FACILITATOR

Ken Gibson Recreation Specialist Columba Shuswap

36 years with Forest Service

12 years Recreation Officer Columbia Shuswap

Marcy Bennett-Your new

Recreation Officer
Marcy completed her MSc in 2009 with a focus on the role of
outdoor recreation in sustainable communities.
She comes with past work experience with Recreation Sites
and Trails BC , national, and provincial parks.
She is keen, an avid Mountain Bike rider, and excited about
working with the many recreation groups to help facilitate
their visions.
I am impressed in the short while I have worked with Marcy. I
can now retire knowing the district is in good hands.
During the open house session be sure to make her welcome

WHY THE MEETING

The meeting was initiated as a result of discussions with Licensees
and the Revelstoke Nordic Club and Revelstoke Cycling Association
over harvesting proposed on Mount Macpherson and Frisby Ridge.
The meeting has 2 components.
The first part of the meeting will contain presentation meant to
help educate the public on significance and workings of Forest
Management.
The second part of the meeting has an open house format where
you can review the harvesting proposals one on one with the
licensee making the proposal
(If you have questions for the sake of time management we ask
that you hold them to the open house session)

THE AGENDA
I will talk about the Recreation Program and Role of a
Recreation Officer.
Angus Woodman will talk about the makeup and
significance of your local Forest Sector.
Pat McMechan will discuss the legislation policy and
planning initiatives that guide the Forest Industry .
Robert Mohr will answer questions the executive of the
Revelstoke Cycling Association has submitted.
Open house with each of the forest licensees
Opportunity to ask questions.

RECREATION SITES & TRAILS

Recreation Sites & Trails are areas of

crown land that have a public
recreation focus under the context of
integrated resource management.
They are in the WORKING FOREST and
not protected or Parks
A Recreation Site and Trail designation
means integrated resource
management must take place on the
landbase.
Basically everyone must work together
in efforts to cooperatively achieve each
others objectives.
There are no harvesting constraints put
on a Recreation Site or Trail
designation.

BENEFITS OF A RECREATION SITE AND

TRAIL DESIGNATION
The Rec. Officer can enter into partnership agreements
with clubs / groups / individuals which provides them a
stewardship role on the Recreation Site or trail.
The Rec Officer can spend money or do work on these
areas to facilitate the visions of the recreation public.
Trails and sites must be referred before being
authorized and established. Because of the integrated
resource management concept, many of these
authorizations/establishments go uncontested by
others who have interests on the landbase.

PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS
All our major clubs and groups who use recreation
trails have partnership agreements with Recreation
Sites and Trails BC
This gives these groups a stewardship role on the site
or trail.
Agreement holders are expected to complete annual
reports and operating plans under these agreements
and abide by the Forest Recreation Regulations.
RSTBC provides liability insurance for these agreements
and will try to facilitate the visions of the agreement
holders by providing support / authorizations /
resources and funding.

RECREATION OFFICER=FACILITATOR
The first objective of the Rec Officer is to make sure everyone is
playing by the rules given by upper government. (legislation /
regulations)
Rules are just common sense i.e. respecting wildlife /
environmental concerns, and the rights of other stakeholders on
the landbase.
Recreation officer facilitates good communication and
understanding between agreement holder and stake holders
(Licensees and commercial operators) This is done thru a letter of
understanding.
Good communication is paramount
With respect / good understanding / friendly relationships develop
and approvals can be given resources / funds allocated to create the
great visions of our agreement holders.

TRAIL AUTHORIZATION
Before a trail can be built a Section 57 application must be made
The application is submitted to the Recreation officer who has it
referred to all the stake holders who have rights on the area of the
application-ex forest licensees , commercial operators, mining
companies, grazing holders, first nations.
After the referral period the Rec Officer must evaluate and try to
mitigate any concerns identified before giving approval.
Most trails are on areas that have potential for harvesting
opportunities-licensees do not take exception to these section 57
applications given the integrated resource management concept.
To date in Revelstoke, licensees have helped restore trails after
harvesting-there is no legal obligation to do so. If licensees cannot
find the funding to help out, then RSTBC will step up to the plate.

