The Board received a complaint from an individual about the adequacy of the public review process for proposed forest development plan amendments in the Boundary area.
On March 12, 2004, the Granite Ridge Water Users Committee (the complainant) asked the Board to investigate the approval of a forest development plan for a woodlot located near Edgewood in the Arrow Boundary Forest District. The complainant believes that approval of the FDP did not adequately consider water resources. The complainant makes the following assertions: a community watershed assessment was not completed; theCommunity Watershed Planning Guidebook was not followed; and the district manager's approval of the plan did not adequately consider a hydrologist's report (provided by the complainant) or hydrologic values. The complainant expects that logging and road building will affect the domestic water supply and wants the woodlot relocated to a less sensitive area.
A compliance audit of Tree Farm Licence 56, held by Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation (RCFC). The licence is area-based and is located approximately 50 kilometres north of the City of Revelstoke in the Columbia Forest District.The audit examined RCFC’s operational planning; timber harvesting; road construction,maintenance and deactivation; silviculture; and fire protection practices for the period from July 1, 2002, to July 18, 2003.
This complaint is about the Schroeder Creek forest access road built by Kalesnikoff Lumber Company Limited (the licensee) in the Kootenay Lakes Forest District. Valhalla Wilderness Society (the complainant) asked the Board to investigate six landslides, or failures, that occurred along the road, including planning, general road building practices, and the Ministry of Forests' enforcement of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and its regulations (the Code) for the road.
The Board decided to investigate whether the licensee met the Code's requirements for planning, road building and enforcement for only the sections of the road that include two landslides. The ministry's determinations for the four other failures are being reviewed through the administrative review and appeal process under the Forest Practices Code.