On July 5, 2002, the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (the complainant) submitted a complaint that International Forest Products Ltd. (Interfor) did not show the municipal boundary of Sechelt in the correct position on their forest development plan maps. The complainant thought that the public review and comment period would be more meaningful if the maps showed the correct boundary. As a solution, the complainant wanted to have the correct boundaries shown on Interfor and Ministry of Forests’ maps.

 

The Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (the complainant) reviewed three of International Forest Products’ (the licensee) 2000-2004 forest development plans (FDPs) for forest licence A19220 in the Sechelt timber supply block. The licensee’s Campbell River Division manages the area under two of those FDPs, the Nelson Island/Chapman and Grey Creek plan and the North Jervis Inlet plan. The licensee’s Sechelt Division manages the area under the third FDP, the South Jervis Inlet plan.

On June 22, 1999, the Board received a complaint about the construction of a logging road and cutblock on the northeast side of the Sechelt Peninsula near Oyster Bay. The road accesses a cutblock beside Halfway Beach Provincial Park. The road location was originally approved under Terminal Forest Products Ltd.’s 1998-2002 Forest Development Plan. The road location and cutblock were subsequently approved in the 1999-2003 Forest Development Plan. The complainant asserted that the road construction and cutblock would remove valuable oldgrowth stands and affect a proposed hiking trail.

In August 1999, two residents of the Sunshine Coast complained that forest practices in operational plans approved by the district manager of the Sunshine Coast Forest District (the district) did not adequately protect the habitat of mushrooms in mature forests. They believed that an approved road and cutblock in the Mount Elphinstone area, between Sechelt and Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast, would eliminate mature forest habitat that supports many species of mushrooms.

The complainants were also concerned about the effects of the road construction and timber harvesting on dead trees and stumps scattered throughout the area, which are used by wildlife such as birds and small mammals. Snags are important for wildlife, particularly for birds that nest in cavities or feed on wood-boring insects. The complainants were concerned that snags would be removed by road clearing and clearcutting. The complainants also believed that cavity-nesting species would be more visible to predators near new forest openings.