Opportunity for Public Review and Comment on Proposed Forest Operations along Takla Lake in the Fort St. James Forest District
On August 30, 1999, the Board received a complaint from the owner of a tourist lodge (Takla Rainbow Lodge) on Takla Lake in the Fort St. James Forest District. The complainant said that he had been denied an adequate opportunity to participate in operational planning for Forest Licence A40873, which is held by Canadian Forest Products Ltd. (the licensee) and located across the lake from the lodge.
The complainant said that one of his main objectives in making the complaint was to create a freer flow of information about operational plans so that he could provide informed comments in future. He emphasized that improved communications were essential in addressing his substantive concerns about forest practices in the licence area and the impacts of logging on fish habitat and scenic views.
Adequacy of Repair and Maintenance of the Elk River Road, Near Elk Lakes Provincial Park
On January 6, 2000, the Board received a complaint from an Elkford resident about repairs that were made to the Elk River forest service road. The complainant said that the Ministry of Forests failed to repair the road properly after it was partially undermined by the Elk River.
The complainant requested that the steep cut slope on the west side of the road be reduced to prevent erosion and that large rocks be placed along the bank of the Elk River to deflect the current and prevent further erosion.
The Board decided to investigate whether the repairs to the road complied with the requirements of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act (the Act).
Protection of Water Quality and Scenic Values from the effects of Logging at Gun Lake in the Lillooet Forest District
Gun Lake is a 530-hectare lake on the eastern side of the Coast Mountains, approximately 100 kilometres west of Lillooet. Proposed logging close to Gun Lake raised concerns with the Gun Lake Ratepayer’s Association (the complainant) about impacts on the visual landscape and water quality.
In 1993, Ainsworth Lumber Company (the licensee) proposed cutting permit 143 for a cutblock on the northwest face of Mount Zola, at the southwest end of the lake. A unique feature of the area is a layer of volcanic ash soil. The thin ash layer is the reason for much of the concern about the potential impacts from harvesting in the area. The complainant was concerned that the ash would be easily eroded following harvesting and that this would result in visible scars on the landscape and the transportation of sediment into Gun Lake, the water source for the residents.
Opportunity for Public Review and Comment on Proposed Forest Operations along Takla Lake
Adequacy of Repair and Maintenance of the Elk River Road, Near Elk Lakes Provincial Park
Protection of Water Quality and Scenic Values from the effects of Logging at Gun Lake
Biodiversity Conservation on Mount Elphinstone, Sunshine Coast in the Sunshine Coast Forest District
In August 1999, two residents of the Sunshine Coast complained that forest practices in operational plans approved by the district manager of the Sunshine Coast Forest District (the district) did not adequately protect the habitat of mushrooms in mature forests. They believed that an approved road and cutblock in the Mount Elphinstone area, between Sechelt and Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast, would eliminate mature forest habitat that supports many species of mushrooms.
The complainants were also concerned about the effects of the road construction and timber harvesting on dead trees and stumps scattered throughout the area, which are used by wildlife such as birds and small mammals. Snags are important for wildlife, particularly for birds that nest in cavities or feed on wood-boring insects. The complainants were concerned that snags would be removed by road clearing and clearcutting. The complainants also believed that cavity-nesting species would be more visible to predators near new forest openings.
Biodiversity Conservation on Mount Elphinstone, Sunshine Coast in the Sunshine Coast Forest District
Salvage of Hemlock Looper-Killed Timber in the Robson Valley in the Robson Valley Forest District
Between 1992 and 1994, there was an epidemic of western hemlock looper (the looper) in the Prince George and Robson Valley Forest Districts. The looper is an insect that damages and sometimes kills trees by feeding on and stripping the trees of foliage. Periodically, looper populations increase sharply for several years and then decline. Such an increase happened between 1991 and 1994, when the looper damaged 14, 000 hectares of forest in the Robson Valley. The damage occurred as patches of partly, or completely defoliated, forest within a much larger forest area.
In 1995, the Robson Valley Forest District (the district) and local forest companies proposed salvage harvesting of large areas of severely damaged old growth forest. Salvage harvesting would remove trees that were dead, dying or deteriorating before the wood degraded and was no longer merchantable. Cutblocks of up to 800 hectares were originally proposed in forest development plans for the valley. By early 1996, when the silviculture prescriptions for those cutblocks were approved, the cutblocks had been reduced to less than 120 hectares to allow management of other forest values.
