In 2011, a complainant experienced an unexpected loss of water and two floods. Concerned that his property, livelihood and the value of Twinflower Creek to his interests were at risk of harm from the cumulative effect of current weather, climate change, mountain pine beetle, and salvage harvesting, he contacted the Board to investigate.

The complainant expressed frustration that, under the framework of the Forest and Range Practices Act, it is the forest licensee that decides whether to proceed with forest activities on Crown land that could negatively affect values on which he depends, as well as his assets and livelihood.

This is the Board’s second investigation of a complaint about the effects of pine beetle salvage logging on this watershed.

The Board’s report on a complaint into the activities and decisions of the Wildfire Management Branch during the initial stages of the 2009 Tyaughton Lake fire.

The complaint lists a number of issues and includes a request that the cutblocks proposed by Tamihi Logging Co. Ltd. (licensee) not be allowed in the Post Creek area. Board staff investigated the complaint and consulted with all parties to try to resolve it.

There are a number of concerns in this investigation, the first being the licensee’s right to harvest given that a wildlife habitat area (WHA) for spotted owl exists in the proposed harvest area.

A WHA may be protected from logging through general wildlife measures associated with it, but not always. In this case, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and the Tamihi Logging Co. Ltd. agreed on an exemption for several of the licensee’s blocks as a way to mitigate for operating areas lost to Spotted Owl Management Plan #2.

In August 2010, the Board received a complaint about logging by Tamihi Logging Co. Ltd. in the Deroche Community Watershed, approximately 15 kilometres east of Mission, BC. The complainant was concerned about the impact Tamihi’s operations were having on water quality in the area and also that the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO)1 was not adequately overseeing the operation.

The complainant contacted the Chilliwack Forest District office with his concerns in May, at which point the district manager arranged for a field trip so compliance and enforcement staff, along with both the complainant and the licensee, could discuss operations in the area. However, remaining concerned—and wanting improvement in the quality of practices in the watershed—the complainant then contacted the Board.