WBCF PROJECTS
Timber Harvesting
The need for revenue was among the community’s reasons for acquiring the community forest, and logging was always seen as the primary way to achieve that objective.
The 2014 community forest agreement between Wells-Barkerville Community Forest Ltd and the provincial government specifies an average of 5,000 cubic meters of timber will be logged on the community forest each year. If more is logged, WBCF Ltd can be fined; if less is logged, the provincial government can sell the remaining volume to someone else.
Logging History in Wells
Logging in what is now the Wells-Barkerville Community Forest began with the start of gold mining in the area in the 1860. Wood was used for lining mine shafts and tunnels, for constructing sluice boxes and aquaducts, for constructing houses, shops and warehouses, and enormous amounts were use used for heating; wood was the only source of fuel available.
As placer gold mining expanded an extensive system of wood trestles carried water from higher elevation lakes and creeks to “the diggings” and by 1900 Clarke’s sawmill on Jack Of Clubs Lake was meeting the continuing demand for lumber and timbers.
The provincial government began to regulate logging in the 1950s and an example of logging at this time is still evident in the community forest just south of Big Valley Creek, where “cut and leave” logging harvested strips of trees but left strips of forest between the harvested strips.
From the 1960s until the designation of the community forest in 2014 a number of large clearcuts were harvested.
In the Community Forest
Community meetings in 2015 confirmed revenue as an important objective and decided the best way to minimize expenditures and maximize revenue was to sell the annual allowable cut as standing timber. The opportunity was advertised, proposals were reviewed at a community meeting, and an offer from West Fraser Mills was accepted.
The timber was logged in the winter of 2017 – 2018 from eight clear cuts totaling 57 hectares and a “partial harvest” 30.9 hectare block.
In October 2018 West Fraser agreed to purchase the 25,000 cubic meters to be harvested between 2019 and 2024 with an
agreement similar to the first. West Fraser is hoping to log about 3,000 cubic meters in late 2020 or early 2021. The timing of the remaining harvest of 22,000 cubic meters is still to be decided.
The Community Forest Agreement required the development of a Management Plan that, when approved by the government, became part of the agreement. As required, the Management Plan included a timber supply analysis, and, as determined by the analysis, an allowable annual cut that had to be approved by government. This is the volume of timber, multiplied by five, that must be harvested during every five year “cut control period”.