This is the Board’s report on a compliance audit of Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 25, held by Western Forest Products Ltd. (WFP). The operating area for TFL 25 consists of five distinct geographic areas within the Coast Forest Region.

In March 2001, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint from the Council of the Haida Nation (the complainant) asserting a lack of timeliness and efficiency in government enforcement of the Code for road building and harvesting activities involving two cutblocks on Graham Island, Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands).

This is the Board’s report on a compliance audit1 of Tree Farm Licence 25 held by Western Forest Products Limited (WFP). The Report from the Auditor (Part B) describes the operating areas of the forest licence, the portion of the licence audited and the scope of the audit.

This report concludes the Forest Practices Board’s special investigation of the state of forest development planning in the Queen Charlotte Islands Forest District between June 15, 1995 and February 15, 1996. The report also deals with a complaint from the Haida Forestry Branch, which led to the special investigation. The Haida's complaint asserts that contraventions of the Code resulted in a failure to provide adequate opportunity for the Council of the Haida Nation to be sufficiently consulted, or to have adequate time for appropriate review and comment.

Note: This report consists of Special Investigation 950062 and Complaint Investigation 950037

The complainant was the successful bidder on a Small Business Forest Enterprise Program timber sale near Sewell Inlet, on Moresby Island. The timber sale document and the silviculture prescription specified skyline yarding as the preferred logging method, with helicopter yarding as the alternative method. In November 1996, the complainant began harvesting and concluded that part of the 14.9 hectare cutblock could not be harvested using a skyline system without damaging the soil because of poor deflection. This means that the slope was relatively flat, and skyline yarding would cause logs to be dragged along the ground (ground lead) instead of being suspended in the air.