The Prince George Forest Region is the largest of the six forest regions in British Columbia with a total forested landbase comprising 17,718,000 ha or 38% of the overall forested landbase of British Columbia.
Each year there is approximately 57,000 ha logged in this region mainly using the clearcut harvesting system. Studies have shown that 18% of this harvested landbase is affected adversely by a combination of landings, main road and skid trail development. Landings were found to comprise 4% of the harvested landbase. Thus 2,280 ha/year are being affected by landings in the region (8,657 ha/year on a provincial basis).
Compaction levels on these landings average about 1.5 Mg/m3, indicating that severe soil compaction is occurring on these landings.
Managers are divided in their opinions that either,
a) unrehabilitated landings are capable of growing a commercial tree thus these areas can be retained in the landbase used to calculate the Allowable Annual Cut or,
b) landings are capable of growing a commercial tree only if landing rehabilitation efforts are initiated.
Regardless of which opinion is valid, the fact remains that failure to maintain these areas as part of the productive forested landbase could result in the reduction of the Allowable Annual Cut available for he forest industry in the region.