Board to Audit Forestry Operations near Cache Creek

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of Northern Nlaka’pamux Forestry Resources Ltd. in non-replaceable forest licence A73168 . The licence is located near Lytton, around Cornwall Mountain and southwest of Cache Creek.

The board will audit operational planning; harvesting; road construction, maintenance and deactivation; silviculture and fire protection to assess compliance with forest practices legislation.

“The board anticipates that there will be a growing number of First Nations licensees in the province,” said board chair Bruce Fraser. “We are committed to working collaboratively with these new licensees as they develop their forest practices, which may be audited by the board.”

Under the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) , the Forest Practices Board is required to carry out periodic independent audits to see if government and forest companies are complying with forest practices legislation. Northern Nlaka’pamux Forestry Resources was selected randomly.

The three-member audit team will be in the licence area for approximately one week, to do office and field examinations of the licensee’s forestry activities.

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 will be given a chance to respond before the board prepares its final report and recommendations for release to the public and government.

The Forest Practices Board is an independent public watchdog that reports to the public about compliance with the FRPA and the achievement of its intent. The board’s main roles under FRPA are:

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

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Erik Kaye
Communications
Forest Practices Board
Phone: 250-356-1586 or 1-800-994-5899