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.
The Blewett Watershed Committee filed a complaint to the Board about the Kootenay Lake Forest District’s request for Atco Wood Products Ltd. to log MPB infested pine trees in its operating areas, including the Eagle Creek drainage area. The complainant believes the proposed level of logging would remove too much of the forest and would negatively impact the watershed, compromising the complainant’s ability to meet Canadian drinking water standards.
A recent Forest Practices Board audit found that road building and upgrading by a Timber Sale License holder (the TSL holder) had, or had the potential to, adversely affect fish streams in the Lamb Creek area of the Rocky Mountain Forest District. British Columbia Timber Sales’ (BCTS) attempt to repair damage from the TSL holder’s roadwork was well-intentioned but only partly successful.
Compliance and Enforcement district staff of the Ministry of Forests and Range investigated and found that road drainage systems were inadequate, and sediment from roadwork had entered a fish-bearing stream. The district manager determined the TSL holder contravened the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and imposed a penalty of $5,000.
Two separate complaints arose from proposed timber harvesting and road construction in the Elmer Creek area, near the community of Yahk. The complainants asserted that BCTS had not implemented the recommendations of a hydrology assessment and that the proposed road construction, improved public access and clear-cut harvesting would adversely affect domestic water supplies and other resources.
Atco Lumber Ltd., Kalesnikoff Lumber Co. Ltd., Pope & Talbot Ltd. and Springer Creek Forest Products Ltd.’s forest practices in the Norns and Springer Creek Community Watersheds, located in the Arrow Boundary Forest District, complied with legislative requirements. The companies’ current forest practices are effective in minimizing the impacts to water quality.
In summer 2005, the Forest Practices Board conducted a compliance audit of forest planning and practices of the British Columbia Timber Sales (BCTS) program, and timber sale licence holders, in the Rocky Mountain Forest District. BCTS’s operating areas are located in the Invermere and Cranbook Timber Supply Areas.
The Board notes that, with one exception, planning and practices undertaken by BCTS and its timber sale licence holders complied with legislative requirements in all significant respects.
The significant non-compliance noted in the audit relates to sediment from road building and upgrading by the holder of timber sale licence (TSL) A69888—that has, or has the potential to, adversely affect fish streams. Of particular concern is that the TSL holder, independently from BCTS, sought and got approval from the Ministry of Forests and Range for a road use permit to upgrade a long section of forest service road (FSR), adjacent to a fish stream to access a timber sale, but did not follow the permit conditions designed to minimize the amount of sediment entering the stream.
