Of British Columbia's 234 million acres, 134 million, or 57 per cent, are classified as forest land. Responsibility for managing this resource lies largely with the provincial government.

The government is not, however, in the business of logging or manufacturing timber products to any significant extent.

The overall objective for government is, therefore, to find the most economically efficient and socially beneficial long-term means of conveying the publicly owned resource to private ownership for processing. It is in relation to this objective that the issues discussed here arise.

The articles in this volume are grouped in three main sections. The first details the fundamental and historical relationship between government and the timber resource. The second analyses appraisals and alternative sales structures. The third focuses on sustained yield and on the ecological and social-use issues connected with timber policy.