Planning & Practices

PRACTICES

We employ more than one hundred licensed forest professionals and biologists, across a broad spectrum of professional forestry practice, including: reforestation, wildfire prevention and management, pest protection, habitat supply management, forest inventory, road and harvest design and watershed protection. Our professionals, who are from a diverse range of practices and backgrounds, help guide our forest planning and practices. They adhere to the codes of ethics and standards of professional practice of their associations, such as the Forest Professionals British Columbia (FPBC).

In addition, we often retain independent geomorphologists, terrain specialists, hydrologists, wildlife biologists, fisheries biologists, forest ecologists, botanists and other specialists to help design forest management activities.

PLANNING

Forest Management is guided by multiple layers of planning at the regional, landscape, management unit and stand levels.

We encourage open communication with First Nations, our stakeholders, and the general public, and welcome feedback on any of these plans, or any of our forest management activities. These plans and current development planning may be viewed for each of our forest operations.

Under the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), the Forest Planning and Practices Regulation (FPPR) provides the operational direction for designing and implementing timber harvesting. As such, Western Forest Products must meet set objectives for soil, fish, water, wildlife, biodiversity, scenery, cultural values and timber conservation. We continuously review our planning and coordinate our efforts to balance goals for all forest resources.

Regional Land Use Plans (LUP)

LUPs were developed to provide high level land use zoning. These plans grew from an exhaustive public process and identify zones with various resource priorities such as protected areas, biodiversity, recreation or timber. Many of Western’s timberlands are within the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan. On the Central Coast, ecosystem-based management (EBM) grew out of the Central Coast Land and Resource Management Plan (CCLRMP).

Tree Farm Licence (TFL) Management Plans (MP)

We develop a Management Plan for each TFL at minimum every ten years. The MP outlines how we manage the forest and includes the data and modeling analysis to support timber supply review and a determination by British Columbia’s Chief Forester of the sustainable allowable annual cut (AAC) of timber for the next five to ten years. This determination considers all forest resources, the expected net growth rate of the forest, the history of management and typically requires that the analysis provide for non-timber values first, before projecting a long term sustainable harvest level from the remaining forest land.

Forest Stewardship Plans (FSP)

FSPs work in tandem with the legislated practice requirements of the Forest Planning and Practices Regulation (FPPR) and provide the operational direction or “results and strategies” for designing and implementing timber harvesting. FSPs must be consistent with the higher level land use objectives set by the overarching land use plan and with the ten FPPR objectives for forest land (soil, timber, wildlife, riparian, fish, water, wildlife, biodiversity, scenery, and cultural).

Forest Landscape Plan (FLP) and Forest Operations Plan (FOP)

In 2021, the Province of British Columbia announced that as part of changes to the Forest and Range Practices Act, it will replace Forest Stewardship Plans with Forest Landscape Plans (FLP) and Forest Operations Plans (FOP). An FLP is intended to establish clear outcomes for the management of forest resource values within defined areas. The FOP is intended to provide requirements for forest operations including forest practices, silvicultural systems, stocking standards and the approximate location of future cutblocks and roads.  From the date of establishment, the FLP will have a 10-year term and the FOP will have a 5-year term.

FOREST OPERATIONS MAPS (FOM)

FOMs are specific to each road development or timber harvesting site. These maps are created during the planning process to allow for easy viewing of proposed forest operations. The proposed development within the mapped areas will be consistent with legal requirements under the Forest and Range Practices Act and reflects the results, strategies, measures, and stocking standards included in approved Forest Stewardship Plans.

Site Plans (SP)

SPs are specific to each road development or timber harvesting site. A SP provides local details such as the ecological site classification, soil sensitivity to machine traffic, stream descriptions, and reforestation prescriptions. SPs provide specific instructions for all aspects of operations: tree fallers, road construction crews, yarding crews, log loaders and haulers, road deactivation and rehabilitation crews, and the silviculture crews. The SP is designed to ensure that forest practices meet stringent standards and that government objectives are achieved. Forest professionals carry out monitoring to confirm expectations are achieved, and to modify practices and prescriptions where improvement is possible.