There has been a monumental shift in the way we view our forests.

In the past, forest management was primarily dictated by industry needs and fire suppression. As a result, our forests are now unhealthy, unsafe and prone to catastrophic fires. (See FF Video - Our Forests Today)

We now understand that forest management should be dictated by long term forest health and safety.

We are embarking on creating a collaborative vision of safe and healthy forests to provide land managers with the information they need to better manage our lands.

This will only be successfully accomplished through transparent community collaborative efforts between all stakeholders.

The creation of this vision is in various stages of development. Some communities are far ahead in creating their vision for their local forests and are currently building "zones of agreement" among stakeholders to achieve forest health and safety goals. See Stewardship Contract.

Although a collaborative vision is evolving, there is a general consensus that any management plan will include significant reintroduction of fire as a natural part of the ecosystem, and will also result in significant volumes of residues that must be removed from the forests on a continuous basis.

Finding the most prudent utilization of these residues is critical for success. Thus appropriately sized, sustainable industries that create the highest value for each residue must be developed to assist in the forest health management effort. To ensure success, end-user markets must be developed for the woody biomass products. See FF Video on How we thin the forest.

At Forest Energy Corporation, we believe the production of biomass thermal energy is one of the most prudent uses and viable solutions to forest health. The forest residue and waste from sawmills is processed into clean burning, renewable thermal energy. Biomass thermal energy is unique. Not only does biomass thermal energy reduce fossil fuel consumption and displace carbon emissions to prevent global warming and air pollution, it saves our forests and creates rural economic prosperity.