Huu-ah-aht Forestry Limited Partnership is required by the government to invite the public and any stakeholders to review and make comments to the HFN Forest Stewardship Plan 2016-2021 (consolidated to Amendment #4). A comment sheet has been added to the binder for your convenience. You can also comment on the HFN Group of Businesses Website at http://hfndevelopmentlp.org/hfn-forestry-lp
What is a Forest Stewardship Plan (FSP)?
In order to harvest timber on land belonging to the provincial government, known as Crown Land, HFN Forestry as the forest licensee must demonstrate to the government how they will manage the landbase, including other important values like fish habitat, water quality, biodiversity, wildlife, visual impacts, and cultural heritage resources. In this way, the FSP is very similar to a rule book.
For example, one government objective states that HFN Forestry must protect biodiversity at a cutblock level by leaving wildlife trees. So, the FSP details the definition of wildlife tree, where the wildlife trees must be left in the cutblock, and how many wildlife trees (in hectares) must be left for biodiversity.
Another government objective is for conservation, or if necessary, the protection of cultural heritage resources. The FSP states that HFN Forestry must consult with the First Nations regarding their traditional territory.
The FSP is a landscape level plan ie. prepared for a large area that includes over 12,000 hectares. Therefore, it needs to be very general in nature and not specific to a particular cutblock or even a geographic area. For administrative reasons, the FSP has been divided into three Forest Development Units (FDUs). On the map they are shown as FDU 1 (K3N-Community Forest Agreement), FDU 2 (N1A- First Nations Woodland Licence) and FDU 3 (Bamfield Huu-ay-aht Community Forest Licence).
More details are available from the following documents:
Backgrounder on HFN Stewardship Plan 2016-2021
HFN Forest Stewardship Plan 2016-2021
Map of HFN Forest Stewardship Plan
For questions or additional information please contact: Donna Underwood, RPF 250-586-0200 ext 206 or dunderwood@meridianforest.ca.