The Nakusp and Area Community Forest (NACFOR) will be transitioning to a new management contractor in the near future. The change will come after 15 years of careful guidance by True North Forestry Consulting Ltd. (True North) of Nakusp.
True North Forestry is a local natural resource consulting company operating in Nakusp since 1991. True North specializes in forest planning and development, Arc GIS services, resource information capture and management, small tenure management, timber assessment, and property development. True North helped with the inception and establishment of NACFOR in 2008 and has since managed the community forest. After many years with NACFOR as a main client, management decided it was time for new directions. Hugh Watt, TN owner says “Managing NACFOR has been a very fulfilling proposition. It has been great to work for so many years with such a solid team of Board and management as we helped to grow and strengthen NACFOR all together. As a model for sustainable management and local delivery of benefits, community forestry will hopefully grow in the local area and province. We truly appreciate the network of great local contractors who have provided excellent services to NACFOR. We are very happy to see that Cabin Resource Management Ltd will be the new local management team.”
Cabin Resource Management was awarded the NACFOR management contract starting in June 2023. Founded in Nelson in 1996, Cabin is a well-known and respected multi-disciplinary resource management team based in the Okanagan and West Kootenays. The NACFOR management contract was awarded to Cabin via a Request for Proposals process, adjudicated by the NACFOR Board of Directors.
The management team manages the daily operations under contract to NACFOR, in close consultation with a volunteer board of directors. The Board is appointed by the Village of Nakusp council, but NACFOR is managed as a stand-alone entity, at arm’s length from the Village.
NACFOR is a BC corporation and holds a 25-year (replaceable) Community Forest Agreement with the BC government. This licenses it to manage a forest land base of 9,192 hectares and harvest an average of 20,000 cubic metres – about 500 truckloads of timber per year.
Operations are carried out on a contract basis, primarily with local contractors. NACFOR has operated successfully since 2008 with numerous benefits delivered back into the community. Benefits include their donation program, youth programs, scholarships to local graduates, field trips and educational lessons with local School District #10 classes, trail and recreation development, caribou recovery program support, and dividends to the Village of Nakusp Legacy Fund which returns profits to the municipality and RDCK Area K and part of Area H (Summit Lake ski hill). NACFOR will continue to be an important part of the local community fabric far into the future.
