Approval of Large Cutblocks to Control Mountain Pine Beetle in the Robson Valley
This reports deals with a complaint that large clearcuts, approved to address a mountain pine beetle outbreak, contravened the maximum cutblock size requirements of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and its regulations (the Code).
The complaint was submitted by the Fraser Headwaters Alliance (the complainant) in July 2000. The complainant believes that the district manager approved more harvesting than necessary to address a mountain pine beetle outbreak. The complainant is concerned that the large clearcuts will change hydrological flows and cycles, resulting in increased soil instability, erosion and harm to fish habitat.
Adequacy of a Public Review Period near McBride
The district manager of the Robson Valley Forest District authorized a shortened review and comment period for an amendment to McBride Forest Industries’ forest development plan for Forest Licence A15429. The Fraser Headwaters Alliance (the complainant) submitted a complaint to the Forest Practices Board on July 1, 2001, asserting that the review and comment period was too short, and that a forest health assessment should have been made available to them during the review period.
Approval of Large Cutblocks to Control Mountain Pine Beetle in the Robson Valley
Adequacy of a Public Review Period near McBride
Road Relocation through High-Value Caribou Habitat near Tsus Creek, East of Prince George
Road Relocation through High-Value Caribou Habitat near Tsus Creek, East of Prince George
On November 20, 1998, the district manager of the Prince George Forest District approved the 1998-2002 forest development plan (FDP) for Carrier Lumber Ltd. (the licensee). The approval letter also indicated that a changed road location, proposed as a minor amendment to the 1997 FDP, was approved. Consequently the plan approved in 1998 reflected this change. The minor amendment proposed changing the location of a road to an approved cutblock. Originally, the road was to reach the cutblock from the north. The previously approved northern road location was adjacent to a tributary of Tsus Creek. The northern road location would have gone through an area with relatively low value caribou habitat but with potential terrain stability problems. The amendment would create a road from the south, through an area that has stable terrain, but is important caribou habitat.
In February 1999 the Board decided to investigate the circumstances associated with the approval of the amendment under section 43 of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act (the Act). The Board considered that the district manager’s approval of the amendment had public significance because it involved balancing and managing risks to several resources – soil, fish, recreation and wildlife.
Adequacy of a Forest Development Plan for a Woodlot Licence
The Board received a complaint about whether a forest development plan for a neighbouring woodlot licence met the requirements of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and its regulations (the Code). Although the woodlot consists of three non-contiguous parcels of land in the Prince George Forest District, the complaint concerns only the parcel beside the complainant’s property, eight kilometres west of Prince George.
The Board does not have the authority to investigate many of the issues of concern to the complainant. In 1994, the Ministry of Forests (MOF) increased the maximum woodlot size from 400 to 600 hectares under the Forest Act. The complainant considered such expansion to be inappropriate, but the Board does not have the authority to investigate decisions made under the Forest Act.
Adequacy of a Forest Development Plan for a Woodlot Licence
Salvage of Hemlock Looper-Killed Timber in the Robson Valley in the Robson Valley Forest District
Between 1992 and 1994, there was an epidemic of western hemlock looper (the looper) in the Prince George and Robson Valley Forest Districts. The looper is an insect that damages and sometimes kills trees by feeding on and stripping the trees of foliage. Periodically, looper populations increase sharply for several years and then decline. Such an increase happened between 1991 and 1994, when the looper damaged 14, 000 hectares of forest in the Robson Valley. The damage occurred as patches of partly, or completely defoliated, forest within a much larger forest area.
In 1995, the Robson Valley Forest District (the district) and local forest companies proposed salvage harvesting of large areas of severely damaged old growth forest. Salvage harvesting would remove trees that were dead, dying or deteriorating before the wood degraded and was no longer merchantable. Cutblocks of up to 800 hectares were originally proposed in forest development plans for the valley. By early 1996, when the silviculture prescriptions for those cutblocks were approved, the cutblocks had been reduced to less than 120 hectares to allow management of other forest values.
