The Forest Practices Board is pleased to provide a submission to the Provincial Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Strategy. Our recommendations are broken into three parts. We suggest that an overarching policy goal guide all actions regarding adaptation. We identify five focus areas where we believe action will have greatest impact, and finally we have provided an appendix with past recommendations from the Board for specific actions that can be taken.
On September 9, 2019, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint from a resident of Kitwanga. The complainant is concerned that planned harvesting of BC Timber Sales (BCTS) timber sale license A52734 Block 001 will damage valuable mushroom habitat. The complaint considered BCTS’s legal obligations under the Forest and Range Practices Act and investigated whether public consultation was appropriate.
The Forest Practices Board determined that the approach taken by BCTS to manage pine mushroom habitat met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act. BCTS’s consultation efforts were also appropriate.
As part of its 2019 compliance audit program, the Board randomly selected the Nadina Natural Resource District as the location for a full scope compliance audit. Within the district, the Board selected non-replaceable forest licence (NRFL) A85566, held by Northern Engineered Wood Products (NEWP) for audit. All of NEWP’s operations are in the Morice timber supply area portion of the District and are located south and northeast of Houston and north of Francois Lake.
NEWP practices complied in all significant respects with the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act, the Wildfire Act and related regulations.
The Forest Practices Board received a complaint that asserted harvesting by Huu-ay-aht Forestry Limited Partnership near Bamfield was not consistent with the visual quality objective for the area and furthermore, that government enforcement was not appropriate. The complaint was resolved.
As part of the Forest Practices Board’s 2019 compliance audit program, the Board randomly selected non-replaceable forest licence (NRFL) A91154, located near the communities of Vanderhoof and Fraser Lake, for a full scope compliance audit. The licence is held by Saik’uz First Nation and managed by Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd.
The audit found that the licensees’ practices complied with the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act.
In May 2018, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint that asserted recent harvesting in a watershed had increased peak flows and in combination with inadequate road maintenance by Interfor and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) caused damage to Yates Creek, Yates Creek Road and his private property. The complaint was resolved.
In April 2019, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint from a business owner and an environmental society (the complainants) who requested access to a hydrological assessment prepared for the Bastion Creek community watershed. The assessment was commissioned jointly for BC Timber Sales and Canoe Forest Products (the licensees).
In November 2017, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint about impacts to water quality in the Peachland and Trepanier community watersheds. The complainants asserted that forestry activities in the watersheds have negatively affected the quality of drinking water and increased the number of boil water advisory notices, resulted in stream bank erosion and caused a landslide off the Munroe Forest Service Road (FSR) into Peachland Creek.
Forestry activities complied with the legal requirements. There are many developments and activities in these watersheds, in addition to forestry, that can impact the water resource and it was not possible to differentiate between forestry and non-forestry impacts. The investigation determined that forestry activities did not cause impacts on human health that could not be addressed through water treatment. The landslide on the Munroe FSR was not caused by forestry activities and licensees maintained natural drainage patterns and maintained forestry roads consistent with the FPPR.
Public Engagement on Amendments to the Forest and Range Practices Act (June 2019)
As part of government’s public consultation on proposed amendments to FRPA, the Forest Practices Board submitted comments on the need for modernized planning under FRPA.
Priorities for Strengthening the Forest and Range Practices Act (August 2019)
This letter provides the Board’s additional thoughts on some key priorities for legislative reform; these are all derived from previous Board work including investigations, appeals and audits.
In April 2018, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint from the Lhtako Dene Nation alleging that Tolko (the forest licensee) did not follow through on commitments it made as part of the resolution of a previous complaint to the Board. The new complaint also said that the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development approved an extension to Tolko’s forest stewardship plan without consulting the Lhtako Dene Nation. Tolko requested another extension, but it was not approved.
