C̕awak ʔqin Forestry questioned for fires

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A First Nations joint-venture forestry company is under fire for its burning practices.

C̕awak ʔqin Forestry recently lit up a series of burn piles only a few metres from where a local company turns post harvest wood waste into much needed hogfuel for the Catalyst paper mill.

Under provincial guidelines, forest harvesters are supposed to look for grinding or chipping opportunities ahead of burning.

Keith Wyton from the local air quality council says local governments should push foresters to not burn.

“That would be a really good step for local government to take,” he said. “I think both the regional district and the city should petition the province to make grinding mandatory in our high sensitivity zone, which is basically most of the urban areas in the regional district are in high sensitivity zone. The level of scrutiny and enforcement required to do it safely, all those challenges for local governments would go away if they just required grinding in those areas.”

The fires were only a few kilometres away from Port Alberni near a place off Franklin River Road called Bowerman’s Pit, and smoke was reported in South Port.

Forest companies are allowed to pile and burn slash at this time of year, but Wyton says just because they can, doesn’t mean they should, and he wants the BC Government to step in.

“So what we’d like to see is the province coming to the table and being as concerned about our local air quality as our local governments have been, starting with education, get the information out there make it easy for people to comply and just increase the level of awareness of how important clean air is to our health,” he said.

In an e-mailed response to our questions, C̕awak ʔqin General Manager Geoff Payne said they were operating within provincial guidelines and were permitted to burn.