Challenges and solutions - An industry perspective

Alex Ferguson is a registered professional forester and holds the positions of Chief Forester, Canadian Forest Products Limited and Chair of the interior forest industry's Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force. In presenting this paper, Mr. Ferguson outlines three challenges facing the forest industry in dealing with the mountain pine beetle epidemic across the interior of BC. He talks about the challenges in dealing with the substantial volume of beetle-killed timber and the problems in finding adequate markets for this dead pine. He also raises the question of the environmental impacts of the epidemic on land use plans, and concludes with community stability implications of the expanding epidemic. Mr. Ferguson addresses the issue of the possibility of allowable annual cut (ACC) fall-down in the future, due to the increased AAC currently in place to access greater volumes of dead pine. Mr. Ferguson calls upon the provincial and federal governments to initiate mitigation strategies for affected communities. He encourages communities to begin looking at "Life after Beetles" and encourages the Premier's Office to maintain a lead role in the process of developing solutions. He concludes by stating the industry is very much willing to play a major role in finding solutions.