VICTORIA-The forestry operations of Tanizul Timber Ltd. near Stuart Lake complied with the Forest Practices Code in all significant respects, according to a Forest Practices Board audit released today.

The report concludes the board's audit of Tree Farm Licence 42 held by Tanizul in the Fort St. James forest district. Tanizul is owned and controlled by the Tl'azt'en Nation. Tree Farm Licence 42 is managed by Tanizul employees based in Tachie, with operational planning help from Canadian Forest Products Ltd. in Fort St. James.

The audit examined Tanizul's planning and field activities related to timber harvesting, as well as construction, maintenance and deactivation of roads carried out between June 1, 1999, and June 18, 2000.

The licence covers an area of 49,394 hectares, about 56 kilometres northwest of Fort St. James, and is bordered by Trembleur Lake on the north, the Tachie River on the east, and Stuart Lake on the south and west.

Activities included in the audit were: harvesting of six cutblocks, planning and approval for 10 cutblocks, construction of 13.5 kilometres of road, planning and layout for 4.5 kilometres of road, maintenance of 164 kilometres of road, maintenance of 10 bridges and deactivation of 27.5 kilometres of road.

Tanizul's licence was selected randomly for audit, not on the basis of location or level of performance.

The Tanizul audit is the 30th compliance audit completed by the board. Eleven were clean audits, meaning the forest planning and practices met code requirements in all significant respects. Nineteen 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 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.