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By Ken Matthews, Forestry ManagerForestry & Engineering

Working under the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel Rules

Planning, engineering and logging in Clayoquot Sound are more time consuming and expensive than in other areas of the Coast, primarily as a result of the adoption of the 1995 Scientific Panel recommendations on Forest planning and practices. 

Zolie Schafer and his subcontractors have a complex series of assessments to do to ensure that MaMook Coulson can successfully submit road and cutting permit applications and then implement them in the field. We know that our efforts will be scrutinized and tested not only by the Forest Service but by independent watchdog groups as well.

One of the key recommendations from the Scientific panel was the establishment of watershed unit plans.  Creating these plans took millions of dollars of inventory work and countless hours on the part of a planning team to sort through the data and put the plans together. All the plans are now complete for Clayoquot Sound and we expect they will soon be declared as legal objectives for the area by the government. As such we will be breaking the law if we do not follow them.   This goes well beyond the scope of plans we have to abide by in other areas.

The watershed plans establish reserves to protect a number of values including fish, water, terrain, cultural areas, wildlife, rare plants, scenic areas and other special areas. Areas not in the reserve network can be planned for harvesting.  We are able to work with the reserve area boundaries to a minor degree if we bring in qualified professionals to do field reviews and reports and formally adjust the reserves or bring in new area to replace what we have moved.  It is pretty obvious when looking at the maps that Zolie must spend much more time planning and doing field work to get the best road locations and cut block locations.  With that, the costs of additional road with less timber coming out of areas is high when compared with harvesting in non Clayoquot areas.

Some other key requirements Zolie must plan for and keep track of  are: 

• Requirement for extensive consultation and input from First nations on cultural values and traditional knowledge.
• Maintenance of at least 40 % of the watershed unit in old growth status ( 250 yrs plus)
• Maximum rates of harvest for each watershed set at 1% per year. These can be aggregated into 5 or 10 year periods depending on the size of the watersheds.
• Retention of old growth in harvested areas at a minimum of 15% ranging up to 70 % depending on the attributes of the site.  No point can be more than two tree lengths from another standing tree or retention group of trees or the cut block boundary.