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Groundwater, stormwater flagged in response to BCTS logging plans

Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors want BC Timber Sales (BCTS) to do more to protect groundwater and prevent stormwater runoff as the agency introduces new cutblocks on Mount Elphinstone for harvest next year.
logging
A view of the proposed cutblocks on Mount Elphinstone in the 2020-24 BCTS Operating Plan. The blue sections are proposed for 2021, the orange for 2022 and pink for 2023.

Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors want BC Timber Sales (BCTS) to do more to protect groundwater and prevent stormwater runoff as the agency introduces new cutblocks on Mount Elphinstone for harvest next year.

Directors reviewed the BCTS operating plan for 2020 to 2024 at an April 9 planning and community development committee meeting.

The plan proposes five new cutblocks comprising 117 hectares in 2021. Two cutblocks would be on Mount Elphinstone and three in Rainy River. Three additional cutblocks have been proposed for Mount Elphinstone in 2022 and another in 2023. In total, 17 of the 79 cutblocks in the plan are new.  

Directors approved responses to the plans at the April 9 committee meeting as part of a communication protocol between BCTS and the SCRD.

They have asked that before any cutblocks on Mount Elphinstone are harvested, BCTS review how the cutting would impact groundwater resources, and that the experts who do the reviewing be selected by “local government water service providers.”

The SCRD also invited the Ministry of Forestry (FLNRORD), BCTS and other forest licensees on Mount Elphinstone “to collaborate in the development of a watershed governance model” with the aim of protecting groundwater drinking supplies and to improve stormwater management.

While the SCRD has passed a number of resolutions over the past two decades objecting to logging that puts drinking water at risk, the focus has primarily been on surface water. But the need for groundwater protection is more acute, as the SCRD tries to diversify its water sources.

The April 9 staff report describes the slopes of Mount Elphinstone as “recharge zones” for multiple community groundwater sources,” but those zones have little protection. The Forest and Range Protection Act (FRPA), which requires logging companies on provincial land to include mitigation measures to protect community watersheds, doesn’t apply to groundwater, according to the report.  

Also addressed in the SCRD’s response is another, more damaging kind of surface water – stormwater.

The SCRD has been struggling with how to deal with intense flooding events after rainstorms. The report highlighted a February washout of Lower Road in Roberts Creek, which forced evacuations and a state of emergency for three weeks. It said “the community and several experts” suggested logging of District Lot 1312 “contributed to this situation.”

The operating plan response points out that the SCRD is seeking to complete a stormwater management plan for Mount Elphinstone with FLNORD and the Ministry of Transportation, paid for by the province.

“We keep being told that the province is earning big revenues from logging, but if they are also then turning around and having to pay a lot of money to fix Lower Road because it washed out, it seems to me you’re not netting a whole lot of money and the province needs to be taking a serious look at that,” said Elphinstone director Donna McMahon, during discussion, adding that property owners are left without legal recourse if dealing with flooding caused by logging.

The SCRD has also asked that BCTS work with them to mitigate impacts to the Suncoaster Trail, which could be affected by cutblocks on Mount Elphinstone as well as a cutblock north of Secret Cove in Halfmoon Bay.

Left out of the operating plan, however, is the highly contested District Lot 1313 or Reed Road Forest, and no blocks have been included in the proposed expansion areas of the Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park contained in the Roberts Creek Official Community Plan.

An operating plan introductory letter from BCTS states they are “organizing an enhanced public engagement process” for the Reed Road cutblock, describing it as a “multi-step process, which we would like your group to participate in.” 

McMahon noted the board hasn’t met with BCTS since directors were elected, and there was no definition for “enhanced public engagement.”

The report also indicated that up until recently, BCTS operating plans put proposed cutblocks in the fifth year of its operational timeline “to provide an early and meaningful opportunity for feedback,” but since 2019 “the majority of newly proposed cutblocks are proposed for harvest before the fifth year.”

Both McMahon and Sechelt director Darnelda Siegers suggested they approach BCTS to revisit the communication protocol.

COVID-19 has forced several cancellations of advisory planning commissions that would normally have commented on the operating plans before the April 24 deadline.

Elphinstone Logging Focus also provided a number of suggested responses, which directors are expected to discuss at an April 23 board meeting.

The shíshálh Nation and Skwxwú7mesh Nation will also be consulted.