qathet Regional District’s planning committee is recommending the regional board express no objection to a Western Forest Products helicopter logging operation on Powell Lake.
At the May 27 planning committee meeting, directors considered a recommendation to advise the provincial ministry of water, land and resource stewardship that the regional district has no objection to the crown land application for a licence of occupation for the purpose of industrial log handling and storage on the northern arm of the lake.
Electoral Area A director and committee chair Jason Lennox said there was a detailed staff report on the application.
“I’m in support of the recommendation,” said Lennox. “If you read the report, it’s a three-year activity for harvesting into the lake. You will see the different due diligence pieces in there around mitigation measures to the environment; the Powell Region Cabin Owners Association was consulted as well.
“It’s fairly remote, so it is not going to impact a lot of people. It will be pretty exciting.”
The recommendation carried unanimously.
According to the staff report, the applicant is applying for a licence of occupation to support helicopter logging operations. The application proposes 11 helicopter drop zones along the shoreline of the northern arm of Powell Lake to facilitate the transfer of harvested wood to market. The proposed helicopter drop zones and log storage areas were strategically chosen based on their proximity to planned harvesting activities in the area.
The total tenure area is 67.2 hectares. The applicant anticipates operating the sites for two to three years, after which they will be decommissioned and all infrastructure removed. The anticipated annual volume across all sites is 50,000 cubic metres. The application only proposes water-based activities and infrastructure.
No land-based activities or infrastructure are required. New construction includes placement of boom-sticks, stiff-legs and anchors to demarcate drop zones within each tenure area. No infrastructure currently exists in the tenure area.
A report titled Habitat Assessment for Proposed Helicopter Logging Drop Zones in Powell Lake, BC, prepared by Pacificus Biological Services and dated July 25, 2022, concludes that as long as proposed mitigation measures are followed, the operation is unlikely to result in the death of fish or the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat. Proposed mitigation measures include adjusting tenure area boundaries to ensure a minimum depth of 30 metres and a buffer of 100 metres for anadromous streams and spawning habitat.
The applicant confirmed that the tenure area boundaries were adjusted to align with the report’s suggested mitigation measures, the report stated.
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