Meeting Outstanding Silviculture Obligations in the Kotcho Area

In 2009, Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs (the complainant) filed a complaint with the Board asserting that Canada Resurgence Development Ltd. (CRD), the holder of FL A16884, was not doing enough to ensure that it met its silvicultural obligations for achieving a free‐ growing crop of trees in cutblocks within Gitanyow territory, and thatMFR was not adequately enforcing the licensees’ silviculture obligations.

Forest Licence A16884 is in the Kalum Forest District. The Kotcho area is within the operating area for this licence, and is within the hereditary territory of Gitanyow. Gitanyow territory includes parts of the Nass River and the Cranberry River, northwest of Terrace. The licence has changed hands several times over two decades and there has been a pattern of licence holders going into receivership and failing to complete the silviculture obligations.