Managing Winter Recreation Conflicts near Valemount
In April 2007, a group of snowmobilers from the Valemount area asked the board to investigate whether it was appropriate to use section 58 of the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) to close local areas to snowmobile access. The complainant believes that the closures benefit the commercial heli‐skiing industry and that this is not the intended use of the legislation.
Managing Winter Recreation Conflicts near Valemount
Compliance Inspections and Management
The Ministry of Forests and Range (MFR) Compliance and Enforcement (C&E) program is responsible for promoting compliance with, and ensuring enforcement of, the province’s forest legislation. Conducting inspections to determine licensee compliance is a key activity of this program, and is the ministry’s primary source of information to assess compliance.
This investigation examines, at the district level, the number of compliance and enforcement (C&E) inspections completed in 2005 and 2006, and the range of alleged non-compliances identified in inspection reports for six forest districts: North Coast and Campbell River in the Coast Region; Skeena-Stikine and Fort Nelson in the Northern Interior Region; and Kamloops and Chilcotin in the Southern Interior Region.
Compliance Inspections and Management
Audit: BCTS – Kamloops Business Area – Clearwater Field Unit
Forestry Audit: British Columbia Timber Sales Kamloops Business Area – Clearwater Field Unit
In September 2007, the 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 Kamloops Business Area’s Clearwater Field Unit, located in the Headwaters Forest District.The audit assessed the planning, activities and obligations of the BCTS program and its timber sale licence holders.
Carrier Lumber Ltd. – FL A15429 and A15430 in the Headwaters Forest District
Carrier Lumber Ltd. – FL A15429 and A15430 in the Headwaters Forest District; Audit of Road Maintenance and Silviculture Obligation
Replanting obligations of financially strapped companies in the Robson Valley have been met by Carrier Lumber Ltd. The audit found that Carrier complied with forest practices legislation on replaceable forest licences A15429 and A15430, which it took over after financially strapped companies gave them up.
Forest Practices in Hazardous Terrain and Domestic Water Use
A resident of Salmon Arm wrote to the Board with concerns about current and planned timber harvesting by Federated Co-Operatives Limited. The complainant was unsure of the licensee’s plans for the area and wondered if the licensee had adequately considered the potential for landslides and impacts to a formally un-named creek known as Chester Creek.
