Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Results — Continued

Goal 1: Sustainable Forest Resources.

As stewards of British Columbia's forest and range resources, the Forest Service has the responsibility to ensure that the use of the forests to generate economic benefits is balanced with the long-term health of the forest and range resources. We will ensure the use of appropriate forest and range management practices to maintain and improve the long-term sustainability and health of the province's forest, range and recreation resources. We will also ensure incremental investments in the forest resource are effective.

Key outcome indicators of sustainable forest resources were chosen to represent the extent of the forest land base, timber productivity, eco system health of the forests and rangelands, and compliance of forest operators with laws governing forest and range practices.

Key Outcome Indicator:

A Sustainable Forest Land Base.

The area in provincial forest land reflects provincial land use decisions. Changes would be expected if the government removed Crown land from forest management for other uses (e.g. preservation, parks or agriculture, or crown land sales) or converted land from other uses to forest management.

Provincial forest land for the purposes of this measure, is the Crown land in timber supply areas, woodlot licences and tree farm licences. Data is from the Ministry of Forests Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) database, as at January 1 each year. This measure was 47.8 M hectares at January 1, 2002. The reduction of 0.5 M hectares in the productive forest area that has been noted in the AAC database largely represents changes to land use and administration, primarily related to new protected areas and treaties over the past 5 years. Changes to inventories (e.g. what is defined as productive) have also contributed to the differences.

Key Outcome Indicators:

Sustainable Timber Productivity.

The ministry uses measures of reforestation and losses from fire to represent sustainable timber productivity. These measures use data from the past 5 years.

Reforested includes planting or natural regeneration and is net of plantation failures. Harvesting is by any method. Losses to fire and pests are unsalvageable.

• A ratio of 1.0 indicates that areas being reforested are in balance with those being harvested or lost to fire and pests.
• The ratio was greater than 1.0 from 1993 to 2001 reflecting a focus on backlog reforestation. The 2002/03 base for this measure was 0.93.
• A ratio of less than 1.0 reflects a trend towards increased not-satisfactorily-restocked areas (NSR) with more area being harvested or lost to fire and pests than reforested.
• Forest licensees are meeting their legal obligations to reforest harvested areas (as indicated by a Forest Practices Board report in 2002). The decline is therefore, likely reflecting reduced reforestation of areas disturbed by fire and pests that are neither a licensee nor a ministry responsibility. This indicator may decline further with the serious losses from fires in 2003.
• The ministry's policy is that licensees may choose to reforest areas lost to fire and pests according to their priorities for forest management investment under the Forest Investment sub-vote (FI). However, in 2004/05, a portion of FI funds will be directed towards reforestation of areas lost to fire and pests.
• In 2004/05 the ministry will be developing a strategy to address reforestation on areas lost to fire and pests. Given this strategy, the ministry projects that the ratio will approach 1.0 in a 5 to 10 year period.

Unwanted wildfire is unplanned or accidental, with the potential to cause damage to or loss of timber, range or public resources. The total area lost to unwanted wildfire is highly dependent on weather. The five-year rolling average in 2002/03 was 20,471 hectares.

The exceptionally severe 2003 fire season, the worst since 1958, will impact the 5-year rolling average of area lost for the next 5 years. Projections of losses have been increased to reflect 2003/04 conditions and the potential for drought to continue in 2004/05.

By 2006/07 it is predicted that area lost will return to <35,000 hectares per year, which was the previous baseline reflected in the 2003/04 Service Plan.

Key Outcome Indicators:

Healthy Forests — soil quality, water quality and ecosystem diversity.

Healthy forest ecosystems sustain the quality and quantity of soil, water and timber, and therefore, indicate sustainable forest resources. The indicators chosen are linked to national forest criteria and indicators of global forest sustainability. Although, the indicators presented here are chosen to represent key elements of healthy ecosystems, these indicators are only meaningful at the ecosystem level, need to be considered over time, and none can be taken by themselves as a sufficient indicator of sustainability. The ministry intends to present more comprehensive information in a "State of the Forests" report published periodically.

The definition of forest has been changed to align with an international definition¹ (trees are >5 m tall at maturity and tree crown cover is >10%). This change now classifies some alpine and non-productive forest included in the figure in the 2002/03 Service plan as "other wooded land" rather than forest. This does not represent a change in the forest itself.

Key Outcome Indicator:

Effective forest protection and management by forest operators.

Compliance reflects management decisions and actions of forest operators, and is key to the outcome of sustainable forest resources.

Forest operators include all major and small business licensees. Information is from the ministry's Compliance Information Management System. The rate of compliance has consistently been in excess of 90 per cent for the past eight years.

Core Business Area:

Forest Protection.

Objective 1:

Prevent and manage unwanted wildfire, pests and invasive alien plants to ensure that forest and range resources are protected.

