The choice: MONOPOLY and MONOCULTURE or SOCIAL and ECOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
The Harcourt government is backing a certain, clearly defined approach to the management of B.C.'s forests. It is perpetuating an attitude, a system and a set of vested interests that are ecologically unsound, are resulting in massive unemployment of forest workers, and are socially destructive.
The system now in place in the coastal forests foresees, almost exclusively, a repetitive cycle of clearcut logging and plantation forestry. Once the available old-growth has been logged, large-scale clearcuts of second-growth stands will proceed, possibly when they are only 50 to 60 years old.
The characteristics of this system are well known. In its crudest forms this type of forestry is ecologically damaging. As rotation ages are lowered, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for diverse forest ecosystems to restore themselves following large-sized clearcutting. In the end, this kind of forestry is self- destructive, because in time it will degrade the soil and the land to a point where the volume of timber yields will decline. It does not attempt to produce a diverse forest, but merely to provide successive crops of industrial timber. In this kind of forestry, non-timber species are of secondary importance.
It is a capital-intensive industry, using large, expensive equipment. In the name of competitiveness and productivity it employs fewer and fewer workers. It is a system that produces low-value timber, most of which will be used in pulp mills, the most capital intensive of the forest product industries. Diversified forest product economies are converted to single-product operations. The economic benefits of this sort of industry accrue less and less to local communities and instead, are diverted to distant centers.
Selectively cutting this Quadra Island forest provided work for local forest workers and off-island mill workers, without the destructive impact of a large clearcut. Photo credit: J.Benner
The social aspects of this system are characterized by the existence of a handful of large corporations, a few big unions and pervasive government bureaucracy. The concentration of control over the timber supply has continued steadily for almost 50 years and shows no sign yet of ending. In most of the forest industry, free enterprise has ceased to exist, with small firms relegated to the role of contractors. Silvicultural work, which mostly consists of replanting logged areas, is performed by a landless workforce of transient labourers - frequently underpaid and unskilled and with little motivation to stay in the business.
The biggest problem with this system is that it is the only one that exists in B.C. It is monolithic and, for the most part, no other approach is allowed.
An option exists to manage at least a portion of the forests in ways similar to those used in other parts of the world. It is possible to employ all the people now being put out of work. It is possible to practice a kind of forestry that is more capable of maintaining ecological diversity. It is possible to provide the conditions that will foster the growth of a diverse and pluralistic society.
The means exist to make relatively small parcels of commercial forest land available to individuals, families, small firms, Indian bands, municipalities and others. The potential benefits of such an approach are enormous. The allocation of forest land to large numbers of people would stabilize local economies. Providing work for people in the existing second-growth forests that are capable of producing economic returns has the potential of creating thousands of jobs with a relatively low level of capital investment. The existence of a landed forest workforce could greatly increase the quality of the commercial timber in these forests, which, in time, would provide the high-value wood needed for a value-added forest products industry. The selection logging of these young forests would provide a large volume of timber to replace the dwindling supplies of old growth. The expansion of a genuinely free log market could provide the basis of an expanded and diversified manufacturing sector.
Forest managed in this way would rarely or, in some cases, maybe never, have to be clearcut. Such permaforests exist elsewhere and there appears to be no reason why timber cannot be perpetually harvested from some temperate rainforests without having to cut the entire forest. The existence of skilled workers, familiar with a particular forest, would make it much easier to manage for the enhancement of non-timber values such as water, fish, wildlife and recreation.
Socially, this approach to forestry would encourage the establishment of a whole new sector of small, independent businesses. Forest farming is a business that could be undertaken by individuals, form the basis of family enterprises and lead to the formation of a wide rage of small business ventures. There is a great need in B.C. for this kind of opportunity to be restored to the forest sector.
At present we are committed in B.C. to one system of forest management - clearcut and plant - dominated by a small number of multi-national forest companies. What we need is a much more diverse approach, with a lot more people trying a lot of different, ecologically sound ways of managing the forests.
