Progressive Forestry
Harvesting and Timber Sales
Revelstoke is known for its beautiful setting and active lifestyle. Sport has always been part of its history; however, its current reputation as a destination resort overshadows the area’s industrial roots. Since its early days, the railroad and forest industries have anchored the local economy. Like many resource-based communities in BC, economic booms and busts have cycled through, testing residents’ resilience.
RCFC: The Story
In the early 1990s, after a particularly tough period of local underemployment, Downie Timber, the local sawmill, had shut down and was barely getting back on its feet. Loggers and truck drivers were out of work. Then came the news that a portion of nearby Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 55 was up for sale. It was an opportunity to keep local resources close to home. Take some jobs back and use timber sale profits to benefit the community. But it was bold.
Tough times call for innovative measures. With great foresight and fearless leadership, the mayor, Geoff Battersby, and fellow progressive citizens, Joe Kozek from Kozek Sawmills, CSRD Area B Director, Loni Parker, Rob Lenzi, Bill King and Jack Heavenor from Downie Timber, forged the development of a corporation. In 1993, Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation (RCFC) formed and purchased the southern section of TFL 55. TFL 56 became an entity.
TFL 56: A Community Forest at Work
RCFC manages and harvests 120,000 hectares of land. Half of the area is timbered. Of those 69,000 hectares, most are either preserved or inaccessible to logging, leaving 19,000 hectares operable to forest harvesting. Detailed information on our annual allowable cut, harvesting plans and commercial thinning projects are listed on the Operations page.
Sustainable Forestry Methods
We are rooted in community. To remain profitable and continue supporting our residents, we must ensure that our forests stay healthy and robust. Our existence relies on forward-thinking methods of harvesting and silviculture practices. Weather events, climate change, and wildfires all factor into our decision-making processes. Where we can, we collaborate with academics and scientists. We foster student foresters. We exchange knowledge between mid-career foresters and new professionals to keep our practices current and innovative. Like nature, we need to adapt.
Visit our Operations page to learn more. And read Timber Times, our community newspaper! You’ll find stories about all things forestry-related and community-based. Find it at local shops throughout Revelstoke.
Planning for Future Forestry
It is important to have stands of trees at different stages across the landscape. Uniformity leaves the forests and us subject to catastrophe. We plan for connectivity, leaving some drainages undisturbed, and protecting old growth where it makes sense.
Anticipation is becoming critical. Our collaboration with university programs and scientists increases our awareness of species migrations and shifts in weather behaviour beyond our landscape. What we observe is only part of larger change.
Bottom line: We work within the belief that our decisions can strike a balance between social, environmental and economic values.