First Nations Consultation on the Maiyoo Keyoh
Closing Letter – Trophy Mountain Pine
Woodlot Salvage Permit Policy and the Effects on Managing Forest Health
In July 2007, a woodlot licensee in the Central Cariboo Forest District (the complainant) filed a complaint with the Forest Practices Board saying that a recent change in the Ministry of Forests and Range’s policy on issuing salvage permits would create a forest health risk on his woodlot.
The complainant has a woodlot licence on Crown land adjacent to his private land parcel. The forest in the woodlot is dominated by Douglas fir, with small amounts of lodgepole pine and spruce. As with many of the Douglas fir stands in the interior, the stands in the woodlot licence have a high degree of bark beetle infestation. The beetle bores into the bark, and heavy infestations can kill the tree. Trees that are weakened by drought, disease or other agents are more susceptible to bark beetle attack and are therefore more likely to facilitate the spread of the infestation.
Woodlot Salvage Permit Policy and the Effects on Managing Forest Health
Forest Practices in the Leet Creek Watershed, near Kaslo, BC
On May 14, 2007, Valhalla Wilderness Society (the complainant) submitted a complaint about Meadow Creek Cedar Limited’s (the licensee) forest planning and practices in the Leet Creek watershed, located south of Kaslo. As well, the complainant was concerned about the Ministry of Forest and Range’s (MFR) approval, monitoring and enforcement of the licensee’s harvesting and road building practices.
Following an initial field trip to visit the site, one of the licensed domestic water users (a second complainant) also submitted a complaint.
Forest Practices in the Leet Creek Watershed, near Kaslo, BC
Wildlife and Cattle Grazing in the East Kootenay
The complainant, a retired range agrologist, is concerned that Crown rangelands in the East Kootenay area of the Rocky Mountain Forest District are not being managed appropriately. The complainant says that forest in-growth on grasslands has caused forage supply to decline, forcing the Ministry of Forests and Range and individual ranchers to reduce the number or duration of cattle grazing on Crown lands. Concurrently, the complainant believes that the Ministry of Environment has allowed elk and deer numbers to increase such that the carrying capacity of Crown range has been exceeded, causing forage to be over-used.
A government plan to restore forage supply, as described by the Kootenay-Boundary Land Use Plan, has apparently not kept pace with either forest in-growth or forage demand. In the complainant’s view, this has resulted in lost ranching opportunity and over-grazed wildlife winter ranges.
Goshawk Foraging Habitat on the Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii
In September 2006, the Sierra Club (the complainant) submitted a complaint to the Forest Practices Board (the Board) asserting that agencies and licensees were not implementing an earlier Board recommendation to use a cautious approach in managing goshawk foraging habitat while land use planning processes were being completed. The complaint is focused in the Rennell Sound Landscape Unit, within the Haida Gwaii Forest District, and is partly based on the submission of plans from the two licensees in the area, Husby Forest Products Ltd. and BC Timber Sales.
Visual Quality of a Chilliwack Cutblock
This investigation examines the harvesting of a pair of cutblocks above Lake Errock, near Harrison Mills. A resident of Sardis was disappointed that he could see the very visible cutblocks from Chilliwack. The Ministry of Forests and Range (MFR) told the complainant that, while the visual impact of the cutblocks was not consistent with the recommended visual quality objectives for the area, it met the legal requirements. The complainant asked the Board to clarify how this could happen and to determine whether it can be prevented in the future.
