Common use of Base Case Clause in Contracts

Base Case. Forestry is the largest private sector employer in the Plan Area. Based on 1996 Census data, the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Relations (MFCR) estimates that forestry accounted for 26% of the personal income of residents of the Mid-Coast Forest District, where over 90% of the Plan Area population resides. The Plan Area covers a Gross Land Base (GLB) of 4.8 million hectares, including the Mid-Coast TSA, the mainland portions of the Kingcome and Strathcona TSAs, about 8% of the North Coast TSA, and portions of several TFLs. About 10.8% of Plan Area is in existing fully/partly Protected Areas (including the Hakai and Fiordland Recreation Areas, which allow mining but not logging, and parts of Tweedsmuir Park). About 551,000 ha. (11.9% of the Plan Area) is designated by the Ministry of Forests (MoF) as “Timber Harvesting Land Base” (THLB), or the area that is available and deemed economically feasible for timber harvesting in the short and long term. The THLB is much smaller than the GLB area because much of the Plan Area is non-forested/inoperable (i.e., mainly rock, ice, alpine, steep terrain, problem forest types, etc.), has “net- downs” for environmental values (e.g., existing Parks, riparian reserves, etc.), and since some land is non- Crown. However, as economics/technology improves, the THLB could expand into currently inoperable areas. On the other hand, some parts of the THLB are only marginally, or not economic at this time given current harvesting costs and market prices. This is an important issue, especially in the Mid-Coast Timber Supply Areas, where MoF estimates that about 66% of the THLB is hemlock/balsam leading stands (see Map 2), the markets/prices for which have been depressed since the late 1990s (see Figure 1). MoF forest cover constraints, such as cutblock adjacency, Forest Practices Code and landscape level biodiversity, apply to all TSAs and TFLs within the Plan Area. There are additional requirements that may be applied to protect specific areas, values or forest types, such as scenic areas / visual quality objectives, community watersheds, deer winter range, and grizzly bear habitat. Appendix B provides a GIS area analysis breakdown of the Plan Area by these zone categories, although the Grizzly, Deer, and Community Watershed zones are subsumed under “General Management.” The total current Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) of the Central Coast Plan Area is about 3.8 million m3/yr., excluding an average annual harvest on “Timber Licenses” 2 of about 460,000 m3/yr. over the 1995-2000 period.3 Forest licenses within TSAs account for about 65% of the AAC, and TFLs make up the remaining 35%. Within the Mid Coast Forest District, the major tenures are held by ▇▇▇▇▇/Western (includes part of TFL #25), Weyerhaeuser (includes part of TFL #39), and International Forest Products (Interfor). Interfor (includes TFL #45), Weyerhaeuser (including part of TFL #39), Timberwest (including part of TFL #47) and Shushartie Logs Sales Ltd. (and its parent company Mill & Timber Products Ltd.), are the larger licensees on the mainland portion of the Port ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ Forest District, while Timberwest (including part of TFL #47), ▇▇▇▇▇ (including part of TFL #25), Weyerhaeuser (including part of TFL #39), and Interfor tenures are located in the mainland portion of the ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ River Forest District. Part of Triumph Timber’s (formerly ▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ Ltd.) tenure is also located in the northern part of the Plan Area that extends into the North Coast TSA.