Forest Policy

FOREST POLICY, until 1910, was concerned only with the means by which Crown-owned timber and forest land was made available for private use. Under colonial governments, outright grants of forest land were made to provide timber for industrial purposes. In 1865 a land ordinance introduced the principle of granting rights for use of timber only, with ownership of the land and other resources remaining with the Crown. When BC entered CONFEDERATION in 1871 the province assumed jurisdiction over all natural resources, including forests. In return for railway construction financed by the federal government, extensive areas of land were given to the Dominion, which in turn granted the right to harvest timber from them in exchange for royalty payments. In 1896 timber lands were defined and the sale of forest land prohibited. Governments used various forms of leases and licences to make timber available to encourage industrial development. In 1905, anxious to increase revenues, the government of Richard McBRIDE introduced a new form of licence granting a 21-year right to harvest timber from a square mile of land. Licences were transferable and required fluctuating annual payments. Within 3 years, 15,000 of these licences were issued on 36,000 sq km of the most valuable timberland in the province.

The staking frenzy provoked by the McBride leases, combined with the rising incidence of FOREST FIRES caused by railway and LOGGING operations, and a growing N American conservationist movement, led to the formation of a Royal Commission on forestry conducted by F.J. Fulton, which reported in 1910. The commission's recommendations led to the Forest Act of 1912, which created a FOREST SERVICE to oversee protection of the province's forests and collection of revenues from the sale of timber. A primary objective of the new policies was to develop and maintain a FOREST PRODUCTS industry. Further alienation of Crown forests was prohibited, with small, short-term Timber Sales introduced to meet minor needs. This basic policy framework prevailed until the end of WWII. In 1942 Chief Forester C.D. Orchard sent a confidential memo to the government proposing major changes in forest policy. His suggestions led to the establishment of a second Royal Commission on forestry under Chief Justice Gordon Sloan, who reported in 1945. The major change stemming from this report was the decision to regulate the annual timber harvest in the province to provide a steady, perpetual flow of timber, with the objective of stabilizing the economic base of timber-dependent communities. This policy was called "sustained yield."

At the same time as it brought in these changes, the government introduced a new form of licence on designated forest land granting the right to harvest timber and the responsibility to manage forests for future crops. These Forest Management Licences provoked a great deal of controversy and were bitterly opposed by much of the established FOREST INDUSTRY, which feared they would lead to monopoly control over timber rights and fail to encourage good forest management. Another Royal Commission under Chief Justice Sloan reported in 1956, endorsing Forest Management Licences. Shortly thereafter, Minister of Forests Robert Sommers (see SOMMERS AFFAIR) was jailed for accepting bribes in the issuance of these licences; few of them were issued after this.

The policies established following the 2 Sloan commissions prevailed until 1978, by which time the industry had become concentrated in the hands of a few corporations that had obtained Forest Management Licences, now known as Tree Farm Licences (TFLs). During the same period the use of Timber Sales had become widespread and extensive, and when timber shortages began to occur, administrative measures restricted the use of Timber Sales to established operators in each supply area. By the mid-1970s, the large TFL companies had acquired most of these short-term cutting rights as well. A fourth Royal Commission under Peter PEARSE reported in 1976 and recommended extensive policy changes. Pearse's major proposals concerned measures to halt the concentration of control over timber rights, warnings about impending timber shortages and the recognition of non-timber forest rights and values. In 1978 the government passed a new Forest Act, including only minor changes in tenure rights. The effect was to entrench the power of major holders of cutting rights; most volume-based leases and licences were consolidated into Forest Licences granting forest companies a specified volume of timber for a 15-year period. The 1978 act also introduced numerous changes to recognize non-timber forest values, but no attempt was made to restrict timber harvests, which grew steadily over the next decade or more.

In 1989 a government attempt to convert volume-based Timber Licences into area-based Tree Farm Licences provoked widespread public opposition, leading to the formation of the Forest Resources Commission (FRC) to examine broad issues of forest policy. The FRC issued a report in 1991 containing recommendations for radical changes in forest tenure, but the proposals received little support. That same year an NDP government was elected; during its term the government introduced numerous measures to restrict the annual timber harvest, to resolve land use disputes and to regulate FORESTRY practices. See also COMMISSION ON RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT.
by Ken Drushka
Reading: Ken Drushka, In the Bight, 1999; M. Patricia Marchak, Falldown: Forest Policy in BC, 1999.