As seen in Truck LoggerBC Winter 2024
TLA Executive Director’s Message
BOB BRASH
BRITISH COLUMBIA – Suffice it to say there is an abundance of headlines about the environmental climate challenges facing us. In terms of BC’s Forest sector, those of us in the actual business of forestry remain confident in the abilities of our loggers, planners and foresters to manage these changes with our proven records of innovation and knowledge. However, there still remains a bit of a chore in convincing policy decisionmakers, but the hope is that rational thought and collaboration prevails.
An immediate need? Deal with the current climate of uncertainty, instability, and lack of investment facing our sector.
Today’s forestry world in BC is encountering many storm clouds in terms of the volume of policy and legislative changes impacting our sector in such a short period of time. Adding to the concern are the many unknowns about how such changes will actually be implemented across the landscape and how decision-makers will interpret them. We are all familiar with the Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR) unveiled in April 2020 and the impacts caused by government decisions to implement the recommendations.
As known then and now, the resulting deferrals affected many areas proposed for harvesting along with the domino effect on adjacent planned harvesting areas. Such impacts were further magnified by the significant underachievement of target volumes planned to be sold under the BC Timber Sales program.
And that was only the beginning. More policy and legislation followed culminating in the recent Bill 41 amendments to the Forest Act and draft biodiversity framework announced in November. Of concern is that the framework only makes a passing mention of allowing for areas of responsible timber production in BC, which hopefully is simply an oversight.
Of further note, these latest developments provide, in ours and others’ opinions, yet even more avenues for both the public and decision-makers to find the means to reject harvesting approvals with potentially even greater negative consequences than the OGSR recommendations. As a counter, we hear from government that Landscape Unit Plans are an initiative that will solve the problem on the long term.
Even though the TLA agrees in principle with this overall direction, the overarching problem is that it will likely be a decade or longer before most of the province is covered by such plans. Short-term fixes and transition strategies are needed now, not by some nebulous future date.
When viewed cumulatively, the effects upon our forest sector and businesses are decidedly negative contrary to the many announcements spun to a different narrative than those working in the woods are dealing with daily. And those impacts are being felt across the value chain, be it for the loggers waiting for permits, the sawmills needing to curtail shifts, the pulp mills taking extended downtime, the towing companies waiting for the next booms to be moved, or the value-added facility needing the raw materials to support their current and future products.
Perhaps this highlights a reality that frankly many of us think government does not realize. Our sector has evolved over time to be one that is highly efficient at ensuring the harvested logs are fully utilized in all the various manufacturing facilities, be it a sawmill, pulp mill, value-added facility, and even the folks providing bark mulch for BC’s gardens.
It is a complex and integrated system requiring all components to be working properly whether it’s the forester getting timely permits approved, the sawmill having adequate volumes for their shifts, the pulp mill accepting the low grade logs, the equipment dealer having the stability to ensure parts are in stock for repairs, the value-added manufacturer having the assurance of supply for a newly developed product, or the support companies keeping adequate equipment and staff to handle the harvest.
Today’s work environment is not functioning as such. Across all components, uncertainty and instability dominate both the discussions and reality. Business decision-makers are typically drifting towards not making or deferring those needed investments to improve their business to the detriment of all in the sector.
Alas, we come back to the many points both the TLA and many others in the sector have been stating for a long time now. While we luckily live in a democracy whereby government can set broad goalposts, the successful implementation of such admirable targets requires the expertise and advice of the people working in the sector. In the opinion of many, we have been more than frustrated to have not been utilized sufficiently to construct the realistic actions needed to success-fully kick the proverbial football through such goalposts.
Solutions abound to manage our forests for various objectives, mitigate the risks from wildfires, tackle climate change, provide the most sustainable product in the world, and meet the general expectations of both society and government. A good starting point would be government’s recognition of the immediate need for a collaborative and endorsed road map and vision for where BC’s forest sector is headed, including definitive targets for the overall annual harvest and land base in which we can be assured of operating upon. Once in hand, then the two major tasks needed on the short term will be a concerted effort to manage the current transitional challenges along with a matching of policy and legislation to support the successful implementation of such a vision.
It would be nice to escape the storm.
Bob Brash, RPF, MBA, Executive Director, TLA Tel: 604-684-4291, Email: bob@tla.ca
