By Andrew Snook CCR is rehabilitating forests while building a business case for biomass harvesting in the B.C. Interior
Anyone living in a remote, heavily forested community in British Columbia is well acquainted with the mountain pine beetle, and the destruction it has brought to the province’s vast forests. Couple that with the past decade’s record numbers of forest fires, and the rehabilitation efforts necessary to transform these burnt stands of dead trees to productive forests becomes a massive undertaking.
Despite how daunting this task appears, there are companies and communities working diligently on returning their forests back to their natural splendor. One of those companies is Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. (CCR), which was formed in the spring of 2017 to address more than 100,000 hectares of dead pine in the Chilcotin region and to rehabilitate those stands into productive forests.
CCR was started up by two First Nations communities, Tŝideldel First Nation and Tl’etinqox Government, with the help of a $3.4-million grant from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) to help rehabilitate mountain pine beetle-damaged forests near Alexis Creek, a little over 100 kilometres west of Wiliams Lake in the heart of the B.C. Interior.
“We were able to get funding to start some projects focused on the rehabilitation among mountain pine beetle because there are thousands of hectares out there that are not being rehabilitated that are low value, beetle-infested, and have other diseases, so no logging company would go in and harvest those areas,” explains Percy Guichon, executive director of CCR. “We were able to get some funding to go in with equipment to remove the dead trees and utilize the fibre that was left. But more importantly, it was about trying to get the area back up and productive as soon as possible because it wasn’t doing anything. It was a wildfire hazard, and wildlife were not really using it.”
CCR’s focus on how it rehabilitated forests changed dramatically in the summer of 2017 when the B.C. Interior experienced the massive Plateau Fire.
“It really changed the scope of what we were doing. While we remain dedicated to rehabilitation, our focus has shifted to addressing the urgent situation of rehabilitating the burned stands,” Guichon says. “The Plateau Fire was around 800,000 hectares. So, we felt that we needed to adjust and pivot there and try to focus on utilizing the fibre.”
Some of the stands destroyed were comprised of Douglas fir trees, which did not have a long life after the fires (three to four years) for the sawmills to utilize the fibre before they became worthless.
“It was about utilizing that burnt wood and replanting those areas, trying to get it back up and growing as soon as possible,” Guichon says. “We were heavily dependent on FESBC funding to carry out a lot of our projects.”
CCR successfully applied for additional funding through the FESBC and was awarded approximately $34 million in additional grant funding, which was instrumental in the company’s rehabilitation efforts. The company also has a long-term agreement in place with Natural Resources Canada through the 2 Billion Trees Program. Additionally, at the end of 2024, the Yunesit’in Government joined the First Nation partnership and added its massive traditional territory to the collective.
“That’s really been helpful to help us continue our work and plant as many trees in Chilcotin as we can,” Guichon says.
CCR is now evolving into the primary forest management entity for its three First Nation owners, taking the lead in all land-use planning initiatives with the Province of British Columbia. This development signifies CCR’s growing role and responsibility in managing forest resources and ensuring sustainable practices.
The company’s forestry operations are supported by several local partners, including Tsi Del Del Biomass Ltd, Dechen Ventures, Consus Management Ltd., and Eniyud Community Forest. These collaborations help CCR implement effective forest management strategies and contribute to the overall health and sustainability of the region’s forests.
Daniel Persson, forestry superintendent of CCR, says the secret to their success is that they think outside the box and are willing to take on the hardest jobs.
“We do projects that nobody else will,” he says. “CCR is a company that takes risks to do what we need to do.”
Persson says taking on these economic risks to utilize the wood in heavily damaged stands with low economic value while returning the forests to productive stands is a big challenge.
“The runway to get this to work is so short that nobody’s done it before. We’re taking on projects that are pretty hard to pull off and taking a lot of risk doing it. We’re working with equipment. We’re working with fibre sales, and we’re going through hundreds of thousands of dollars from one month to the next,” he says.
Expanding into biomass
Rehabilitating damaged forests can be costly and presents the dilemma of managing the dead fibre removed from the stands. Traditionally, this dead fibre would be piled and burned to reduce fuel loading in the new forest. However, CCR has challenged this approach by seeking alternative uses for the fibre.
“We felt we might as well branch off a little bit and experiment with the biomass, reduce emissions into the atmosphere, utilize slash piles and create jobs,” Guichon says. “Williams Lake is well positioned to have options for where we can send our biomass.”
The main biomass buyers are the Drax Williams Lake Pellet Plant, Atlantic Power, which buys hog fuel to generate power, and pulp mills in Kamloops and Quesnel.
The most challenging aspect of the biomass business has been building capacity.
“We’re doing something new that’s definitely made an impact in our communities in terms of training and creating long-term employment, and so, that definitely helps reduce social issues in our communities,” Guichon says.
Joe Webster, manager of Tsi Del Del Biomass, says the expansion of CCR into the biomass sector was a natural progression for the company.
“As Tsi Del Del Biomass proved to be competent and were able to fulfill contracts on time and deliver, it was easy to do because, as I always say, ‘If you build it, they will come.’ That’s what happens in this industry, especially with secondary manufacturers. If you’ve got fibre and can deliver it, they want it,” Webster says.
While the amount of biomass being harvested varies from year to year, Tsi Del Del Biomass typically processes in the range of 300,000 cubic metres annually. The company regularly operates three grinders – two Peterson 4710 horizontal grinders, a CBI 6800CT horizontal grinder, a Peterson 5000G mobile chipper, and 20 trucks hauling biomass.
The biomass division currently employs eight or nine people in the bush and around 20 truck drivers and contractors.
“It’s usually pared down a little bit smaller than that. I like to run a small crew and be able to spend the time with the guys as much as possible, just to make sure they’ve got what they need to do their jobs,” Webster says. “The senior guys have been around for a while. There’s not much management of them needed. You just keep giving them work, and they do the work. It’s pretty seamless that way.”
Finding skilled drivers for hauling biomass can be challenging.
“There are two types of drivers out there: a highway chip truck driver, and then there’s a log truck driver,” Webster says. “If you get a log truck driver, he refuses to shovel or do anything like that, but his skill off-highway far surpasses the highway driver. The highway driver will roll his tarps and shovel if the load is stuck, but their skill level in the bush or off-highway is lower.”
While challenges remain for growing the biomass side of the business, Webster says there’s plenty of opportunity to grow with the help of the Ministry of Forests to adjust permitting to assist with harvesting.
“In B.C., we’re running out of saw logs, but there’s no shortage of fibre for biomass. We have a glut,” he says. “If we can get the Ministry on board, and they’re definitely coming around, and maybe we adjust the permitting process… they’ll get it adjusted so that it works well for biomass.”
Read the full article on Canadian Biomass Magazine
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