"We didn't want to go into an area like this, only to have the government a year later implement their plan, which would perhaps change the way we would harvest this area," Canfor spokesman Lee Coonfer said.

Green groups have launched an international campaign to limit logging in Canada's boreal forest and in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in western Alberta, which provide habitat to animals such as the caribou and grizzly bear.

"Canfor's precautionary approach helps maintain conservation options while scientific research is conducted, natural and economic values are decided and maintained, and a recovery plan for caribou is put in place," the group ForestEthics said.

Weyerhaeuser Co. agreed last year to postpone logging on more than 80,000 hectares (198,000 acres) of caribou habitat for five years, and environmentalists want similar action by West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd., which recently purchased Weldwood's operations in the area.

Coonfer did not have a size estimate on the total area Canfor was putting off limits, but said it would have produced 250,000 cubic metres (8.8 million cubic feet) of timber over the two years had logging gone ahead.