NDIT Announces New Fund for Forestry

to help small forestry related businesses research and develop new technologies and techniques.

Prince George, B.C.- The Northern Development Initiative Trust is rolling out a new fund to help small forestry related businesses research and develop new technologies and techniques. The fund will provide up to $1 million dollars in grants over a two year period for small and medium sized companies and community forests involved in logging, processing and transporting products related to the forest sector. The ‘Forest Innovation Fund’ is under the NDIT’s Pine Beetle Recovery Account. Although the beetles have long gone and many pine beetle stands already harvested, there are challenging days ahead as the forest industry deals with a reduced mid-term timber supply.

In order to qualify for a grant a company  must be privately owned,  have  fewer than 500 employees, have revenue less than $100 million dollars and be based within the  area served by NDIT.

But  as the  Softwood Lumber Agreement has yet  to be  renegotiated,   will  the USA  view this  funding as an unfair subsidy?   “We certainly don’t think there will be an impact in terms of softwood lumber discussions” says MLA Shirley Bond.  “This funding is focused on communities, it doesn’t impact the majors ( forest companies) and in talking to the  people leading the file on Softwood there doesn’t appear to be a major impact there.”

The new fund will  provide up to  50% of the cost of a project, to a maximum of $50 thousand dollars per project.   Eligible project  examples include,  innovation in biomass and harvesting and  gathering techniques,  site remediation advancements, seedling survival enhancement, value-added forest products and new technology.

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