In May of 2024, Spray Lake Sawmills (now West Fraser Cochrane) received a $16,800 fine for a Forests Act contravention.

Public records for the incident provided only the following information on the fine: “s.100(1)(a) of the Timber Management Regulation. Not operating in accordance with the approved annual operating plan”.

To get further information, we had to resort to a Freedom of Information Request, and this is what we found. 

The fine was levied for three separate instances of forestry operations causing sediment to enter watercourses at Burnt Timber Creek, which is in the northern part of the Ghost Public Land Use Zone. These incidents occurred in 2022.

All the watercourses in this area are Critical Habitat for bull trout, Alberta’s imperilled provincial fish, which is listed as Threatened under the Species at Risk Act and as At Risk by the Government of Alberta.  

Three watercourse crossings were found to have “no erosion control measures on the road surface,” resulting in sediment and water running into watercourses. In one case, the potential for sediment release was noted and relayed to the company in May. Come June, water was observed “running down the road unimpeded into failed geotextile hole on crossing surface.” The company attempted repairs by “stuffing the hole with woody debris” (Figure 2, below). Unsurprisingly, this did not address this issue. There was “continuing sediment entry into watercourse” observed in July.  

Sediment entering watercourses is a primary cause of habitat degradation for imperilled trout species and has long been recognized as such in recovery and planning documents.

Native trout species are highly vulnerable to increased sediment levels, which significantly impact the ability of trout to successfully feed, grow, and reproduce. It is vital that we stop these sediment releases if we are to recover these species. 

These types of issues with forestry crossings are common (see, for example, at Silvester Creek and at locations described in the Appendix of Mayhood & Killeen, 2024). In many cases, there is no action taken. The good news is that in this case, the issues were identified, and the company was fined.

However, the minuscule fine amounts are far too low to have any meaningful impact ($5,600 per crossing in this case; West-Fraser had $1.437 billion in sales in their most recent quarterly report in fall 2024). Beyond which, of course, is the fact that damage has already been done in many instances — and the fine is insufficient to the required reparation work on the land and in the affected watercourse(s).

Moreover, the lack of information that is made public in cases such as these is a serious problem. The facts of investigations such as these should be made public by the department of Forestry and Parks once they are completed.

Instead, we must pay to access this information via Freedom of Information Requests, which create additional delays (and work for government employees), to know what is occurring on our public lands.