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THE HINTON FOREST 1955-2000 A CASE STUDY IN ADAPTIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT THE WELDWOOD-HINTON STORY FOOTHILLS MODEL FOREST HISTORY SERIES VOLUME 2 Chapter 1 Introduction & Background Peter J. Murphy with Robert Udell and Robert E. Stevenson 2002 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Title Page 1 Introduction to Chapter 1 4 2 Historical Backdrop to 2001 6 3 North Western Pulp & Power Limited and the New Town of Hinton 35 4 Commitment to Sustained Yield Forest Management 43 5 Forest Management -- Scope of the Undertaking 51 6 Crossley’s Overview 57 7 Endnotes 65 2 CHAPTER 1 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Caption Page 1 Location of Brazeau and Athabasca Forest Reserves in Alberta in 7 1925. 2 Forest Reserves in Alberta, 1929 8 3 Timber Berths at Brule Lake and along the McLeod River as of 9 July 1909. 4 Green and White Zones as declared in 1948. 12 5 North Western Pulp&Power -- area proposed by F. Ruben in 15 1951 – the original. 6 North Western Pulp&Power -- area proposed in Agreement of 1952 by F. Ruben and in 1954 by North Canadian Oils and St. 16 Regis Paper Company. 7 North Western Pulp&Power -- area first designed for mill to be 17 located at Hinton – amended Agreement 1955. 8 North Western Pulp&Power -- refined FMA for mill located at 20 Hinton – amended Agreement 1961. 9 North Western Pulp&Power -- FMA expanded to support mill 23 expansion – new Agreement 1968. 10 North Western Pulp&Power -- FMA reduced to former size in 23 1972 after expansion area cancelled. 11 North Western Pulp&Power -- Coal Leases on the FMA 1977 24 12 St. Regis (Alberta) Ltd. – area proposed for Berland Timber 27 Development Area, 1979 13 Weldwood (Hinton) -- FMA as negotiated in new Agreement in 31 1988 to support expansion of the mill. 14 Foothills Model Forest -- established 1992, Jasper National Park 32 added 1995, Willmore Wllderness Park added 1997. 15 Crossley and Loomis Forests declared as two major forest 33 management units - 1997 16 The Cycle of Sustainable Forest Management 53 3 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Section 1. Introduction to Chapter 1 Alberta took over control of its natural resources from the federal government on the first day of October 1930 through the Transfer of Resources Act. Before then the land that was to become Alberta was a part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Rupert’s Land for 200 years from 1670 to 1870, then part of Canada’s ‘North West Territories’ until 1905 when Alberta was made a province of the Dominion of Canada. However, the federal government kept control of the natural resources, including the forests, for twenty-five years until 1930. When Alberta took over its forests the forest industry was modest in size -- in 1931 producing only 51 million board feet (fbm). By the end of the Second World War, lumber production had increased to about 300 million fbm, and inquiries about possible construction of a pulp mill in Alberta were noted as early as 1946. Permission to export fire-killed timber for pulp wood to be manufactured outside Alberta was approved by order-in-council in 1944-45, and quantities were shipped to Ontario and the United States the next year. Since the export of green pulpwood was prohibited under the Alberta Forests Act, this recognition that Alberta had suitable pulpwood species may have stimulated interest from potential investors outside the province. The government of Alberta was interested in encouraging a pulp industry both to utilize the extensive stands of smaller diameter trees and to contribute to the economy. Forestry officials then, notably Director of Forestry Eric Huestis and Deputy Minister John Harvie, were resolved that if pulp mills were established in Alberta, forest management would be done differently than it had been in eastern Canada. In their revised Forests Act of 1949 they included an enabling clause to permit pulpwood leases with a commitment to harvest the forest on a “perpetual sustained yield” basis. The first application for an Agreement followed in the same year that this clause was approved, but the applicant was not able to raise the capital to proceed. The evolution of the first successful Agreement, for North Western Pulp and Power, began in 1951 when Frank Ruben, an Alberta oil and coal businessman, signed an agreement and began to search for a partner. He obtained extended agreements in 1951 and 1952, and formed a partnership with the St. Regis Paper Co. Ltd. in June 1954. Their revised Agreement of 14 September 1954 is the one that launched this enterprise. This one epitomized the cooperative government-industry search for an equitable and collaborative means by which their respective needs -- for forest management and revenues for the government and timber harvesting rights for the industry -- could be met while ensuring that the forests were managed to sustain “perpetually successive crops” for sustained yield. 