The Forest Practices Board received a complaint about forest practices on a woodlot near Wardner, BC. The Board has investigated and this is its report.
The complaintant identified several concerns with practices on the woodlot:
Board staff visited the woodlot on November 17, 2008. Also in attendance were the complaintant and Ministry of Forests and Range (MFR) staff from the Rocky Mountain Forest District. The following are the Board’s observations and findings.
As part of its 2008 compliance audit program, the Forest Practices Board randomly selected the Kootenay Lake Forest District as the location for a full scope compliance audit, with a focus on community tenures. Within the district, the Board selected the Harrop‐Procter Community Forest and the Kaslo and District Community Forest Society for audit.
Information about the Board’s compliance audit process is provided in Appendix 1.
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.
