As part of its 2012 compliance audit program, the Forest Practices Board selected community forest agreement K1H, held by the McBride Community Forest Corporation for audit. A community forest pilot agreement was first issued to MCFC in August 2002, and MCFC was awarded the 25-year long term CFA K1H in 2007.
The McBride community forest surrounds the Village of McBride, which lies in the Robson Valley, about 210 kilometres southeast of Prince George.
The Forest Practices Board selected community forest agreement K2T, held by the Valemount Community Forest Company Ltd. (VCFC) for audit. Community forest agreement K2T surrounds the Village of Valemount, which lies in the Robson Valley, about 300 kilometres southeast of Prince George.
The VCFC harvested approximately 250 000 cubic metres of timber during the two-year audit period. Harvesting was focused on salvaging lodgepole pine trees affected by the mountain pine beetle. Field work was carried out from September 24 to 27, 2012.
The Board conducted a full-scope compliance audit, in which all harvesting, roads, silviculture, protection activities and associated planning done between September 1, 2008, and September 30, 2010, as included in the audit. These activities were assessed for compliance with the Forest and Range Practices Act, the Wildfire Act and related regulations.
The Board’s audit fieldwork too place from September 27 to 30, 2010.
British Columbia is engulfed in a province-wide mountain pine beetle outbreak. Salvaging value from the dead pine trees is a government priority. To facilitate the salvage effort, government increased the allowable annual cut (AAC) by 80 percent in the three most severely affected timber supply areas; the Lakes, Prince George and Quesnel TSAs, which are also the study areas for this project.
The increased AAC led to concerns about the stewardship of non-timber values such as wildlife and biodiversity. To accommodate these concerns, the “timber uplift” (AAC increase) was to be accompanied by a “conservation uplift” (an increase in retention of mature forest structure in harvested areas).
On October 30, 2006 the Forest Practices Board received a complaint regarding the construction of two forestry connector roads and the impact that increased access to Crown land was having on farming and commercial recreation businesses. The area in question is located south of Prince George, BC.
The complainants assert that the actions of British Columbia Timber Sales (BCTS) violated previous commitments made by the Ministry of Forests and Range (MFR) when the complainants entered a statutory right-of-way agreement with MFR. The complainants believed they gave MFR an easement across their private property in exchange for a promise not to build alternate access into a core area that the complainants were using for commercial interests and as range land for grazing.
This Forest Practices Board report presents the results of an investigation of fish passage at stream crossings in 19 watersheds in the central and northern interior and on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. In total, 1,159 crossings of fish-bearing streams were examined. Each watershed had a mix of crossings built before the implementation of the 1995 Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act (the Code), after the implementation of the Code, and also after the replacement of the Code with the 2002 Forest and Range Practices Act.
The number of stream crossings within British Columbia is constantly increasing due to new road development. Government estimates that there are approximately 370,000 stream crossings in the province, of which about 76,000 are culverts on fish streams (BC MOE, 2008). For this reason, fish stream crossings may be the single most important habitat impact affecting fish.
There have been numerous studies of stream crossings in the province. Nearly all of these studies have focused on fish passage through closed bottom structures (CBS). However, watersheds also contain a variety of other crossing types, including open bottom structures (OBS) such as bridges, log culverts, arch culverts, and open box structures. This study is the first to examine fish passage in context: on a watershed scale, in a large number of watersheds, reporting on the overall fish passage through road crossings.
