Forest fires generated a high degree of public interest during the summer of 2003. Although many people are aware of government’s role in fighting forest fires, they may not know that after fires are out, significant work may be required to rehabilitate sites impacted by fire suppression activities.
The Forest Fire Prevention and Suppression Regulation (FFPSR) deals with site rehabilitation. It requires a person who carries out fire control or fire suppression operations to stabilize all fire access trails, fire guards and other fire suppression works to ensure that natural drainage patterns are maintained and surface soil erosion is minimized. If heavy equipment was used to construct fire access trails, fire guards, fire camps, staging areas or heliports, a site rehabilitation plan must be submitted to a designated forest official for approval soon after the fire is suppressed.
In March 2003, four forest companies (the complainants) located in the Okanagan/Shuswap area asked the Board to investigate the fairness of legislation concerning road maintenance costs. The companies either log timber sold by government through BC Timber Sales (BCTS) or purchase logs from other companies who log through BCTS. These logs are usually hauled on roads where larger forest companies control the maintenance. The complainants are concerned that the successful bidder on a timber sale must negotiate with and pay these private interests to use the government’s road. The complainants believe that this requirement is unfair because the forest company that controls the road is frequently both a competitor and customer for the timber. The complainants would like the legislation changed so that a private company with a competing financial interest cannot impose unfair costs or conditions for using a publicly-owned road.
On March 14, 2003, a Grindrod resident (the complainant) asked the Board to investigate the effect of road building and logging on the Mara Meadows ecological reserve. The complainant believes road building and logging in the basin of the meadows are adversely affecting water flowing to the ecological reserve. The complainant is particularly concerned about recent road building, logging and work around a stream by Larch Hill Development Corporation (the licensee) on a woodlot adjacent to the ecological reserve.
This is the Board’s report on the area-based audit of licensee compliance with, and government’s enforcement of, the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and related regulations (the Code), relevant to forest and range planning and practices in the Allison-Mussezula draft landscape unit area within the Merritt Forest District.
On October 15, 2002, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint about harvesting and road construction in the Clearwater demonstration forest, about 125 kilometres north of Kamloops. The complainant owns property beside a cutblock in the demonstration forest, and she asked the Ministry of Forests to leave a 20-metre treed buffer between the cutblock and her property. The ministry maintained that no buffer was required. The complainant was also concerned about the road to the cutblock. She believed the right-of-way was much wider than necessary, and that excessive soil removal would prevent site reclamation. Further, the complainant questioned whether the road was even necessary.
