Information on annual allowable cut (AAC) has been reported in the National Forestry Database (NFD) as a proxy for wood supply since the first edition of the Compendium of Canadian Forestry Statistics in 1991. The Web site continues to include a series of provincial profiles presenting the current status of the aggregate AAC in each jurisdiction (Table 2.1). In addition to AAC — which properly pertains only to the regulated harvest from provincial Crown land (except in the case of private lands within tree farm and woodlot licences in British Columbia) — the profiles include information on wood  supply from private and federal lands.

In the following table, information on wood supply / annual allowable cut before 1990 was from various earlier studies (1). Estimates of wood supply  for 1990 and later take into account data for private lands and federal lands, which was not usually the case for years before 1990.

 

The current annual allowable cut (AAC) values for publicly owned regulated lands are presented in Table 2.2. The periods reported in Table 2.2 do not generally coincide with the periods reported in the harvest control indicator, which appears next.

The purpose of the harvest control indicator is to demonstrate the degree to which harvest regulation is being operationally achieved on provincial Crown lands (Table 2.3). In almost all cases, harvest control is implemented on a periodic rather than an annual basis. While AAC levels cannot be exceeded over the regulation period (5 to 10 years in most cases), annual harvest levels may have only very broad thresholds (50%) or none at all. Therefore, this indicator is only reported for the last full regulation period on record. The fact that regulation periods are not consistent across jurisdictions, in terms of either period length or starting and ending years, does not limit the utility of this indicator, as the statistics presented are periodic annual statistics and ratios. Again, it should be noted that the harvest levels presented in Table 2.3 are not total harvest levels in the provinces, but only the harvest from regulated lands, i.e., where AACs are established.

Growing stock represents the inventory standing on the net landbase at any point in time. In all provinces and territories, stability of this growing stock is a long-term target; it is therefore a useful indicator of sustainability of resource values (Table 2.4). Depiction of the net area (the forest area on which harvesting can take place) in three broad stages of development (regenerating, immature, and mature) is presented in Table 2.4 to capture the transition in distribution of these stages from the current condition, with a preponderance of mature forest, to a more balanced long-term distribution. Managing wood supply through the transition period thus presents significant challenges. Specifically, information is reported for the following temporal stages:

• Short term (over the next 10 years), which will be reflected in near-term AAC changes.
• Mid-term (over the next 100 years), which reflects the current / future forest transition.
• Long term (beyond 100 years), which reflects the productivity of the regulated forest.

The same points in time are used for reporting for all jurisdictions to enable roll-up at the national level. This component of the reporting framework is intended to include information for private, federal, and territorial lands, as well as provincial Crown lands.