Bella Coola Community Forest Ltd (BCCFL) is the company that manages the Community Forest Agreement (CFA) tenure on behalf of the Bella Coola Resource Society (BCRS). It is a local company that is made up of local investors. It is responsible to conduct all the day-to-day activities associated with running the community forest business. The company is operated by a board of volunteer Directors in accordance with a management contract with the BCRS. Up to six Directors are elected by the shareholders and one Director is appointed by the BCRS. The mission of the BCCFL is to focus on the business of forestry in accordance with stewardship and operating principles.
The current (2021/22) board of Directors are :
- Barry Brekke, President
- Troy Gurr, Vice President
- Ed Willson
- Bryan Apps
- Mark Nelson, BCRS appointee
- Roger Brandt, Treasurer
- Thor Digustini
Mission Statement
The Bella Coola Community Forest Company manages the Community Forest Agreement to generate a return for the investors and the BCRS. Community benefits are further achieved through economic development, employment, local use of timber resources and road access so that people can enjoy the use of the area. Operations are designed and managed to be safe and maintain environmental quality with respect for multiple-use.
Products and services
The core of the business is to produce saw logs for local, domestic and international sale. Located in the sub-maritime zone, the timber type is ‘coastal’, consisting primarily of western hemlock and Douglas-fir with minor amounts of red cedar, balsam fir and Sitka spruce. These are sold to local and domestic mills as well as off-shore markets. Sold logs are sawn into a variety of wood products including timbers and lumber for housing and other structures; peelers for plywood veneer; cedar lumber for long lasting outdoor use like fencing, decks and furniture; specialty boards for high end use like musical instruments and furniture and pulp wood for variety of paper products. Another product that is important for the valley is firewood, which is salvaged from logs not suitable for sawing into umber.
Operations
The Community Forest company is managed by a contract General Manager that reports to the Board, while the operational work is done by independent contractors, most of which are local. During its short history, the Community Forest has provided the incentive for local entrepreneurs to invest in machinery and the Community is now self sufficient in terms of logging capacity. The workers for the contractors are also local which maximises local benefit.
The Community Forest is located in steep mountainous terrain, so road construction and logging activities are very difficult and costly. Therefore, a variety of logging systems are employed in order to fully utilize the challenging timber harvesting land base. These systems include conventional highlead methods using cables and a tower, ground based using skidders and loaders, and for areas inaccessible by those systems, heavy lift helicopters are used on a limited basis.
Employment
With an annual harvest of only 30,000 m3, the majority of jobs created are seasonal. However, there is ongoing activity throughout the year as different phases are carried out, starting with road building followed by timber felling, yarding, hauling, processing and log booming. In addition, engineering, silviculture (reforestation) and administration are ongoing activities throughout the year. Over the last few years, the Community Forest has generated, on average, about 1200 person days of direct local employment per year.
