The Province has convened a new advisory council in support of forestry workers and communities.

Effective immediately, the allowable annual cut (AAC) level for the Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 56 north of Revelstoke will remain at the level set in September 2010.

The British Columbia government is distributing over $528,000 in project development grants to help rural communities develop strong, stable economies and create long-term local employment, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson announced today.

The province has changed the way it does business to help First Nations and community forest tenure holders sell their timber at fair market price and add to the data that supports timber pricing, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson announced today.

The Province is enhancing economic opportunities and forest stewardship on Cortes Island by granting a local group a community forest agreement.

To increase harvesting activity on the coast, government is exploring the use of new scanner technology for scaling logs, accelerating the auction of an additional 500,000 cubic metres by BC Timber Sales, improving the log-export system and exploring ways to better harvest the timber profile.

Effective immediately, the new allowable annual cut for Tree Farm Licence 6 will be 1,160,000 cubic metres, chief forester Jim Snetsinger announced.