This soil conservation pilot audit took place in the Golden Timber Supply Area of the Columbia Forest District. Three auditees, Wood River Forest Inc, Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. and the Okanagan-Columbia business area of the BCTS program were audited. The audit focused on their effectiveness in managing forest soil conservation.

On May 14, 2007, Valhalla Wilderness Society (the complainant) submitted a complaint about Meadow Creek Cedar Limited’s (the licensee) forest planning and practices in the Leet Creek watershed, located south of Kaslo. As well, the complainant was concerned about the Ministry of Forest and Range’s (MFR) approval, monitoring and enforcement of the licensee’s harvesting and road building practices.

Following an initial field trip to visit the site, one of the licensed domestic water users (a second complainant) also submitted a complaint.

The complainant, a retired range agrologist, is concerned that Crown rangelands in the East Kootenay area of the Rocky Mountain Forest District are not being managed appropriately. The complainant says that forest in-growth on grasslands has caused forage supply to decline, forcing the Ministry of Forests and Range and individual ranchers to reduce the number or duration of cattle grazing on Crown lands. Concurrently, the complainant believes that the Ministry of Environment has allowed elk and deer numbers to increase such that the carrying capacity of Crown range has been exceeded, causing forage to be over-used.

A government plan to restore forage supply, as described by the Kootenay-Boundary Land Use Plan, has apparently not kept pace with either forest in-growth or forage demand. In the complainant’s view, this has resulted in lost ranching opportunity and over-grazed wildlife winter ranges.

Planning and field activities undertaken in five woodlots in the Arrow Boundary Forest District in southern British Columbia complied with forest practices legislation. The audit of woodlot licences W0408, W0475, W0479, W1470 and W1832 was conducted in June 2007…

BCTS and licence holders in the Kootenay Lake Forest District complied in all significant respects with legislative requirements, as well as the Kootenay Boundary Higher Level Plan Order, which had  key requirements to include old and mature timber conservation and protection of important caribou and grizzly bear habitat.