In 2009, Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs (the complainant) filed a complaint with the Board asserting that Canada Resurgence Development Ltd. (CRD), the holder of FL A16884, was not doing enough to ensure that it met its silvicultural obligations for achieving a free‐ growing crop of trees in cutblocks within Gitanyow territory, and thatMFR was not adequately enforcing the licensees’ silviculture obligations.
Forest Licence A16884 is in the Kalum Forest District. The Kotcho area is within the operating area for this licence, and is within the hereditary territory of Gitanyow. Gitanyow territory includes parts of the Nass River and the Cranberry River, northwest of Terrace. The licence has changed hands several times over two decades and there has been a pattern of licence holders going into receivership and failing to complete the silviculture obligations.
In January 2010, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint from a Colleymount resident who farms, logs, and holds a range and a trapping tenure. The complainant believes that harvesting and road construction have reduced the available amount of wildlife habitat, disrupted the natural movement of animals and that his trapping tenure can no longer support a viable harvest of furbearers.
The investigation considered the following questions:
- Did BCTS comply with legislated requirements for biodiversity management and public consultation when it planned harvesting within the trapline?
- Has harvesting and road building affected the population of furbearers?
As part of the Forest Practices Board’s 2009 compliance audit program, the Board selected Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 1 for audit. TFL 1 is held by Coast Tsimshian Resources (CTR) limited partnership. TFL 1 is located in the Kalum Forest District and it includes four geographically separate blocks surrounding Terrace (see map on page 2).
Since 1986, TFL 1 has been held by Skeena Cellulose, NWBC Timber and Pulp, and New Skeena Forest Products. CTR acquired TFL 1 in 2005 when New Skeena Forest Products Ltd. was under creditor protection.
The Board’s audit fieldwork took place August 17 to 21, 2009.
In June 2009, the Board conducted a compliance audit of forest planning and practices of the British Columbia Timber Sales’ (BCTS) program and timber sale licence (TSL) holders, in the Skeena Business Area’s Hazelton operations, located within the Skeena Stikine Forest District.
The audit assessed more than 80 cutblocks and over 700 kilometres of road activities and obligations, as well as operational planning by BCTS.
British Columbia is engulfed in a province-wide mountain pine beetle outbreak. Salvaging value from the dead pine trees is a government priority. To facilitate the salvage effort, government increased the allowable annual cut (AAC) by 80 percent in the three most severely affected timber supply areas; the Lakes, Prince George and Quesnel TSAs, which are also the study areas for this project.
The increased AAC led to concerns about the stewardship of non-timber values such as wildlife and biodiversity. To accommodate these concerns, the “timber uplift” (AAC increase) was to be accompanied by a “conservation uplift” (an increase in retention of mature forest structure in harvested areas).
