An expert in the forest industry is giving lectures at UNBC, this week.
Al Gorley is the president of Triangle Resources and is the former chair of the BC Forest Practices Board.
He already spoke to the university’s environmental studies institute on the long-term future of the forest industry.
“But we’re going to have to make some changes,” he says. “The timber supply is different from what we’ve had in the past, for awhile, it’ll be different from what we’re expecting, there are a number of different players on the scene, so we’re going to have to adapt.”
He says the Prince George area is in a unique situation.
“It’s in the centre of the mountain pine beetle situation,” he says. “Which is now moving from a salvage into what we used to call ‘mid-term timber supply shortage’ but is now a ‘near-term timber supply shortage’.”
His next lecture is Friday afternoon at 3:30 on how independent oversight of the industry can improve its social licence.
“What it seems to do is give people more confidence that they’re getting the straight goods on what’s going on in the forest,” he says.