General Manager's Report
Review of the 1999-2000
Operating Year
| The seventh full year of operation for the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation began on a rather cautious note following the previous year’s decline in sawlog prices, but markets firmed up and operations proceeded very close to our business plan projections. At the April 30, 2000 year end, RCFC recorded an after tax net income of $171,585 on sales of $6,415,990 before paying a dividend to the City of Revelstoke. This was the first year that RCFC has been required to pay corporate and capital taxes, due to changes in the Federal Government's taxation rules regarding municipally owned corporations. | 
| Our average sales prices from the RCFC sortyard increased from $98.71/cubic meter in 1998-99 to $102.20/cubic meter in 1999-00. Log costs rose from $93.22/cubic meter to $96.56/cubic meter due to our decision to increase the amount of pulp grade timber we were harvesting due to better than anticipated lumber markets. This a key strategy to maintaining profitablity in the long term while addressing the large amount of pulp grade timber that is present on the TFL. | The past year's positive results have increased accumulated retained earnings for the Corporation to $2,744,679 after dividends and interest to the City of Revelstoke totaling $525,176. In addition, $500,000 of the City's $1,000,000 initial investment in the company was repaid, so now the City can invest the money in other community ventures.
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Due to changes in the Corporate Income Tax Act which saw the Corporation's tax free status as a municipally owned company eliminated, the Board of Director's agreed to restructure the company in a manner that better reflects the way the company operates as well as to limit the company's liabilities. This change has resulted in the setting up of a separate company, RCFC Holding Company Ltd. which acts as a management company overseeing the operation of TFL 56. Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation continues to carry out the primary forest management, logging, silviculture and other activities on the TFL. No changes in staff or administration were required to enact the changes although considerable expense was incurred in legal and accounting fees to finalize the changes. Operating results will be reported on a consolidated basis for the two companies.
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| FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANNING |
| The Minister's Advisory Committee's (MAC) land use plan for the Revelstoke area was submitted to the Minister of Forests in the fall of 1999, but to date has not received final approval. RCFC would like to see the plan approved soon as it is important for providing "upper-level planning" advice which we require to guide the preparation of the Management Plan #3 and Forest Development Plans on TFL 56. As we have had no indication that the plan will not be accepted, we have incorporated the MAC plans recommendations into our planning process and have developed a spatially explicit landscape unit plan for the TFL. This plan identifies the location of Mature Forest Retension Areas on the TFL's forest harvesting land base which will be used to meet MAC guidelines for mountain caribou, biodiversity corridors and winter deer and moose range. Areas outside of the retension areas will then be available for timber harvesting. Once we have our harvesting areas delineated, we can use this information to drive our timber supply calculations, knowing with confidence that these important non-timber resources have been considered in the planning process.
| | TIMBER HARVESTING AND DEVELOPMENT | 
Photo: Schiller Contracting's 90 ft. Madill yarder working on CP 121 Blk 3, Downie Creek. | Our program of developing and expanding our inventory of “ready to log" areas has continued in the past year and we have now achieved a "steady state" position of approximately three years of developed timber which we intend to maintain. This inventory of developed timber is critical in enabling us to respond effectively to changes in log market demands. Our inventory contains different species and quality of wood as well as a variety of harvesting systems (eg. cat, cable, longline, helicopter) available over a range of seasons. Our mix of logging systems for the past year, as well as the averages from when the company first started logging, is as follows: | | LOGGING SYSTEMS | | TYPE | 1999-00 | 1993-2000 | | Ground Skidding | 24.7% | 24.1% | | Cable Logging | 53.6% | 53.3% | | Longline Systems | 8.1% | 2.8% | | Helicopter | 0.0% | 6.5% | | Right of Way | 14.5% | 13.3% |
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Last year was RCFC's second year in its present five-year cut control period and the company harvested 89,400 cubic meters of timber from TFL 56. In addition, 17 kms of road and two bridges were constructed. Logging and hauling operations are conducted with local contractors to the greatest extent possible, and road construction projects are tendered out to Revelstoke-based contractors only. Over $5,900,000 of goods and services were purchased from Revelstoke business's during 1998-99.
| | LOGGING CONTRACTORS | COMPANY NAME | VOLUME LOGGED (m³) | | Encampment Creek Logging | 36,980 | | Schiller Contracting | 33,184 | | Spur Logging | 8,092 | | Joe Kozek Sawmills | 4,444 | | Marinex Equipment | 3,054 | | Dave Cass | 3,160 | | Heartwood Consulting | 3,425 | | Shakewood Salvage | 185 | TOTAL: | 89,470 m³ |
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| SAWLOGS / PULPLOG BREAKDOWN |
(Cubic Meters) - 1999-00 
| (Cubic Meters) - 1993-00 
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| REVELSTOKE WOODLANDS SAFETY COMMITTEE | Changes to the Worker’s Compensation Board legislation (Bill 14) prompted us to review our role and responsibility in promoting safety in our woodland operations. The Revelstoke area has some of the most difficult and dangerous operating conditions in the B.C. forest industry and we want to do everything that we can to ensure the safety of our contractors and their employees. After discussions with other forest licence holders, we decided to form a joint woodlands safety committee for the Revelstoke area. The committee is composed of representatives of the main logging, hauling and road construction contractors who work for RCFC, Downie Timber, Joe Kozek Sawmills, Beaumont Timber and Bell Pole, along with company supervisors and managers. The committee’s purpose is to keep everyone informed about WCB requirements and regulations and to promote safety in all phases of our operations. John Werstuik of Priority Safety Services has been hired to chair and coordinate the committee.
