Forest Practices Code Penalties and Environmental Damage

Over the last two-and-one-half years, the Board has become concerned about the occasional failure of government officials to give adequate weight to environmental damage when setting penalties for Forest Practices Code contraventions.

Forestry officials are experienced at calculating the value of timber, and they are generally efficient at calculating timber values that have been affected by contraventions. However, in some cases, officials have not given full consideration to the environmental and other non-timber values affected.

The Board monitors penalty decisions by receiving public concerns, scrutinizing all review panel decisions and receiving copies of certain district manager decisions. The Board then has the opportunity to appeal district manager decisions to a civil servant “review panel” or to appeal review panel decisions to the independent Forest Appeals Commission (FAC).