Now is the time to re-open the Ministry of Forests office in Prince Rupert.
That is the message Mayor Jack Mussallem says he will be sending the Ministry in a letter that comes following the announcement of Coast Tsimshian Resource’s agreement for the sale of 193,000 cubic metres of lumber to Xinyixinrun Plywood Manufacturing Co. of China and the doubling of their production over the next year, as well as a series of other forestry-related initiatives underway in the community.
I doubt the level of activity warrants the office to re-open. All the harvesting that occurs near here is still in the Kalum Forest District, all that is happening here is minimal processing and shipping, not enough activity to warrant a full blown MOF Office.
I do think there needs to be some sort of monitoring and enforcement of certain activities, but until harvesting accurs on the North Coast, the office should probably remain closed.
Taicang has just been opened up as a second port in China to allow unfumigated, un treated, bark-on logs to arrive directly from coastal BC and to be fumigated there. Previously, only Putian port allowed raw untreated logs directly in and that was only between October and April. Now, coastal species will be allowed into China year-round without local treatments or debarking.
This will mean a LOT of logs will be flowing through here and all those logs require forestry certification to leave the country.