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.
Approval of Harvesting near the Mara Meadows Ecological Reserve
Windthrow of Trees in the Walbran Valley
In September 2002, a conservation group on Vancouver Island complained to the Board about windthrow of trees that had been retained on cutblock 7834 in the Walbran Valley. The complainant asserted that substantial windthrow of timber on the cutblock was the result of poor forest management. The complainant suspected the windthrow indicated that planning or enforcement of forest practices had been inadequate.
The Walbran Valley is southeast of Port Alberni in the Franklin operating area of Weyerhaeuser Company Limited’s (the licensee) West Island Timberlands unit, which encompasses Tree Farm Licence 44. Old growth preservation and logging in the Walbran Valley have been a source of public controversy for years.
Windthrow of Trees in the Walbran Valley
Schroeder Creek Road
This complaint is about the Schroeder Creek forest access road built by Kalesnikoff Lumber Company Limited (the licensee) in the Kootenay Lakes Forest District. Valhalla Wilderness Society (the complainant) asked the Board to investigate six landslides, or failures, that occurred along the road, including planning, general road building practices, and the Ministry of Forests’ enforcement of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and its regulations (the Code) for the road.
The Board decided to investigate whether the licensee met the Code’s requirements for planning, road building and enforcement for only the sections of the road that include two landslides. The ministry’s determinations for the four other failures are being reviewed through the administrative review and appeal process under the Forest Practices Code.
Schroeder Creek Road
Cattle and Horse Grazing near Choelquoit Lake
In November 2002, a guide outfitter (the complainant) asked the Board to investigate several range use issues on the Choelquoit range, south of Alexis Creek near Chilko Lake. The complainant asserted that the Ministry of Forests (MOF) wrongly believed that, in 2001, the complainant’s horses overgrazed a pasture when cattle belonging to adjacent licensees were responsible for the alleged overgrazing. The complainant asserts that the adjacent licensees allowed cattle to trespass onto the overgrazed pasture because they did not maintain fences between adjacent pastures, as required in their range use plan. The complainant also asserted that MOF knew about the trespassing cattle, but did not enforce the requirements of the licensees’ range use plan or the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and related regulations.
The Board investigated whether grazing and range practices complied with the Code, and whether the requirements of the range use plan were appropriatenly enforced by MOF.
Cattle and Horse Grazing near Choelquoit Lake
Harvesting and Road Construction near Private Land in Clearwater
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.
