CLIENT: Chinook Community Forest
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
PRI completed a comprehensive timber supply analysis across approximately 90,000 hectares of the Chinook Community Forest near Burns Lake, British Columbia. The project encompassed timber supply modeling, growth and yield monitoring, and access management planning to support the long-term sustainable management of the community forest.
CHALLENGE:
The scale and complexity of the Chinook Community Forest required innovative approaches to processing and integrating high-resolution, remote-sensing-based inventory data into a forest estate model capable of projecting timber supply over a 250-year horizon. Ensuring the accuracy and reliability of volume predictions across such a large and diverse land base, while establishing a sustainable, long-term monitoring framework with built-in feedback mechanisms, presented significant technical and logistical challenges.
APPROACH:
PRI developed new methodologies for aggregating and localizing remote-sensing-based, high-resolution inventory data within the forest estate model, incorporating ground-verified, localized volume predictions from the HRIS inventory to strengthen projection accuracy over the 250-year modeling period. A Growth and Yield Monitoring Plan was developed to guide systematic field measurements on a five-year cycle, with PRI managing and quality-controlling field data collection in 2023. PRI also maintains Chinook’s HRIS inventory and has integrated a depletion feedback mechanism into the forest estate model to continuously track timber supply indicators and flag emerging issues.
OUTCOME:
PRI delivered a robust and forward-looking timber supply framework for the Chinook Community Forest, equipping the organization with reliable long-term projections, a structured monitoring program, and a dynamic modeling system capable of incorporating real-world updates over time. The result is a defensible and adaptive foundation for sustainable timber supply decision-making across the 90,000-hectare community forest for generations to come.