Appendix 2: Forest Investment Account

Forest Investment Account Overview

The Forest Investment Account (FIA) is a forest-sector investment model, led by government, established to deliver the province's forest investment in an accountable, efficient manner and to assist government in developing a globally recognized, sustainably managed forest industry. Investment dollars have been directed to activities on public land — enhanced forestry, watershed restoration and resource inventories — and marketing and research that supports sustainable forest management and increased allowable annual cuts. Specific amounts have been dedicated to program elements at the provincial level, other amounts have been allocated for disbursement to tree farm license holders and certain types of tenure holders in each timber supply area.

Forest Investment Account Goals

Goal 1: Actively foster sustainable forest management

Goal 2: Improve the public forest asset base

Goal 3: Promote greater returns from the utilization of public timber

Forest Investment Account Organizational Overview

In 2003/04, the Forest Investment Account comprised the following programs:

• Land-Base Investment Program (LBIP)
• Small Tenures Program
• Crown Land Use Planning Enhancement (CLUPE)
• Tree Improvement Program (TIP)
• Research, Product Development, and International Marketing Programs

The Minister of Forests has decision-making authority for FIA and the Deputy Minister of Forests (MOF) chairs a Forest Investment Council that periodically reviews and makes recommendations on all FIA programs. The Council includes the Deputy Ministers of the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (MSRM) and the Ministry of Water, Land Air Protection (MWLAP), three licensee representatives, and one representative from the forest research and technology sector. The Council receives progress reports from program administrators and is responsible for determining whether guidance or restrictions are necessary to ensure that investment choices provide the greatest contribution to the achievement of FIA goals. FIA programs are administered by government or by third parties acting on behalf of government (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Forest Investment Account Overview

Administration of most FIA activities was provided by private-sector firms rather than by government staff in 2003/04. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) provided day-to-day administration for the Land-Base Investment Program, and Forest Innovation Investment Ltd. (FII) did the same for the Research, Product Development, and International Marketing Programs. The Federation of BC Woodlot Associations (FBCWA) administered the Small Tenures Program.

PwC, FII and the FBCWA ensured that proposed activities met eligibility criteria for FIA funding and constituted an optimum mix of expenditures to promote program objectives. They also provided funds to successful proponents, tracked project delivery, and were responsible for performance and financial auditing.

FII was incorporated on March 31, 2003 under the Company Act of British Columbia. The Province of British Columbia, as represented by the Minister of Forests, is the sole shareholder of the company. The company was managed in 2003/04 through a Board of Directors comprised of the Deputy Ministers of Forests, Finance, and Competition, Science and Enterprise, as well as the FII President and Chief Executive Officer. The Research, Product Development, and International Marketing programs operated within the goals and program objectives outlined in the 2003/04 FII Service Plan. The annual report prepared by FII summarizes progress in meeting performance targets laid out in the FII Service Plan at the beginning of each fiscal year. The FII 2003/04 Annual Report is available at www.gov.bc.ca/cas/popt/ or www.forestry-innovation.bc.ca/.

Highlights and key accomplishments are reported below for the LBIP, the Small Tenures Program, CLUPE, and the Tree Improvement Program.

2003/04 Program Highlights and Key Accomplishments

Forest Investment Account Program Budgets and Actuals

Land-Base Investment Program

The Land-Base Investment Program (LBIP) provides funding for the forest industry to plan and deliver investments in landbase activities from within seven eligible component areas. Land-based investments contribute to the FIA goals of actively fostering sustainable forest management and improving the public forest asset base in British Columbia by:

• Acquiring better information about forest resources;
• Improving the modeling of forest dynamics;
• Monitoring changes to forest resources;
• Supporting the creation of sustainable forest management plans;
• Supporting the feasibility of third-party certification;
• Funding backlog reforestation and tending of areas denuded before 1987;
• Funding the reforestation of areas denuded by current fire and pest; and
• Reclaiming and enhancing site productivity.

For 2003/04, a portion of LBIP funding was targeted for defined forest area management (DFAM), Dothistroma needle blight, and invasive plant control activities.

Defined forest area management (DFAM): MOF is developing a policy framework to establish the obligations and opportunities for collaborative forest management within the province's 37 timber supply areas (TSA). This framework is commonly referred to as the DFAM initiative. Under DFAM, specified licensees will assume a collective responsibility for timber supply analysis and specified forest health activities within each timber supply area. Although DFAM imposes a collective responsibility, it does not impact on harvesting rights or obligations associated with each forest licence. Enabling legislation to support the DFAM initiative was passed in the spring 2003, but has not yet come into force in order to address unresolved issues related to cost recovery mechanisms, the establishment of standards and the need to ensure sufficient opportunity for licensees to prepare for the delivery of new obligations. This provides a transition period for licensees to voluntarily carry out DFAM activities. During the transition period, funding is provided to DFAM groups through the LBIP to carry out these activities.

Dothistroma: needle blight is a devastating foliar disease of a wide range of pine species. Where environmental conditions favour infection, this disease can spread rapidly and cause significant damage. Trees can be defoliated within weeks, and mortality is common with repeated attacks. Dothistroma needle blight is having a major impact on lodgepole pine stands, both natural and managed, in northwest British Columbia. Over 90 per cent of lodgepole-dominated managed stands have suffered some Dothistroma damage in the area.

