Victoria - The Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of Atco Lumber Ltd. in Forest Licence A20218. The operating area for this licence is in the Kootenay Lake timber supply area south of Nelson.

This is a full-scope audit that will look at operational planning; construction, maintenance and deactivation of roads; timber harvesting; silviculture; and protection activities in order to determine levels of compliance with the Forest Practices Code.

The Forest Practices Board is required to carry out periodic independent audits to see if government and forest companies are complying with the Forest Practices Code. The Atco licence was selected randomly, not on the basis of location or level of performance.

The six-member audit team of forestry, engineering and audit professionals will be in the licence area next week to do office and field examinations of the company's timber harvest areas and logging roads.

Once the field work is done, the audit team will report its findings to the members of the Forest Practices Board. Any party that may be adversely affected by the audit findings must be given a chance to respond before the board prepares its final report and recommendations for release to the public and the government.

The board is undertaking nine compliance audits this year. To date, the board has completed audits of 25 forest companies and Ministry of Forests small business forest enterprise programs. Ten were clean audits, meaning the forest planning and practices met code requirements in all significant respects. Fifteen 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 B.C.'s independent watchdog for sound forest practices. The board reports to the public and to government about compliance with the Forest Practices Code and the achievement of its intent.