Maintenance of the Hillcrest Forest Service Road Southern Vancouver Island in the South Island (Duncan) Forest District
A resident of Hillcrest Road, a forest service road near Lake Cowichan village on Vancouver Island, complained that the road was not adequately maintained by the South Island Forest District and industrial users during the winter of 1996-97. The resident maintained that this had resulted in unsafe conditions for those living on the road. He asked that the road be graded before and after every timber sale and that the Ministry of Transportation and Highways take over responsibility for maintaining the road.
Maintenance of the Hillcrest Forest Service Road Southern Vancouver Island
Logging Plan Approval and Enforcement at Homesite Creek
Fire Tools and Enforcement at Homesite Creek
Logging Plan Approval and Enforcement at Homesite Creek in the Sunshine Coast Forest District
This report concludes the Board’s investigation of a complaint about the content of an approved logging plan in the Sunshine Coast Forest District. The complainant also reported environmental damage from forest practices carried out under that plan, and asserted inadequate enforcement by district staff.
In 1994, the Ministry of Forests Small Business Forest Enterprise Program (SBFEP) in the Sunshine Coast Forest District started planning to sell the right to harvest timber in a 26.8 hectare cutblock in a rural residential area near Homesite Creek. The site is on a peninsula between the communities of Secret Cove and Halfmoon Bay, approximately 20 km from Sechelt. Timber sale licence A48267 is located immediately adjacent to a rural-residential area, and forest practices there have met with opposition from local residents.
Fire Tools and Enforcement at Homesite Creek in the Sunshine Coast Forest District
In 1994, the Ministry of Forests Small Business Forest Enterprise Program (SBFEP) in the Sunshine Coast Forest District started planning to sell the right to harvest timber in a 26.8 hectare cutblock in a rural residential area near Homesite Creek. The site is on a peninsula between the communities of Secret Cove and Halfmoon Bay, approximately 20 km from Sechelt.
Timber sale licence A48267 is located immediately adjacent to a rural-residential area, and forest practices there have met with opposition from local residents.
On the morning of August 11, 1998, the complainant discovered two fallers cutting a road right-of-way within the licence area. The complainant believed that operations were not permitted in the cutblock at that time, and that the fallers did not have the required fire fighting equipment with them on site and close at hand. The fire danger class was rated as “high” for August 11th.
Restrictions on Motorized Vehicle Recreation in the Harold Price and Blunt Creek Areas, Cassiar Forest District
Through 1996 and early 1997, staff of the Bulkley/Cassiar Forest District assisted in carrying out a public process where recreational users met and developed a Recreational Access Management Plan (“RAMP”). That plan provided input for a Land and Resource Management Plan being developed by the Bulkley Valley Community Resources Board. The district manager has authority under the Act to make orders to restrict public recreational uses. However, the various recreational user groups wanted consensus based decision-making. The district manager agreed, stating early in the planning process that any such orders would be based on consensus among the user groups.
Winter recreational users reached agreement on most of the eighteen “winter use areas” identified. Unfortunately historical and on-going conflict between two recreational user groups — backcountry skiers and snowmobile users — led to three highly contentious areas being designated as “unresolved”. Those areas, with high recreational use and on-going conflicts between user groups, were left in limbo. There was no negotiated resolution. The district manager refused to impose resolution.
Restrictions on Motorized Vehicle Recreation in the Harold Price and Blunt Creek Areas
Planning for the Harvest of Beetle Damaged Timber in Corn Creek
In 1991 a windstorm blew down timber in the vicinity of Corn Creek, creating ideal conditions for the development of a spruce bark beetle infestation. Corn Creek is located in the Selkirk Mountain Range, approximately 10 kilometres west of Creston, B.C.
In 1994, the Ministry of Forests detected an infestation of spruce bark beetle in the Corn Creek watershed during an aerial survey. After carrying out beetle surveys in 1995, the Ministry determined that a significant beetle population was developing.