EXAMPLES OF WORK A RECREATION

OFFICER MAY DO TO FACILITATE VISIONS

Provide authorization for trail / infrastructure construction

Provide authorization for Special events
Provide contractors for trail construction
Support funding applications through letters of support and leveraging RSTBC $
with those of other agencies.
Go after funding on behalf of agreement holder
Provide Kiosk and Trail Signs
Provide Brochures
Provide materials and supplies, ex wood for bridges and boardwalks
Lend tools for trail construction
Help out with maintenance of access with district engineer i.e. road grading /
brushing/ bridge repair, parking lot construction
Put rules in place to help manage public Recreation ex (Non motorized on bike
trials)
Ensure sites and trails are safe and sanitary ex -Fall danger trees Pump out houses
Foster good understandings and friendly relationships (Win Win)

HOW FOREST LICENCEES HELP

Generally it is the Forest Licensees that have provide the
access to most of our Recreation Sites and Trails. (Putting
roads and bridges in place and maintaining them are huge $)
Many snowmobile trails and Nordic trail utilize the roads the
licensees have put in.
On an annual basis the Rec Officer receives money under the
Land Base Investment Account (from stumpage paid by the
licensees). This money often goes directly into trail building.
From time to time licensees have helped out with trail reconstruction and parking lot construction specifically for the
recreating public.

QUESTIONS
Please see me during the open house session

The Revelstoke Forest Industry

Public Presentation to the Community of Revelstoke, Revelstoke
Cycling Association, and Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club by the local
Forest Licensees on January 13th 2015

Background
Province Government is the landlord of 93% of the province
Provincial Government manages Crown land for the benefit of
the province as a whole
Management done through a legislative framework
Forest Act governs tenure administration
Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) came into
effect in 2003. Deals with practices on the landbase.

FRPA Elements
Five Key Elements are:
Government objectives in regulations or orders
Plans and practice requirements (ie: Forest Stewardship
Plans)
Compliance and Enforcement
Professional Reliance
Effectiveness evaluations

Phases of forest operations

Planning
Road Construction
Harvesting
Reforestation

Planning
Government sets the forest land objectives of the Crown based
on strategic land use plans, then amended over time.
Overarching plan is Revelstoke Higher Level Plan
Timber harvesting
Wildlife
Recreation
Visuals
Biodiversity
Water

Landscape Unit R14

Total Crown Land:

43,082 ha
Resultant

Inoperable Land base: 28,747 ha

14,335 ha

Non-Productive; Alpine: 15,405 ha

Non-Productive; Other: 3,732 ha
Total Non-Productive: 19,137 ha

13,493 ha

Unstable Terrain: 5,412 ha

12,785 ha

Riparian Reserve &

Wildlife Tree Patches: 334 ha

12,451 ha

Caribou Habitat (GAR): 15,485ha

5,100ha

Planning
Chief Forester determines the Allowable Annual Cut for
given areas and the Minister of FLNRO allocates a
portion of that volume to each of the forest licensees.
~1% of the Timber Harvesting Landbase (THLB) is
harvested annually
Revelstoke TSA THLB is ~24% of the productive forest
landbase and 10% of the total TSA Crown landbase
Therefore ~0.24% of the productive forest landbase
around Revelstoke is harvested annually (~600ha)
Considerable amount of THLB is around the city.

Forest Licensees

Downie Timber Ltd.

Louisiana Pacific Corporation
Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation
Stella-Jones
BC Timber Sales (Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural
Resource Operations)
4 local woodlots
- Positive relationship between the local licensees

Local Forest Tenure Holders

Planning

Forest Stewardship Plans (FSP)

Developed by each forest licensee for their
operating area(s) and approved by government
Must be consistent with higher level plans, laws
& regulations
Results and strategies detailing how
government objectives will be achieved
Opportunity for public comment and First
Nations consultation prior to approval
Renewed at least every 5 years

Planning
Site Plans
Cutblock specific plan identifies how the intended
results or strategies described in the forest
stewardship FSP apply to the site
Ecology
Water
Soils
Recreation
Roads
Silviculture system

Silvicultural Systems
There are a number of options with pros and cons for each. The
best option depends on the current stand and the desired future
stand. Things to consider are:
- Site conditions (species, blowdown potential, age,
feasibility, economics)
- Silviculture slum
Even-aged
Clearcut a single harvesting entry
Seedtree a single harvest entry with trees remaining
Shelterwood multiple entries over time to shelter the new
stand
Uneven-aged
Selection system multiple entries repeated indefinately
maintaining an uneven-aged stand.

