Operating a forestry enterprise in British Columbia during these changing times is a challenging undertaking for most firms. This is particularly true for a community owned corporation operating on an area with difficult terrain and many highly valued resources. Current challenges for RCFC include:
 | road development
While progress has been made in extending the road network within the TFL, during the 1995/96 season approximately 50 kilometres of road is planned to be built to harvest 125,000 cubic metres of timber. Reductions in this program will lead to limited harvesting opportunities. Ironically, the current downturn in log prices may prompt reduced harvesting targets, thus partially offsetting the impacts of any delays in road development.
| | forest practices
RCFC is committed to balancing the need to operate a profitable business while respecting the natural capabilities of the land and the needs and desires of the public who own the land. The corporation’s forest management practices are designed to ensure timber harvesting can continue on a sustainable basis while protecting the natural environment. In addition to the challenges of implementing the new requirements of the Forest Practices Code, RCFC faces specific challenges due to the terrain and ecology of the TFL lands and the unique community ownership of the corporation. These challenges include examining the continued use of herbicides as a brushing treatment on plantations and implementing selective harvesting on steep slopes with cable logging methods. The corporation is currently developing a proposal for Forest Renewal funding to
assist with the development of innovative harvesting techniques for environmentally sensitive sites with multiple resource values.
| | management planning and timber supply review
The second Management and Working Plan for the TFL, including a review of the allowable annual cut, must be approved by the Chief Forester by December, 1995. When the TFL was purchased it was expected that the allowable annual cut would decline over time. This was factored into the financial projections for the corporation. However, opportunities exist to improve the
initial forecasts by expanding timber harvesting into previously unharvested areas through the use of innovative harvesting practices such as helicopter logging which will not damage the sensitive environmental conditions in these areas.
| | normal timber industry business cycle
The corporation has seen higher profits than originally forecast in its first two years of operations, leading some to proclaim it a resounding success. Others caution that the timber industry has historically been highly cyclical, with approximately five years between troughs. In recent months, lumber prices have declined substantially, but the impact of this downturn has been buffered by continuing high pulp prices which have kept log prices comparatively high. However, declining lumber prices have prompted suggestions that the normal business downturn is beginning. Still others contend that the reductions in timber supply from some public forest lands, and declining areas of mature private forest land will lead to continuing high log prices. |
RCFC was cautioned about the cyclical nature of the industry by its early advisors, prompting the creation of a reserve fund to weather expected downturns. This fund is well on its way to being fully established with a current balance of $1.1 76 million at the 1995 fiscal year-end. Early in 1994, the Board of Directors defined preliminary strategies for the corporation (Appendix 2). With the corporation now successfully functioning as a forestry business with respectable profits in its early years, the Board intends to refocus on a long-term strategic plan. Topics to be examined in this plan include: |
Creation of the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation began with the commitment of the City of Revelstoke, community groups and individual citizens to establish local control of local forest resources. The sale of the original TFL within the area and the community’s strong opposition to proposals which would lead to processing of the local timber resource outside the area created the opportunity for the community to take action on this commitment. An innovative partnership with local timber companies, available financing, sound advice and hard work by many individuals lead to the establishment of a unique community corporation. During its first two years of operation, this corporation has become a functioning forestry business yielding higher than expected profits and providing substantial benefits to the community. The corporation is in an excellent position to succeed over the next few years, even with the challenges of ongoing changes in forest practices and land-use and the possible normal downturn in the timber industry business cycle. |
