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.

After an extensive timber supply review, chief forester Dave Peterson announced today that the allowable annual cut for the Bulkley timber supply area will remain at 852,000 cubic metres for 10 years.

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.

The B.C. government is introducing a single cutting permit procedure to make it easier for local governments, First Nations and other non-commercial organizations throughout the province to harvest timber from community forests.

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