Closing Letter – Results and Strategies for Visuals in Atco Wood Products’ approved Forest Stewardship Plan
The Forest Practices Board received a complaint that alleged the visual section in ATCO Wood Products (ATCO) approved Forest Stewardship Plan is not compliant with Forest and Range Practices Act and is not enforceable. The complaint is not about any of ATCO’s field activities not meeting visual quality objectives (VQOs) after harvesting and road construction had occurred. VQOs reflect the desired level of visual quality after harvesting and road construction has occurred.
Closing Letter – Results and Strategies for Visuals in Atco Wood Products’ approved Forest Stewardship Plan
Managing At-Risk Plant Communities near Mount Elphinstone Park
Elphinstone Logging Focus, an environmental group on the Sunshine Coast, complained that cutblocks sold by BC Timber Sales would impact at-risk plant communities and affect the integrity of the ecosystem near Mt. Elphinstone Park.
The Board investigated and determined that the mature forest stands in the cutblocks contained plant communities listed by the BC Conservation Data Centre as being in peril, or of special concern. There are no government objectives protecting the plant communities and BCTS’s protocol for managing species at risk only includes plant communities found in old forest, not the mature forest stands in this area.
The Board made two recommendations to government and BCTS to address the situation.
Managing At-Risk Plant Communities near Mount Elphinstone Park
Closing Letter – Granite Bay Visual Quality Objectives
A government mapping error lead residents of Granite Bay (the complainants), on Quadra Island, to believe that the area across the bay from them was a park and would not be logged. When the Granite Bay residents discovered that the area could be logged they asked the district manager to establish a visual quality objective of retention so that any logging will be difficult to see. This letter reports the resolution of this complaint.
Closing Letter – Granite Bay Visual Quality Objectives
Impacts of Harvesting and Road Construction on Water Quality in McClure Creek
Impacts of Harvesting and Road Construction on Water Quality in McClure Creek
The Board received a complaint from two water users on McClure Creek, north of Kamloops, about increased sediment loading in the McClure Creek drainage following harvesting and road construction by International Forest Products Ltd. (Interfor). The complainants were concerned that the activities have resulted in a buildup of sediment at their domestic water system’s dam and water intake.
The Board examined the licensee’s forest operations on the ground, and their planning activities at the cutblock and watershed level.
