Victoria – On Monday, June 8, 1998, the Forest Practices Board begins an audit of Tree Farm Licence (TFL) – 10, held by International Forest Products Ltd. The tree farm licence is located in the Sunshine Coast Forest District, north of Powell River in Toba Inlet.

The audit will examine recent timber harvesting, road construction, maintenance and deactivation activities, and the associated operational planning activities for compliance with the Forest Practices Code.

The Board’s audit is being conducted by a team of seven, including foresters, auditors and engineers. The team will be in the licence area over the next two weeks carrying out office and field examinations of numerous timber harvest areas and many kilometres of roads.

The licence was selected randomly, not on the basis of location or past performance. The Forest Practices Board is required to carry out periodic independent audits to determine government and forest company compliance with the planning and forest practices requirements of the Forest Practices Code. The Board plans to undertake nine compliance audits in 1998.

Once the field work has been completed, the audit team will provide a report on the findings to the members of the Forest Practices Board. The Board will then prepare its report and recommendations. Any party that may be adversely affected by the Board’s report must be given an opportunity to respond before the report is finalized and released to the public and the government.

The Forest Practices Board is an independent agency, established in 1995, that provides reports to the public and government about compliance with the Forest Practices Code and the achievement of its intent. The Board’s main roles are: auditing forest practices, undertaking investigations in response to public complaints, undertaking special investigations of any Code related forestry issues, participating in administrative reviews and appeals and providing reports to the public and government on Board activities, findings and recommendations.