Closing Letter: Wardner Woodlot
The Forest Practices Board received a complaint about forest practices on a woodlot near Wardner, BC. The Board has investigated and this is its report.
The complaintant identified several concerns with practices on the woodlot:
- that the woodlot licensee was leaving large debris piles in the woodlot;
- that there were water control issues on some roads; and
- that there was considerable debris left on the ground following logging in the woodlot.
Board staff visited the woodlot on November 17, 2008. Also in attendance were the complaintant and Ministry of Forests and Range (MFR) staff from the Rocky Mountain Forest District. The following are the Board’s observations and findings.
Closing Letter – Wardner Woodlot
Wildlife and Cattle Grazing in the East Kootenay
The complainant, a retired range agrologist, is concerned that Crown rangelands in the East Kootenay area of the Rocky Mountain Forest District are not being managed appropriately. The complainant says that forest in-growth on grasslands has caused forage supply to decline, forcing the Ministry of Forests and Range and individual ranchers to reduce the number or duration of cattle grazing on Crown lands. Concurrently, the complainant believes that the Ministry of Environment has allowed elk and deer numbers to increase such that the carrying capacity of Crown range has been exceeded, causing forage to be over-used.
A government plan to restore forage supply, as described by the Kootenay-Boundary Land Use Plan, has apparently not kept pace with either forest in-growth or forage demand. In the complainant’s view, this has resulted in lost ranching opportunity and over-grazed wildlife winter ranges.
Wildlife and Cattle Grazing in the East Kootenay
Road Sediment Entering Fish Streams: Learning from the Little Lamb Creek Experience
A recent Forest Practices Board audit found that road building and upgrading by a Timber Sale License holder (the TSL holder) had, or had the potential to, adversely affect fish streams in the Lamb Creek area of the Rocky Mountain Forest District. British Columbia Timber Sales’ (BCTS) attempt to repair damage from the TSL holder’s roadwork was well-intentioned but only partly successful.
Compliance and Enforcement district staff of the Ministry of Forests and Range investigated and found that road drainage systems were inadequate, and sediment from roadwork had entered a fish-bearing stream. The district manager determined the TSL holder contravened the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and imposed a penalty of $5,000.
Road Sediment Entering Fish Streams: Learning from the Little Lamb Creek Experience
Domestic Water Concerns with Harvesting and Road Construction near Elmer Creek
Domestic Water Concerns with Harvesting and Road Construction near Elmer Creek
Two separate complaints arose from proposed timber harvesting and road construction in the Elmer Creek area, near the community of Yahk. The complainants asserted that BCTS had not implemented the recommendations of a hydrology assessment and that the proposed road construction, improved public access and clear-cut harvesting would adversely affect domestic water supplies and other resources.
Forestry Audit: BC Timber Sales Program Rocky Mountain Forest District
In summer 2005, the Forest Practices Board conducted a compliance audit of forest planning and practices of the British Columbia Timber Sales (BCTS) program, and timber sale licence holders, in the Rocky Mountain Forest District. BCTS’s operating areas are located in the Invermere and Cranbook Timber Supply Areas.
The Board notes that, with one exception, planning and practices undertaken by BCTS and its timber sale licence holders complied with legislative requirements in all significant respects.
The significant non-compliance noted in the audit relates to sediment from road building and upgrading by the holder of timber sale licence (TSL) A69888—that has, or has the potential to, adversely affect fish streams. Of particular concern is that the TSL holder, independently from BCTS, sought and got approval from the Ministry of Forests and Range for a road use permit to upgrade a long section of forest service road (FSR), adjacent to a fish stream to access a timber sale, but did not follow the permit conditions designed to minimize the amount of sediment entering the stream.
