On March 14, 2003, a Grindrod resident (the complainant) asked the Board to investigate the effect of road building and logging on the Mara Meadows ecological reserve. The complainant believes road building and logging in the basin of the meadows are adversely affecting water flowing to the ecological reserve. The complainant is particularly concerned about recent road building, logging and work around a stream by Larch Hill Development Corporation (the licensee) on a woodlot adjacent to the ecological reserve.
On November 26, 2002, a hunter submitted a complaint to the Board that wildlife is not adequately considered when the district manager approves grazing on Crown land, and that the district's enforcement of cattle trespass is ineffective. As well, the complainant is concerned about how fencing affects wildlife and hunting.
The Forest Practices Board has completed an assessment of the health of riparian areas subject to cattle grazing on Crown land across four forest districts in the southern half of British Columbia. Ten indicators of riparian health, or proper functioning condition, were measured at 391 sites in Cranbrook, Kamloops, Horsefly and Penticton districts. Half of the sites were on streams and half on wetlands and lakes.
Cattle lightly use the majority of riparian areas. Approximately 12 percent of riparian areas are heavily used based on our estimates of forage utilization. Overall, 71 percent of the sites are at proper functioning condition, 16 percent are functional at risk and 13 percent are non-functional. Significant differences were found between districts, with the percentage of sites at proper functioning condition ranging from 49 percent to 97 percent. The largest proportion of sites at proper functioning condition occurred in the moister biogeoclimatic zones, while the drier zones had the greatest proportion of nonfunctional sites. Riparian health scores and faecal counts in riparian areas were better in community watersheds than elsewhere. Individual pasture management was found to be a significant factor in maintaining riparian health.
This investigation examines a complaint that Riverside Forest Products Limited (the licensee) is not adequately managing and conserving water resources and visual quality in the Mission Creek community watershed, 30 kilometres east of Kelowna.
The original complaint was that the forest development plans for the four major licensees operating in the watershed do not adequately protect wildlife, biodiversity and other resource values. The Board could not address all of those general, broad-ranging issues in a timely and meaningful way. The Board therefore narrowed the investigation to the issues and specific area of greatest concern to the complainant.
