David Broadland

February 17, 2022

On 2/12/2022 at 2:22 PM, Herb Hammond said:

According to the Chief Forester, there is 115,987 m3 of "unharvested and uncommitted volume accrued between 2006 and 2019" in TFL 8. The Forest Act provides the province with the authority to "dispose" of this undercut by means of various short-term tenures that grant rights to log the undercut.

Herb and Fred, thanks for your comments on TFL 8.

Most readers won’t know that TFL 8 is in the Kettle River’s drainage area and the logging company, Interfor, is named in a class action lawsuit that arose following flooding in Grand Forks in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

Satellite imagery of TFL 8 shows what has happened on the ground:

What does that intense level of logging look like compared to the AAC set for TFL 8 in 2009? Well, believe it or not, the AAC would have allowed even more logging.

I looked at 13 years of ministry of forests’ data for the volume cut in TFL 8 and compared that with the official AAC. That data shows that the TFL has been undercut in those 13 years. The official AAC was 186,000 cubic metres per year (red line in graph below). The actual cut (orange line) gyrated wildly from year to year. The average cut was 160,362 cubic metres (gray line). That is, officially, an “undercut”.

The Harvest Billing System recorded a cut of 2,084,700 cubic metres in those 13 years. If the AAC had been the guide, 2,418,000 cubic metres would have been cut.

When you look at the satellite imagery of this TFL, it’s easy to imagine that, had the AAC been met, there would be little more than clearcuts and plantations remaining.

The general ministry practice of setting the AAC much higher than can be achieved over a prolonged period of time—mainly because the forest doesn't grow that fast—was the subject of a recent story. The current chief forester’s calculation—on paper—that a past “undercut” can be made up years afterward is disturbing. Look at the graph below, which records the AAC, actual cut and a conservative estimate of timber supply for a 20-year period in BC. Will the ministry now decide that an “undercut” occurred all over BC and can now be rectified by additional logging, like in the case of TFL 8?

Seems utterly delusional to me.

December 16, 2021

20 minutes ago, Martin Watts said:

Does this mean Canfor is also opposed to the Chief Forester's "leadership team" which only includes chief foresters from industry?

Not likely. The coordination between the ministry and Canfor here is noteworthy. The ministry provided its public update on the deferrals and half an hour later Canfor releases its statement. Did the ministry have to get Canfor's OK before it released its update? If that seems unlikely to you, read this.

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