WHEREAS more than 15 million hectares of provincial forest is under attack by the mountain pine beetle and other pests creating a growing environmental risk and threat to ecosystems, and putting many B.C. communities at high risk of loss resulting from wildfire; AND WHEREAS current forest policies and strategies have yet to widely or effectively reduce the wildfire hazard or provide for rapid scale-up of potential bio-energy opportunities in B.C. communities; AND WHEREAS the Western Silvicultural Contractors Association has proposed a pilot project to reforest through an alternative strategy of harvesting, sorting the wood for sawlogs, pulp logs and biomass, and auctioning the timber to existing and new users thereby immediately creating timber jobs in B.C. communities and kick-starting bio-energy opportunities: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM lobby the Ministry of Forests and Range and the provincial government to implement the Western Silviculture Contractor Association WSCA pilot project immediately.
Ministry of Forests Range The pilot program proposed by WSCA duplicates a number of new and existing programs managed by BC Timber Sales, Forests for Tomorrow and Wildfire Management Branch, which are active and underway. The MFRs BC Timber Sales program has recently developed alternative approaches to reforesting marginal small diameter beetle-killed stands by tendering Innovative Timber Sale Licenses. Also the Forests for Tomorrow program issues Forest Licenses to Cut to harvest timber that can be used for bio-energy and areas are then ready for planting. These programs are market-driven and provide alternative strategies for utilizing beetle-killed stands for a variety of products such as saw logs, pulp and biomass. Auctioning these licenses creates competitive and fair forestry jobs in B.C. communities. The MFRs Wildfire Management Branch is working with the Ferric FP Innovations Wildland Fire Operations Research Group to explore innovative ways of removing fuel hazards and utilizing the fibre for bioenergy generation or pellet production. This is the second year of a two-year call for proposals for innovative solutions to the removal of fuel hazards. Since 2004, the Province has provided more than 41 million to local governments, through the Union of B.C. Municipalities, to help pay for interface fire preparation. The funds are meant to partially cover the costs of preparing community wildfire protection plans and conducting on-the-ground fuel management projects. There are now about 95 Community Wildfire Protection Plans that have been or are currently being developed by communities to address fuel management in these areas. As of July 31, 2009, 14.9 million remains available to communities. In addition, the Wildfire Management Branch has recently initiated the Accelerated Community Wildfire Protection program that will actively work with communities to assist in the development and implementation of community wildfire protection plans.