摘要：British Columbia (BC) is widely recognized as having two separate and distinctive pm1s of its forest industry: coastal BC and the interior (Figure 1).' Many of the critical differences between these two regions revolve around their respective timber species and size oftrees, as weil as the types oftimber mills, wood products, and mix offmal markets (Table 1). For instance, in the wetter coastal region the species harvested include Western hemlock, Douglas fir, Western red cedar, Yellow cedar and Sitka spruce. By contrast, most inland timber companies utilize species such as spruce-pine-fir; commercial species here include sub-alpine fir, lodge pole pine and western larch. The smaller coastal market is distinctive in that it has many more species ofwood and a wider export market. Importantly, product lines in the coastal region include structural lumber that is custom milled for Japanese houses in special metric dimensions. These can be contrasted with morestandard timber typically produced by the interior region 's saw mills; 'two inch by four inch' (2 x 4) or '2 inch by 6 inch' (2 x 6) pieces milled principally for United States markets 2 The coastal industry also specializes in decorative or' appearancegrade' products, including wooden mouldings, value-added and secondary products such as flooring, as weil as specially treated building materials (Coast Forest and Lumber Association (CFLA] 2002a). Because of this added-value feature, wood products from the coast sell typically for almost tvvice the price of lumber produced by interior sawmills. However, due to the higher costs of extraction together with environmental constraints, the expenses ofoperating timber mills on the coast are often more than double those of the interior, and indeed, on a global basis, the BC coast ranks among the most expensive of aIl forest product regions (ibid.).
