The amount of timber allowed to be logged each year in the Lakes Timber Supply area, in the heart of the pine beetle epidemic in north-central B.C., has bee significantly reduced by B.C.'s chief forester.
The new annual allowable cut has been set at two million cubic metres by chief forester Jim Snetsinger, down from a high of 3.2 million cubic metres. The two million level is the equivalent of about 4,400 logging truck loads of timber.
The allowable cut was doubled in 2001 to three million cubic metres, an effort to slow the spread of the pine beetle infestation by allowing increased logging. It was also an effort to recover damaged timber killed by the beetles.
The allowable cut increased again to about 3.2 million cubic metres per year.
However, actual harvest levels during the past several years have averaged about 1.6 million cubic metres.
The new harvest level also stipulates that harvest of non-pine timber must be limited to 350,000 cubic metres per year. The other 1.65 million cubic metres allowed to be logged each year will focus on lodgepole pine stands killed by the beetles.
"The key issue is how to manage the mature non-pine forest while new stands of young pine grow to merchantable size," said Snetsinger.
"The best way to mitigate the projected decrease in the timber supply at the end of the decade is to continue to focus the harvest on beetle-killed pine stands," he said.
A review last year of the timber supply in the Lakes region, west of Prince George, showed the mid-term timber supply won't begin to recover for 50 years.
The mid-term harvest levels in the Lakes District were projected at between 250,000 cubic metres per year and 750,000, much lower than the two million level set for now.
The review noted that the amount of decrease depends on the extent to which non-pine can be conserved to support timber supply until regenerating pine stands are suitable for harvest. All of the scenarios presented in this analysis assume that beetle-killed trees will remain standing for 15 years, after which they fall over and are no longer usable.
A discussion paper that was part of the review noted that the mountain pine beetle epidemic peaked in the Lakes District in the summer of 2004. By 2009, about 90 per cent of the pine available for harvest had been killed. Very little new pine beetle attack is expected in the next 10 years.
