Effective immediately, the new allowable annual cut for Tree Farm Licence 49 will be decreased from 580,000 cubic metres to 330,000 cubic metres, chief forester Jim Snetsinger announced today.

The value of British Columbia's softwood lumber exports to China jumped 60 per cent in 2011, surpassing the $1-billion mark for the first time. Since 2003, lumber exports to China have risen by more than 1,500 per cent.

Today marked the first major step in Burns Lake's road to recovery after the destruction of the Babine Forest Products mill, thanks to a jobs fair with 24 participant booths and maximum capacity attendance from the community.

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

The allowable annual cut for Tree Farm Licence 41 increases slightly by four per cent to 128,000 cubic metres effective immediately, chief forester Jim Snetsinger announced.

Forest industry veteran Bob Clark, vice-president of forestry consultants J B Clark and Co., has been recruited to lead the provincial government's on-the-ground Burns Lake economic response efforts, announced Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Pat Bell.

Private investors are being offered a chance to create forestry jobs, fight global warming and reduce their carbon footprint under an innovative silviculture partnership sponsored by the B.C. government, Forests Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson announced.