Invasive Plants: are typically non-native plants that have been introduced to British Columbia without the insect predators and plant pathogens that help keep them in check in their native habitats. For this reason and because of their aggressive growth, these alien plants can be highly destructive, competitive and difficult to control. The MOF is responsible for treatment of invasive plants on Crown rangeland.

LBIP funding is also provided to MOF, MSRM and MWLAP to establish resource objectives and provincial standards, and to maintain and utilize data generated from land-base investments.

Key Accomplishments:

Information gathering and management

• A combined total of 59.8 million hectares of new resource information was acquired that ultimately will lead towards improved land use planning and decision-making. This includes an increase in the amount of provincial Crown land area where information relating to terrain stability, terrestrial ecosystems, vegetation resource inventory, archaeology, biodiversity, wildlife, and recreation has been enhanced.
• 336 growth and yield plots were re-measured or established. This information contributes towards estimating future volume and quality of timber yields from our forests supply, updates forest inventories, provides input for forest management planning, evaluate enhanced stand management opportunities, and assesses the impacts of pests and fire on timber yield.

Stand Establishment and Treatment

• Over 15,218 hectares of treatment and 68,996 hectares of surveys were carried out. Activities funded include improved incremental silviculture treatments (i.e., pruning, juvenile spacing, or fertilization), and reforestation of backlog areas (areas denuded prior to October 1, 1987). The investment in these treatments contributes to making stands available for harvest sooner, increasing merchantable volume production and growing higher quality second growth stands.

Restoration and Rehabilitation

• Permanent road deactivation, landslide and gully rehabilitation and assessments on 2,961 km of non-status forest roads (i.e., roads on Crown land that are not being used under any authorization by a government agency), thereby reducing the risk of damage to resources (including environmental, social and economic) within and adjacent to the road location from landslides and other environmental hazards.

Strategic Resource Planning

• Progress continued on 42 landscape unit plans and 19 sustainable forest management plans as well as on over 60 projects related to the development of key indicators and public advisory groups/consultation. This work contributed towards providing the foundation for achieving sustainable forest management by setting goals, indicators and targets for defined forest areas.

Infrastructure

• 136 forest recreation sites and 365 kilometres of forest recreation trails were maintained or established to provide user safety, provide sanitary conditions, protect the environment, provide user access and convenience, and protect investment in infrastructure.
• 2,353 kilometres of maintenance on wilderness roads were assessed to ensure protection of private and public property, and other social and economic values.

Dothistroma Needle Blight

• Over 4,600 hectares of aerial surveys and over 2,200 hectares of ground surveys of areas impacted by Dothistroma needle blight for strategic implementation of stand tending treatments were completed.
• 436 hectares in the Kispiox/Kalum/Cranberry TSAs were reforested and seedlings were purchased to reforest over 240 hectares in 2004/05.

DFAM — Timber Supply Review

• Six TSA timber supply review data packages and five TSA timber supply analysis reports were completed in support of determining allowable annual cuts for TSAs.
• Forest Health Strategies that covered 33 TSAs were completed.

DFAM — Forest Health

• 13.9 million hectares of aerial surveys and over 92 thousand ground surveys for bark beetle management in suppression beetle management units were achieved.
• Over 50,000 approved single tree treatments for bark beetle management in suppression beetle management units were completed.

Small Tenures Program

Funding under the Small Tenures Program is available for eligible landbase activities on Crown land under woodlot license tenure or community forest pilot agreement tenure. The Small Tenures Program provides funding to eligible licensees for activities similar to the LBIP (i.e., enhanced forestry, environmental preservation and restoration, and collection of resource information).

Investments in the Small Tenures Program contribute to the FIA goals of actively fostering sustainable forest management and improving the public forest asset base by:

• Acquiring better information about forest resources;
• Improving modeling of forest dynamics;
• Monitoring changes to forest resources;
• Funding backlog reforestation of areas denuded before 1987;
• Reclaiming and enhancing site productivity; and
• Restoring damaged riparian, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Key Accomplishments:

Information gathering and management

• A combined total of 97,976 hectares of resource information was newly acquired on small tenures (i.e., woodlot licences and community forest pilot agreements) that ultimately will lead towards improved land use planning and decision-making. This includes an increase in the amount of provincial Crown land area where information relating to terrestrial ecosystem, vegetation resource inventory, and archaeology has been enhanced.

Infrastructure

• Repair and maintenance of four forest recreation sites to provide user safety, provide sanitary conditions, protect the environment, provide user access and convenience, and protect investment in infrastructure.

Stand Establishment and Treatment

• Over 6,900 hectares of forest stands were treated within small tenures (i.e. pruned, juvenile spaced, or fertilized). The investment in these treatments contributes to making stands available for harvest sooner, increasing merchantable volume production and growing higher quality second growth stands.
• 52,750 trees were purchased for planting in the spring/summer of 2004 on Crown areas harvested prior to October 1, 1987.

