On Wednesday morning, Tom Johnson, Woodlands Manager with BC Timber Sales told The Undercurrent that BCTS is dropping Bowen Island from the Forest Stewardship Proposal for the Salish Forest Development Unit and cancelling Sunday’s planned open house.
“Current timelines for approval just don’t line up with our strategy, and we have no immediate or mid-term plans to log on Bowen,” says Johnson. “It is important for residents to recognize that this does not exclude the Bowen from the timber supply land base, the Provincial zoning remains in place. We will continue to engage the community on a harvesting strategy.”
On Monday, Johnson gave an interview on CBC Radio where he explained that Bowen has become a more important in terms of its importance to timber supply because of increasing pressure on the forest land base in the Chilliwack Forest District.
“There’s a number of new tenures that are landing in the area including First Nation’s Woodland Licenses and the district has undergone an exercise to try and make the operating areas between all the players more equitable,” said Johnson in the interview. “BCTS had quite a large amount of area, and we’ve given some of that up for other license holders in the district.”
On page ten of the Fraser Timber Supply Area’s “Timber Supply Review Data Package,” dated 2013, Bowen Island is described as a “Complex Operating Area.” The complexity, it explains, leads to demonstrated low level operating performance, but without land use decisions having been made on the area they can assumed to contribute to the timber supply.
In conversation with Johnson on Wednesday, I asked Johnson if the complications are only increasing on Bowen due to an increasing population. He said that at this point in time, most of the province could be classified as a Complex Operating Area.
“The Fraser TSA surrounds the Lower Mainland, the Sunshine Coast TSA surrounds various areas where people live. Bowen has trails, and so does Vedder Mountain, which is also part of the timber supply area. There are First Nations concerns, there are species at risk. Each of these things simply requires buffers or exclusions.”
He also mentioned that under the Forest Act, the chief forester is required to complete a Timber Supply Review for each district at a minimum of every ten years. The most recent review for the Fraser TSA has just been completed, and it included Bowen Island.
