As part of its 2018 compliance audit program, the Board randomly selected the Mackenzie Natural Resource District as a location for a full scope compliance audit. The Board selected community forest agreement K2M for audit, held by McLeod Lake Mackenzie Community Forest Limited Partnership, operated jointly by the District of Mackenzie and the McLeod Lake Indian Band.

The activities audited are located in five operating areas, extending from the Parsnip River in the south, past Mackenzie and north to the Nation Arm of Williston Lake, including the Mugaha Marsh sensitive area. The terrain is gentle to rolling, containing mature forests, comprised of mixed stands of Engelmann spruce, white spruce, sub-alpine fir and lodgepole pine.

All activities complied with the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act.

In October 2016, the Forest Practices Board audited Chu Cho Industries LP (Chu Cho) NRFL A62375 in the Mackenzie Forest District. The Tsay Keh Dene First Nation own Chu Cho. The license expired on August 15, 2015. This was a full scope compliance audit with a two-year time frame between October 1, 2014, and October 4, 2016.

The operational planning, timber harvesting, road construction, deactivation and maintenance, silviculture, and fire protection activities carried out by Chu Cho complied in all significant respects with the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act, the Wildfire Act and related regulations.

As part of the Forest Practices Board’s 2013 compliance audit program, the Board selected the Mackenzie District as the location for a full scope compliance audit. Within the district, the Board selected Mackenzie Fibre Management Corporation’s (MFMC) forestry licence to cut A87345 (FLTC A87345).

The audit area falls within the Mackenzie Timber Supply Area and includes the community of Mackenzie. The Mackenzie District lies within the Northern Interior Forest Region and covers approximately 6.1 million hectares. Williston Lake, covering approximately 1.5 million hectares, is the dominant geographic feature of the area.

Under FLTC A87345, MFMC has been allocated 4 000 000 cubic metres over a 5-year term, with an annual harvest of 800 000 cubic metres. MFMC prepared operational plans and applied to the government for cutting and road permits, so it can legally develop and harvest timber within a defined area.

During the two-year audit period, MFMC harvested approximately 881 735 cubic metres of timber, primarily to salvage mountain pine beetle infested timber and rehabilitate forest values. There is a licence requirement to harvest stands with a minimum 70 percent pine component based on the gross volume of the stand.

This audit examined the activities of the BC Timber Sales Program (BCTS) in the Mackenzie District. Numerous natural resources support a wide range of interests in the district—including recreation, trapping, guide-outfitting, tourism, wildlife and fish—creating challenges for BCTS and timber sale licensees that carry out forestry activities in the area.

Another challenge faced by licensees there is how to achieve free-growing silviculture milestones in areas prone to rust infection (a fungus that infects hard pines). Rusts can reduce tree growth and cause early mortality in pine stands, impeding the ability to achieve freegrowing status. However, on all cutblocks where the risk of rust infection was moderate or high, BCTS achieved free-growing, and it continues to work in collaboration with licensees and
the ministry to further enhance knowledge and management of pine rusts.