Training and Extension

• 17 woodlot workshops, which focused on the BC framework for the Forest and Range Practices Act specific to woodlot licensees, were held with 570 small tenure participants.

Crown Land Use Planning Enhancement

The Crown Land Use Planning Enhancement (CLUPE) Program has been established to augment the province's strategic land use planning program. Strategic land use plans are completed for areas across the province to resolve land use conflicts, identify management priorities and establish resource objectives for specified areas of Crown land. These objectives guide resource management and use and help to identify economic opportunities within the plan area.

Investments in the CLUPE Program contribute to the FIA goal of actively fostering sustainable forest management by fostering comprehensive strategic land use planning.

CLUPE funds are used towards the following objectives:

• Capacity building: to enable First Nations, local government staff and interested members of stakeholder groups and the general public to participate more effectively in the development of resource objectives through strategic land use planning and sustainable resource management planning;
• Developing resource objectives: to prepare effective and balanced direction for the management of Crown land and resources as an essential component of a results-based approach to forest development;
• Resource analysis: to provide information and analysis of resource values and issues based on appropriate inventories that will assist planning participants to assess options with a better picture of local needs and circumstances;
• Implementation, monitoring and evaluation: to ensure land use decisions are achieving the anticipated social, economic and environmental goals; and
• Research: to provide scientifically sound information upon which to base planning decisions.

Key Accomplishments:

Capacity Building

• Facilitation of stakeholder, First Nations and local government participation in the development of the Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands, Sea-to-Sky, Central Coast, Morice and Lillooet LRMPs.
• Support for FN and stakeholder participation in eight LRMP monitoring tables in the Northern Region.
• First Nation participation in Horsefly, 100 Mile House and Williams Lake SRMPs.
• Stakeholder participation sessions provided for Working Forest-Landscape Unit Planning in the Coast Region.
• Development of First Nations Agreements in the Northern Region.

Developing Resource Objectives

• Preparation/drafting objectives and assisting in the establishment of legal objectives for landscape units within the Chilliwack, Sunshine Coast and Vancouver areas.
• Objectives, indicators and targets drafted for North Coast LRMP.
• Completed legal objectives and timber supply analysis for the Revelstoke Higher Level Plan.
• Development of objectives for the Horsefly, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Chilcotin and Quesnel SRMPs.

Resource Analysis

• Higher level plan spatial analysis on five TSAs and three TFLs to test objectives for wildlife, visual and old growth values from an economic and environmental trend perspective.
• Socio-economic assessment and environmental risk assessment for the Morice LRMP.
• Environmental base case study for the Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands Land Use Plan.
• Timber supply analyses to determine impacts for old growth scenarios in the Northern Region.

Implementation, monitoring and evaluation

• Evaluations and assessments completed for the Okanagan and Kamloops monitoring committees.
• Monitoring tools developed in the Northern Region.

Research

• Suitability of avalanche chute habitat for grizzly bears in the Rocky Mountains of the Prince George TSA.

Tree Improvement Program

The Tree Improvement Program is an operational investment plan for the management of the genetic resources of the province. The program focuses on improving the public forest asset base by supporting the development and availability of genetically well-adapted, high quality reforestation material from natural sources and through the conservation of our forest gene resources. The Forest Genetics Council (FGC) of British Columbia, appointed by the Provincial Chief Forester, guides tree improvement activities in the province.

Investments in the Tree Improvement Program contribute to the FIA goal of improving the public forest asset base by supporting the creation and deployment of improved seedlings and other germplasm.

Based on its goals and objectives, the FGC has defined a provincial forest gene resource management program with the following components:

• Gene conservation: activities monitor the gene pool needed for species to adapt to future environmental conditions, and provide technical recommendations on how to maintain the genetic resource for future generations;
• Tree breeding: activities include selecting parents in wild stands, testing offspring, establishing, maintaining and measuring trials, and delivering technical support;
• Operational tree improvement program (OTIP): focuses on increasing the quality and quantity of select (Class A) seed produced from existing forest company and MOF seed orchards;
• Expansion of orchard seed supply: the Ministry of Forests supports seed orchard expansions and the co-operative production of vegetative materials through Select Seed Company Ltd., a company under the control of the Forest Genetics Council of BC;
• Extension and communication subprogram: meets FGC goals and objectives related to extension, communication, and education activities;
• Gene resource information management: supports the development of computer-based systems that improve user access to information on select reforestation materials;
• Seed pest management: supports research to ensure protection of conifer seed orchards and to develop better method of management for cone and seed pests; and
• Program planning: supports development of business plans, species plans, and annual activity plans.

Key Accomplishments:

• Completion of detailed range maps and gene conservation status for 11 commercially important conifers in British Columbia.
• Increased provincial use of high quality selected seed sources from 44 to 48 per cent of total provincial sowing, with an average gain of 11 per cent.
• Development of new Chief Forester standards for seed use to support the use and monitoring of genetic resources on Crown land.
• Provincial seed orchards produced a total of 1,094 kilograms of high-quality seed sufficient for approximately 100 million seedlings as a result of all co-operator activities, including FIA support.