West Fraser Cochrane

Thank you to everyone who participated in West Fraser Cochrane’s Spring 2024 engagement period. There was considerable interest and participation in the public engagement for the West Bragg Creek/Moose Mountain planned harvest for 2026/2027.

West Fraser felt it was important to issue this report, What We Heard: West Bragg Creek/Moose Mountain Spring 2024 Public Engagement, to demonstrate how public input shapes our forest planning process.

Our report has the following objectives:

• Answer questions about land use, forest management agreements, harvest plans and sustainable forest management
• Share what we heard
• Outline how we are responding and revising our planned harvest for 2026/2027

Revising Our 2026/2027 West Bragg Creek/Moose Mountain Planned Harvest

West Fraser Cochrane’s 10-year Forest Management Plan, approved in 2021, contains a preliminary harvest design—known as the spatial harvest sequence—showing a planned harvest area of 880 hectares: 468 hectares in the West Bragg Creek area and 412 hectares in the Moose Mountain area.

As of September 2024, following the public comments collected during the May 2024 Open House, initial field visits with trail user groups and operational assessments, the planned harvest was reduced by 37%, from 880 to 556 hectares. The West Bragg Creek area was reduced from 468 to 268 hectares, and the Moose Mountain area was reduced from 412 to 288 hectares.

As a result, five of the 26 current and planned trails in the area will fall within harvest areas. In terms of overall trail impact, 1% of trail length will fall within the harvest area, while 17% of the trail length will be within 50 metres of harvest areas.

West Fraser Cochrane looks forward to continuing to work with the trail operators and the Government of Alberta to mitigate wildfire risk, develop harvest and road plans and foster a desirable future for sustainable trails in the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain areas.

Work will continue to further revise the harvest and road plan until it is submitted to the Government of Alberta in Spring 2026 for an anticipated harvest start date of October 2026.

Our What We Heard: West Bragg Creek/Moose Mountain Spring 2024 Public Engagement report is available for review along with the planned blocks maps:

Thank you to everyone who attended our recent Open Houses on May 8, 2024 in Cochrane and on May 9, 2024 in Blairmore.

We appreciate the time people took to attend our Open Houses, which provided a valuable forum to hear directly from community members about their concerns and receive input into our plans.

We saw considerable community response to our Cochrane Open House and now have a deeper understanding of how important the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain area is to the local community and surrounding area.

The materials from the Open Houses continue to be available below and if you have a question you are welcome to contact us at COS-WoodsNews@westfraser.com.

2024 Open House Information

 Cochrane, FMA0100038

Crowsnest Pass, FMA2100047