Len and David: Although the removal of the "unduly' clause is symbolic, I agree that it might be a signal from premier Eby of better forest policy and management to come . . . we shall see. But the premier's announcement is not a paradigm shift from "business as usual" (oligopoly, clearcutting and subsidies).
Prior to 1978, the BC Forest Service managed provincial forests by eighty-one public sustained yield units (PSYU). By the early 1970's many PSYUs were badly overcut.
Around 1978, the then director of forest inventory, Frank Hegyi, who had good technical foresight, wisely planned to increase the scale of resolution of the forest inventory from public sustained yield units (PSYU) to smaller landscape units. The Inventory Branch had delineated landscape units for the province. Former deputy minister, Mike Apsey (newly arrived from the CEO position at COFI) disallowed this change.
Apsey had different plans: to decrease the scale of resolution of forest inventory, planning and management from eighty-one PSYUs to thirty-six timber supply areas (TSA), thereby averaging the AAC over large TSAs that included overcut and undercut PSYUs.
As I understand the proposed Forest Landscape Plan in premier Eby's announcement, areas of primary forest to be conserved and areas where logging is planned will be spatially defined. That is good in itself.
But the devil in the detail for the new Forest Landscape Plan will be the estimation of timber supply because the inventory and the timber supply review (TSR) process that inform allowable annual cut (AAC) determinations are outdated. Also, the forest ministry’s growth-and-yield models for the estimation of timber volumes are statistically inappropriate for use at the polygon scale of resolution for landscape units.
Is David Eby's government making a paradigm shift on BC's forests?
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Len and David: Although the removal of the "unduly' clause is symbolic, I agree that it might be a signal from premier Eby of better forest policy and management to come . . . we shall see. But the premier's announcement is not a paradigm shift from "business as usual" (oligopoly, clearcutting and subsidies).
Prior to 1978, the BC Forest Service managed provincial forests by eighty-one public sustained yield units (PSYU). By the early 1970's many PSYUs were badly overcut.
Around 1978, the then director of forest inventory, Frank Hegyi, who had good technical foresight, wisely planned to increase the scale of resolution of the forest inventory from public sustained yield units (PSYU) to smaller landscape units. The Inventory Branch had delineated landscape units for the province. Former deputy minister, Mike Apsey (newly arrived from the CEO position at COFI) disallowed this change.
Apsey had different plans: to decrease the scale of resolution of forest inventory, planning and management from eighty-one PSYUs to thirty-six timber supply areas (TSA), thereby averaging the AAC over large TSAs that included overcut and undercut PSYUs.