The 2017 audit season was well underway when forest fires broke out across the interior of BC on July 7, 2017.  With a state of emergency declared and licensees fully engaged in the fire suppression and prevention efforts, the Board put most of its audit program on hold. For the rest of the summer we watched, along with everyone else, as the unprecedented fires burned through BC’s forests and displaced tens of thousands of people. The state of emergency was finally lifted on September 16 and Board auditors began assessing the impacts of the fires on our chosen audit areas and preparing to carry out five audits in the seven weeks remaining before winter weather set in. October was the busiest audit month we have ever had we managed to complete the field work for five audits, with the last two finishing just hours before heavy snow fell and covered the ground being audited.

Three of the 2017 audits have been published – Winton Global, BC Timber Sales on Southern Vancouver Island and Lakeside Pacific Forest Products. Staff continue to work on the analysis and report writing for the remaining audits and we will aim to have them all published by the end of March 2018. The length of time it takes will depend on the findings – the more issues we find, the longer it takes to complete the necessary analysis, verification and consultation work.

At the start of this audit season, we said we would review any newly approved FSPs that we see in our audits of forest licensees and we intended to publish a special report summarizing what we found in the new FSPs. As it turns out, only one of the 11 operations audited in 2017 had a new FSP in place. The rest did all their work under old FSPs.  We will have to wait until the 2018 audit season to see if we can start assessing FSP content as part of our annual audits.

A number of significant reports were published in the latter half of 2017.

 Special Report: Opportunities to Improve the Forest and Range Practices Act

The purpose of this special report is to identify key opportunities to improve the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA). It is based on a review of Board recommendations from reports published since 2010 and the British Columbia government’s response to those recommendations.

In this report, the Board identifies five priority recommendations, discusses why they continue to be priorities in 2017, and describes the status of government’s implementation of the Board’s recommendations related to FRPA. The report has been very well received and is being widely shared on social media. The Board appreciates the support we are receiving for this timely and important advice to government and we look forward to government’s response.

Special Report on the Forest and Range Evaluation Program

Evaluating the effectiveness of practices is a cornerstone of results-based management under the Forest and Range Practices Act. This report concludes our evaluation of how well the FREP program is achieving its intended outcomes and is leading to continuous improvement of forest and range practices. After 15 years, the FREP program has not implemented effectiveness monitoring for a number of the values recognized in FRPA, which is a concern. A great deal of work has been done, but there is still much more to do to realize the vision.

Resource Road Construction in Steep Terrain

This special investigation of road construction in steep terrain came out in September and was met with praise from many in the forest industry.  This was the most popular Board report of 2017 with hundreds of copies downloaded from our website.  The Association of Engineers and Geoscientists BC and the Association of BC Forest Professionals are working on guidelines for improved steep road construction and we look forward to seeing those finalized in 2018. We hope this report contributes to safer and more stable road construction practices in steep terrain.

Forest Roads and Grizzly Bear Management in the Kettle-Granby Area

In August we published a report on a complaint investigation involving grizzly bear management and road densities in the Kettle Granby area of south central BC. The key issue was licensee implementation of voluntary measures to reduce road densities and protect grizzly bear. We found that the measures were not implemented and we recommended that government consider whether voluntary measures are appropriate, given the poor results. This report was met with significant public interest, which is not surprising given the importance of the grizzly bear to BC and recent announcements by government suspending the trophy hunting of this iconic species.  In addition to media coverage, the report was one of the most downloaded reports of 2017 and the subject of numerous tweets, retweets and shares on Twitter and Facebook. We are anticipating government’s response to our recommendations early in the new year.

Professional Reliance

Government’s review of professional reliance is now underway and the work is being led by Mark Haddock, who is also the Board’s General Counsel.  Mark is on a temporary appointment to the Ministry of Environment while he carries out this work for Minister Heyman. In the interim, the Board’s former General Counsel, John Pennington, has come back from his retirement to assist the Board with its legal counsel needs.

In terms of professional reliance, the Board has made a formal submission to the review, based on the Board’s experience with professional reliance and previous reports and recommendations dealing with the topic. The submission can be viewed on the professional reliance review website at https://engage.gov.bc.ca/professionalreliance/read-stakeholder-submissions/. It will also be made available on the Board’s website at www.bcfpb.ca.

Del Williams – Retirement
Manager of Investigations and Audits, Del Williams, will be retiring from the Board in April 2018.  Not retiring entirely from the forestry world, Del will be managing his woodlot near Revelstoke and he may dabble in some part-time forestry consulting. During his time with the Board, Del has investigated many complaints and has worked on several special investigations. He is best known for his work on the Board’s report on forest stewardship plans and we will certainly miss his knowledge and expertise. We wish Del all the best in the future.

ECO Impact Award – Chris Mosher

In September, Chris Mosher, CPA, CA, EP(CEA), Director of Audits and Chief Financial Officer for the Forest Practices Board, was awarded the inaugural 2017 ECO Impact Award in the Auditor Impact category.

Chris was nominated for his work developing the Board’s field-based compliance audit program. With the Board since 1996, Chris is an integral part of the Board’s audit program, providing leadership, direction, quality assurance and oversight for all of the audits carried out by the Board each year.

The ECO Impact Awards recognize outstanding environmental professionals and environmental professionals in-training who have provided innovative, impactful, productive or engaging solutions that further the environmental sector or who’ve led initiatives in their specialization or workplace. The award was presented September 28th at a ceremony in Calgary, Alberta.

Board Membership Changes

On December 31, 2017, the appointments of Bill McGill, Vice-Chair, and Ralph Archibald, member, expire. Both members have served six years on the Board and are not eligible for reappointment.

Board Chair Tim Ryan’s appointment also expires on December 31, 2017 and government has not renewed his appointment.

Current Board members Ken Higginbotham, Marlene Machmer, and Norma Wilson will continue to fulfill the duties of the Board under the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. We are awaiting government’s appointment of replacement members and will announce them as soon as they are made.

Board members and staff wish to express their appreciation to Bill, Ralph and Tim for their service to the Board and the public, and their tremendous contributions to the promotion of sound forest and range practices in British Columbia.

Ralph brought his expertise and understanding of government policy to the table, along with his many years of experience with the Ministries of Environment and Forests. In particular, Ralph’s knowledge of what the legislators intended when they wrote the Forest and Range Practices Act has been an invaluable perspective.  His insistence on reports and recommendations that help to improve implementation of FRPA and achieve the legislators’ intent is evident in some of the Board’s work in recent years.

Bill brought his quiet thoughtfulness and his knowledge and experience with UNBC students who are the future of resource management, as well as his concern for the public, to the Board’s discussions. When Bill spoke, everyone listened because his words were always insightful and enlightening. He kept the Board focused on the public interest.

Tim worked tirelessly during his four years as Chair of the Board to shine a light on the issues that need to be addressed, to encourage implementation of recommended improvements, and to develop relationships, awareness and understanding with stakeholders, particularly First Nations and local government officials throughout BC.