Lower North Thompson Community Forest Society

Our Goals:
Create a long-term sustainable plan for local forest resources that generates benefits for the people and communities of the Lower North Thompson Valley

Preserve ownership of local natural resources, promoting self determination for our communities

Create sustainable employment, new business opportunities and investment

Provide long-term opportunities for achieving a range of community objectives, including: skills training, forest related education, and social, environmental, and economic benefits

How we do this:
We contribute money to local high school students in the form of scholarships and bursaries for those pursuing post-secondary education. Each summer we hire 2-4 BC university students and 2 local high school students to work in our mill and woodlands departments!! We also donate money gained through logging revenue towards community projects and through our Community Grants program.

Company History

We are a non-profit Community Forest located in Barriere, BC. This society formed in 2004 after the McLure wildfire (26,420 hectares)- This natural disaster affected the loss of a large number of jobs in rural communities, several small communities and volunteers came together to pursue a Community Forest License (K1Z) for the people Lower North Thompson Valley.

We sell logs to local mills within the region. We also privately sell firewood and specialty lumber products made from local wood within the Community Forest and processed at our micro mill which helps improve fiber utilization of marginal and oversized logs.

Company Facts

We receive strategic direction from a 12-person Board of Directors comprised of local community members.

We currently employ 4 Full Time and 1 Part Time employees in two main departments – Woodlands and Milling

Our area based tenure is approximately 8,500 ha and it shaped like Texas

We have hosted 2-4 summer students each summer since 2014