Can I log my own land in BC and sell the logs?

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Yes, within local and streamside rules, but logs leaving the lot need a timber mark for that land and a licensed scaler's scale before sale, and most can't leave BC unprocessed without an exemption. Timber on your own titled lot is yours to cut and sell (our reading), within the local and other rules on the land. The Forest Act follows the logs: unscaled timber moved off private land must carry a timber mark issued for that land, and must be scaled by a licensed scaler before it's sold or milled. Whether the logs may leave BC unprocessed depends on when the Crown first granted the land. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. First, whether you may cut: A timber mark doesn't give authority to cut timber (the Province's private timber marks page). Whether you may log is for the other rules on the land: a town's tree protection bylaw or a regional district's tree cutting permit area, a development permit area, streamside protection, nest trees, a covenant on title, and the managed forest class. Each has its own page, linked below. Before anyone cuts or removes timber from private land next to Crown land, they must find out where its boundaries run, and an owner who lets someone else cut must tell them (Forest and Range Practices Act s. 53). The timber mark: Unscaled timber removed or transported from private land must be marked, as the regulation sets out, with the timber mark for that land, and no one may move it without; the minister can exempt timber, on conditions (Forest Act s. 84 (1), (3), (5)). The registrar issues a certificate describing the mark and the land to the owner of the timber under a charge registered on title, or else to the registered owner in fee simple or the holder of an agreement to purchase (s. 85 (1) (a)), and keeps a register of each mark, its holder and its land (s. 92). Applying, and a new owner: Owners apply on the Province's form FS361 to the natural resource district office or FrontCounterBC where the timber is; every registered owner signs, and one application can cover several properties registered in the same name in one district (the Province's private timber marks page). A mark for private land outside an area-based licence expires five years after it's issued or renewed (s. 83 (2), (3)), and a timber mark certificate can't be transferred (s. 90 (3)), so a seller's mark doesn't pass with the land: a new owner applies for their own (our reading). Marking the loads: Before unscaled timber goes by truck or rail car, the mark is shown on each side of the load or vehicle, in paint, crayon or on a sign, and hammered into at least 2 log ends at the front and 2 at the back (Timber Marking and Transportation Regulation s. 4). Logs decked or piled on private land need the mark hammered into at least 10% of the pieces only where the land is next to Crown land under a Forest Act agreement, in or next to a woodlot licence, or the minister has given notice (s. 3). Whoever moves timber carries a written record of the load: the vehicle, where the timber came from, when it left, where it's going, the timber mark, and the operator's name and signature (s. 10). Scaling: Timber cut from private land must not be sold, made into products or taken anywhere but the place it must go for scaling until a licensed scaler authorized by the minister scales it (Forest Act s. 94 (1) (a)); the minister can exempt timber, on conditions (s. 94 (5) to (7)). Unscaled timber goes to a scale site a forest officer designates (Timber Marking and Transportation Regulation s. 2 (1)); the Province's Mark Site Designation tool lists the scale sites for a timber mark. The scale is measured in cubic metres by the prescribed procedures, and a scale return goes to you and to the Ministry (Forest Act ss. 96, 97). Timber scaled by a scaler outside government still owes the government its costs for the scale return, past a prescribed amount (s. 98 (2), (3)). Selling logs out of BC: Timber harvested from Crown land, from land the Crown granted after March 12, 1906, or from land granted before then that lies in a tree farm licence area must be used or manufactured in BC unless exempted, and no one may try to take it out of the province without an exemption (Forest Act ss. 127, 127.1). An exemption is given only where the timber is surplus to BC mills' needs, can't be processed economically nearby or moved economically to a mill elsewhere in BC, or would prevent waste of timber cut from Crown land or improve its use (s. 128 (3)). The Province advertises harvested timber for two weeks for BC mills to make offers, and timber with no offer is surplus; then the owner or agent applies for the Province's permit to remove it, with its fee in lieu of manufacture, which isn't due on timber going elsewhere in Canada (the Province's log export pages). Those pages don't say how the fee reads on private land, so that's unclear: ask the Province's log export staff. Land granted before March 12, 1906: Private land the Crown granted before March 12, 1906, outside a tree farm licence, isn't under the Forest Act's Part 10. The federal government regulates exports of logs from it, with a similar surplus test (the Province's federal permit page). Which side a lot falls on depends on the date of its original Crown grant, which a lawyer or the land title office can trace (our reading). The federal export permit: Every log exported from Canada needs a federal export permit, to any destination: logs are item 5101 of the Export Control List under the Export and Import Permits Act (Global Affairs Canada's Notice to Exporters No. 102, dated April 1, 1998). For logs under Part 10, the federal application must include a valid provincial permit (the Province's page). For logs from private land outside Part 10, the Notice has them advertised on a federal list for BC mills' offers before Global Affairs Canada decides whether they're surplus. The Notice's forms and contacts date from 1998, so ask Global Affairs Canada's export controls staff for the current steps. The provincial and federal exemptions and permits can't be transferred: logs sold to someone new start over (the Province's log export page). Farmland (ALR): On ALR land, producing and harvesting timber, with silviculture and forest protection, is a farm use a local government bylaw may not prohibit, except a farming area bylaw (ALR Use Regulation ss. 4, 10 (c)). That lifts no other law: timber marks, scaling, streams and the rest still apply (s. 2). Woodlots, tree farm licences and managed forest: Private land put into a woodlot licence or a tree farm licence (its Schedule A) is logged under that licence's plan by the licence holder, and comes out of the licence only when the Ministry changes its boundary with the holder's consent: see logging near a property. Land in the managed forest class is logged under the Private Managed Forest Land Act, overseen by its Council, not the local government: see managed forest land. What it means for a buyer: A treed lot's timber is worth something only once it's lawfully cut, marked, scaled and sold (our reading). Ask what was logged and when, whether a timber mark is on file, and whether the land is in a woodlot licence, a tree farm licence or the managed forest class. Before counting on selling logs abroad, find out when the land was first granted by the Crown.

Can I log my own land in BC and sell the logs?

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