Purpose and introduction

The purpose of the five-year silviculture plan is to clearly identify the timing and location of silviculture activities scheduled for an area over the next five-year period.

District managers must prepare a five-year silviculture plan for areas where the Crown is required to prepare a silviculture prescription (SP), backlog silviculture prescription (backlog SP) or stand management prescription (SMP).

Major licence holders must prepare and obtain district manager approval for a five-year silviculture plan for areas where the holder is required to prepare a silviculture prescription, backlog silviculture prescription or stand management prescription.

Five-year silviculture plans expire one year from the date the plans take effect.

Five-year silviculture plans for the Small Business Forest Enterprise Program are developed for the entire district or timber supply area (TSA). Licence holders should prepare five-year silviculture plans for their respective operating areas or, an administrative area mutually agreed to by the district manager and the licensee.

Preparing a five-year silviculture plan

Requirements

The Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act (the Act) specifies general content requirements for five-year silviculture plans. Each plan is required to include maps and schedules for silvicultural treatments that will be carried out on areas under silviculture prescriptions and stand management prescriptions, plus any matters required by regulation. The plan must also be consistent with any higher-level plans and the forest development plan in place at the time of approval; this should be demonstrated in a statement incorporated in the plan.

The five-year silviculture plan must be signed and sealed by a registered professional forester. If the plan is for the holder of a major licence, it must include the signature of the holder or a person who has authority to sign the plan on behalf of the holder.

The Operational Planning Regulation (the regulation) specifies detailed scope and content requirements for five-year silviculture plans. The treatment schedules must contain silviculture activities that will be undertaken in each of the five years of the plan on areas subject to a silviculture prescription, backlog silviculture prescription or stand management prescription as required under the Act.

The plan must include maps that show the location of the silviculture treatments proposed to be undertaken in the first two years of the plan.

The plan must also contain a schedule of fuel management measures that will be undertaken in each of the first two years of the plan. Fuel management measures are detailed in the Fire Management Guidebook.

General content requirements

The five-year silviculture plan should contain a brief description of the plan area(s) and a reference to any higher-level plan or forest development plan that may be in place. It is important to include the objectives or other values identified in higher-level plans and forest development plans that affect the five-year silviculture plan. For example, the five-year plan could contain a statement that its silviculture and fuel management activities comply with the requirements of the specified higher-level plans. Pertinent objectives stated in other higher-level plans and forest development plans may also be stated in the five-year silviculture plan, to help plan reviewers comment effectively.

If approved silviculture prescriptions or stand management prescriptions are available, it is recommended that they be appended to the plan. If this is not feasible, the public or other resource agencies should be notified of their existence and provided with a place and times where they can be reviewed.

Schedule requirements

The silviculture treatment schedule (see Appendix 1) is best presented as tables that summarize the silvicultural treatments to be carried out in each of the five years for areas under the plan.

The schedules are to contain the following minimum information:

• tenure (licence, cutting permit or block, as applicable)

• year of the planned activity

• type of prescription applicable (backlog SP, SP or SMP)

• whether the prescription is approved or proposed

• location and map reference

• opening obligation or authority number

• treatment activity (see Appendix 2)

• area of treatment and total area of obligation

• description of fuel management to be performed on areas during the first two years of the plan

• signatures and seal of the registered professional forester and the holder, where applicable.

The five-year silviculture plan is not to include scheduled surveys.

Map requirements

The five-year silviculture plan maps must provide an accurate visual representation of those physical features and other resource features that are referred to, or have a significant bearing on, the plan.

The scale and level of detail required on the maps will depend on the complexity of management planned for the area. In most cases, the same scale as in the forest development plan will be appropriate (see the Forest Development Plans Guidebook for more information).

All maps must comply with the Ministry of Forests� Cartographic Standards and Data Standards for Silviculture Planning. Maps may be on paper or mylar. Maps on mylar may be designed for overlay onto other maps of the same scale, to aid the joint review of different operational plans (e.g., development plans).

Wherever possible, the same base maps should be used for development plans and five-year silviculture plans. Additional visual aids, such as satellite imagery or aerial photography, are recommended.

