The New Brunswick government is pushing forward with plans to revive the province's struggling forest industry.

Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup announced a series of reforms aimed at reviving the struggling forestry industry. (CBC)Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup announced Wednesday that two new task forces will help establish timber objectives for Crown and private land.

Norm Betts, the former Progressive Conservative minister of finance, was picked to chair the Crown Land Task Force.

Betts must make recommendations on timber objectives for New Brunswick's Crown forests. His report is due on July 1.

Donald Floyd, interim dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University of New Brunswick, will lead the Private Land Task Force.

Floyd's task force must establish timber objectives that offer "a stable and predictable wood supply from private land." That report must be handed to the Department of Natural Resources by Dec. 31.

The chairman of each task force will help select the other members of their group.

Northrup also announced the Progressive Conservative government would implement a series of recommendations that came out of a forestry summit that was held in November.

The natural resources minister said the provincial government will look to private woodlots first, when requests for Crown timber are made.

"They've gone through hard times in the last little while, so we want to put that out there and we look forward to working with the private woodlot owners," Northrup said.

As mills across the province closed, private woodlot owners saw their share of the market slip. They say they've lost about $70 million in annual sales.

'We don't sell our wood into a vacuum, we sell it to people who need it and use it. So we need wood-using industries re-established.'— Andrew Clarke, N.B. Federation of Woodlot Owners

The provincial government said under this new regime it will help open up discussions between forest industry companies and the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners to set objectives for private wood sales.

This process of setting private wood sale targets will also include the creation of mechanisms to achieve target sales levels.

Andrew Clarke, president of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners, said these reforms are needed, but other parts of the sector need to be rebuilt as well.

"We don't sell our wood into a vacuum, we sell it to people who need it and use it," Clarke said.

"So we need wood-using industries re-established."

Among the other changes announced, the New Brunswick government will review innovative measures being undertaken in the forestry sector in other jurisdictions to see what could be done in the province.

The government review will examine what other opportunities exist outside of New Brunswick that could be developed inside the province.

The Department of Natural Resources is also revamping its silviculture programs. The department will approve silviculture funding to pilot alternative treatments on Crown and private land.

Other plans to help the industry include using more wood in public buildings like schools, and heating them with wood pellet furnaces.

There are also two new task forces that will report to the natural resources department.