Strategies for 2004/05:

1. Ensure fire preparedness and rapid effective initial attack.

• Continue to implement the new Wildfire Act (WFA) including streamlined regulations, to address increased cost recovery for fire protection activities.

• Respond to the results of the internal and external inquiries into the 2003 extreme fire season (this plan does not account for the responses or budget implications to be addressed in future years).

2. Forest licensees will take on greater responsibilities for protecting the health and forests under their management through the defined forest area management model.

• Treatments for forest health, including bark beetle infestations on Crown forestland (other than parks and protected areas treated by MOF) are planned to be the responsibility of licensees starting in 2005/06.

• In 2003/04 and 2004/05, FI funding will assist licensees with bark beetle management activities.

3. Early detection and treatment of insect infestations:

• Monitoring will continue.

• For defoliators, emphasis in 2004/05 will likely be on western spruce budworm and western hemlock looper, which are both expanding in the Interior Douglas Fir zone (in the Southern Interior), as well as gypsy moth.

This is a measure of the ministry's success rate of initial attack on wildfire that is unplanned or accidental, and has potential to cause damage to or loss of timber, range or public resources. If containment is kept to under 4 hectares, damage and costs for fire suppression are kept to a minimum. The base for this measure was 93 per cent in 2002/03.

Data is from the ministry's Historical Fire Statistics Database.

Annual province-wide aerial surveys are used to monitor forest disturbances caused by insects, diseases, animal and abiotic factors. The wording of the measure for 2004/05 has been changed from monitoring insect infestations to monitoring forest health. This more accurately reflects the overall purpose of data collection, although it is especially critical for early detection and treatment of insect infestations.

The findings of these surveys are posted on the ministry web-site for access by licensees and ministry staff. The data is used to track damage trends, estimate impacts on forest resources, plan management activities strategically, and direct more detailed surveys.

High priority sites present an opportunity to stop or reduce the rate of spread by treating through felling and burning, setting up pheromone trap trees, or other methods. By agreement with WLAP and MSRM, MOF is responsible for treatments in parks and protective areas. The base for this measure was 89 per cent in 2002/03.

With the exponential expansion of beetle infestation expected to continue into 2004/05, the number of sites that present an opportunity to stop or reduce the rate of spread is dropping. Because of this, the per cent of sites that can be treated remains relatively high, despite a reduction in funding.

Other defoliators include western spruce budworm, western hemlock looper and all others. The baseline was established in 2003/04 as 100 per cent for Gypsy Moth and 99 per cent for all other defoliators.

Core Business Area:

Stewardship of Forest Resources.

Objective 1:

Monitor the health of forests and grassland ecosystems in the province.

Strategies for 2004/05:

1. Regularly evaluate and publish information on the state of the forests in British Columbia.

This report will provide a periodic assessment of the state of British Columbia forests, aligning with national criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. The report will be designed for publishing on the Internet only.

Objective 2:

Ensure performance standards for managing timber, forage, bio diversity, water, soil, forest habitat, and scenic resources are established and evaluated.

Strategies for 2004/05:

1. Complete transition to the new Forest and Range Practices Act, through approval of Stewardship plans in 2004/05.

2. Continue evaluation and ongoing improvement to forest legislation, including reducing regulation without compromising environmental standards to achieve government's one-third-reduction target by 2005.

3. Target applied research activities to support policy development and science-based support for statutory decision-makers. Genetics research will support testing of select material in support of gene resource management. Significant effort will be put into increasing research capacity through partnerships and collaboration with other research providers. Improving access to secure outside funding will remain a priority.

Effectiveness evaluations are field reviews of the Forest Practices Code of BC and Forest and Range Practices Act. These reviews are necessary to achieve ongoing improvement to the ministry's legislation.

Deregulation is cumulative from the 2001/02 baseline. The target of reducing regulation by one third over three years is part of the Government's commitment to streamlining government.

The client satisfaction rating is determined by a survey of clients. Initially intended as an annual survey, at the advice of BC Stats it will now be done every third year. Client satisfaction was 70 per cent in the survey in 2002/03. Results of this survey are published at: http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/forsci/. Clients are internal MOF clients, or client sponsors who assess progress and effectiveness of research within project groups linked by similar objectives. Ministry research activities are considered as a whole for this measure independent of funding source. Funding for research may be from the Ministry, the Forest Investment sub-vote, or other external sources.

Objective 3:

Ensure that forest and range resources are managed and improved on a sustainable basis.

Strategies:

1. Implement the defined forest area management model for volume-based licences.

2. Continue to work co-operatively with forest companies to implement timber supply analysis within the defined forest area management model.

3. Regularly review and determine AACs for forest management units.

4. Ensure prompt reforestation and achievement of free growing obligations on all recently harvested lands:

• By licensees and BC Timber Sales, through legislative requirements; and

• By MOF, for Forest Stand Management Fund obligations.

