The Special Committee on Timber Supply  have wrapped up their investigation and reported the findings in a press conference on Aug. 15, 2012.  Committee chair John Rustad said recommendations from the report to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources  indicate that enough fibre can be found in the Lakes District Timber Supply Area [TSA] to provide a mill with a sustainable Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) of one million cubic metres.

Rustad said that the mid-term fibre supply affected by the pine beetle infestation from Smithers to 100 Mile House was on the magnitude of a ten million cubic metre downfall per year which was "A very significant amount of fibre, enough to supply approximately eight reasonably sized sawmills." The job of the special committee explained Rustad, was to look at ways to mitigate that downfall. There was three main areas in which more fiber could be garnered, Rustad explained.

"The biggest contributing factor to the increase in cubic meters is the marginal economic stands which will add about 380,000 m3 per year. There is a significant amount of bio fibre associated with that.

Rustad described marginal economic stands as stands, "That are perhaps a little challenging to get to; they tend not to have as many trees, there might be a significant component of dead pine in there so that maybe 25 per cent of the trees left are green, as well as some stands that have been impacted by fire and are overstocked. So there are a number of components that go within that, but that's where the greatest opportunity lies in the future in terms of mitigating some of that mid term fibre supply."

Instead of counting only stands of timber of over 140 m3 per hector, which is the current cut-off when reckoning AAC in the Lakes TSA, they propose lowering that number to 100 m3 per hectare thus freeing up more fibre for harvesting.

"By going from 140 to 100 m3 in the Lakes TSA, that adds about 380,000 m3 a year sustainably over the rotation [80-100 years]," he said.

Secondly, fertilization could add another estimated 80,000 m3 to the AAC in the Lakes TSA, and finally, a shift from spacial to non-spacial Old Growth Management Areas in the Lakes TSA, said Rustad, could also free up an estimated 90,000 m3, making just over a million cubic metres in total.

Environmental goals Rustad explained can be met through defining Old Growth Management Areas either spatially [lines on a map indicating area being managed] or non spatially [no defined area]. Changing the parameters would potentially free up 90,000 m3 of fibre for the mill sustainably. In order for that kind of change to occur, the committee recommends that a scientific review take place to assure non-spatial Old Growth Management Areas could substantially meet the goals set out in land resource management plans and then that committee would need to approve the change.

Although Rustad is clear that the job of the special committee was investigation and recommendation, with the decision making and actual allocation being left in the hands of the Chief Forester and the ministry, the results of the study look encouraging for proponents of a new mill in the Lakes District.

"I believe that if the recommendations are brought forward that there will be a sustainable cut available in the Lakes TSA of just over a million cubic metres a year, which is more than double what the current expectation is for the downfall of the Lakes TSA because of the mountain pine beetle impact," he concluded.