The Other Side of the Story - a series of articles by Dave Neads on conservation-related topics Working Forest - the 25% Solution

The title "Working Forest" conjures up images of stately trees marching to work, lunch boxes clutched in their gnarled limbs. While this fanciful scene is far from the truth, it does raise the question of what a so-called working forest is and how it should be designated.

The Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (MSRM) is proposing legislation to be introduced in this session which will legally define B.C.'s forests as "working forests". MSRM has released a discussion paper to explain this proposed bill which will define the "working forest" as all Crown Forest Land in the province - some 45 million hectares. While excluding private land, parks, protected areas and "rock and ice", the designation includes all forested land from valley bottom to the sub-alpine.

The primary objective of the new legislation is to "maintain and increase" the economic and social benefits that we derive from our forests. This is backed by three other objectives related to the New Era platform of certainty for timber interests, transparency of process and protection of environmental values. While "other users" are mentioned, the basic assumption is that increased revenue from our forests will come from traditional forestry. In this vein, there has been much discussion about the real intent of the new legislation, about the possibility of locking up the land for one use only. As a result of this apprehension, the Minister responsible for MSRM, Stan Hagen, recently wrote an Op Ed titled: "The Working Forest is For Working People".

In his Op Ed the Minister declares that the working forest legislation is for forest communities and "all other uses and values from the land", including tourism and recreation. This statement need not be just another recitation of the same old rhetoric. A look at the other side of the story shows why.

There is an opportunity in this new initiative to diversify beleaguered rural economies, boost jobs, raise B.C.'s profile and reduce conflict with other resource users. Traditional forest use in the Chilcotin Cariboo takes the trees to the market. This is done by cutting them down, trucking them to the mills and processing them into products which are moved into markets in other places, thereby generating income to buy goods and services in the region. This traditional export system takes a product to market.

In B.C.'s other quality forest industry, the wilderness tourism industry, just the opposite happens. The market is brought to the forest. This is also true of public recreation industry. These industries sell the trees "on the stump", not "at the dump". This process allows the forested landscape to be sold week after week, year after year, in the same location to an ever-increasing market. The revenues generated are brought into the region when tourists and the local public purchase goods and services here at home.

Protected areas cannot and do not provide a land base for these industries. Parks are designed to protect our natural heritage, and, while they do have a recreation function, they cannot begin to fill the gap. The parks and protected areas in the Chilcotin Cariboo have less that 6 percent of their area in the forest. Of that most of the protected forest is high elevation. For example, less that one- percent of the low elevation pine forests in this region are in parks and protected areas. The demand for wilderness tourism and public recreation cannot fit into such a small land base and, even if it could, the level of use would destroy the very qualities that the market and the B.C. public demand of our parks. Parks, privatized or not, are totally incapable of giving these burgeoning industries the land base they require.

There is a solution. In the West Chilcotin, the Anahim Round Table (ART) successfully completed a land use plan in the late nineties. The ART Plan set aside 25% of the forest for economic and environmental uses other than traditional forestry. Several years later, the region has a healthy forest industry, a healthy public recreation industry, a healthy wilderness tourism industry and environmental protection for local species and habitats. The key to this success is the 25 percent of the forested land base designated for the alternative uses that Minister Hagen talks about in his press release.

This is a fair deal, with 75% of the land base designated for traditional forestry and 25% explicitly set aside for alternative economic uses. The options are many. Suppose one of the local companies created a wilderness tourism arm, using the forests in its operating area to create a fishing or hiking business, keeping a large tract of forest uncut, generating new jobs and long term revenue over the generations. This happens now in some places in Europe and other countries. Interestingly, when the forested land base is analyzed, it usually turns out that the requirements of these different activities have very little overlap.

The authors of the current proposal for the working forest must take this opportunity to designate 25 percent of the "working forest" for other economic uses. This will diversify local economies, create jobs, reduce conflict and provide a brighter future. All it takes is the courage to create certainty for B.C.'s two quality forest industries, logging and wilderness tourism. Not only will public recreation benefit, we will be able to take our lunch into the forest, not just have the forest bring its lunch into town.

More articles in the series, The Other Side of The Story

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