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Timber cut to drop 26% By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
and its logging contractors, and they recently completed a
major upgrade to the planer mill. “Canfor’s facilities and woodlands operations in Houston are very cost effective,” vanderMark said. “We are confident that our competitiveness will enable us to maintain our operations over the long term.”
Houston’s timber harvest is being cutback 26 percent over the next ten years. H o u s t o n Councillor Jonathan Van Barneveld said it is “probably one of the better decisions that could come out.” From now until March 2020, the annual allowable cut (AAC) is down 12 percent to 1.9 million cubic metres. Of that harvest, no more then 16 percent can be live trees. In March 2020, the allowable cut will drop another 16 percent to 1.6 million cubic metres in the Morice Timber Supply Area (TSA). The Morice TSA is 1.5 million hectares and runs from Babine Lake to Ootsa and Whitesail Lakes and includes Houston, Topley and Granisle. The timber supply cutback was announced by Chief Forester Dave Peterson last week Monday. A news release from the Ministry of Forests says the twotiered allowable cut reflects the results of the pine beetle epidemic. “This two-tiered allowable annual cut provides an opportunity for licensees to continue the salvage of dead pine until the end of
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FLOWER of Support
Jackie Lieuwen/Houston Today
Houston volunteers of the Canadian Cancer Society sold out 12 boxes of daffodils in the mall last Thursday and Friday. The annual fund raiser made $3,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. Coordinator and volunteer Sue Jones says Houston’s support is tremendous. “Cancer has touched everybody in this town. It’s the one thing that unites us,” she said. Above are volunteers Sue West, Shirley Collins, Ed West, Jocelyn Bell and Sue Jones.
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Canfor stable with cost effective facilities By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
Canfor says the pending drop in timber harvest won’t substantially impact operation in Houston. “Canfor believes we have sufficient sources of fibre (timber) to maintain the longterm viability of our
assets in Houston,” said Carl vanderMark, Canfor Operations Manager of Houston Fibre. “The reduction is in line with what we were expecting.” VanderMark says they are also well positioned to deal with the additional drop in harvest in 2020.
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“ More than 500 people are employed by Canfor and our logging contractors.” - Carl vanderMark, Operations Manager
More than 500 people are employed by Houston Canfor
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its shelf life in 2020 and allows for a more gradual decrease in the cut level,” said Chief Forester Peterson. Beetle-killed pine is worth harvesting until 2020, but after that “dead trees will have degraded to the point that they are no longer suitable for harvesting,” said the release.
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Two-tiered harvest level to salvage dead-pine.
That’s when the harvest level drops another 16 percent. In October 2002, the AAC was just over 1.96 million cubic metres. It increased in February 2008 to 2.165 million cubic metres “to recover maximum economic value and speed regeneration of forests impacted by the mountain pine beetle.” Houston Chief Administrative Officer Michael Glavin said the District contacted the Ministry to meet with mayor and council prior to releasing the decision on the Morice harvest levels, “but they decided to release it without that consultation.” See TIMBER on Page 2
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