Cariboo North MLA Coralee Oakes made an announcement this afternoon that is designed to provide clarity on tree-planting in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Oakes says a change in the ALC Act will require land owners, who are considering planting trees for carbon credits, to make an application to the Agricultural Land Commission for properties larger than 20 hectares.
It was a made in the Cariboo solution that was brought forward originally by Rancher Martin Rossman.
“In my eye it was (a huge problem) because there was already about 25 thousand acres that had been planted to trees and they had plans to probably another 10 thousand in the next year so i think it was a problem that we had to stop and it looks like we’ve done it.”
Rossman says they had a lot of support from ranchers in other parts of the province including Williams Lake, Horsefly, Vanderhoof and the Nechako region.
Oakes made the announcement from the Fraser Village Seniors Facility to honour some of the pioneers in the community, including her Grandma Olive Oakes who came to the Cariboo in the 1930’s.
She says it supports food production, timber harvesting, agroforestry and silviculture and makes it clear that land in the ALR is better used for those purposes.
Oakes says this is just a step in ensuring that productive agricultural land is available for future generations.
She says they need to support and attract the next generation of farmers.