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Alberni Valley Community Forest pays city $100K

The community forest handed over a cheque for $100,000 to the city from its 2015 revenue.
78626alberniCommunityForest-Sept15
The Alberni Valley Community Forest generated $100

The Alberni Valley Community Forest is continuing to pay dividends for the City of Port Alberni.

The community forest handed over a cheque for $100,000 to the city from its 2015 revenue. The AVCF is located by Sproat Lake, comprises 6,378 hectares and has an annual allowable cut of 18,156 cubic metres.

“We’re into our second cut control period and so this cheque is from year two of that process,” said AVCF manager Chris Law. This is Law’s third year as manager.

“Year two of that second cut control process was mostly planning and we had a little bit of harvesting at the end of 2015 which generated some revenue for the community forest.”

Law expects a heavier harvesting year for the community forest next year.

“In 2016 we’ve actually incurred a lot more revenue coming in so the cheque we should be presenting next year should be significantly more than the cheque we’re presenting this time,” said Law.

In 2015, the AVCF awarded a harvesting contract to BLP Ventures Ltd. for 21,000 cubic metres. That contract generated the $100,000 cheque to the city.

In 2016, the AVCF awarded a contract for 8,800 cubic metres to Brad Berry.

“Both of those contracts are wrapping up and we’ve received most of the revenue,” said Law.

“Just recently, we awarded a contract to Proban Logging for 27,000 cubic metres. That contract is for two-and-a-half years.”

Those revenue generating cuts are balanced by the expenses in maintaining the community forest.

“Silviculture, reforestation and all that stuff—those costs are always there,” said Law.

The $100,000 will go into the Alberni Valley Community Forest Legacy Fund but following the meeting, Mayor Mike Ruttan said that it wasn’t yet clear where the money would go.

“The No. 1 target would be the aquatic centre and beyond that we haven’t decided,” said Ruttan.

“It’s certainly up for discussion as a council as to what will happen with that.”

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