British Columbia’s Special Committee on Timber Supply consultation schedule
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The British Columbia Special Committee on Timber Supply has announced its plans for conducting community and provincial consultations. The all-party committee was appointed in May 2012 to investigate and make recommendations to address the loss of mid-term timber supply in the central interior due to the mountain pine beetle epidemic.
A discussion paper available online outlines options for increasing the timber supply. It includes potential actions such as:
- harvesting some of the areas currently constrained from timber harvest in order to support other resource values;
- increasing the harvest of marginally economic timber;
- changing the flow of timber by adjusting administrative boundaries or accelerating timber availability;
- shifting to more area-based tenures and associated more intensive forest management;
- increasing the level of intensive forest management through fertilization and other advanced silviculture activities.
“We plan to visit 15 communities and hold meetings in Vancouver to find out which options First Nations, local governments, the public and stakeholders prefer,” said committee chair John Rustad. “We are hoping to learn from communities what values and local knowledge should be considered when making recommendations about the mid-term timber supply,” added Norm Macdonald, deputy chair.
Public hearings will be in the following locations:
- Smithers – June 18
- Valemount – June 22
- Houston – June 18
- McBride – June 22
- Burns Lake – June 19
- Fraser Lake – June 19
- Fort St. James – June 20
- Vanderhoof – June 20
- Prince George – June 21
- Mackenzie – June 21
- 100 Mile House – July 5
- Williams Lake – July 5
- Quesnel – July 6
- Kamloops – July 12
- Merritt – July 12
To register, please contact committee staff by phone, 1 877 428-8337, or by email: timbercommittee@leg.bc.ca
British Columbians can also participate by sending the committee a written submission, or video or audio file.
For more information on the consultation, and to view the committee’s discussion paper, please visit the committee’s website at: www.leg.bc.ca/timbercommittee
The call for public input closes on Friday, July 20, 2012, and the committee is required to release its report by Aug. 15, 2012.
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