Board to Audit Western Forest Products Ltd.

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of Western Forest Products Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Doman Industries Ltd., along the west coast of BC, from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Jordan River on southern Vancouver Island.

The audit will look at Western Forest Products’ operations on Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 25, which has five separate operating areas. The operating areas are near Jordan River on southern Vancouver Island, west of Sayward on northeast Vancouver Island, east of Knight Inlet on the mainland coast, a large area on the central mainland coast north of Bella Bella, and an area on South Moresby in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Auditors will examine a full scope of forest practices carried out over the past year, including timber harvesting; road construction, maintenance and deactivation; forest protection; silviculture; and operational planning. This is the board’s second audit of TFL 25. The first audit, conducted in 1999, was limited to roads and timber harvesting and included only the operating areas on the central coast and in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The Forest Practices Board carries out periodic independent audits to see if government and forest companies are complying with the province’s forest practices legislation. Once a forest licence has been audited, it is removed from the pool of eligible forest licences for the next three years. TFL 25 was returned to the pool in 2003, and was chosen randomly and not on the basis of location or level of performance.

The five-member audit team includes professional foresters, a professional engineer, and a chartered accountant. They will be in the licence area examining plans, cutblocks and roads for about two weeks. The southern operating areas will be audited the week of Aug. 11 and the northern operating areas the week of Aug. 25. Once the fieldwork is done, the audit team will report its findings to the board. Any party that may be adversely affected by the audit findings will have a chance to respond. The board’s final report and recommendations will then be released to the public and government.

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

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

Jacqueline Waldorf
Communications
Forest Practices Board
Phone: 250 356-1586 / 1 800 994-5899