BC Timber Sales (BCTS) has several recommendations to mull over regarding its Mount Elphinstone logging plans after in-depth discussions by the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD).
At their Feb. 10 planning and development committee meeting, directors passed recommendations asking BCTS to protect watersheds, save old growth trees, ensure connectivity amongst the three Mount Elphinstone provincial parks, remove a cutblock from the current plan that includes a park and requested that BCTS undertake a coastal watershed assessment plan for Wilson Creek.
BCTS invited comments on its 2011 operating plan from the SCRD last December. Directors were thankful for the opportunity and forwarded the proposed plan to various area planning committees, as well as the Natural Resources Advisory Committee and the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA).
Directors received various recommendations from those groups and then incorporated them into their own list of 16 recommendations for BCTS.
"First I'd like to recommend that we thank BCTS for the opportunity to allow us to comment at this level because this is not common. It's not a requirement and it's something they've agreed to do," said Roberts Creek director Donna Shugar.
SCCA executive director Daniel Bouman went over the association's comments at the meeting, highlighting the need for a watershed assessment plan for the Wilson Creek area where logging is proposed.
"In that context of having a relationship with BCTS and having a protocol for discussions and so on and so forth, the item that immediately springs to mind to us is the conditions in the Wilson Creek watershed," he said.
"The Wilson Creek watershed has been extensively over-harvested in the past to the extent that about eight or nine years ago the Ministry of Forests basically stopped licensees from proposing new harvesting in the Wilson Creek watershed because the level of hydrological disturbance was higher than was acceptable. This would be an excellent item to raise with them because the condition of the watershed is extensively disturbed.
"One way is to ask them to undertake a coastal watershed assessment process so we can see what needs to be done and how long we have to wait for hydrological recovery."
Directors agreed to include that recommendation. Another recommendation that was added to the package was to take out cutblock G042C16Y from BCTS plans.
"That is the cutblock that is in the middle of a park, Mount Elphinstone Park, that was created as a park through the protection of a rare mushroom. This park was already there when the plan was created and the community's been asking for that to be taken off the plan for many, many years," added Shugar.
Other recommendations included: the statement that the SCRD is against logging of old growth trees on Mount Elphinstone; that BCTS engage in a conversation with the SCRD about old growth values in the area; that BCTS consider requesting contractors to use selective logging and canopy retention logging practices when logging takes place; that there be a substantial no-harvest buffer zone set up around the protected areas of Mount Elphinstone; that there be protection of water quantity and quality within the proposed logging area; that there is protection of the Coastal tailed frog conservation areas; and that BCTS be requested to come to a meeting to discuss the operating plan for Mount Elphinstone.
All the recommendations will now go to BCTS to be considered by the timber sales manager during his determination of the proposed logging plans.
