The City of Prince George is one step closer to starting to harvest beetle killed trees on Crown Land. 

A Community Forest Agreement licence has been issued by the Ministry of Forest and Ran.  The  five year licence will allow the City to harvest  up to 12,000 cubic meters per year from Crown land, that works out to about 266 truck loads.

But, just because the licence is approved, that doesn't mean the harvesting will start tomorrow. 

There still needs to be a management plan approved,  then a Forest Stewardship plan, and then there's the cutting permit process. 

Normally, these steps are taken one after another, but recognizing the urgency in trying to reduce the risk from fire from dead beetle trees, the Ministry has allowed the City to go through all four steps concurrently.  If all goes well, the  first activity  will likely start late November or early December of this year.

The City of Prince George's Environmental Department Manager, Mark Fercho says residents will see two major projects happening. "First, we will continue with the removal of dead beetle trees from high hazard areas, and then there will be harvesting on larger cut blocks on Crown land further away from urban areas"

Over the winter, special prescriptions will be developed for areas which are more complex "Those are areas where harvesting might impact waterflows, slopes, viewscapes, or may be too close to homes and hydro lines.  They are the areas that require non traditional harvest methods." says Fercho.

The license will be reviewed in two years at which time, Council will review the licence.  "There are other  benefits to this licence" says Fercho.  While the originial intent and initial focus wil be on reducing the risk of fire,  the  licence allows the City to  open up access to recreational areas,  and even develop a source bio-mass to fuel a community energy system.

There are about 4,000 hectares of public forest land within the City's boundaries.  In April of 2005, the City was given $1.2 million dollars to go towards forest rehabilitation and  forest fire fuel management.