Bell showcases new silviculture plan

B.C. Minister of Forests and Range Pat Bell unveiled his vision for value-added manufacturing and a discussion paper on silviculture this week.
On Tuesday, Bell released Generating More Value From Our Forests, a vision and action plan for wood-product manufacturing.
“We have had a number of attempts at value-added in the province, but we weren’t terribly successful,” Bell said. “The priority is generating more value from every single piece of wood we touch.”
Between 1990 and 2000, Canada generated $123 per cubic metre of wood harvested. During the same period the U.S. generated $290 and Japan generated $664.
The plan integrated the “wood-first” policy, promotion of wood as a ‘green’ building material, and development of a wood enterprise centre which had already been announced.
New in the plan is a call for the development of a fibre merchandising system, which would sort logs as they are harvested and distribute them to different users depending on their fibre value and user needs.
“We need to have the right fibre to the right process,” Bell said.
Wood pellet plants, cellulosic ethanol plants, bioenergy power plants, and value-added manufacturers could use logs which are currently left unharvested and waste material left in the woods by loggers working for lumber manufacturers.
“(And) we need to work with primary manufacturers to have 25 per cent of their produced product go to higher-value secondary manufacturing,” Bell said. “The primary sector is strongly supportive of this.”
Bell said he hopes to launch several pilot projects testing different models of merchandising wood fibre.
Between increases to community forests, wood lots and First Nations forest agreements and B.C. Timber Sales, up to 40 per cent of the timber available will be open to secondary manufacturing, he added.
The plan also calls for commercializing forestry research going on in the province.
“We do a very good job in B.C. on the research of these things. We do a good job of applying the technology, but not value adding,” Bell said. “We need to develop appearance-grade products and products with high structural integrity for larger buildings.”
The plan also creates a Value for Wood Secretariat with a $2 million budget.
“It’s intended to be the advocate for value added or further manufacturing,” Bell said. “In addition to that… in each and every forest district it will be the single window for value-added manufacturing.”
The secretariat will liaise with industry and other ministries to get projects moving forward.
“By 2020, I believe our forest sector could generate more economic value per hectare of forest land than any other in the world.”
On Wednesday, Bell released the Growing Opportunities: A New Vision for Silviculture discussion paper. The ministry will be collecting stakeholder feedback on the discussion paper until Sept. 30, then will develop recommendations during the fall.
“We need people to get engaged in the discussion,” Bell said. “We often do the same thing on all parts of the landscape. I am very excited about the potential for a new world of silviculture.”
Bell said he wants to see a much stronger focus on silviculture over the next 20 to 30 years to meet the medium-term timber supply needs of Interior forest industry.
Some current management practices are aimed at getting trees to the “free growing” state required by legislation rather than managing for the best end product, he said.
NDP forestry critic Bob Simpson said the goals of the plan are good, but there is no detail on how it will be executed.
“We don’t disagree with the government’s intent. But the responsibility of government is to tell us how they’ll achieve it. There is no timelines, no targets or resources,” Simpson said. “For a sitting government that has been in power for eight years and has seen the collapse of the forest industry… to come forward with a bunch of motherhood and apple pie statements is completely unacceptable. It’s a forestry platform at the taxpayer’s expense.”
Simpson said the plan identifies issues which had already been identified in the NDP’s forestry plan in February 2008.
“Minister Bell talks a good talk. But he is responsible for making these ideas come to existence,” Simpson said. “Within the next 18 to 24 months this could happen. (But) there is no commitment for regulatory change. There is no commitment for financing.”
Simpson said the time for discussion on silviculture has passed.
“We don’t need a discussion paper, we again need deliberate action and resources,” he said. “Over the last eight years we’ve seen a precipitous drop in all forestry investments. Over 100 million less trees will be planted this year than last year.”
The ministry has continued to cut resources to forestry services, despite the talk about further investment in silviculture, he said.
“First and foremost we need a reinventorying and reassessment of our forests. We really are managing blind. We can’t even tell how many trees we’re planting in a year,” he said. “We need to make a 25-year plan for significant investments in the forest land base. A discussion paper with some push questions just doesn’t cut it.”