Victoria -The forestry operations of Atco Lumber Ltd. complied with the Forest Practices Code in all significant respects, according to a Forest Practices Board audit released today.

The report concludes the board's audit of Forest Licence A20218, held by Atco Lumber Ltd. The operating area for this licence is in the Kootenay Lake timber supply area south of Nelson.

The audit examined operational planning; construction, maintenance and deactivation of roads; timber harvesting; silviculture; and fire protection activities carried out between July 10, 1999, and July 12, 2000.

Activities subject to audit included the 1999-2004 forest development plan; harvesting of eight cutblocks; construction of 1.4 kilometres of road; maintenance of 85 kilometres of road and one bridge; deactivation of 5.5 kilometres of road; tree planting on 15 cutblocks; brushing on 14 cutblocks; and fire protection planning and infrastructure.

Atco's licence was selected randomly for audit, not on the basis of location or level of performance.

The Atco audit is the 32nd compliance audit completed by the board. Twelve were clean audits; meaning the forest planning and practices met code requirements in all significant respects. Twenty were qualified audits, meaning that there was some significant non-compliance with the code. Most non-compliance was related to logging practices near streams and the construction, maintenance and deactivation of logging roads.

The Forest Practices Board is an independent public watchdog, established in 1995, that publishes reports about compliance with the Forest Practices Code and the achievement of its intent.

The Forest Practices Board is an independent public watchdog, established in 1995, that publishes reports about compliance with the Forest Practices Code and the achievement of its intent.The board's main roles under the Forest Practices Code are:

• Investigating public complaints.
• Auditing government enforcement of the code.
• Auditing forest practices of government and licence holders on public lands.
• Undertaking special investigations of code-related forestry issues.
• Participating in administrative reviews and appeals.
• Providing reports on board activities, findings and recommendations.