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Forest Practices Board finds nothing wrong with EW002 harvesting

Wilson Creek
EW002
The slump adjacent to Wilson Creek.

The Forest Practices Board says it found nothing wrong with the logging conducted by the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) in the cutblock known as EW002 in Wilson Creek.

The board said it received a complaint on July 11, 2018, from a member of Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF).

The complaint alleged the Community Forest did not adequately consider the impacts of forestry activities on an existing landslide into Wilson Creek. EW002 is adjacent to that landslide.

The Forest Practices Board report said, “The complainant believes that harvesting the block caused fine sediment from the landslide to continue to be transported into the fish-bearing creek, and that it will continue to do so until the slope eventually stabilizes. The complainant also asserted that SCCF did not conduct a geotechnical assessment of the landslide.”

SCCF planned the cutblock in 2011 and the decision to go forward with harvesting was controversial. Protesters were arrested for blocking logging operations there in late 2012.

During a visit to the site on Oct. 12, 2018, board investigators “did not observe any sedimentation or slope failures directly attributed to harvesting or road construction and maintenance associated with cutblocks EW002 or EW028.”

The report said what they did see were “indicators of past naturally occurring slumps along the side slopes of Wilson Creek.”

The report concludes there is no evidence that harvesting EW002 has or will contribute to the continual erosion of the slump. The board also found SCCF complied with all legal requirements for planning, road construction and maintenance, and harvesting, taking appropriate measures “by obtaining a number of specialist assessments and following the specialists’ recommendations prior to carrying out forestry activities.”

In a release announcing the conclusion of its investigation, board chair Kevin Kriese said, “The issue of sediment in water and impacts on fish habitat is a serious one. This investigation highlights the reasonable steps a forestry licensee should take when working in areas with natural terrain hazards that are also important for fish, water and community interests.”