Forests and Forestry in British Columbia
Deck Supply Co. sources most of its Western Red Cedar products from British Columbia in Western Canada. BC forests are among the most stringently regulated in the world, and are world leaders in preserving sensitive ecosystems. British Columbia is becoming the international environmental choice among consumers and key influencers. Here's the story:
- Democratic Land Use Planning: Land use is determined through open and democratic processes that emphasize local input.
- Unrivalled Protected Areas: British Columbia has already met the World Wildlife Fund target for total protected forest area and the United Nations target for total protected area. Since 1992, BC has created more than 300 new protected areas.
- Old Growth Conserved: Although BC has been logging for more than 120 years, almost 80 per cent of the forests remain untouched
- Limited Working Forest: Although forests cover 62 per cent of BC, the Working Forest is limited to just 24 per cent of the province.
- Regulated and Limited Logging: Less than one per cent of BC's Working Forest is harvested annually at rates set by the province's chief forester through an intensive, analytical, open and transparent public process.
- Unparalleled Forest Practices Regulation: BC's Forest Practices Code is unmatched in the world. The government makes about 40,000 inspections of industry practices each year and has found a compliance rate of about 98 per cent.
- Full Reforestation: By law, all harvested areas must be reforested. More than 200 million seedlings, or about three seedlings for every tree cut, are planted every year to supplement natural regrowth. BC will soon plant its five billionth tree.
- Independent Certification: Forest companies are seeking independent certification of their forest practices. In 1998, there were no certified lands in BC. Now, operations representing more than 40 per cent of the allowable harvest are certified, and more are on the way.
The Facts...
- BC has exceeded the World Wildlife Fund's protection target of 10%.
- The WWF reports BC has more protected area (%) than any other jurisdiction in Canada.
- BC has already met the United Nations target for total protected areas.
- Today BC has protected a greater proportion of its land base than most other commercial forestry jurisdictions in the world.
- Less than 1% of forests are harvested annually.
- More trees are growing now than 120 years ago.
- The provincial average cut block size has decreased almost 40% since 1988.
- BC has only 17% of Canada's total forestland but grows almost 40% of the nation's merchantable timber.
- In Canada almost 50% of all silviculture expenditures occur in BC.