Forest Practices Board appeals Brooks Bay Plan

The Forest Practices Board has filed an appeal of MacMillan Bloedel’s forest development plan for the Brooks Bay area of northwestern Vancouver Island.

The Board is asking the Forest Appeals Commission to decide if the plan meets the requirements of the Forest Practices Code.

A review panel decided in November that the Brooks Bay plan met Code requirements in all but one respect – it had not been signed and sealed by a professional forester.

The Board is appealing because it believes the Forest Practices Code requires a higher standard for forest de-velopment plans than the standard determined by the review panel. The Board also believes that clarifica-tion of Code requirements on significant matters like forest development planning should come from the For-est Appeals Commission, rather than a review panel.

The Board’s Notice of Appeal, filed with the Commis-sion on December 3, raises other issues of compliance with the Code, including stream classification, the number of years covered by the plan, the location of operable forest and whether public review and comment requirements were followed.

The date of the appeal will be scheduled by the Forest Appeals Commission.

The Board is the only organization with the authority, under the Code, to ask for reviews of approvals of forest development plans and to appeal to the Forest Appeals Commission. This is the first such request made since the Code came into effect on June 15, 1995.

The Board represents what it considers to be the broad public interest in sound forest management decisions and the need to sustain public confidence in forest management.

The Brooks Bay development plan includes logging operations and associated roads in five cutblocks scheduled for 1996 and 1997. Three of the cutblocks are in the Klaskish River watershed. The plan was approved by the Ministry of Forests District Manager on May 31, 1996.

The Board will make no further public statements while the matter is before the Forest Appeals Commission.