Concern About a Logging Road Extension and Wildlife Habitat near Kinbasket Reservoir
In September 2000, the Golden branch of the East Kootenay Environmental Society complained to the Forest Practices Board about a proposed logging road across the Cummins River on the east side of Kinbasket Reservoir in the Columbia Forest District. The complainant asserted that the road will allow a timber transfer to Revelstoke, benefiting that community over Golden, and that the road will have a destructive effect on mountain caribou and grizzly bear populations of the area. Further, the complainant was concerned that the forest development plan (FDP) review and comment process was unfair. The complainant suggested that moving the wood by barge on Kinbasket Reservoir might be in the Crown’s best economic and ecological interests.
Appropriateness of Government Enforcement of the Code in Haida Gwaii – the Queen Charlotte Islands
In March 2001, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint from the Council of the Haida Nation (the complainant) asserting a lack of timeliness and efficiency in government enforcement of the Code for road building and harvesting activities involving two cutblocks on Graham Island, Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands).
Potential Impacts of Logging on Water, Fisheries and Wildlife Habitat in the Lussier River Watershed
In May 2000, the Concerned Residents of Sheep Creek complained to the Board that logging had damaged the Lussier River watershed. The complaint concerns harvesting approved by the Ministry of Forests in 1998 in Coyote Creek and Nichol Creek, both tributaries of the Lussier River. The complainant asserted that: continued logging has worsened erosion of private and public lands; not enough timbered wildlife habitat has been retained; the forest development plan review and comment process was inadequate; and Ministry of Forests staff provided misleading information about the status of harvested areas in the watershed. Crestbrook Forest Industries Ltd. (the licensee), now Tembec Industries Inc. (Tembec), had not completed the approved harvesting by May 2000. The licensee’s intention to continue logging the approved cutblocks prompted the complaint.
Mountain Pine Beetle Salvage and Road Access Through a Proposed Protected Area
On August 11, 1999, the Omineca Community Forest Association complained to the Forest Practices Board with concerns about plans to log timber near Germansen Landing in the Mackenzie Forest District.
There are two parts to this complaint. The first part concerns an amendment to Slocan Forest Products’ 1998-2002 forest development plan (FDP) for forest licence A15384. The amendment proposed three cutblocks in the Discovery Creek area to harvest timber damaged by mountain pine beetle infestation. The amendment was approved in August 1998. The complainant asserts that each of the three cutblocks is larger than the maximum allowed by the Code and is too large relative to the size of the pine beetle infestation.
The second part of the complaint concerns Slocan Forest Products’ 1999-2003 FDP, which included 19 cutblocks in the Twenty Mile Creek area. The complainant asserts that the cutblocks were approved without specifying which existing road, or newly proposed road, would access the area.
Visual Quality and Water Resource Management in the Mission Creek Community Watershed
This investigation examines a complaint that Riverside Forest Products Limited (the licensee) is not adequately managing and conserving water resources and visual quality in the Mission Creek community watershed, 30 kilometres east of Kelowna.
The original complaint was that the forest development plans for the four major licensees operating in the watershed do not adequately protect wildlife, biodiversity and other resource values. The Board could not address all of those general, broad-ranging issues in a timely and meaningful way. The Board therefore narrowed the investigation to the issues and specific area of greatest concern to the complainant.
