The Chinook Community Forest (CCF) recently held their annual open house and BBQ, in which anyone and everyone is welcome to enjoy some good food, connect with the community, and learn about what the company has been up too. For those who aren’t familiar with it, CCF an equal partnership between the six First Nations and two municipal governments created in 2016 to ensure the timber logging needs of Burns Lake.
According to General Manager Ken Nielsen, 2021 has been a positive year to date.
Nielsen told Lakes District News that, weather dependent, the company hopes to log over 100,000 cubic metres of timber by the end of this year. According to Nielsen, the CCF’s financial return to its shareholders was high this year as well. “This fiscal year, we paid back $1,000,100.00,” he said referring to a giant cheque that was displayed proudly at the entrance to the BBQ.
The CCF works with 5-7 subcontractors every year that do various jobs. Logging is the most prevalent, but they also provide sivilculture, tree planting and forest salvation services.
Surprisingly, the CCF’s logging operations haven’t been heavily affected by the forest fires this year. Nielsen stated that only 20 hectares have been impacted thus far from a combination of the Bulkley Lake and Grizzly Road wildfires. Compared to the 10,000 hectares lost in 2018, that number is extremely low given the amount of fires that have occurred in the province in 2021.
Moving forward for the company, they’ll keep logging timber off their regular cutting permit. They’ve applied for a new annual allowable cut permit which should be determined by October, though Nielsen believes it will go down from last year’s.
The CCF will also continue work on their Forest for Tomorrow program, which addresses various forest health issues. One of the main areas they focus on are spruce beetle and mountain pine beetle populations, which are the most damaging pests of nature to spruce and interior spruce. Forest fire salvaging is also one of the program’s main points of emphasis.
