In September 2010, Batnuni Lake Guides and Outfitters (the complainant) submitted a complaint to the Forest Practices Board that L&M Lumber Co. Ltd. (the licensee) was not seasonally-blocking motorized access to the road system in their Davidson Creek operating area (the Davidson). This caused the complainant to lose a key business opportunity guiding hunters by horse in a non-motorized area.

Since 1994, when not being used for industrial purposes, the Davidson road system has been closed every winter to motorized use by putting concrete barriers in front of the bridge at the start of the road. In 1997, the Vanderhoof Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP)formalized this practice by designating access into the Davidson as ‘semi-primitive, nonmotorized’(SPNM), and specifying that recreationalists, including hunters, could not use vehicles in the area between April 1 and November 30 each year.

In June 2011, the Stellat’en First Nation of Fraser Lake (the Stellat’en) asked the Forest Practices Board to investigate government approval of plans by Fraser Lake Sawmills (the licensee) to re-align and widen several haul roads through traditional Stellat’en territory.

The Stellat’en asserted that a major haul road would seriously disrupt traditional uses of their territory and that consultation and accommodation of Stellat’en interests by both the licensee and the government were inadequate.

While on the surface this complaint is about the adequacy of consultation, the Board found that much of the concern was about accommodation, particularly compensation.