Cascadia Forest Products' forest stewardship plan, currently before the public for review, includes area within the Chapman Creek watershed - Sechelt's drinking water supply.
Although Cascadia does not have definite logging plans in the watersheds within its two Sunshine Coast timber licences - Chapman and Dakota creeks - the company will be exploring its possibilities. "It is our hope and intention that we will eventually be logging some within the Chapman and Dakota watersheds," Walt Cowlard, Cascadia planning superintendent said in a phone interview the day after Cascadia's open house in Sechelt Feb. 23.
Five-year forest stewardship plans (FSP) are a new provincial requirement under the 2004 Forest and Range Practices Act, replacing forest development plans (FDP) under the Forest Practices Code.
Rather than the former FDP requirement to map out specific cutblocks the company will log, the FSP outlines broad areas, or forest development units, in which the company might log or build roads in up to a five-year period. The FSP first identifies spots within each unit with forest values, such as wildlife habitats, recreation and community watersheds, then lists measures to protect the forest values. But once the Ministry of Forests and Range approves an FSP, there is no legislative requirement for the company to go back to the public for approval of specific harvesting or road building plans within the five years.
Cowlard expects Cascadia crews to be doing ground work in the Chapman area this summer. If the company decided to go ahead with logging and road building, it would hire a geologist for water advice and a geotechnician for terrain stability advice. If the advisors had concerns, the company would either look for other ways to work within the area or would back right off, Cowlard said. The FSP lists methods for sediment control, including ditch cleaning, culvert replacement, rock ballasting of road surface, armouring of road fill next to a channel and road grading practices, along with a range of variable retention logging.
"It's our position at this point in time that we can develop plans with hydrologists so we won't have an impact on the water," Cowlard said. "When you take a drink of water in Sechelt, you shouldn't even know we're there."
In October 2005, the Sechelt Indian Band (SIB) council and Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board signed a joint watershed management agreement to mutually protect Chapman and Gray creeks from industrial activity. The Chapman watershed is within the SIB traditional territory and the SCRD's potable water authority.
"The Band and SCRD agree to pursue, assume and exercise: (a) the right and authority to approve or disapprove any activity within the watershed; (b) the right and authority to disallow any activity within the watershed," the agreement states.
Cascadia met with a Band committee in late 2005, as required under provincial legislation. Cowlard expects the company will meet with the Band again in March, this time with Chief Stan Dixon. Dixon told Coast Reporter he had not sat in on the first meeting and was not yet familiar with the plan.
The SCRD planning department attended Cascadia's open house and is expected to submit a report to SCRD directors at its March 9 planning committee meeting.
The timber licence belonged to Macmillan Bloedel then Weyerhaeuser before Brascan bought Weyerhaeuser's B.C. Coastal Timberlands assets in May 2005. Brascan then split Weyerhaeuser's coastal B.C. land into two new, separate companies, Island Timberlands for the private land and Cascadia for the Crown land, explained Cascadia's area engineer Stephen Chaplin at the open house. Brascan has since changed its name to Brookfield Asset Management. Brookfield announced in November 2005 it was selling Cascadia to Western Forest Products, a deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2006, according to a press release.
The area in the Chapman watershed was logged until 1994, Cowlard said. The tenure area has since regenerated and greened up, so now the company is ready to go back in, he said. Cowlard expects operations could begin this fall or next year.
Although there is no requirement to report back to the public, Cowlard said the public can track the operations through personal contact with Cascadia's Powell River office. As well, the Ministry of Forests inspects company's operations to ensure it is meeting the protection guidelines outlined in the FSP, he added.
Dan Bouman, Sunshine Coast Conservation Asso-ciation executive director, attended Cascadia's open house. Bouman sees the company as being a ways away from reaching the point of logging in the area but is still alarmed by its intention to log in the watershed.
"I'm always concerned about the watershed because the watershed doesn't have legal protection," Bouman said. "They may try to go down this road and if they do we'll stop them. I am confident that if there is solidarity between the Sechelt First Nation and the Sunshine Coast Regional District and the public then it is possible to stop this sort of thing from happening in the watershed. I think at the end of the day they're going to think twice about logging there."
Bouman is also a member of the SCRD's natural resources advisory committee and hopes to have a report - discussing all the forestry company FSPs currently before the public for review - ready for the March 9 planning committee meeting. Under the Forest and Range Practices Act, any forest licensee with Crown tenure must have an FSP by the end of 2006, Chaplin said.
Before going to the ministry for approval of its FSP, Cascadia will accept written comments on its proposed FSP up until March 27 at P.O. Box 2001, Port Alberni, V9Y 7N3, by fax at 1-250-720-4252 or by email at [email protected]. Cascadia's Powell River office is at #201 - 7373 Duncan St., V8A 1W6. Chaplin can be reached at 1-604-485-3121 or [email protected]. More information on Cascadia's FSP is available at www.cascadiafp.com.
