VICTORIA - The Robson Valley forest district’s small business forest enterprise program complied with Forest Practices Code requirements in all significant respects, says a report released today by the Forest Practices Board.

The program operates within the Robson Valley forest district in east-central B.C. It has an annual allowable cut of 105,000 cubic metres. Carried out between Sept. 27, 1999, and Sept. 20, 2000, the audit examined the following practices:

• Harvesting on nine cutblocks.
• Harvesting on 16 cash sale licences.
• Construction of six road sections totalling 25.4 kilometres.
• Construction or modification of six bridges.
• Maintenance of 16 bridges and 160 kilometres of road.
• Permanent and semi-permanent deactivation on two roads totalling 29.9 kilometres.
• Silviculture activities on 13 cutblocks.
• Fire preparedness at three active timber harvesting sites.

"We’re seeing a definite trend toward improvement in forest practices in recent audits of the small business forest enterprise program – a trend I hope to see continue," said board chair Bill Cafferata. "It’s also worth noting that this program implemented key elements of the code’s biodiversity strategies in its operations."

Robson Valley’s small business forest enterprise program was selected for audit randomly and not on the basis of location or level of performance.

This is the 40th compliance audit completed by the board. Nineteen were clean audits, meaning the forest planning and practices met code requirements in all significant respects. Twenty-one were qualified audits, meaning 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 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.

Forest Practices Board
Phone: (250) 387-7964
1-800-994-5899

fpboard@gems9.gov.bc.ca