Volume harvested per hectare on Crown land, 1970 to 2018

THE GRAPH BELOW shows that the average harvested volume per hectare on Crown land has fallen from a level of about 450 cubic metres per hectare in the 1970s to current levels of around 260 cubic metres. The decline is the result of the shift from logging old-growth forests to, increasingly, logging managed stands.

To maintain a given harvest volume under such circumstances, the area logged each year is growing over time. In 1973, logging on 123,000 hectares produced 57 million cubic metres. In 2018, 230,000 hectares were logged, producing 62.2 million cubic metres.

To maintain a given annual volume of cut will result in an ever larger area being clearcut each year.