Strategic Context
The Forest Practices Board provides the British Columbia public with an objective assessment of the state of forest practices
on Crown land. It conducts independent audits of the practices being employed by forest licensees and the appropriateness
of government enforcement of practice regulations. The Board also responds to complaints by members of the public, investigating
the issues raised and reporting back to all concerned. As major forest practice issues arise from audits and complaints, the
Board may conduct special investigations which review them in depth.
Recent investigations have looked at such matters as the implications of salvage harvesting in mountain pine beetle infected
forests, the management of forest fuels, the quality of reforestation taking place in the province, the management of our
expanding inventory of resource roads and public engagement in forest stewardship plans developed under the new Forest and Range Practices Act.
In conducting and reporting on these investigative activities, the Board maintains a watch on strategic issues that provide
the context for forest management in the province. While not all strategic issues lie directly within the mandate of the Board,
they do affect the parties that we audit or investigate and need to be taken into consideration. Following are some of the
large scale issues we believe to be important.
Implications of Changing Climate
Climate change is beginning to affect many aspects of B.C.'s forests. The mountain pine beetle epidemic and the expansion
of many other pests and pathogens of commercial forest species, partly attributable to warmer conditions and changes in the
moisture regime, are challenging both our forest health activity and our approach to reforesting for the future. What species
to plant, and where to plant them, to respond to climate change has become at least as important as getting forest cover rapidly
established on harvested sites.
Changes in the annual pattern of snow and rain, when coupled with long term fuel accumulations, is raising the importance
of fuel and wildfire management, both from the perspective of maintaining forest land values and the safety of forest edge
communities. Water management for forest growth, fisheries, wildlife habitat and community water supplies are all affected
by climate change and are important factors in forest management that require ongoing adaptation of practices examined by
the Board.
Evolution of Forest Practices Regulation
With the introduction of the Forest and Range Practices Act, the province is moving away from prescriptive regulation to "results-based" regulation which places greater reliance on
professionals to devise practices to meet goals and objectives set by government. Stewardship of forest values ranging from
biodiversity to community water supplies is being increasingly delegated to forest licensees. The new regime has many implications
for public involvement, enforcement by government agencies, responsibilities of professionals and audit by the Board. We are
responding to these changes in all aspects of our audits, complaint investigations, special investigations and administrative
appeals. In particular, we are working to establish auditing methods, using criteria and indicators of successful forestry
performance, that are suitable for assessing results on the ground rather than conformity with prescribed practices.
Industrial Tenures
International competition arising from the consumption potential of China, fibre supply proliferation from South America and
Russia, and changes in the softwood lumber agreement with the United States are all affecting the complex of tenure arrangements
in the province. On the one hand, large commodity product producers are consolidating into larger firms to meet the demands
of global competition. On the other, there is growth in the number of smaller tenures being granted as part of the effort
to establish market based pricing of timber through BC Timber Sales.
While the major industries are responding to global market forces, the province is providing for the needs of First Nations
by granting temporary tenures designed to bring aboriginal communities into the industry and to enhance their economic development.
A similar initiative is granting an increasing number of community forests with agreements that allow a focus on a variety
of forest values in addition to timber. These smaller tenures, while comprising a relatively limited proportion of the provincial
harvest, represent a major development in the diversity of operations that will attract the audit and investigation attention
of the Board.
Threatened Species
As the extent of development of the natural landscape of the province increases, there are a corresponding number of issues
arising about the conservation of threatened species. Mountain caribou, spotted owls and marbled murrelets are the subject
of major provincial conservation initiatives. They are high profile examples of species that are affected by forest practices
and regularly appear in public concerns brought to the Board. The short list of species identified in public concerns is rapidly
growing to include everything from frogs to rare plant communities as biodiversity experiences the impact of development.
Forest practices are often material to conservation efforts, but the Board is also aware that the cumulative impacts of all
natural resource activities are beginning to challenge the primary role of forest management.
Implications of climate change, new approaches to forest legislation, evolving tenure arrangements and the accumulating human
footprint on forested land are examples of the increasing complexity of forest management and the contextual challenges facing
the Forest Practices Board in carrying out its statutory functions.