Interfor fined $280,000 for logging in old growth forest in Kootenays

A BC logging company will have to pay $280,000 fine for cutting down old-growth forests in the Kootenays.

According to a Feb. 13 BC Forest Appeals Commission decision, Interfor was originally fined $360,000 for logging the trees in an area adjacent to the Arrow Lakes.

However, Interfor appealed the fine arguing it should pay $40,000 instead.

The decision said Interfor was given permission to log the area subject to a forestry plan that had conditions about logging in an area where old-growth forest existed.

The logging dates back to 2012 and 2013 and took place in the Selkirk Forest.

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While the company had permission to log the area an inspection found it had breached the rules when it came to logging in areas where old-growth forest is present.

It was fined $45,000 for each of the eight areas where it had broken the rules.

The company argued it had followed the provincial government’s rules while logging in the old growth areas.

The lengthy 68-page, 30,000-word appeal, goes into in-depth detail about how the provincial legislation should be interpreted.

The two sides argued over how the term “modified” should be defined, as well as other wording in the legislation.

“Interfor says ‘modified’ must be interpreted in the surrounding context… (it) argues that the Province could have required other language in the forest Stewardship Plan before approving it if the Province wanted an express limit on incursions,” the decision read.

Interfor claimed it followed the rules and had done nothing wrong.

However, the Forrest Appeal Commission disagreed.

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“We find Interfor did not act in a manner consistent with the limitations on how and why Old Growth Management Areas harvesting could occur,” the decision reads. “The Panel finds that the planning and harvesting of Old Growth Management Areas for all eight of the impugned cutblocks went beyond what we consider to be modifications to the boundaries between non-Old Growth Management Areas lands and the Old Growth Management Areas.”

The Forest Appeal Commission was also critical of paperwork the company said it no longer had, pointed out it offered no “satisfactory explanation” as to why this documentation wasn’t available, while other paperwork from the same time period was.

“We find that Interfor knew or ought to have known to preserve any documents which may have existed,” the decision read.

While Interfor wanted the penalty dropped to $5,000 per infraction, the Forest Appeal Commission settled on $35,000.

The company will now have to pay $280,000.