Forest Management Certification Assessment Report for - Rainforest ...

Riparian Assessment Units in the operating areas of the licence. Thus, with this table, Tembechas met the requirement of the first part of the Pre-condition to provide a summary of the ECAstatus of its watersheds with active logging operations.In addition to the ECA tables and completed hydrological assessments for many of thewatersheds, Tembec also developed a specific “Mountain Pine Beetle Management Strategy forwatersheds with Hydrological Concerns” as part of the Mountain Pine Beetle Operational Plandescribed in Precondition 02/06 below and has made commitments to follow this strategy,consistent with its SFMP.The ECA summary table indicates that 12 watersheds (out of the 44) exceed the 25% ECAthreshold established in Indicator 6.5.8. In 6 of these watersheds, Tembec has had ahydrological assessment completed by a qualified professional and told the team that it isfollowing the recommendations of that assessment report. Thus, although the ECAs exceedthe 25% threshold, Tembec is meeting Indicator 6.5.8 by following the recommendations of ahydrological assessment. One watershed is too small to require an assessment. Tembec madea commitment to continue to follow these recommendations in any new blocks logged in thesewatersheds in response to the mountain pine beetle.There are 5 watersheds - the Yahk River (in Gilnockie RAU), Hawkins Face and Yahk Face(in Little Moyie RAU), Hodge (in Matthew RAU) and Carroll (in Russell RAU) where theECA exceeds 25%, and where hydrological assessments had not been completed at the time ofthis report. Tembec is actively conducing Peak Flow Sensitivity analyses for some of theseareas at present. Tembec made a commitment to the team that they will not undertake anynew harvesting operations beyond the operations already underway or approved in existingcutting permits in the latter 4 of these watersheds until a hydrological assessment is completed.In the Yahk River, there are special circumstances related to some blocks approved in a forestdevelopment plan, but not currently approved in a cutting permit. However, Tembec told theteam that the ECA calculation for the Yahk River unit is current to 2006 and includes all areasplanned for harvest under the approved forest development plan. Thus, operations in newcutting permit areas will be part of the approved forest development plan areas and will notincrease the ECA beyond the currently calculated 25.3%. Thus the team does not considerthese as “new areas” in the sense that they have already been accounted for.The team concluded that the management strategies outlined in the SFMP and Mountain PineBeetle operational plan, and the commitment to either following the recommendations ofhydrological assessments, or not to undertake new harvest in any watersheds without anassessment, in all the watersheds that exceed 25%, meets the second requirement of the Preconditionto identify the measures to be taken in any watersheds that exceed, or that are plannedto exceed, 25% ECATherefore, the team concluded that Tembec has met the requirements of this Pre-condition. Theteam did not verify any information in the field and accepts Tembec’s commitment toundertake hydrological assessments prior to commencing operations in any new (not currentlyapproved areas) within the watersheds that exceed the 25% threshold as required by theIndicator. The completion of the hydrological assessments should be verified in the nextPage 75 of 89