Planning
Factors taken into consideration when determining where /
when to harvest:
Forest Health
Operational feasibility
Stand Characteristics
Age, volume, species, economics
Markets
Non-Timber values
Long term plan / opportunities
Site disturbance (winter vs. summer)
Safety
Government issues cutting permit if the District confirms
that the application is in order and First Nations concerns have
been adequately addressed

Road Construction
Safe, well designed roads are critical
Potential to cause environmental damage and safety
issues if not properly constructed
May require expertise from geotechnical experts or
engineers
Road construction costs range from ~$10,000 / km to ~1
million / km
Some roads are government responsibility and others are
industry responsibility

Timber Harvesting
3 general timber harvesting techniques
Conventional flat / gentle terrain
Cable steep terrain
Helicopter challenging areas
Conventional Harvesting (~35% of area)
More flexibility in harvesting methods / silvicultural
systems
Typical skidder, cat, feller buncher harvesting
operation

Timber Harvesting
Cable Harvesting (~60% of area)
Yarding tower pulls trees to the road with cables in the air
that span the cutblock
Low ground disturbance

Helicopter Harvesting (~ 5% of area)

Special helicopters fly a few logs at a time from the cutblock
to a landing

Reforestation
Licensees are responsible to reforest all harvested areas to
a standard acceptable to government
Reforestation may include:
Site preparation
Mounding
Piling / burning
De-stumping
Planting
Appropriate species, densities, etc.
Brushing competing vegetation
Many monitoring surveys
Legal obligation to meet free growing status

Environmental Certification
All the local major forest licensees have 3rd party
environmental certification
Requires an annual external audit of forest management
practices to ensure compliance with the certification
standard
Often has requirements above and beyond the
requirements of provincial forest legislation

Local Forest Sector

Wood product producers

Silviculture & Firefighting contractors
Logging & Road construction contractors
Forest management consulting contractors
Forest licensees
Ministry of Forests, Range, Natural Resource Operations
employees
Operations
BC Timber Sales
Wildfire Management

Revelstoke has a Unique Forest Industry

Diverse Forest Industry

Forest tenure type and ownership

Species profile

Products produced

Revelstoke manufacturers produce high value

products, not the standard 2x4

High quality dimensional lumber

Poles

Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL)

Shakes and shingles

For these reasons, the Revelstoke Forest Industry has
continued to operate through the recent market downturns
and has a bright future

Downie Timber
Most modern cedar mill in North America
Re-Manufacturing facility on site (Selkirk Specialty)
Mills the kootenay mix (spruce, cedar, fir, pine,
hemlock)
Not aware of another mill that cuts this diversity
of species
Wood sourced from:
Primary Interior
Secondary BC Coast
Products sold to:
North America, Asia, Europe, Australia

Louisiana Pacific
Operates an LVL / plywood plant in Golden
Products sold around the world

Stella-Jones
Largest supplier of cedar, fir, and lodgepole pine poles in North
America
Revelstoke yard primarily produces cedar poles
Wood sourced from:
Everywhere in BC except the Coast (coastal poles go
to facilities on the coast)
Revelstoke poles sold to:
Canada, USA (including Hawaii and Alaska), some
overseas
Stella Jones / Bell Pole yard in Revelstoke has operated
uninterrupted since 1962

RCFC

City owned TFL (1993)

Portion of wood to local licensees, portion sold on open market
Revenues benefit the citizens of Revelstoke
Mandate to hire local contractors

