After more than a decade of working on an expansion to the Tumbler Ridge Community Forest (TRCF), the hard work has finally come to pass, seeing the Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) go from 20,000 cubic metres to 43,490 m3 moving forward.
Community Forester Duncan Mckellar says it’s been a lot of hard work to get the increase. “It was a monumental effort,” he says. “This makes more financial sense.”
Along with the additional harvest, he says, the size of the Community Forest has increased, too, going from 19,582 ha to 39,966 ha, or nearly doubled in size.
“Most of the area is added south of town,” says Mckellar “near the airport and out towards the Core Lodge.”
The hope is the additional harvest will help the Community Forest be more financially viable, as economy of scales come into play. For example, if you bring a machine in, at $100/hour, to cut down one tree, the cost of harvesting that tree is $100. If you cut two trees, the cost per tree goes down to $50. Four trees cost $25/tree.
On the other side is the price the Community Forest can get selling the trees on the open market. Mckellar says the price is very low right now, about $350 per thousand board feet. That’s down from $1500 a few years back. He’s hoping that by waiting a few month, the price will get stronger.
The District of Tumbler Ridge was awarded a Community Forest Agreement starting on January 1, 2011, for a term of 25 years. The License Agreement granted the District of Tumbler Ridge exclusive rights to harvest crown timber from forests surrounding the community of Tumbler Ridge.
In March of 2013, the District of Tumbler Ridge began lobbying for an expansion of the licence, which has finally come through.
“I believe this expansion will achieve the development objectives for the TRCF and that this decision is in the best interest of the community,” wrote Regional Executive Director Karrilyn Vince in her approval letter.
Since 2014, the Community Forest has re-invested over a million dollars back into town, including in 2022, despite the fact that the Community Forest made no money, including donations to the grad class of 2022 and the food bank.
Mckellar says they are still waiting for their cutting permit to be approved. Once it is, they have 56,000 cubic metre worth of blocks planned out and ready to start harvesting, hopefully once the price of lumber goes up.
While the Community Forest didn’t make any money last year, they have not been inactive. One of their big projects last year was re-planting around the pond behind the visitor centre where there was a lot of blow-down.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
