Sechelt council and then the public had an opportunity to provide input on the Sunshine Coast Community Forest’s (SCCF) latest five-year operating plan, which remains open for public feedback until June 15.
New this year is what SCCF describes as an “ecosystem-based management” approach, which would see its forest tenure managed “through the use of community stewardship value areas, variable retention harvesting, and carbon offset strategy,” according to the plan’s introductory letter.
Warren Hansen, operations manager under contract with Chartwell Consultants following last year’s retirement of Dave Lasser, presented the plan to Sechelt council at a May 12 committee meeting and then again at an open house, held virtually the next evening, with about 40 people in attendance.
“The Community Forest is embarking on a new management approach, and really a paradigm shift from a primarily industrial model of maximizing timber extraction and profits to that of understanding our ecosystems, its living things, including us humans, and our interactions within the environment,” Hansen told Sechelt council.
The Community Forest has been mandated by its board to pursue the approach and expects to implement the model fully within five years.
In the first three years, the Community Forest will conduct a number of inventories including for species at risk, ranges for deer and other ungulates and old growth, and will conduct a watershed analysis among other studies.
SCCF will also “initiate and collaborate with stakeholders, local governments in the plan development,” according to its updated operational guidelines. Wildfire resiliency will also be studied.
In the remaining years, SCCF will establish a carbon offset strategy and seek provincial approval to change management plan goals and annual allowable cut.
As for the areas to be logged outlined in the 2021 draft plan, cutblock HM50 in the Trout Lake Area of Halfmoon Bay, first introduced in an operating plan in 2018, is the only block scheduled for harvest this year.
At 19.8 gross hectares, it’s also the second largest block in the plan, after a 25-hectare cutblock at Burnett Creek slated for 2023.
Of the 18 cutblocks included in the plan, 10 are new, including four with an age class of eight, or trees between 141 and 250 years, the second highest age class in the province’s system. Anything older is classified as old growth, which SCCF has a policy not to harvest.
Cutblocks EW18A and EW18B are located along Wilson Creek south of Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park and are scheduled for harvest in 2024, while EW19 is north of the park and cutting is slated for 2025.
Cutblock AN14, located east of Todd and Sechelt Inlet roads, introduced in 2018 and scheduled for harvest in 2023, has a combination of age classes 4 and 8.
At the May 12 committee meeting, Sechelt Coun. Alton Toth noted the district has “received a lot of emails already about three particular blocks in the Wilson Creek area,” and also that the draft five-year plan is 40,000 cubic metres over the allotted 100,000 so “this is all pre-engineering and pre-community feedback. There is definitely room to look at adjustments in this plan.”
SCCF is mandated by the province to harvest 20,000 cubic metres of wood annually.
SCCF board chair David King also noted the plan “has to be mobile and fluid” because they are waiting for the completion of shíshálh Nation’s Modernized Land Use Plan, “that may affect various methods of our operation and how we cut.”
He also noted the Community Forest is in “continuous dialogue” with shíshálh Nation, which has approved “every block and every cut and every tree, virtually, that is cut in our tenure.”
This plan also comes with a commitment by SCCF “to following a higher level of public/government/First Nations consultation and communication,” according to the April 15 plan introduction letter.
Concern about the Wilson Creek cutblocks near Elphinstone Park was brought to the May 13 virtual open house by members of the public and forest advocates.
Ross Muirhead of Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) asked why the three blocks in the East Wilson Creek area hadn’t been cancelled to facilitate the expansion of Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park – a goal included in the Roberts Creek Official Community Plan (OCP) and pursued by ELF and other advocates.
Hansen noted the province in 2018 ruled “they weren’t interested in further parks,” and said Squamish Nation has verbally said “no more parks.”
Hansen also noted the blocks are at the end of the plan to allow for more community engagement.
King said SCCF is “quite aware of the contentious issues around those areas,” and later added while the Community Forest respects all OCPs in the tenure they work in, the expansion of Elphinstone Provincial Park is outside SCCF’s jurisdiction.
“If the provincial government mandates that they will expand the park then we will be obligated to abide by their decisions, but for now we haven’t been given any mandate to do that, so we respect the existing [park] boundaries,” he said.
As for old growth, Hansen acknowledged in low elevation areas, not much is left, while shíshálh Nation has asked SCCF to consider setting aside age class 8 trees under 600 metres of elevation, “and we’re looking at doing that.”
Work is also underway to align with the province’s Old Growth Strategic Review recommendations, released last year.
King also responded to a question about why more action hadn’t been taken after a series of World Cafés held a in 2018, following a year that saw the SCCF face a court challenge regarding operations, the resignation of its president, vice president and a member of the board.
King said, “We’re going to do a better job moving forward in the future of allowing the community to participate in the walk through the cutblocks in advance” and it would be part of its mandate when asking for cutting permission. “This has been discussed at the board level and it will be happening and you can look forward to it in the future.”
The operation plan is expected to be approved by the end of June.
The draft operating plan and online contact details can be found at sccf.ca/operating-plan. SCCF can be reached by phone at 604-885-7809.