5. Develop a strategy to address reforestation on areas lost to fire and pests.

6. Treat critical invasive alien plant sites through an initial attack program (jointly delivered with public and private partners) to prevent spread of small infestations and develop and apply bio-control agents on larger infestations.

7. Meet Forest Genetics Council seed orchard production quality and quantity goals for improved seed production.

8. Operate seed orchards on a cost recovery basis providing stewardship quality assurance, registration, testing and storage services for Crown land seed at the Tree Seed Centre.

9. Register all seed lots used in Crown land reforestation.

10. Ensure that forage is available to range users through range act tenures.

11. Focus recreation management on viable partnerships that will maintain recreation sites and trails for public use.

12. Manage sites and trails without partnership agreements as user maintained so that they will remain open to the public. It is expected that sites and trails will be decommissioned and closed where there are high risks to public safety or the environment.

The Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) for each TSA and TFL is reviewed and determined by the Chief Forester on a periodic basis, normally every five years. This is a measure of the ministry's rate of success at achieving AAC determination schedules. The baseline for this measure was 80 per cent in 2002/03. Future targets reflect increasing complexity in analyzing timber.

This is a new measure, replacing "volume gain (cubic metres per year) of timber from reforestation activities available for harvest in 65 years". The new measure more accurately represents the ministry's responsibility for enforcing legislative requirements and the licensee's responsibility to make reforestation choices affecting volume gain.

This is a new measure introduced in 2004/05 to track the work of the ministry in restoring rangelands that have been degraded by invasive plants or in-growth of trees. Areas may be restored through treatments such as partial cutting, controlled burning and biological or chemical control of invasive species.

This measure was tracked by the ministry in 2001/02 and is now being reintroduced. It represents tree improvement activities funded by the ministry as well as by the Forest Investment sub-vote. The baseline was 1.67 M in 2002/03.

This is a new measure which tracks the efficiency of MOF staff in responding to licensee requests related to use of registered seed for reforestation.

This is a measure of the effectiveness of the ministry's administration of range available for grazing or haycutting.

Sites include campgrounds, day-use areas, cabins and other recreation facilities. Recreation sites and trails may be managed under partnership agreements with the ministry by First Nations, forest companies, local government, outdoor recreation groups and other parties. Most sites and trails not under partnership agreements will be available for public use as user-maintained. Any increase in funding will go towards ensuring that the recreation sites and trails available for public use are managed to a long-term sustainable standard by putting in place additional site/trail maintenance agreements and that environmental and public safety concerns associated with these sites and trails are dealt with.

The total number of recreation sites and trails is projected to decline over time. This reflects the need to decommission sites and trails where high risks to public health or safety cannot be effectively managed with the budget available. Projections of the numbers of sites and trails that may require decommissioning can only be roughly estimated.

Core Business Area:

Compliance and Enforcement.

Objective 1:

Promote compliance and ensure statutory obligations are enforced.

Strategies:

1. Implement a new compliance and enforcement regime for the Forest and Range Practices Act and a new compliance and enforcement regime for pricing and revenue. In 2004/05 this will include:

• Staff training on FRPA and Forest Act changes and updated C&E training.

• Implementation of Quality Assurance principles and procedures.

• Approval of Special Provincial Constable (SPC) applications by the Solicitor General.

• Assessment of FRPA implementation and new Forest Act provisions to determine readiness for shifting resource emphasis from forest practices to revenue and forest crimes.

• Implementation of an independent / integrated organizational model through policy development.

Inspections, or site visits are targeted to very high and high priority sites where environmental, social and/or economic values have been identified as being at high risk. Data is from the Compliance Information Management System.

Data is from enforcement actions, managed in the Enforcement Reporting Application System. A successful conclusion may be a determination that there was no contravention, the appropriate handling of a contravention with a compliance action, a determination, or a prosecution.

Data is from compliance actions, managed in the Compliance Information Management System. A successful conclusion may be a determination that there was no contravention, the appropriate handling of a contravention with a compliance action or a determination, or an investigation for an enforcement action.

Core Business Area:

Forest Investment.

Achievement of FI objectives and associated strategies under this goal are accomplished through program activities carried out by licensees and contractors under the coordination of third party administrators (see core business description).

Assessment of actual outcomes and outputs from FI program activities is captured through reports generated by the third party administrators.

Objective 1:

Actively foster sustainable forest management.

Strategies:

1. Acquire better information about forest resources;

2. Improve the modeling of forest dynamics;

3. Foster comprehensive strategic land-use planning;

4. Facilitate science-based utilization of the resource;

5. Support the creation of sustainable forest management plans; and

6. Support the feasibility of third party certification.

Objective 2:

Improve the public forest asset base.

Strategies:

1. Support the creation and deployment of improved seedlings and other germplasm;

2. Fund reforestation of areas denuded naturally, or by harvesting before 1987;

3. Reclaim and enhance site productivity; and

4. Restore damaged ecosystems.