Want to voice your support for the economic opportunities coming up through BC Timber Sales (BCTS) auctions? Have questions or concerns about forest harvesting plans for local BCTS cutblocks? The annual opportunity for commenting on areas proposed for its sale of harvesting rights (to March 31 of next year) is open.
BCTS operating plans show locations of proposed cutblocks and associated roads over a five-year period and details on which year the service plans to auction each area.
Comments can be submitted up to May 16 through the BCTS web portal, via email to [email protected] or by mail to 7077 Duncan Street, Powell River, B.C. V8W 1W1.
The Chinook Region sales schedule, dated April 17, lists more than 620 acres under consideration for auction on the upper and lower Sunshine Coast over the next 11 months. Those include two local sites on the list for sale before the end of June: 53.4 hectares at Haslam Lake (TA0043) and Elphinstone Highland’s 35-hectare plot TA0519.
Concerns for upper Elphinstone
Sunshine Coast Streamkeepers spokesperson Shirley Samples told Coast Reporter about that group’s concerns for wild salmon in xwesam/stelk'aya (Roberts Creek) areas due to the risks they face by BCTS proposed logging in the Elphinstone Highland area.
In addition, “BCTS have proposed three cut blocks in our xwesam/stelk'aya watershed going to auction in 2026. We are extremely concerned that removing 35.8 hectares of trees in the vicinity of the creek will adversely affect the healthy ecosystem that is providing life to many wonderful animals, plants, and invertebrates,” she stated in an April 25 email.
During last weekend’s 2025 Roberts Creek Earth Day events, Streemkeepers launched its Protect xwesam (Roberts Creek) wild salmon postcard project, where it provided cards for individuals to send to authorities to request improved environmental protections. “We were able to sell 74 packages of eight postcards each. That is a total of 592 postcards! We included an Address Card with 9 addresses of government officials and agencies for people to send a card (including BCTS).”
People can email [email protected] for details on how to participate in that campaign.
A biodiversity protection call
By the end of September, a 41.3-hectare site at Homesite Creek (TA0545) is listed as proposed for sale by BCTS.
In an April 27 press release, local forest protection organization Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) called that cutblock “a biodiversity hotspot” based on information on the vegetation on the block provided by Applied Conservation GIS. According to that organization, the block contains 72 per cent red-listed (threatened by forest or range management practices on Crown land) Hemlock and Douglas-fir communities. Also identified was an associated rare moss called Kindbergia.
“The other 28 per cent is a blue-listed community of Fir and Hemlock, Salal along with a rare plant called Foamflower, (Tiarella cordifolia),” the release noted. (Blue-listed species are considered to be vulnerable in their locale.)
Considering those results, ELF asserts BCTS has a “professional obligation” to set TA0545 aside “as an Old Growth Management Area” or to allocate the site to “become part of a newly formed network for this Sechelt Landscape Unit that the shíshálh Modern Land Use Plan could then manage.”
Local government comment pending
As for a local government response to BCTS’s call for comment, Sunshine Coast Regional District communications indicated “staff will review and provide a report to a public meeting, guided by a communication protocol with BCTS."
The date of the meeting at which this will occur was not provided. The regional district currently has public meetings slated for May 8 and 15.
Coast Reporter reached out to BCTS to ask if it planned to have its staff available on the lower Sunshine Coast in person or virtually to hear input during the comment period. A response was not received by deadline due scheduled time away from work for communications personnel.
A kiln for the lower Sunshine Coast?
BCTS’s website states it “is committed to sustainable forest management that includes an innovative, and competitive forest industry where businesses work together for mutual success and support a strong and diversified value-added forest manufacturing sector."
Coast Reporter spoke with Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) representatives about the importance of creating value-added forestry operations, such as a kiln for drying product, in our area.
“We started talking to local entrepreneurs to better understand the barriers to adding value to logs on the Sunshine Coast, and kilning capacity was something that emerged as a clear need,” executive director Sara Zieleman stated.
“A kiln operation on the Coast would make it possible for a wider range of timber products to be produced locally, and opens the door to further processing… We have talked about creating a transparent and competitive process, which could help identify other value-added opportunities as well. Our board and advisory panel will be considering if and how we can help make this happen during our upcoming joint strategic planning. That's really needed first to define what funding we can allocate to value-added initiatives, and what the parameters will be.”
SCCF is to have its annual general meeting (open to the public) at 6:30 p.m. on May 5 in the District of Sechelt office first floor Community Meeting Room. The event will be live-streamed on the district’s YouTube channel and to participate via Zoom, browse to sccf.ca/events to register to receive the meeting link.
