2013 Annual Report

Presented at the Annual General Meeting, April 7, 2014.

President’s Report

I am very pleased to present the 2013 Annual Report for the Bella Coola Community Forest Ltd.

2013 was a busy year for the Community Forest with active operations in every month. The mild winter made it possible to log right through January and February and we were able to send a barge load of timber out in early May. This first round of wood was from the wildfire salvage project that was started in 2012 and it turned out better than anticipated.

Oran Hoppe, Presient

In late spring and summer we built road in the east Salloompt and east Nusatsum which set up our logging program for the fall and into 2014.

One of the highlights of the year was the start up of log processing at the dry land sort yards at Clayton Falls. At this operation, logs are graded, scaled, trimmed and sorted into more than 40 different sorts based on species, size and quality. This intense sorting enables us to get the best possible prices for our logs. This work was previously done down in the lower mainland but now we are retaining that work here. The dry land crew consist 10 workers so it is a significant employment contribution.

The other exciting aspect of the dry land sort is that we are working with Nuxalk Forestry Limited Partnership to run this operation. This means we are jointly working on timber coming from the Bella Coola and the Nuxalk Community Forests. We hope to continue working more closely together for mutual benefit.

The economic indicators remain strong and we are cautiously optimistic that steady improvement will continue in foreseeable future.

Highlights

BCCFL Board of Directors

The Board is very much involved in directing the management of the Community Forest. The 2013/14 Board consisted of Oran Hoppe, President; Troy Gurr, VP; Roger Brandt Treasurer/Secretary; Ron Nygaard, Ed Willson, Carl Siwallace and the BCRS designated Director was Neil Oborne.

Operations

Safety & Environment

There was no serious safety or environmental incidents in 2013. Safe Certification was retained.
Harvesting and Sales: Local logging capacity was further improved in 2013 with local contractors investing in new machinery so that we can be more self reliant and not ‘import’ help from outside the valley. BCCFL helped to finance the purchase of a mini-tower for highlead logging and a new
front end loader was brought in to work on the dry land sort.

Silviculture

The Community Forest is committed to quickly reforesting the areas logged. All of the areas logged in the valley, have been planted with Douglas-fir and cedar. The blocks were surveyed in
2012 and plantations were found to be doing well. The areas heli-logged late in 2011 were planted in May, 2013.

Road Development & Maintenance

Approximately 3.6 km of new road was constructed and 3.7 km of roads were rehabilitated to access the 2013/14 logging blocks.

Community

In addition to the economic benefits, the Community Forest also contributes to local well being by providing the opportunity for residents to collect firewood and by maintaining road access to mushroom picking areas. In addition to sponsoring the Fall Fair Logger Sports, we also donated logs for the restoration of the School House Mountain Trail Boardwalk.

Summarized Financial Statement

The following summary is from the year-end financial report prepared by PMT Chartered Accountants.