Sorry State of Affairs in the Forestry Industry

[Retiredguy]

I do not find this surprising at all. Really, if you look at what has been happening with the land base, everyone should have been able to see this coming. I do not believe for one minute it all boils down to shipping logs overseas. We have had years and years of cutting in this province. Then we have had many large fires in the last decade, several decades of beetle kill, and lets not forget the creation of huge parks all over the coast and the interior. All of the forested areas that have been taken out of the picture was bound to cause problems eventually. There are also issues with First Nations looming and they want control of the forests in the lands they are claiming. Partnerships have already been struck between First Nations groups and logging companies in many areas of the province. The funds going to the First Nations people further reduces the monies that would be going to the province from what the extraction generates monetarily. All combined...well it does not paint a very rosy picture...and no one should be surprised by what is happening.

[#49]

For all the money Canfor made they could afford to have those 300 sit in the lunchroom until things improve.We all know corporations are driven by greed,it's a shame our goverments have been too blind or just didnt care enough to police the wolves in the hen house.

[Downwindtracker2]

This isn't much of a surprise is it ? Those who listened have heard the warnings at least 10 years ago . Likely closer to 20 years ago. There Will Be Fiber Crunch ! There have been close downs of sawmills on both coast with the log exports and interior with the end of the beetle kill cut. 45 since 2005. But it comes down to having cut all the trees. We hunters have seen this first hand. I worked in the industry and saw it coming.

[ACB]

Do they actively harvest Cottonwood and Aspen in B.C. ?
Man I have seen some gigantic cottonwoods back in the bush North East of Bear Lake which is North of P.G.
Arctic Lake

Scott Paper used to farm Cottonwood on the islands on the Fraser in the Fraser valley to supply the old Scott plant at New Westminster to make bum wipe.

[ACB]

Log exports are a coastal issue

Two thirds of the AAC comes from the interior

Prior to the NDP's log export prohibition in 1994, less than 1% of crown timber was exported

The NDP introduced the current surplus test log export policy in 1998 in a attempt to revive the industry

Cedar, Cypress and any log better than a coastal 'H' grade cannot be exported

The total costs (including stumpage) of bringing a log to the market on the coast exceed the domestic log values. Without selling some of the profile for more than logging costs no logs would come out of the woods, hence the domestic manufacturing subsidy.

No mill in BC ever shut down because of log exports

The amount of forested land lost to beetles, fires and new parks meant there had to be a significant reduction in AAC in the short term(40-50 years) and there would be some winners and losers in the subsequent reduction in manufacturing facilities.

Softwood logs aren't turned into toilet paper, Cottonwood and Aspen are.

I beg to differ whether soft wood is used to make tissue/ toilet paper. The mill I worked at made soft wood bleached pulp, we used Hemlock, Cedar, Spruce, Pine and Fir (Coastal and Interior Doug Fir). The mill was owned originally by CanFor then sold to an Indonesian paper maker that has lots of tissue mills in China. 100% of the product that the mill I worked at went to the Tissue mills in China.

[Squire]

I beg to differ whether soft wood is used to make tissue/ toilet paper. The mill I worked at made soft wood bleached pulp, we used Hemlock, Cedar, Spruce, Pine and Fir (Coastal and Interior Doug Fir). The mill was owned originally by CanFor then sold to an Indonesian paper maker that has lots of tissue mills in China. 100% of the product that the mill I worked at went to the Tissue mills in China.

Because you didn’t name the mill but mentioned Indonesian owners I assume you’re referring to Paper Excellence, a subsidiary of the giant Sinar Mas corporation. None of their BC mills produces pulp exclusively for toilet paper as a quick Google search of their company will reveal. Granted, a portion of some of their product may indeed be used for tissue products at one of their APP facilities overseas. I don’t dispute your experience as it is possible that all the production from a ‘run’ lasting a specific duration was destined to produce tissue but long term the mill wouldn’t survive because it’s the demand for the higher value, longer, stronger strands characteristic of BC’s softwood pulp that sustains our pulp industry. The fibre suitable for tissue products is both abundant and cheaper in other areas of the world.

In my experience in BC, only Kruger in New Westminster (formerly Scott Paper) made pulp exclusively for tissue products and they converted Cottonwood logs into pulp at their plant. Although I was guilty of over-generalizing, this is what I was referring to. My statement could have more accurately read, “BC’s pulp industry isn’t based on converting softwood into toilet tissue”.

[wideopenthrottle]

they have developed a whole bunch of fast growing hybrid poplars that they have planted on many of the islands of the Fraser...

[ACB]

Because you didn’t name the mill but mentioned Indonesian owners I assume you’re referring to Paper Excellence, a subsidiary of the giant Sinar Mas corporation. None of their BC mills produces pulp exclusively for toilet paper as a quick Google search of their company will reveal. Granted, a portion of some of their product may indeed be used for tissue products at one of their APP facilities overseas. I don’t dispute your experience as it is possible that all the production from a ‘run’ lasting a specific duration was destined to produce tissue but long term the mill wouldn’t survive because it’s the demand for the higher value, longer, stronger strands characteristic of BC’s softwood pulp that sustains our pulp industry. The fibre suitable for tissue products is both abundant and cheaper in other areas of the world.

In my experience in BC, only Kruger in New Westminster (formerly Scott Paper) made pulp exclusively for tissue products and they converted Cottonwood logs into pulp at their plant. Although I was guilty of over-generalizing, this is what I was referring to. My statement could have more accurately read, “BC’s pulp industry isn’t based on converting softwood into toilet tissue”.

Yes, Paper Excellence. You're right not exclusively for making tissue, but 100% of the product that we made went to tissue mills in China to be added to the cheaper wood source for product strength, around 1,100 tonne's a day.

[msawyer]

We've known about "fall down" for going on 4 decades but nothing was done about it. I find it sadly ironic that the "forestry" discussion here on HBC revolves almost exclusively (but not entirely) around the economics and employment issues instead of, as I would have naively expected, revolving around the massive cumulative environmental effects associated with 7 decades of feverish industrial forestry. But there is no free lunch - you can't have functioning ecosystems with all of the benefits that brings (vibrant fish and wildlife populations and recreational opportunities) at the same time as maximizing fiber supply. Its also sad to remember that back in the day before industrial forestry that every small town in BC had several Gypo mills, a saw shop, mechanic shops and other service aspects of the forest industry and all employed many men in that industry. Subject to check, back in 1950 there were something like 4.5 man-years of employment per 1,000 m3 of raw logs harvested - that number has dropped down to (again subject to check) something in the order of 0.7 man-years per 1000 m3 of raw logs harvested. But at the same time the volume of raw logs harvested as exponentially increased. How do you explain that? The trade off was to increase the efficiency (and profitability) of the BC forest industry in return for more employment - it was a Lie that no subsequent BC government has had the vision and leadership to step away from. Lets face it though, the greed is not just limited to the multinational corporations but includes federal, provincial, regional and municipal governments, forestry dependent communities, unions, secondary and tertiary business and yes, the workers. In sum, all of us...

[Imdone]

Great post above