11 Wednesday.January 17.2018 | Powell River Peak » prpeak.com
2017 Annual Report to the Community
Community Forest Objectives • Maintain healthy and productive forest ecosystems • Deliver sustainable forest-management practices • Protect the water quality in the Haslam Lake and Lang Creek community watersheds • Provide opportunities for local contractors, mill owners and value-added manufacturers • Protect key forest recreation resources • Achieve clear business and financial performance targets • Use the profits as a foundation for investment in the community
Powell River Community Forest (PRCF) wishes everyone a great new year. We are pleased to provide some information about the community forest and to report on some of our 2017 forestry activities. 2017 was one of the driest summers on record and the province’s firefighting resources were fully committed elsewhere. As we moved into extreme fire danger locally, and our forestry operations were shut down, there was concern about the risk of fire from recreational use. PRCF wants to thank everyone for being extra careful. We had no fires. Our operations were conducted safely and in compliance with all environmental protection requirements. We put $1,671,246 back into the Powell River community through contracts and supply purchases from local companies. Those forestry contractors and their workers are a big part of delivering on our commitment to have the highest level of forest practices. During 2017 we scaled 28,469 cubic meters of timber, a little under our AAC. Despite US softwood lumber trade sanctions the log market has remained strong so we have used those revenues to invest in our road network including major culvert and bridge improvements on Haslam Main, Branch 200, L-48 and rebuild of part of Granet Main. We are projecting a 2017 year end profit from log sales of approximately $2,000,000. Another very strong year financially. This results from an increase to our Allowable Annual Cut which took effect in 2016 and the continued strong domestic log market. At this stage, this is an estimate only and our final year end financials are subject to audit and board approval at our Annual General Meeting in the spring. Our profits are reinvested into the community through grants for community projects. On May 16, 2017 we deposited our 2016 dividend in the amount of $1,975,639 into the Community Forest Reserve Fund (the fund). At that time we announced our recommendations for 16 grants for community projects totalling $1,613,964. Then with monies left in the fund, on November 7, 2017 we announced 7 more grants for the remaining monies in the fund, totalling $728,862.43. Since the fund was created 10 years ago PRCF has deposited an impressive $8,541,864 and a total of 98 grants have been approved. We have also committed operational monies to annual funding for the Powell River Salmon Society’s water quality and flow monitoring for the Haslam Lake and Lang Creek watersheds, the Powell River Wildsafe Program, Scholarships for Powell River students, the School District 47 Summer Forestry Student Program and to help volunteer groups with trail maintenance on the BC Bike Race route and other trails.