Merritt Update Feb 05, 2010

Completed Projects:

1) Planted 479,920 trees on 377 hectares of Mountain Pine Beetle impacted stands. Project completed in Spring 2009. Planting density was 1,275 trees/ha with a species mix of Interior Douglas-fir, Lodgepole pine and Spruce.

2) Planted 459,210 trees on 400 hectares of Wildfire impacted stands. Planting density was 1,150 trees/ha with a species mix of Interior Douglas-fir, Lodgepole pine and Spruce. Project completed Spring 2009.

3) Conducted surveys on 1,980 hectares of Mountain Pine Beetle impacted BC Timber Sales TSL blocks to determine eligibility to be reforested under the FFT program. Target blocks had a lodgepole pine content of 70% or greater. Project was completed in July, 2009. An additional 844 hectares were added to this project in the latter part of October. Total area surveyed will be 2,824 hectares.

Active Projects:

1) Communities in the Southern Interior Region have expressed their desire to be more involved in the implementation and the planning phases of the FFT Program. Involvement in the up front planning process will foster greater engagement by communities and help reduce the costs associated with the referral processes.
In addition, this will produce a more encompassing plan to more thoroughly address the strategic goals and objectives of the FFT program.
The project is titled "5 Year FFT Community Integrated Investment Plan". This project involves the 8 First Nations Bands within the Nicola Tribal Association.

The purpose of the project is to generate a greater involvement in the FFT program by including First Nations Communities and Community Forests in the up front planning, selection of candidate units for treatment and implementation of the FFT program. This in turn will provide for more broad support of the program at the local level.
The project is a 5 year operational plan and is a means of identifying communities’ interests, potential opportunities and capacity. The 5 year operational plan will identify opportunities/synergies, community expectations, and set 2 year and 3 year goals.

This project was started last year and is continuing to completion this fiscal year.

2) Have completed 410 hectares of layout and Preliminary Field Reviews on Mountain Pine Beetle impacted blocks which will have an Overstory Removal site preparation treatment conducted under a Forest Licence to Cut.

2) Layout and Preliminary Field Reviews have been completed on 750 hectares of older Wildfires (Friday & Lawless) which will be planted in Spring 2010.

3) Planting planning and tendering of planting blocks for 2010 planting is ongoing.

4) Completed 345 hectares of Wildfire surveys within the 2009 Brookmere wildfire.

5) Completed 456 hectares of Regeneration Survival surveys on areas previously planted in 2007 under the FFT program to assess plantation survival.

6) Initiated the sowing request for 2011 planting.

New since January, 2010

7) Initiated a project to complete the planning components of the 2010 survey program. The project includes Innovative Timber Sale Licence (ITSL) surveys and Regeneration surveys of the Friday and Lawless Wildfire areas that were previously planted under the FFT program. Total area planned is 3,200 hectares.

8) A project has been recently approved to load the backlog of s.162.2 and s.108 applications collected between 2003 and 2007 into RESULTS. Project may include openings from any TSA in the province, but the bulk will be from TSA’s in the Southern Interior Forest Region (Lillooet, Kamloops, Arrow, Columbia, Rocky Mountain, Williams Lake, Okanagan, Kootenay Lake)