In the report from the BC office of the think tank, resource policy analyst Ben Parfitt writes that the amount of wood expected to be harvested in the coming years is half the amount recorded 15 years ago. At that time, the province was facing the catastrophic spread of pine beetle infestation, destroying vast areas of forest. The goal was to harvest as many dead trees as possible before they just rotted. According to Parfitt, during the beetle harvest, the amount of extra wood cut beyond normal percentages at the time would have filled a row of logging trucks parked from Vancouver to Halifax five times. “A huge amount of extra timber has been harvested from our forests in a very short time, and that has deepened the crisis we are in now,” he said on Wednesday. Parfitt reports that while the number of pines harvested has now dropped dramatically, the harvest of other species such as spruce, fir, hemp and cedar has increased to replace them. “We are running out of trees in British Columbia,” he said. “The reason for this is very simple. The industry has recorded a lot, very quickly, with the blessing of the government.”
Concerns about wood pellet production
Parfitt has focused on one part of the industry specifically: wood pellet makers. He claims that the growing sector uses good quality logs to create small pellets, which are used to burn, increase carbon emissions and aggravate climate change. Parfitt says he tried to persuade the provincial government to reveal how many logs go into the production of wood pellets, but received no response. “How many of these logs are there and what other uses could they make?” he said. “If we can add further value to these logs, then we can get more people to work.” A spokesman for the Ministry of Forests sent a written statement to CBC News, which did not address the question of how many logs have been used to make pellets. Last year, a ministry spokesman said about 1.2 percent of the province’s timber harvest went directly to a pellet plant in 2020, and that the province monitors the quality of logs consumed by all timber processing plants. “Most wood pellet manufacturers focus on the use of wood waste and logs that are unsuitable for mills, including those damaged by pine beetles and fires. In fact, almost half of the fibers used by pellet plants last year came from damaged pine wood. “, he said. the ministry on Wednesday. Subsequent questions from CBC News, which included Parfitt’s concern that the supply of trees for harvest in the province was declining, went unanswered.
