“As of June 2023, and for the first time in almost a decade, the Elphinstone parcel known as District Lot 1313 is NOT slated for logging in BC Timber Sales’ five year operating plan. As I said to the Coast Reporter, this is good news, but we have yet to secure permanent protection for this valuable and biodiverse forest.
Thank you to the determined and persistent volunteers who have been working with the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association and the Elphinstone Community Association on this file. Your efforts have made a critical difference.”
Donna McMahon, SCRD Director
Everything Elphinstone
As shared in an article in The Coast Reporter, “This parcel was part of a watershed reserve established in the 1940’s but was added to the BCTS Timber Supply Area in 2013 without public consultation. The Elphinstone Community Association has been leading efforts for a long term solution ever since, thanks to the persistence and hard work of dedicated volunteers and concerned neighbours.”
An SCRD application to the province for nominal rent tenure over DL 1313 is to be submitted by the end of this year. If successful, this would see the area’s tenure removed from BCTS and transferred to the SCRD.
No other BCTS Elphinstone map area cutblock releases are slated for this year. The earliest planned date for activity in that area is proposed for 2024.
Public input on BCTS’s plan can be provided up to August 25.
(Photo from the Reed Road Forest website.)