B.C. Timber Sales plans to log in the mountains south and southeast of Clearwater but does not plan to log in the community’s watershed.
That was the main message in emails from planning forester Frank Kohlberger to Isabell Hadford, the municipality’s chief administrative officer.
“The proposed developments are all outside of the community watershed and located such that the drainage runs away from the community watershed,” Kohlberger wrote. “No impacts would be anticipated.”
The forester’s emails were made public during a town council meeting held April 5. They were in reply to questions raised by Hadford after council was asked for comments on B.C. Timber Sales’ plans.
The plans had been presented to council on March 15 but the council members felt there was not enough information in the package to comment.
In his replies to Hadford’s questions Kohlberger noted that a watershed analysis they ran showed that the equivalent clear-cut area (ECA) in the watersheds affected would be in the low- to mid-30s. ECA refers to all open land in the watershed, including residential, agriculture, roads, railways, natural opens and so on. Because the ECA is in the low- to mid-30s, BC Timber Sales will have a professional hydrologist look at it.