The problem is structural
British Columbia’s forest sector faces declining timber quality and accessibility, rising harvesting and transportation costs, a reduced operable land base, ecological degradation, and increasing disruption from wildfire, drought, flooding, and hydrological change.
The New Forest Act starts from the premise that repeatedly adjusting policies and practices inside the same legislative structure will not produce the scale of change required.
Nothing changes until the legislation changes.
The proposal replaces the framework itself: what forest management is for, who makes decisions, where harvesting occurs, how ecological limits are applied, and how public timber supports local economies.
Forests are critical infrastructure
Forests provide clean water, slope stability, flood protection, biodiversity, carbon storage, community protection, and long-term fibre supply. The New Forest Act treats these functions as public infrastructure rather than secondary benefits of timber-producing land.
Timber supply
The framework aligns harvesting with verified ecological growth and site conditions rather than projected volume targets that depend on an increasingly constrained land base.
Communities and local economies
The proposal shifts economic emphasis from high-volume extraction toward greater value per cubic metre, regional log markets, local manufacturing, restoration, monitoring, planning, and other community-based work.