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Forestry key part of green plan

by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Thursday, February 15, 2007

B.C.'s forest sector is expected to play a role in greening the province -- including the production of cleaner power -- under a plan for which more details are expected to be unveiled in the next month.

In the throne speech Tuesday, the B.C. government promised better utilization of beetle-killed timber, the use of beetle-killed trees to create new clean energy and a significant increase in planting trees to help sequester carbon.

B.C. Forests Minister Rich Coleman said Wednesday that forestry's role will become clearer when the provincial energy plan is released later this month and B.C. Hydro puts out its proposal call for bio-energy.

He said that will go hand-in-glove with the issue of wood waste, particularly in Interior forests with mountain pine beetle-killed timber. He said he's already told companies that hold harvesting rights they need to find a way to give access to the wood waste being left behind in the bush. If they can't, the government may need to step in with legislation, said Coleman.

"It's lining up, not as quick as I probably would like to have it ... But I think we're very close," he said.

There are already wood pellet producers in the Northern Interior, but the B.C. government has been examining the idea of trying to find a way to fuel a large power plant from beetle-killed timber as well.

A ministry-commissioned report released more than one year ago concluded that beetle-killed trees could supply a climate-friendly fuel for a 300-megawatt electrical power plant at reasonable cost while creating jobs. The report modeled a plant in Quesnel and in a more remote area west of Quesnel.

The power generation -- 300 megawatts -- is enough electricity to power about 250,000 homes for a year.

Coleman said a key is getting to a point where the payment for the electricity from the plants make them economically interesting. "I think you'll see we'll get to where this is a viable energy product when we're done," he said.

John Swaan, the executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, said any energy plan that intends to utilize wood as a bio-fuel will have keep in mind the end product is energy, not two by fours. Bio-energy companies will not be able to afford to pay for roads and replanting, he said. "I'll be interested to see if there are any dynamic shifts that the ministry of forests is going to take to give better access to the fibre for the bio-energy proposals out there," said Swaan, headquartered in Prince George.

The province is also promising to invest in the forests as carbon sinks, under the belief they help to clean the air and offset greenhouse gases. The Liberals have promised to substantially increase tree planting, both through reforestation and planting trees in areas where trees have normally not grown.

Western Silviculture Contractors' Association official John Betts said he was glad to see an increase in tree planting mentioned in the throne speech, but stressed a plan is needed. "They'll be measured by what they actually do on the ground," he said.

UNBC forestry professor Art Fredeen injected a word of caution on using forests as a carbon sink.

He said research he's carried out on large-scale areas show that there are not huge gains to be made in sequestering carbon from forestry -- logging and replanting trees.

An analysis of the 10,000-hectare Aleza Lake Research Forest northeast of Prince George showed it was a slight source of carbon. "It's good to know that our forests are not putting more carbon into the air, but at the same time we should take not that forestry isn't going to solve any problems," said Fredeen.

The real key to reducing green house gases is reducing fossil fuel emissions, he said.

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