Prince George Timber Supply Area (TSA) has been reduced to 12.5 million cubic metres.  That's a reduction from the 14.9 million cubic meters that had been in effect since 2004 when  there was an effort to encourage more opportunity to recover value from beetle attacked stands.

Chief forester Jim Snetsinger  says  the new  limit of 12.5 million cubic metres is more than actual timber harvest levels in recent years. Forest licensees operating in the Prince George TSA harvested about 8.9 million cubic metres in 2009
and 9.4 million cubic metres in 2008.

"The infestation has essentially run its course in the Prince George TSA. Licensees will need to continue to focus harvesting on the dead pine for as long as economically possible in order to maximize our mid-term timber supply," said Snetsinger. "Another key factor in my determination is the need to manage healthy non-pine stands, both as a source of timber and for other forest values such as old growth and wildlife habitat, until the regenerating pine stands have matured."

The chief forester has determined that about 3.7 million cubic metres of the total AAC will be for non-pine species. Harvest levels will be limited to 875,000 cubic metres for spruce-leading stands, 23,000 cubic metres for cedar-leading stands and 160,000 cubic metres for deciduous-leading stands in the Prince George and Fort St. James forest districts. The other 2.64 million cubic metres is for the incidental harvest of non-pine timber in stands dominated by pine.

The chief forester also noted that Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands analysis shows a significant amount of timber that is considered uneconomic for harvesting under current market conditions. However, if market conditions continue to improve, this same timber could become economically viable and would help ease the mid-term timber supply challenge.

The annual allowable cut has also been reduced for the Quesnel Timber Supply Area.  The allowable annual cut for the  Quesnel TSA will be four million cubic metres.  Chief forester Jim Snetsinger says that new limit is  in line withthe actual harvest levels in the Quesnel TSa  which were about 3.4 million cubic metres in 2009.  ""The future timber supply for the Quesnel Timber Supply Area is very dependent on how much non-pine, such as spruce, is harvested today and
how much we conserve for later"  says Snetsinger.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us