Management Plan Process

AV Nackawic is responsible for the management of approximately 265,000 hectares of forested area, of which 228,000 hectares is New Brunswick Crown land and 37,000 hectares that is Freehold land owned by the company. The sustainable forest management planning process involves scheduling appropriate harvest and silviculture regimes today in order to preserve values such as timber, wildlife habitat, water quality and biodiversity over the long term.

The basic forest management planning steps are:

1. Obtaining the most recent forest inventory information
2. Making forecasts on how the forest will grow in the future
3. Using a computer software package that models forest growth, and the effects of different harvest and silviculture activities on the entire forest land
4. Determining an Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) that can be harvested year after year, while never running out of wood
5. Mapping harvest blocks for a 25-year period to assure long-term harvest flow
6. Scheduling harvest blocks annually in order to achieve the AAC

An evaluation of harvest and silviculture activities is completed after each 5-year period. The AAC is revised to account for new science and changes in the forest inventory information.

The entire planning process is documented in a Forest Management Plan. The Plan must be approved by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) before harvest can occur on Crown land and is available to the general public. The plan for Freehold land must be available to DNR. In both cases, the
Plans are available to our third party environmental certification auditors.