The Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) is hoping to get final sign-off from the province on a new Forest Stewardship Plan in time to have harvesting licences in place this spring for its next cutblocks.
About a dozen people attended a Community Forest open house in Sechelt March 9 to look over the latest revisions to the operations plan and offer comments.
The plan lays out harvesting areas in SCCF’s Angus Creek zone east of Porpoise Bay, in Halfmoon Bay and in East Wilson Creek.
Community Forest operations manager Dave Lasser said the new stewardship plan has been in the works for nearly two years and has involved consultation with the shíshálh Nation, which now has a greater say in forestry decisions in its territory through the Foundation Agreement.
Lasser said SCCF is also consulting with the shíshálh Nation on its cutting permit applications, which can be filed now but can’t be approved until the stewardship plan is in place.
SCCF hopes to have permits in place for the blocks known as AN11 and AN12 in the Angus Creek zone in time to get the harvesting done before wildfire season.
2020 is the final year of SCCF’s current five-year cut control plan and Lasser said he expects the harvesting in the Angus Creek area and two more blocks in Halfmoon Bay will bring in the last 30,000 cubic metres called for in that plan.
Lasser said the Community Forest is eager to get some people back to work given the province-wide downturn in the forest sector. “There are some [logging] contractors who haven’t worked anywhere since last year and lots of local contractors who are hurting right now.”
In late 2017, the group Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) went to court to try to prevent the Community Forest from logging one of its East Wilson Creek cutblocks (EW28). The logging was delayed, but ultimately went ahead.
ELF is now trying to convince the District of Sechelt, which is the sole shareholder in the Community Forest’s operating arm, Sechelt Community Projects Inc., to have EW16 removed from the current operations plan.
In a Feb. 28 letter to Mayor Darnelda Siegers and the council, ELF asks them to intervene to preserve EW16, which it claims is one of the last remaining mature forest areas in “a heavily compromised watershed,” as the “Wilson Legacy Forest."
More details about the Sunshine Coast Community Forest’s plans for the coming year are expected at the annual general meeting to be held in early May.