As a minimum, the five-year silviculture plan map is to include the following:

• the licence number, cutting permit and block number for major licensees, and obligation (opening) or authority number for each area

• treatment area and other administrative boundaries that affect the plan (e.g., leases or research plots)

• fire resistant areas applicable to spacing treatments for fuel management purposes (if applicable)

• existing roads and trails; forest road names or signed number series should also be included

• forest cover, including non-productive and non-commercial cover

• proposed road locations, if critical to the success of the plan

• any other features or zones referred to in the higher-level plan, forest development plan or five-year silviculture plan for the area. These might include recreation facilities or features such as caves or hot springs, unstable soils, riparian management areas and reserve zones, range improvements, and water monitoring or research installations

• a legend.

Public notification and referrals

General objective

• To facilitate public involvement in the planning process by ensuring that opportunities for meaningful participation exist at all levels of planning.

Requirement

The Act requires the holders of major licences and the ministry�s district managers to make five-year silviculture plans available for review and comment, in accordance with the regulations. A copy of the plan, if prepared by a major licensee, must be submitted to the district manager at the same time as the public notice is published or at a time mutually agreed to by the district manager and the licensee. Further instructions are in the Public Consultation Guidebook.

The regulation specifies the requirements for public notification, time periods for public review and comment, and inclusion of public review documentation at the time of plan approval. A district manager may not approve or put into effect a five-year silviculture plan that has not met this requirement.

Timing of notifications and referrals

The regulation requires that a notice be published in the Gazette and in an issue of a newspaper; it must provide adequate opportunity for people interested or affected by the plan to review and comment. The review period must extend at least 60 days from the last publication date of the notice. The form of the notice is provided in the Public Consultation Guidebook.

The district manager may extend the review period or may set dates during which the plan is to be advertised, to ensure that specific interested parties have an opportunity for review and comment. For a licensee plan, the district manager is to document the justification for extending the review period and to provide a copy to the affected licensee.

For a licensee plan, the licensee is responsible for referring the plan to the appropriate resource agencies. For further information on the referral process, the licensee should consult the Memorandum of Understanding for Interagency Referrals. The licensee is responsible for consulting with aboriginal peoples where the activities in the plan are to be carried out in areas that affect aboriginal rights (e.g., sustenance, cultural, social and religious activities). It is also the licensee�s responsibility to coordinate the referral and public notification processes with other licensed resource users.

Though not required by legislation, the review process will be more effective if the yearly update of the five-year silviculture plans is presented in conjunction with the forest development plans, for both the major licensees and the Crown. In this way, a more complete representation of proposed forest management activities for a specific area can be presented to the public. It also will be advantageous to make the five-year silviculture plan available to the public annually at the same time of year. This will allow licensees, ministry staff, resource agencies and individuals or interest groups to adequately prepare for the review process.

Response to comments

A person required to advertise a five-year silviculture plan must review all written comments received during the period for public comment that is set out in the notice. That person is to make any revisions to the proposed plan that they consider appropriate to respond to the public comments. Documentation must also be provided by the licensee or by the Crown, when the amended plan is submitted for approval, clearly stating if and why a proposed amendment was or was not required.

The district manager may request, in writing, that the plan be referred directly to specific interested parties, other agencies and licensed users of the area under the plan, based on their history of interest and comments, or on written agreements with the district regarding plan notification.

Submission of plans

When a major licensee makes a five-year silviculture plan available to the public, a copy must also be made available to the Ministry of Forests, unless an alternate time is mutually agreed to by the licensee and the district manager. The regulation requires that certain supporting documentation be submitted concurrently with the final submission of the proposed or amended plan. The required documentation includes:
• copies of the notices that were published

• a copy of each written comment received about the proposed plan or amendment

• a summary of all revisions made to the proposed plan or amendment, or reasons why comments were not addressed.

Amendments

The five-year silviculture plan must be amended where circumstances require modifying or rescheduling the proposed silviculture activities. The plan amendment must be approved by the district manager, or a person authorized by the district manager, prior to carrying out the activity.

The district manager, or someone designated by the district manager, may approve an amendment to a five-year silviculture plan where the amendment has not been made available for public review. This can occur when the district manager determines that the amendment:

• otherwise meets the requirements of the Act and the regulations

• is adequate to manage and conserve the forest resources of the area to which the plan applies

• does not affect the public in a material way.

Extensions to plan term

When the term of the five-year silviculture plan is extended by the district manager, the holder of the plan must publish in an issue of a newspaper a statement, approved by the district manager, specifying:
• the licence agreement, or the Small Business Forest Enterprise Program in the case of the Crown

• the term of the current plan

• the period of extension that was approved.