Sewell Inlet Timber Sale: Appropriateness of the Silviculture Prescription in the Queen Charlotte Islands Forest District

The complainant was the successful bidder on a Small Business Forest Enterprise Program timber sale near Sewell Inlet, on Moresby Island. The timber sale document and the silviculture prescription specified skyline yarding as the preferred logging method, with helicopter yarding as the alternative method. In November 1996, the complainant began harvesting and concluded that part of the 14.9 hectare cutblock could not be harvested using a skyline system without damaging the soil because of poor deflection. This means that the slope was relatively flat, and skyline yarding would cause logs to be dragged along the ground (ground lead) instead of being suspended in the air.