By Andru McCracken
The Valemount Community Forest and the Valemount Industrial Park held their Annual General Meetings last week at the Valemount Community Hall and the news is mixed: progress is happening at the industrial park, but earnings are down in forestry.
Total net earnings of the Valemount Community Forest Limited Partnership for 2019 were $129,940.
The structure of the community forest changed this year to become a Limited Partnership, but “falling markets, poor weather conditions and the loss of Canfor Vavenby and Interfor Adams Lake as purchasers has very negatively affected our business,” said General Manager Craig Pryor in his overview of 2019.
From a combination of three forest licenses, the community forest can log up to 98,000 cubic metres per year.
Last year they logged about 80,000 cubic metres using four different logging contractors.
In 2019 they planted 350,000 trees and installed a bridge and blasted rock to improve access to the Dave Henry drainage.
They are also involved in fire preparedness, harvesting 5 logging blocks around Valemount and near Tete Jaune which were identified as high risk.
