Follow one cutblock

Most of this project is about patterns across a whole region. This page does the opposite. It follows a single block all the way through, so the abstract question, "can the public see the full record before public forest is cut?", becomes concrete.

The block is SJsj5P8. It is a finalized BC Timber Sales cutblock near the San Juan River, about an hour up the road from Port Renfrew. BC Timber Sales is a government agency, so the seller here is the province itself. See it on the interactive map.

What it is

• A BC Timber Sales block in Forest Operations Map project 1220, "Pacific Maritime."
• Workflow state: finalized. The public comment period ran a short window in spring 2024; the operating window runs 2024 to 2027.
• The seller and decision-maker is BC Timber Sales, Strait of Georgia.

What sits around it

Desktop GIS against official public layers shows the block is close to water, fish, and recreation:

• about 255 m from the San Juan River Recreation Site (nearest block edge to the site point)
• it intersects a mapped stream
• about 35 m from a recorded fish-passage assessment, and about 180 m from a recorded fish-passage barrier on a tributary of the San Juan
• near recorded observations of Coho, Steelhead, Cutthroat, and Rainbow in the area

None of this proves harm or that any rule was broken. It shows the block sits among public values that a complete decision record would have to account for.

The community-forest part

SJsj5P8 also overlaps the Qala:yit Community Forest, a partnership the province has described as involving Pacheedaht First Nation, the Cowichan Lake Community Forest Co-operative, BC Timber Sales, and the Province, with revenue shared with the Qala:yit partners. That matters, and it cuts the right way: a full-cost ledger for this block should count the community benefit, not just the environmental cost. The decision about cultural and community value belongs to those communities, not to outside commenters. The public's ask is narrower: that BC Timber Sales show the full record behind a public-timber sale.

What the public cannot see

For a finalized public-timber sale beside a recreation site and fish-bearing water, these records are not public:

• the site plan, cutting permit, and road permits
• the stream classification and the riparian (streamside) prescriptions
• the fish-passage and road-crossing records, and the barrier's status
• the sediment-control, drainage, and road-maintenance prescriptions
• the fuel-hazard assessment and slash-treatment records
• the sale appraisal, upset price, and winning bid, and the expected public revenue
• any full-cost or public-value analysis weighed before the sale

What you can do

The comment window for this block has closed, so the lever now is the records. The records-request guide has a ready email to BC Timber Sales asking where these records are held. Filing it, and publishing the answer or the silence, is how the gap gets closed one block at a time.

For blocks where the comment period is still open, the comment assistant has a ready-to-send comment for each.

Caveats

This is desktop analysis from public spatial data, not a field survey or a legal review. Distances are from projected geometry. The official stream class, fish-bearing status, and prescriptions can only come from BC Timber Sales records or field work. The point is not that this block is unlawful or harmful. It is that the public is asked to accept a decision it cannot fully check.