This is the Board’s closing letter for a complaint filed by a group of residents of the Silver Star Road area, northeast of Vernon.
In March 2014, the Board received a complaint from the residents in the BX Creek watershed regarding the visual impact of BC Timber Sales harvesting across the valley from their homes. The residents were also concerned that they had not been directly consulted prior to the logging and want to ensure they are consulted about future harvesting in the area.
The Forest Practices Board (Board) is British Columbia’s independent forest and range watchdog. On behalf of the public, it monitors and reports on forest and range practices on public land. One of the main ways it does this is through field-based compliance audits of forest and range licensees.
The purpose of this guide is to help licensees prepare for a Board audit and discuss how to conduct their practices to avoid issues most commonly found in past audits. This guide answers some frequently asked questions and provides potential auditees with background information on the audit process.
On November 5, 2013, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint about proposed harvesting and road construction, planned by Canoe Forest Products’ Ltd., a subsidiary of Gorman Bros. Lumber Ltd., in an area upslope of seasonal cabins on the east side of Shuswap Lake.
This complaint investigation highlights the responsibility licensees have to ensure stakeholder involvement and communications are consistent, timely, responsive, transparent and collaborative. It also demonstrates the responsibility of the public to get involved, share in building a working relationship with the licensee, and become an active part of the forest management process.
As part of the Forest Practices Board's 2013 compliance audit program, the Board selected the Mackenzie District as the location for a full scope compliance audit. Within the district, the Board selected Mackenzie Fibre Management Corporation’s (MFMC) forestry licence to cut A87345 (FLTC A87345).
The audit area falls within the Mackenzie Timber Supply Area and includes the community of Mackenzie. The Mackenzie District lies within the Northern Interior Forest Region and covers approximately 6.1 million hectares. Williston Lake, covering approximately 1.5 million hectares, is the dominant geographic feature of the area.
Under FLTC A87345, MFMC has been allocated 4 000 000 cubic metres over a 5-year term, with an annual harvest of 800 000 cubic metres. MFMC prepared operational plans and applied to the government for cutting and road permits, so it can legally develop and harvest timber within a defined area.
During the two-year audit period, MFMC harvested approximately 881 735 cubic metres of timber, primarily to salvage mountain pine beetle infested timber and rehabilitate forest values. There is a licence requirement to harvest stands with a minimum 70 percent pine component based on the gross volume of the stand.
The Board is BC's forest and range practices watchdog, independent from government, industry and special interests. A key mission of the Board is to encourage continuous improvement—and thus encourage public confidence—in forest and range practices and BC’s forest, range and wildfire legislation. To that end, the Board works to resolve concerns and complaints and to strengthen resource stewardship rather than simply investigate and report. Over the years, the majority of Board recommendations made in complaint investigations have been implemented.
This report reviews the results of 19 years of Forest Practices Board investigations of complaints from the public. Since 1995, the Board has responded to over 1000 public concerns and has formally investigated several hundred complaints.
One of the fundamental purposes of the Forest Practices Board is to encourage continual improvements in forest and range practices. The purpose of this special report is to provide independent observation, based on Board work, on how well the regulatory system is working and to identify opportunities for improvement.
The Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), along with the Wildfire Act, regulates the activities of forest and range licensees operating on Crown land. When it was introduced in 2004, replacing a Forest Practices Code that had been in place since 1995, it was understood that adjustments would be necessary as circumstances changed and practitioners gained experience with the new approach. Now, a decade later, the Board finds that the system is generally working but that implementation is incomplete and some aspects need to be refined or adapted to changing circumstances. The Board decided to report on how well FRPA is working after nearly a decade of experience.
This is the Board’s closing letter for a complaint about livestock impacting water quality from a natural spring. In December 2012, the Board received a complaint that livestock use of a small pasture is contaminating a spring providing domestic drinking water. In addition, the complainant is concerned that new fencing restricts public access to Crown land, and that the pasture is overgrazed. This letter summarizes the results of the Board’s investigation into this complaint.
Drinking water is of paramount concern to British Columbians. Government regulates the safe and reliable supply of drinking water primarily under the Drinking Water Protection Act. However, additional laws are in place to protect drinking water while carrying out activities like mining, forestry, range use and oil and gas development on Crown land. The law that regulates forest and range activities on Crown land is called the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA).
This special investigation is about how well forestry and range use provides for the protection of drinking water as required under FRPA. The investigation focuses on how the requirements for drinking water are being met in a sample of 466 designated areas, referred to as community watersheds. These areas are designated because government decided the watersheds require special forest management for the protection of drinking water.
The findings of this investigation suggest that the designation of community watershed is inappropriate in some watersheds, and where it is warranted, the protection provided is inadequate.
In June 2012, the Board received a complaint about Kalesnikoff Lumber Co. Ltd.’s (the licensee) planned road building and harvesting for cutting permit 40 (three cutblocks) in the Duhamel Creek community watershed. The complainant was concerned that harvesting and road building would increase the risk of flooding and debris flows, which could potentially damage property, reduce water quality and endanger the lives of residents of the Duhamel Creek alluvial fan.
Duhamel Creek frequently experiences natural disturbances. The presence and influence of historical landslides and other erosion events are evident throughout the length of Duhamel Creek. The valley sidewalls and streambeds have been eroded over time by events like avalanches, landslides and debris slides. Some of the eroded material was transported downstream, particularly in extreme run-off events, where it settled and created the Duhamel alluvial fan.
Forest and range practices on provincial land in BC are regulated by the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. One way these laws are enforced is through the use of administrative penalties, which are issued by government officials, rather than by the courts. They provide an efficient way to enforce legislation, if appropriately used. Compared to the court process, administrative penalties can be faster and are less formal. Also, decisions are made by officials who are familiar with the forestry context, rather than by judges, who may not be.
The purpose of this report is to provide information to the public, forest and range agreement holders and government officials about administrative penalties related to forest and range practices, including the size of penalties, statutory defences such as due diligence, and the types of activity that give rise to penalties.