Other Local Wood Products Producers

Joe Kozek Sawmills

Take to Heart
Tom Scott Custom Wood Products
Cascade Cedar Shake & Shingle
R. Lang Cedar
Graham Farms

Revelstoke Economy
Total Community Income = $250 million (2011 est.)
Direct Forestry Contribution to community
Resource Extraction and Processing = $45 - $50 million
(est.)
350-375 people directly employed in Forest Sector (2011 est.)
approx. 12% of total labour force
~$46 million/year revenue to the Crown from timber harvested
in the Revelstoke area

Largest Employers in Revelstoke

(updated July 2011)
Downie/Selkirk
(sawmill/value added plant)

275

CP Rail

265

Revelstoke Mountain Resort

130 FTES
(seasonal/mostly winter - computes to 240 approx.)

School District #19

100

City of Revelstoke

98

Parks Canada

95

BC Hydro

93

Future of the Revelstoke Forest

Industry
Revelstoke has a bright forestry future
Downie has further diversified their operations
Purchase of Federated Co-op in Canoe
Revelstokes climate grows trees well!
Will continue to be a vital part of Revelstokes
diversified economy for the long term

Challenges facing the Revelstoke

Forest Industry
Shortage of local forestry workers, particularly loggers
and logging truck drivers
Maintaining the social, economic, and environmental
balance sought by society

Questions from the RCA

1. What is the difference between licencees and woodlot owners?
Licensees and woodlot owners are essentially the same.
The land base is divided into different management units with their own annual
allowable cut (AAC). The management units are: Timber Supply Areas (TSAs), Tree
Farm Licences (TFLs), and Woodlots.
For a Timber Supply Area (TSA) the total cut is apportioned to different private
companies by volume (cubic metres of wood) in the form of Forest Licences and Timber
Sale Licences (TSLs).
Tree Farm Licences are autonomous land bases outside of the TSA with their own AAC,
hence TFL holders are licencees that have a land base outside of the TSA.
Woodlots are a smaller version of TFLs with their own AAC.

2. How big is the operable land base for a licensee/wood lot owner?
For the Revelstoke TSA, the Timber Harvesting Land Base (THLB) is approximately
58,000 hectares, which is subdivided by licencee.

TFL 55 and 56 both have approximately 23,000 hectares of THLB each.

Cascadia TSA is approximately 25,000 hectares of THLB.

Woodlots are very small- around 600 hectares gross area.

3. What is the AAC?

Annual Allowable Cut= AAC
It is the annual harvest level for each of the following management units: Timber
Supply Areas (TSAs), Tree Farm Licences (TFLs) and Woodlots.
The calculation and associated determination assumes that all operable forest outside
of parks and reserves and other constraints are available for harvest (known as the
Timber Harvesting Land Base or THLB).
Re-determined every 5-10 years by Chief Forester.
Cascadia TSA = 66,566m3 / yr
TFL 55 = 78,325m3 / yr + BCTS portion = 11,675m3 / yr
TFL 56 = 78,520m3 / yr + BCTS portion = 11,480m3 / yr
Revelstoke TSA = 225,000m3 / yr total
- Stella-Jones = 48,753m3 / yr
- Downie = 130,600m3 / yr
- BCTS = 43,997m3 / yr
WL 461 = ~2500m3 / yr
WL 460 = ~1800m3 / yr
WL 1834 = ~900m3 / yr
WL 322 = ~2200m3 / yr
Licencees are expected to harvest these levels within a five year term.

4. How do licensees choose what to cut, where, and when?

Forest Health
Operational feasibility
Stand Characteristics- Age, volume, species, economics
Markets
Non-Timber values (constraints)
Long term plan / opportunities
Site disturbance (winter vs. summer)
Safety
Economics

5. What are the longer term plans for harvesting on Macpherson, Boulder and Frisby?
Will depend on the many factors listed in the previous slide
In general, the mature timber within the THLB will be harvested over time, subject to
constraints.
More detailed information available at individual licencee tables.

