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A Forest Practices Board report into a B.C. Timber Sales operation on the Sunshine Coast has revealed that rare plant communities are not receiving adequate protection from logging in B.C.

The report, based on a complaint by environmental group Elphinstone Logging Focus, found that two cutblocks totalling 18.3 hectares of mature timber on the southwest slope of Mount Elphinstone contained plant communities considered at risk by B.C.’s Conservation Data Centre — red-listed (meaning threatened or endangered) western red cedar/sword fern, and blue-listed (of special concern) western hemlock/flat moss.

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Despite those conservation concerns, B.C. Timber Sales had no legal obligation to protect the two ecosystems because neither of the two plant communities had been designated as a species-at-risk or regionally important wildlife under the Forest and Range Practices Act, the report found.