Karst is a landscape that is created by water dissolving limestone over many thousands of years, forming an intricate three-dimensional topography with shafts, sinkholes, caves, disappearing streams and springs. About 10 percent of BC, primarily in mountainous parts of the coast and interior, has bedrock that is suitable for karst formation. The abundance of water in BC’s coastal temperate rain forests causes karst to develop more rapidly there than in other karst areas. The worldwide scarcity of temperate rainforests such as those on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlottes, combined with the rapid development of karst features in such forests, make BC’s coastal karst landscapes among the most dynamic on earth.
The operational planning; timber harvesting; silviculture; road construction, maintenance, and deactivation; and fire protection activities carried out by BCTS and its timber sale licence holders throughout the Queen Charlotte Islands TSA, complied with forest practices legislation.
This report by the Forest Practices Board sets out what the Board believes to be a comprehensive, verifiable and science-based framework within which to begin to assess the effectiveness of forest practices in conserving biological diversity.
Of the forest values identified in the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), biodiversity is considered by many to be the most complex to manage and conserve.Biodiversity encompasses a variety of ecological conditions that change naturally over time and to be effective at conserving biodiversity, it is important that forest companies, agencies and government understand, manage and conserve the important elements of biodiversity over time.
The Sierra Club’s Haida Gwaii group filed a complaint regarding development within the Bonanza Wildlife Habitat Area and concern with the management of the Northern Goshawk on Haida Gwaii. The complainant alleged that inadequate protection of foraging habitat, a one per cent timber-supply cap on protection measures, lack of co-ordination between licensees operating in the area, and failure to require nest surveys prior to harvesting could put goshawk habitat at risk.
S.W.C Holdings Limited’s forest planning and practices on forest licence A16848 in the Mid-Coast Timber Supply area complied with forest practices legislations.
The Gowgaia Institute filed a complaint about the Husby Group of Companies harvesting in areas that should be reserved for marbled murrelets. The areas in question were in the Eden Lake landscape unit, on Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands.
