BC wildfire salvage process to boost due to the new forestry agreements with First Nations

Posted on November 21, 2022   |  

• The British Columbia government revealed a new method to regional forestry agreements that will increase the harvesting areas damaged by wildfires, providing more timber for mills and setting up faster reforestation through the leadership of First Nations.
• The new Wildfire Salvage Opportunity Agreements (WSOAs) will promote the timely direct award of forestry licenses to First Nations for recovering timber damaged by wildfires. 
• Simplifying the process to harvest timber will give access to the fire-damaged logs to mills before they contaminate and still have commercial value.
• The recent wildfires created a substantial volume of fire-damaged timber, overtaking the ability of forest companies to harvest the areas on time. 
• Wildfires impacted over 864,000 hectares of forests in 2021, with only 5% of the area expected to be salvaged this year.