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Toolbox
Below you will find all sorts of useful tools that will help you understand the forest industry in BC and the impacts it has on the economy and environment. We encourage you to share this information with anyone concerned about the future of BC forests. If you have an idea for a useful addition to the toolbox, please let us know.
There is a lot of misinformation about the state of BC's forests flying around the province. The main source of inaccurate or misleading information is the industry itself, especially from its paid mouthpieces like COFI and ResourceWorks. If you are doubtful about information you find on this website, there is a comment section for every article and we encourage you to point out errors we may make. We will look further into the issue and adjust our information as necessary. If you read or hear something on other media, including from COFI and ResourceWorks, that sounds doubtful, please bring that to our attention on the Fact Checker Action Group page.
We have gathered statistical information from credible sources and, using that information, developed graphs that show the trends in the fundamental characteristics of BC's forest industry, from the area being logged each year to the value of public subsidies.
Provincial old forest database
We are mapping old forest province-wide, ground-truthing these forests and monitoring logging threats. We will support efforts to protect these forests, including initiatives to stop them from being logged. You can assist by sharing your local knowledge of where such forests remain in the comments section of the database for your area.
We have gathered tools that allow calculating the amount of carbon prematurely released to the atmosphere as a result of clearcut logging in BC. This allows attribution of carbon release to specific logging operations or timber processing facilities such as mills. The calculation involves reconstructing the entire forest stand that was clearcut based on the volume of merchantable wood that was scaled from that clearcut.
Calculate the public subsidy of the forest industry in your area of interest
Evergreen Alliance will do an estimate of the last 10 years of public subsidies that were paid to keep the forest industry logging your island, community watershed, timber supply area or tree farm licence. Useful as a tool to counter claims that the forest industry "pays the bills" in your community.
Identify the spatial area, logging company, timber mark, date of cut, cutblock # of any cutblock in BC since about 2000. Used in conjunction with the Harvest Billing System, the volume removed, stumpage paid, carbon released and net cost to the public of any clearcut can be estimated.
Ministry of Forests Harvest Billing System
This is the publicly accessible portal to HBS. The system goes back to 2006, inclusive. This tool can be used to determine the volume of cut and the stumpage paid by month or year, by region, management unit, forest file ID, or timber mark. Requests for data can be filtered by species, product, grade and billing type. If you would like to learn how to use this tool, contact us.
The state of wood product manufacturing and processing facilities in BC
Find the location, ownership, annual capacity, number of employees, volume of trees being processed and associated forest carbon emissions of all wood products manufacturing and processing facilities in BC. Map includes basic measurements of output, carbon emissions and employment.
Economic State of the BC Forest Sector
The ministry of forests' latest account of the forest industry written by Alex Barnes. Latest year covered is 2020.
Above-ground biomass calculator
Used in conjunction with the Harvest Billing System, this tool allows calculation of the volume of biomass left behind in a clearcut following logging. For example, if 10 tonnes of stem wood if a Douglas fir stand was removed as merchantable timber in a particular region, the approximate biomass of what's wasted can be calculated.
BC Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory 1990-2019
To comply with Canada's international commitments, BC reports its GHG emissions annually. Reports are 2 years behind current date. The BC GHG Inventory includes reporting of emissions related to the Other Land Use category, which includes four aspects of forest-management-related emissions: "Forest Growth Minus Decay," "Slash Pile Burning," "Wildfires," and "Decomposition of Harvested Wood Products." These are not yet included as part of our provincial emissions although they are certainly carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
This is the BC Wildfire Service's online interactive map showing the current forest fire situation in BC. The Evergreen Alliance uses this information to track the coincidence of clearcuts, plantations and forest fires.
Most recent satellite imagery of BC
This link will take you to the Sentinel Hub EO Browser. If you haven't used this tool, go here to find out how to use it. The browser can be used to monitor changes in forest cover in BC, including logging and forest fires. Depending on the time of year, cloud-free, or nearly-cloud-free images allow assessment of changes that have occurred in the last few days.
Site Productivity Data Locator
This is an interactive map that will allow you to download data, or maps in PDF format, for each TSA in BC that show site productivity (site index) by species. In conjunction with satellite images that show current conditions, along with maps of parks, protected areas and ecological reserves, the site productivity maps can help to determine where unprotected productive old growth forest remains.
Google Earth Forest Removal Time Lapse Generator
This tool can be used to determine when logging occurred in a specific place of interest. The time-lapse sequence covers the period from 1984 to 2020.
Measure distance and area, or determine latitude and longitude
This tool will help you measure the area of land, the distance between two points, or the latitude and longitude of a point on the land.