Using a case study approach, the magnitude and tempo of forest change is examined in one timber supply area on BC's coast. Stand attributes from the 1984 forest inventory were compared with one completed in 1994. Forest valuations for the two time periods were developed. In terms of 1989$, the forest was worth $1.6 billion less in 1994 than in 1984.

The study proposed that the magnitude of change - especially with respect to the economic value of the timber resource - along with the narrow exploitative focus by the public landowner, discouraged the development of links between forest exploitation and the standard of living in rural resource-based communities. Instead, the timber tenure system developed as a partnership of the integrated forest products firm and the provincial government. As a partial consequence of the resultant exploitative distribution policies, the economic foundation of many coastal communities eroded at an alarming rate.

Especially vulnerable were the "instant" resource-dependent towns like Ucluelet, Gold River, Port Alice and Port McNeill on Vancouver Island. These towns had been created during the late 1960s through the early 1970s and are tied, in an economic sense, very closely to the health of the company or companies controlling the timber tenures in their area. As the financial fortunes of many coastal companies declined, so did socio-economic conditions in these forest-dependent communities.

To compensate for forest depletion in a sub-region, the idea of a timber income stabilization fund was developed. The study also proposed a new form of timber tenure on the coast. It was suggested that the present value of the timber income stabilization fund be used as a basis for capitalizing the new form of forest tenure.

The new tenure is briefly described.