4 Through the ensuing area-based Agreements Weldwood of Canada and its predecessor companies have been managing this large forest management area in Alberta for over 40 years. The enabling Agreement of 1954 with North Western Pulp and Power Ltd. in the Hinton area was the first of its kind in Alberta. This was a pioneering venture from the outset. In addition to constructing the first pulp mill in Alberta, it was the first pulp mill to utilize lodgepole pine as a major component, the first major forest industry to commit to sustained yield forest management, and the first cooperative agreement in which the industry assumed such a large share of the forest management responsibility. In return for this commitment, the Crown granted the Company long term security of timber harvesting rights, or ‘tenure’, upon which to base investments in manufacturing plants, roads, forest management and regeneration. This model of shared government-industry responsibility and commitment was precedent setting, and its principles provided an example that was emulated in some form by most other provinces. This story is told in ”The Evolution of Forest Management Agreements – A Policy Review and Analysis”, a companion volume in the Foothills Model Forest history series. Outline of Chapter 1 Chapter 1 provides an introduction and background to the Case Study. The historical context is important for perspective. Historical events before 1955 were presented in the first volume in this history series – “A Hard Road to Travel”. In this Chapter, a brief review of these highlights is presented, followed by summaries of the major events since. The subsequent reviews cover the periods between the major negotiated Agreements: 1954-1968, 1968-1988 and 1988 to 2001. One of the hallmarks of this Case Study was the commitment by both the Company and government to achievement of sustained yield forest management, a long-held dream of early foresters. The story about the major participants and how their resolution was translated into policy is described next. Forest management planning involves a complex array of considerations designed to meet ecological, economic and social objectives. An overview of this process is provided to serve as a ‘road map’ for the chapters which follow. And finally, “In the beginning” -- the start-up of the forestry operations in 1955 is described. In essence the entire management system had to be developed from scratch, and it seemed that everything had to be done at once. This section ends with Crossley’s own retrospective review of how he and his team went about their task. 5 Section 2. Historical Backdrop to 2001 Introduction Forest policies in Alberta reflect a heritage from a long history of Canadian precedents, beginning with Crown reserves of forests for strategic military purposes by the British and French as early as the 1600s. Alberta assumed responsibility for its forests in 1930 after the Transfer of Resources from the federal government. In summary, the forests were (and still are) primarily in public ownership, now administered by the Alberta Land and Forest Service of the provincial government. The local forest industries were then comprised primarily of sawmill and tie operations. Although they were important locally, there were concerns about their sustainability in light of utilization technology at the time, and the lack of markets for the extensive post-fire forests of smaller size not suitable for sawlogs and ties. With a focus on protection from fires, increased logging was anticipated to become the primary disturbing element in the forest to ensure renewal of vigorous young forests. The Province was aware of problems with industry forest management in other parts of Canada as a result of permissive leasing arrangements that did not ensure regenerated forests, and resolved to do better in Alberta. Although oil revenues were starting to increase after Leduc No. 1 ‘came in’ on 13 February 1947, Alberta remained financially weak for another decade. It was seen as important that forest-based revenues be generated to help to cover the costs of forest protection and management. Historical Review to 1954 When the federal government acquired Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1870, the lands, of which Alberta was a part, were incorporated as the North West Territories, administered by the federal Department of the Interior. The responsibility for protecting and managing the Dominion Forests was eventually assigned to the Dominion Forestry Branch (DFB) when it was established in 1899. The extent of the forests and magnitude of the task required their efforts to be focussed on the forests of greatest importance. In Alberta and the prairies these were generally judged to be the treed areas on higher elevations -- typically watersheds on which many of the important streams and rivers originated.

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