Features Environment & Sustainability Forestry
B.C. completes forestry inventory program review

February 12, 2019 – After completing its review of B.C.’s forest inventory program, a blue ribbon panel has come out with recommendations to improve the program.

Government ministries and other stakeholders use the program to direct policies involving economic investments, environmental conservation, protection of social values and risk assessment, according to a news release.

The review panel was created in 2018 to determine if the program was meeting users’ needs and what changes could be made to meet those needs. From April to September 2018, the panel reviewed the program, submitting its final report to the Ministry of Forests in December 2018. Panel members Bill Bourgeois, Clark Binkley, Valerie LeMay, Ian Moss and Nick Reynolds met with the ministry’s forest analysis and inventory branch, as well as stakeholders, and examined forest inventory programs in other jurisdictions.

“Our forests are one of our most precious resources,” says Doug Donaldson, B.C. minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development. “Now more than ever, we need to make the right decisions in all areas of forest management to ensure our forest industry is truly sustainable and our forests are managed for multiple values. This report on the forest inventory program will help us do that.”

In its report, the panel made 16 recommendations to strengthen the program, including sustainable funding, improved data collection, more program linkages and better communication.