About

Mission

Burns Lake Community Forest Ltd. will manage and operate the Community Forest Licence Agreement in a safe, profitable, and innovative manner that enhances the forest resource while respecting the principles of integrated use, environmental stewardship, and public consultation.

The corporation’s harvesting, silviculture, and forest management activities provide benefits for the province, the Village of Burns Lake, First Nations partners, all residents of the Lakes Timber Supply Area, and local and regional wood processing facilities in a sustainable manner.

Vision

Our vision is for the Burns Lake Community Forest Ltd. to be the top performing community forest in BC.

  1. In operating safely and profitably.
  2. In providing benefits to the province, our shareholders, partners, First Nations, and residents of the Lakes Timber Supply Area.
  3. In providing opportunities for local employment to residents and First Nations.
  4. In increasing forest productivity in an innovative and environmentally sustainable manner.
  5. In supporting opportunities for integrated use.
  6. In ensuring the pubic and stakeholders are provided with opportunities for input into how the community forest is managed in an open and transparent manner.

Values

  1. Profitable
  2. Innovative
  3. Enhance the forest resource
  4. Integrated use
  5. Environmental stewardship
  6. Public consultation
  7. Benefits to the Province, Village, First Nations, and residents

The success of the BLCF relies on communication and engagement with multiple partners including:

Village of Burns Lake

Wet’suwet’en First Nation

Office of the Wet’suwet’en

Ts’il Kaz Koh First Nation

Licensed trappers and guide outfitters

Local logging and mill operators and workers

Range tenure holders

Energy sector representatives

Mining representatives

Recreational organizations

Community groups

Provincial and federal government agencies

Local government

Botanical forest product users and representatives

Our history

While much has changed, the BLCF remains committed to its founding principles of managing the forest to the benefit of the community, the local economy, and the environment.

1998

The Burns Lake Community Forest (BLCF) Ltd. was incorporated as part of the Village of Burns Lake’s application to the Ministry of Forest for a Community Forest Pilot Project. Soon after, the provincial government of the day announced the BLCF had been selected as one of the organizations in BC to be part of the pilot agreement.

2000

The agreement was awarded and gave BLCF the authority to manage the forest, which was less than a third of the size of what it is today at more than 92,000 hectares. The agreement set the company’s initial Annual Allowable Cut (what can be harvested in any given year) at 23,577 cubic metres (m3).

The BLCF’s first six directors were selected from the community forest steering committee, which was the volunteer organization responsible for developing the pilot proposal. It included representation from First Nations, business, industry, the Village of Burns Lake, and the community at large.

Over the next 17 years, there was rapid expansion of the Community Forest area, which included the establishment of new partnerships with First Nations communities and efforts to manage mountain pine beetle (MBP) killed timber.

2004

Burns Lake Community Forest Ltd. became the first organization in BC to be offered a Long-Term Community Forest Agreement — a 25-year renewable forest tenure that replaced the original pilot agreement. These circumstances helped ensure the community would be responsible for how forest resources surrounding Burns Lake would be used, managed, and protected for at least the next quarter century.