6. Why only clear cutting?

Licencees have employed other cutting techniques around Revelstoke, but a large
portion of the cutting around Macpherson and Boulder has been in response to
windthrow events.
Operational issues (stand age, safety, terrain, species) often constrain partial cutting
options. In general, partial cutting systems work better in younger stands.
Silvics- Regenerating desired species for site . Partial cutting can limit regeneration
options to less desirable species for a given site.
Concentrated cutting (ie clearcut) over a smaller areas vs partial cutting over a larger
area, and more often. Licencees still obligated to meet their AAC commitments.
Economics. Partial cutting obtains less volume for given area.

7. What other types of harvest prescriptions can be employed instead of clear cuts?
Other silviculture systems are possible, but given the age and structure of the mature
stands, they carry inherent risks- mainly windthrow, but also insects and disease.
There are also additional operational constraints.

Safety and terrain

Desired species to regenerate

Windthrow, insect, and disease risks

Forest age, structure, and species composition

Economics

8. What kind of coordination between multiple licencees/ woodlots can or do exist?

Licencees co-ordinate and share info to manage for visuals, ungulate winter range,
and biodiversity.
Licencees often co-operate when operating in the same area or off the same road
systems.
However, they are independent business entities with their own business plans and
philosophies, so timing of harvesting is driven by business needs.
The higher level plan and provincial legislation establishes the ground rules by which
all licencees must operate. As long as licencees adhere to the plan, they are meeting
the objectives of the Provincial government.

9. How can the cumulative impacts to a recreational area and/or specific activity be
evaluated? Specifically when considering multiple licensees.
How are single-licencee impacts calculated?
Government regularly monitors compliance to licencee Forest Stewardship Plans and
to legislation, but there are no specific process to evaluate impacts to recreation
resources.
It is presumed that as long as licencees meet the objectives established in these plans
and in the legislation, they are meeting government objectives for managing public
forest land.

10. What obligations do harvesting companies have to re-instate recreational facilities?

There are no legal obligations for licencees to re-establish recreational facilities.
Around Revelstoke , licencees have voluntarily re-established recreational facilities, or
have donated money to enable re-establishment.
A portion of stumpage fees also contributes to a special fund called the Forest
Investment Account. This money contributes to the budget of Sites and Trails BC which
has also been used to establish as well as re-establish recreational facilities.
Some Forest Licencees have MOUs with tenured recreation groups that outlines how
to co-operatively re-establish recreation facilities. This was unique to Revelstoke, but is
now being used as a model for other jurisdictions.

11. How are visual aesthetics of a harvest plan developed - for both recreationalists
located in the harvest area and from town or other viewpoints?
Visual quality objectives have been developed for areas visible from the Hwy 1 and
Hwy 23 corridors as well as any areas visible from viewpoints within the city.
Cutblocks are evaluated using modelling techniques to ensure they meet the visual
quality objectives for these areas.
Visual quality objectives may be over ridden for other objectives (for example, forest
health issues on Boulder Mountain).
No standards currently exist for visual quality assessed for recreationists within a
harvest area.

12. Is it possible to enter into another kind of joint-use committee (CSRD, recreation
groups, City, etc) with licensees and woodlot owners at MacP? at Boulder? at Frisby?
The Revelstoke Higher Level Plan and Provincial legislation have already been formulated
with input from all stakeholders (including the City and the CSRD) to identify the
objectives for the land base (which includes these areas). Since these objectives have
been established in law, it is unclear what purpose a joint use committee would serve.
Any new approach should be led by government and evaluated against the current
system. The current system allows for meaningful discussion and input when user groups
are proposing an activity, and it is an efficient use of time and resources to address
planning issues as they arise vs. the time and resource commitment that a standing
committee would require.
Memorandums of Understanding also provide additional venues for discussion and
dialogue.
Forest professionals are members of the community with recreational interests as well.
They understand the importance of all the forest users and do their best to balance these
for the benefit of the community as a whole.

Conclusion
Communication is important
Shared landbase
The forest and tourism sectors are both important to
Revelstoke
If you have questions please see individual forest licensee in
the open house session
Thank you