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.
On January 31 and on February 6 and 7 of 1997, Northwood Pulp and Timber Limited (the licensee) advertised an opportunity for the public to review and comment on the 1997-2001 Forest Development Plan for Forest Licence A18165 near the McGregor River, 120 kilometres east of Prince George. The plan was available for viewing during a five-day open house at the company’s Prince George office from February 24 to 28, and written comments from the public were to be accepted until April 1, 1997.
The licensee submitted the development plan to the Prince George District office of the Ministry of Forests on March 3, 1997, but added additional information and re-submitted the plan on April 16, 1997. On May 30, the district manager noted that the plan did not contain information required under the Code and instructed the licensee to resubmit the plan in full when the content requirements were met. The following information was missing: classification of streams, wetlands and lakes as well as terrain stability, heritage resources, watershed assessments, visual impacts, wildlife, green-up and roads.
