Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson announced in late June regulatory changes that provide access to logging slash and wood waste fibre needed by bioenergy producers and manufacturers of wood pellets and other bio-products.
Amendments to regulations under the Forest Act, the Forest and Range Practices Act, and the Wildfire Act will bring into effect a residual forestry licence to cut, as well as a fibre supply licence to cut, for wood biomass.
These licences will enable smaller operators to acquire wood fibre and logging debris unwanted by primary harvesters. This includes the smaller trees, branches, limbs and tops of trees that are piled roadside or on logging landing sites as the by-product of a typical timber harvesting operation. The new tenures do not grant rights to harvest standing timber.
Supporting rural forest economies by improving access to wood biomass for smaller operators is part of the forest sector strategy for British Columbia, released in April 2012 under Canada Starts Here: The BC Jobs Plan.