| | LOG MARKETING |
| 24,105 cubic meters of logs were sold through the RCFC log sort yard at an average price of $102.20/cubic meter. Pulpwood was sold to Celgar Pulp (26,273 cubic meters) and Cache Creek Woodchips (10,044 cubic meters). The contracts for supplying scaling and loading equipment expired at the end of March 2000 and were re-advertised for a three year period. Once again, Blue Spruce Contracting was the successful bidder on the scaling contract and Elgin Construction was successful in supplying the loader. Both companies have provided excellent service in the past and we are happy to see them retain their contracts. Log sale information is now provided on this website (click on 'Log Sort Yard & Sales' tab at top of screen). The website provides pictures of each log deck as well as details on lengths and diameters and past sales results. A detailed listing of the volumes and prices received in the last two years is included on this report.
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| SPECIES DISTRIBUTION OF SAWLOGS (%) |
1999-00 
| 1993-00 
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Our silviculture program focused heavily on planting areas that were harvested while we were catching up on our undercut. This caused us to double the amount of area we would normally plant annually. | SILVICULTURE ACTIVITIES 1999-00 | | TREATMENT | HECTARES | | Site prep - piling | 7.1 | | Planting (585,475 trees) | 401.3 | | Brushing - manual | 554.9 | | Brushing - chemical | 39.3 | | Silviculture Surveys | 1,851.1 | | Pruning | 24.9 |
| A large manual brushing and weeding program has helped to ensure that new plantations get a good start in spite of the dense regrowth of vegetation that some sites experience after logging. A small chemical brushing program using basal bark spray on deciduous regrowth was necessary on a few areas where manual brushing was impractical. Only a minimal amount of site preparation for future planting was carried out due to wet conditions that prevented us from carrying out slash burning on a couple of cutblocks. A trial was carried out to test the feasibility of using a small helicopter to pile slash concentrations on steep blocks without road access. Although expensive, the method worked and we will use it on areas that need some treatment before planting and where less expensive methods will not work. During the 1999-00 operating year $790,000 was spent on silviculture projects.
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1999-2000 was the second year of our Multi-Year Agreement with FRBC. A total of $315,097 was spent on the following projects on TFL 56: | PROJECT | COST($) | | 1) Enhanced Silviculture | | - Pruning | 16,285 | | 2) Backlog Silviculture | | - Surveys | 20,880 | | - Brushing | 111,882 | | 3) Watershed Rehabilitation | - Keystone Road
Rehab/Deactivation | 70,467 | - Goldstream Watershed
Assessment | 35,232 | - Goldstream Road
Deactivation | 3,236 | - Downie Cr. Stream
Rehab | 1,770 | - Downie Creek
Monitoring | 8,812 | - Jordan River Fish
Habitat Improvement | 10,259 | | 4) Big Eddy Waterworks | - Stream Quality
Monitoring | 1,640 | | 5) Overhead, Communication and non-specific Activity Costs: | | | 34,222 | TOTAL: | $315,097 |
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Photo: Forest Renewal spacing
and pruning project near
Caribou Creek.
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FRBC continues to be a valuable source of funds for conducting incremental forestry work on TFL 56. The program has allowed us to address virtually all the watershed protection issues that were present due to past logging and road building activities. We agreed to direct some of our watershed rehabilitation funding to the Jordan River watershed near Revelstoke to address fish habitat improvement projects. We are continuing to use the funding to conduct surveys and treatments on "backlog plantations" that were not originally RCFC's responsibility, as well as to do enhanced treatments like spacing and pruning to improve growth and quality of our future stands. We are also conducting a number of inventory projects to help define other uses and values which are present on the TFL. Much of this work would not be getting done if it were not for the FRBC program.
| | ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION |
Meeting the habitat requirements of the many species of birds, animals and plants that are found within the boundaries of TFL 56, while maintaining the jobs and revenues that our community depends upon from timber harvesting, is a continuing challenge for RCFC's staff. In the past year, some species like the mountain caribou have been moved from being "blue-listed" to "red-listed", meaning they will fall under endangered species legislation when it arrives.
| Other diverse species such as the Northern Goshawk and the Northern Long-eared Miotis are also red-listed and will require special management consideration. The common concern for these three species is that they require mature to old forest (140+ years) for their habitat requirements. Fortunately, TFL56 has an abundance of old forest which gives us some flexibility in retaining areas for habitat purposes while allowing timber harvesting to continue
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Photo: Long eared Miotis captured in bat inventory project, Downie Creek. photo by Bruce Runciman
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Once again, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the many contractors, consultants and suppliers for the excellent work and service that they have provided to RCFC during the past year. I would also like to thank the many customers who purchase logs from our sort yard for their business and interest in RCFC. I must also thank our Board of Directors and our industry partners for their trust and support and, most certainly, my staff who do an excellent job for our shareholders, the citizens of Revelstoke, and make the day to day operation of RCFC an enjoyable experience. Respectfully Submitted,
Robert Clarke, R.P.F.
General Manager
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[General Manager's Report] [Log
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