Timber harvesting

Volume of timber harvested annually

           Millions of cubic metres

Year     Coast     Interior     Total    Reference
1912      5.0        1.7         6.7       [19]
1920      7.6        2.3         9.9        "
1930     10.6        2.1        12.7        "
1940     15.7        1.9        17.6        "
1950     16.4        5.6        22.0        "
1955     18.6       10.7        29.3        "
1960     19.9       14.1        34.0        "
1965     24.3       19.1        43.4        "
1970     28.8       25.9        54.7        "
1972     24.7       31.8        56.5        "
1973     32.7       37.4        70.1        "
1975     21.4       28.7        50.1        "
1976     32.2       37.3        69.5        "
1977     28.6       41.4        70.0        "
1978     32.4       42.8        75.2        "
1979     30.6       45.6        76.2        "
1980     30.7       43.9        74.7        "
1981     22.5       37.0        59.5        "
1982     21.4       34.8        56.2        "
1983     26.8       44.6        71.4        "
1984     27.2       47.3        74.5        "

Summary

Volume of timber harvested grew at about 3.7% per annum from 1912 to 1979. There was a rapid surge of growth in the 1960s with a growth rate of 4.3% in volume per annum. There was a downturn in the early 1980s, but annual volume is trending upward again to unprecedented levels.

Percentage of softwood trees logged annually by volume

0.945 % (mid-1980s, derived from figures in [9].)

Area of timber harvested annually

Year  ha/yr    sq.km/yr  % of net    % of productive  % of forest   refs
                         land base   forest land      land         
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1975  157,000  1,570    0.61-0.68 %    0.3 %          0.26 %      [1,12,13,14]
1988  244,000  2,440    0.95-1.1 %     0.47 %         0.4 %       [1,12,13,14]

Method of timber harvest

In Canada as a whole, logging is done by the following methods [1]:

clearcut                      89.6 % 
selective harvesting           6.7 %
seed tree or shelterwood cuts  0.4 %

Note: Not sure if percentages refer to area or volume. <>P Note: British Columbia figures are likely to be comparable, with possibly a slightly heavier reliance on clearcut logging. If anyone has referenced British Columbia figures, please email to egh@mda.ca for inclusion here.

Net land base available for harvesting

Accounting for "environmental sensitivity" and economic viability (viability with respect to the market and economic conditions at the time of estimation, late 1980s and early 1990s.)

hectares       square km   % of productive  % of forest   ref
                             forest land    land
25,818,415     258,184     50 %             43 %          [13]
23,000,000     230,000     45 %             38 %          [12]

Observation: As good quality old-growth wood products become rarer, and as overall timber supply is reduced due to the "fall-down" effect of moving from virgin forest harvesting to lower-volume second-growth harvesting, and as similar reductions of supply take place worldwide, wood product prices are very likely to rise. A price rise would of course increase the economically viable harvest area to include more marginal stocks. So the net land base figure is subject to increase, at least on economic viability grounds.

If, on the other hand, society were to take necessary measures to protect bio-diversity in the province, net harvestable land base would decrease significantly.

Logging Roads

Length of logging roads built and maintained by B.C. Forest Service (class 1 and class 2 roads, as of 1984). [12]

(Does not include logging roads built and maintained by logging companies.)

37,970 km