After concerns voiced by the Concerned Citizens of the Sunshine Coast at the B.C. Community Forest Association's seventh annual general meeting last weekend in Sechelt, the local community forest has a new governance structure in place.
"We've created a position on the board for a community forest advisory committee (CFAC) member, and they've voted in chairperson Terry Hind to sit on our board as a full member," said director Claudia Ferris. The vote was made by the CFAC on Tuesday night.
John Bebbington from Concerned Citizens said, while the move is encouraging, it "still precludes a member of the public being able to attend" a meeting of the community forest executive.
The move comes after two demonstrations Saturday, both aimed at more than 100 attendees at the AGM. About a dozen citizens were able to engage forest minister Rich Coleman in a 10-minute discussion as he was leaving Chatelech Secondary School, after giving a keynote speech at the conference. When asked if it was a provincial policy to superimpose community forests on top of controversial tenures, Coleman denied the allegation. In his keynote speech, Coleman said the Sechelt community forest has harvested 42,000 cubic metres in its first two years, and commended Sechelt Community Projects Inc. (SCPI) - the corporation formed to administer the community forest - for spending $1.65 million in salaries and operating expenses, thereby contributing to the local economy.
The central issue of the protest was to demand the Sechelt community forest adopt an "open and transparent" policy in which community forest executive meetings would be open to the public - a concern heard by board chair Len Pakulak and Ferris, as well as Powell River-Sunshine Coast NDP MLA Nicholas Simons, who spoke briefly with the group.
In March, the community forest came under fire from citizens for proceeding with a juvenile tree spacing program on a block partially within the Chapman Creek watershed. The project was quickly cancelled, after Minister of Agriculture and Lands Pat Bell announced those areas would be removed under the interim protection measures of the joint provincial-First Nations Strategic Land and Resources Plan (SLRP).
Coleman didn't have any updates about what land may end up replacing the watershed reserve areas (Chapman and Gray Creek watersheds) that are to be removed from the community forest. Those areas accounted for about half the tenure of the probationary five-year licence.
"Until they take it away from us, they can't replace it," added Kevin Davie, SCPI operations manager and vice-president of the B.C. Community Forest Association. He said the issue will likely be resumed at the fall sitting of legislature. After the demonstration, Coast Reporter spoke with Alistair Schroff, general manager of the nine-year-old Burns Lake community forest (BLCF), cited around B.C. as a well-run, open and transparent model for community forests.
Schroff said there are a few differences in governance structure between his organization and Sechelt's. Whereas the Sechelt community forest board consists of a maximum of 10 directors from any background, the BLCF executive is composed of one councillor from the municipality, three First Nations representatives and six members at large.
Like Sechelt, the village of Burns Lake is the sole shareholder of its community forest. But Schroff said each executive in Burns Lake is appointed only after being vetted by the community forest advisory committee. "Burns Lake makes a genuine attempt to open their meetings to the public," Bebbington said.
The BLCF also has a solid fiscal track record. In their best year, they made nearly $5 million. (SCPI's revenue for 2007 was $2.47 million, for a net profit of $515,316.) Foreseeing a slowdown, Schroff said they also established their own mill and a wireless Internet business. "There's no uniform measure of success as a community forest, you have a different mandate," he said, noting the village of Burns Lake has benefited from new mountain bike trails and recreation sites established by the BLCF. While he admitted it's been a rough year so far, he's expects to end the year with a small profit.
This summer, SCPI plans to log 15,000 cubic metres in cutblocks near Wormy Lake and Angus Creek. If market conditions are favourable, 15,000 more cubic metres will be harvested from Trout Lake, Angus Creek and Wilson Creek cutblocks in the fall.
