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Weds., June 5, 2013 www.revelstoketimesreview.com Vol. 116, No. 23
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TIMESReview
$1.25
Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation celebrates 20 years with 10.5-millionth tree
Geoff Battersby, the chair of the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation, plants the company’s 10.5 millionth tree – or somewhere around that number. The Times Review looks at the past, present and future of the company in this three part series. Alex Cooper/Revelstoke Times Review
20 years ago, the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation was launched amidst a local forest industry that was recovering from a downturn in the 1980s and in search of sustainability Alex Cooper
reporter@revelstoketimesreview.com
Last week, under partly-cloudy skies, Geoff Battersby, the chair of the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation, planted a small cedar tree in a cut block along the Key Forest Service Road overlooking Lake Revelstoke and the Downie Arm. Across the lake, the iconic Frenchman’s Cap was shrouded in clouds. The tree was about the 10.5-millionth planted by RCFC in its 20 years. In 1993, the Revelstoke forest industry was in a state of transition. The dark years of the 1980s – when Downie Timber was closed for several years – were in the past, but the industry was still on shaky ground.
Downie’s struggles in the 1980s meant it lost its tree farm licenses. As a result, very little wood being logged in the area was going to Revelstoke mills. The land in the area was grouped into one large tree farm license – TFL 23, which stretch south and north of town and was owned by Westar Timber, a Vancouver-based company. “The land use debates, it was in the hey day of that,” Jack Heavenor, one of the owners of Downie Timber at the time, told me. “There were serious campaigns going on to greatly reduce the level of commercial forestry and to set aside large parts of forests for no commercial activity.” Amidst that backdrop, Westar decided to sell off its forest licenses, including TFL 23. The large license
was divided in two. South of Revelstoke, it went to Pope & Talbot. North of Revelstoke, Evans Forest Products, which owned a mill in Golden amongst several others, offered to buy the license and a mill in Malakwa for $9 million. “The timber supply basket in the Revelstoke area, if it had gone to Evans, it would have had a fairly significant impact for Downie and for the community,” said David Raven, who was the manager of the Revelstoke forest district. “And the community had a long history of seeing the trees going past its doors.” The matter reached its head in the fall of 1992. During public hearings on the sale, the City of Revelstoke intervened opposing the deal. In October, about 500 people came out
to a hearing at the community centre that lasted for four hours. “The hue and cry in those days was local control of local resources,” said Dr. Geoff Battersby, who was mayor at the time and a key political leader behind the start of RCFC. “It was always a concern with the fact there was all this wood being cut locally but none of it was being processed locally, so that was the community interest.” Ultimately the Evans’ deal required ministry approval. In December, acting forest minister Art Charbonneau turned down the sale, saying “the proposed transfer, as submitted, would not balance the social and economic impacts on (Revelstoke, Golden
and Sicamous).” Evans was given the opportunity to come up with a new deal, and the City of Revelstoke also started working on its own proposal to buy the TFL. For the next few months, the issue graced the front page of the Revelstoke Review. The city hired a consultant to study the TFL and determine its value. “Myself and a few other people thought that if the city got involved in a tree farm licence, as owners, that would have a positive impact on a trend towards broader public support of forestry,” said Heavenor. From a business perspective, a community forest would help ensure Downie’s timber supply.
RCFC, page 19
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