Fire Tools and Enforcement at Homesite Creek in the Sunshine Coast Forest District

In 1994, the Ministry of Forests Small Business Forest Enterprise Program (SBFEP) in the Sunshine Coast Forest District started planning to sell the right to harvest timber in a 26.8 hectare cutblock in a rural residential area near Homesite Creek. The site is on a peninsula between the communities of Secret Cove and Halfmoon Bay, approximately 20 km from Sechelt.
Timber sale licence A48267 is located immediately adjacent to a rural-residential area, and forest practices there have met with opposition from local residents.

On the morning of August 11, 1998, the complainant discovered two fallers cutting a road right-of-way within the licence area. The complainant believed that operations were not permitted in the cutblock at that time, and that the fallers did not have the required fire fighting equipment with them on site and close at hand. The fire danger class was rated as “high” for August 11th.