Hay River (Sep 11/06) - A sawmill here has won an appeal to gain access to timber just North of the NWT/Alberta border.

Patterson Sawmill had applied for a timber-cutting licence more than two years ago. It was denied by the former Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, now known as Environment and Natural Resources.

An appeal hearing was held in April of this year.

The company applied for a licence to harvest 1,000 cubic meters of white spruce about 2.5 km west of Highway 1, 11 km north of the border.

"It's not a significant piece of timber," said Eugene Patterson, one of the sawmill's owners. "It's enough to run the sawmill for 12 days."

Patterson expects cutting will start in November, although he noted the company still has to get a federal land-use permit.

The timber would be sawed next spring or summer.

Even though the licence is for 1,000 cubic meters, Patterson said there may only be about 600 cubic meters of harvestable timber in the area.

The work will take about five days and employ up to five people.

Over the years, Patterson Sawmill has had a number of struggles to get access to timber, especially in light of land being withdrawn from development because of ongoing land claim negotiations.

This coming winter, the company will enter the fourth year of a five-year permit to harvest timber in the Cameron Hills. The right to harvest in that area was also won on appeal.

"It took well over two years to get that," Patterson noted.