VICTORIA -Weldwood of Canada Ltd.’s operations in the Williams Lake timber supply area complied with Forest Practices Code requirements in all significant respects, says a report released today by the Forest Practices Board.

Weldwood’s Forest Licence A20017 is in the Cariboo forest region, between 150 Mile House and Horsefly. The audit examined the following activities, carried out between June 1, 1999, and June 15, 2000:

• Harvesting of 40 cutblocks and 14 areas under one hectare for salvage of timber affected by mountain pine beetle.
• Construction of 18 road sections totalling 32 kilometres.
• Road layout and design of 10 road sections totalling 57.6 kilometres where construction had not begun.
• Maintenance and seasonal deactivation of 179 kilometres of road.
• Construction of three bridges and maintenance of 13 bridges.
• Permanent deactivation of 11 road sections totalling 31 kilometres.

"We’re seeing a definite trend toward clean audits - a trend I hope to see continue," said board chair Bill Cafferata.

Weldwood’s forest licence was chosen for audit randomly, not on the basis of location or level of performance.

This is the 39th compliance audit completed by the board. Eighteen were clean audits, meaning the forest planning and practices met code requirements in all significant respects. Twenty-one 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.

Forest Practices Board
Phone: (250) 387-7964
1-800-994-5899
fpboard@gems9.gov.bc.ca