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Regulations - Forest Practices Code of BC Act

OPERATIONAL AND SITE PLANNING REGULATION

Part 2 - ADMINISTRATION

B.C. Reg. 107/98 Deposited April 2, 1998
O.C. 0426/98 effective June 15, 1998 (Consolidated to December 12, 2003)

 

PART 2 - ADMINISTRATION

 

Criteria for giving effect to operational plans

1.1 Before an operational plan or amendment is given effect, the district manager must be satisfied that, in addition to meeting the requirements referred to in section 40 of the Act, the plan or amendment will adequately manage and conserve the forest resources of the area to which it applies.

Repealed

2. Repealed [B.C. Reg. 201/2002]

 

Effective term and period of forest development plans [Repealed]

 

Notice of extension of a forest development plan [Repealed]

 

Best information available

5. Subject to any requirement to use known information, a person required to prepare an operational plan or site plan must, when preparing the plan, use the most comprehensive and accurate information available to the person.

 

Site-specific variation within plans

6. A person required to prepare an operational plan or site plan must, when preparing the plan, provide detail for site-specific areas within the area under the plan if characteristics of that area result in

(a) different operations being proposed,

(b) similar operations being subject to different constraints, or

(c) different operations being subject to different constraints.

 

District manager may require referral of operational plans

7. (1) By notice in writing, the district manager may require a person that submits for approval an operational plan or amendment to refer the proposed plan or amendment for the period required in the notice to

(a) the resource agencies specified in the notice by the district manager,

(b) any government agency that is identified in the notice by the district manager, and

(c) any person that may be materially affected by the proposed operational plan or amendment, and that is specified in the notice by the district manager.

(2) A person that receives a notice under subsection (1) must

(a) comply with the requirements of the notice,

(b) review all written comments received during the referral period, and

(c) make any revisions to the proposed plan or amendment that the person considers appropriate.

(3) A person that receives a notice under subsection (1) must submit to the district manager with the proposed plan or amendment

(a) a copy of each written comment received under subsection (2) in respect of the proposed plan or amendment, and

(b) a summary of all revisions made to the proposed plan or amendment under subsection (2).

(4) If an operational plan is referred to a resource agency, the agency may request that the person who received the notice under subsection (1) send one or more of the assessments that are related to the operational plan to the resource agency within a reasonable time required in the notice, and the person must comply with the request.

(5) The person required to make an operational plan available under subsection (1) (b) or (c) must make the assessments that are related to the plan, other than an archaeological impact assessment, available for review at their place of business nearest to the area under the plan, or at another location specified by the district manager.

 

Minor amendments to operational plans

7.1 For the purposes of section 42.1 (1) (b) of the Act, a proposed amendment to an operational plan meets the prescribed requirements if the proposed amendment will not increase the adverse impact on forest resources and is limited to one or more of the following:

NEW(a) deletions of previously approved cutblocks or roads, provided that the implementation of the amendment will not deleteriously impact forest health on the area;

(b) changes, as a result of a traverse that was more accurate than the traverse that was previously carried out on an area, in

(i) the location of a cutblock or road, or

(ii) the area of a cutblock after harvesting in the cutblock has been completed;

(c) changes in the year or season of harvest or road building, provided that the timing is not critical to the management of non-timber forest resources;

(d) changes in proposed roads, including temporary roads, provided that the changes maintain the general pattern and intent of proposed road development access;

(e) amendments required under section 30 (4) of the Timber Harvesting and Silviculture Practices Regulation;

(f) increases in the size of a cutblock provided that

(i) the amount of the increase does not exceed

(A) 1 ha or 25%, whichever is greater, if the cutblock is less than 20 ha, or

(B) 10 ha or 25%, whichever is less, if the cutblock is at least 20 ha,

(ii) the cutblock size remains consistent with section 11, and

(iii) none of the area being added to the cutblock as a result of the proposed amendment will result in harvesting within

(A) a riparian management zone of a stream that has a classification of S1, S2, S3 or S4,

(B) a known forest ecosystem network,

(C) a wildlife tree patch,

(D) a known old growth management area, or

(E) a known ungulate winter range;

(g) changes in the silvicultural system from a clearcut system to a partial cut system;

(h) changes to harvesting systems from ground to aerial or cable.

(i) to (l) Repealed. [B.C. Reg. 292/2003, effective August 5, 2003]NEW

 

District manager actions if amendments wrongly made

7.2 (1) The district manager may take the action specified in this section, if

(a) the holder of a forest development plan or silviculture prescription has made an amendment to the plan or prescription under section 42.1 (1) of the Act without the approval of the district manager, and

(b) the district manager considers that the determination by the holder that the amendment met the requirements of that section was wrongly made.

(2) The district manager, in a written notice to the holder who made the amendment referred to in subsection (1), may order the holder to suspend any operations on the area that are subject to the amendment to the extent that the operations are materially affected by the amendment.

(3) An order under subsection (2) remains in effect until the earlier of

(a) the approval of the amendment under section 41 of the Act, and

(b) the district manager rescinding the order.

(4) An amendment made under section 42.1 of the Act that is subject to an order under subsection (2) is without effect.

 

Circumstances where minor amendments may not be made without approval

7.3 A holder of a forest development plan or silviculture prescription may not make an amendment to the plan or prescription under section 42.1 (1) of the Act if

(a) the holder has been subject to an order under section 7.2 (2) and the order remains in effect under section 7.2 (3),

(b) for areas under a site plan, the amendment to the forest development plan is with respect to

(i) the requirements of sections 18.1 (2) or 18.2, or

(ii) matters referred to in section 69.1 (4) (c) and (d) of the Act,

(c) for areas under a silviculture prescription, the amendment is with respect to the regeneration date, the free growing assessment period, the stocking requirements or matters referred to in section 70 (4) (d) and (e) of the Act,

NEW(d) the amendment affects the limits for the amount of permanent access structures and soil disturbance permitted under sections 46 and 47 of the Act, unless the amendment is required under section 30 (4) of the Timber Harvesting and Silviculture Practices Regulation, orNEW

(e) the amendment affects the retention of wildlife trees.

 

Amendments to logging plans

NEW7.4 A holder of a logging plan that pertains to an area for which a silviculture prescription or site plan applies is exempt from the requirements of the Act or this regulation to obtain the approval of an amendment to the logging plan.NEW


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