Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society (BFWSS) is a Non-Government Organization (NGO) sector member of the Kootenay Boundary Regional District sponsored Kettle River Watershed Advisory Council (KRWAC). BFWSS is urging the Council executive and Regional District Planning Watershed Planner to work toward encouraging Council sector members to report summary facts of their disturbance activities being undertaken in the watershed. If all sector participants are not made aware of the cumulative disturbance impacts in the Kettle River Watershed, then they are not well equipped to make recommendations to protect the watershed.
At a recent meeting of the Council, it was observed that two major forest license sector representatives failed to disclose to the Council their timber harvesting plans for 2024. In one case, nineteen (19) Timber Sales Licenses (TSLs) are scheduled to be auctioned off. The 19 TSLs amount to eighty (80) cut blocks covering more than fourteen hundred (1,492) hectares and a volume of three hundred and eighty-two point five thousand (382.500) cubic meters. These facts only represent one major licensee. There are two others operating in the watershed, along with numerous wood lots and a Community Forest.
With concerns of drought, flood and climate change extremes, the Council needs to consider these significant operational impacts in making recommendations to the Regional District on the ecological health and function of the Kettle River Watershed.