The Snaw-naw-as First Nation plans to use the money it expects to receive from logging a nearby lot of Crown land to provide much-needed infrastructure for the band's small 200-acre reserve in Nanoose Bay.Band administrator Brent Edwards said the Snaw-naw-as expect to raise as much as $750,000 from the logging of Douglas fir and cedar logs on the 64 hectares of Crown land known as District Lot 33.

The Snaw-naw-as are in the final stages of acquiring rights to cut about a quarter of the best timber (approximately 15,000 cubic metres) in the lot, but environmental concerns around the plan and the conclusion from the province's Forest Practices Board last week that these concerns are valid have upset some band members.

As part of its stewardship strategy to protect B.C.'s rapidly disappearing coastal Douglas fir ecosystems, the province identified 1,600 hectares of prime Crown-owned forest as candidates for protection as part of ongoing efforts to protect about 20% of the province's CDF systems.

The board claims the province didn't abide by its commitment to defer issuing new forest tenures until its new stewardship strategy is in place, but Forest Minister Pat Bell said a professional biologist has assessed the property and concluded it doesn't fit the criteria to be protected.

"Our right to log that land will be a one-time, non-renewable forest licence that will be given to us in conjunction with our ongoing treaty process," Edwards said.

"We're only a small band sitting on just 200 acres of property so we have to utilize every avenue we can to raise money for projects on our land. We have about 50 kids under the age of seven on the reserve and we want to have the ability to provide a future for them."

Edwards said the province offered them a choice of logging in three areas of Crown land in Nanoose and the Snaw-naw-as picked DL33 based on the high value of the timber there.

"We're only getting one shot at this so we need to get the most value out of it we can. It should be said that 15,000 cubic metres of wood is not that much and we will have to follow all rules the government has in place for logging operations."

Edwards said the logging project is just one aspect of the band's long-term goal of diversifying its economy, with the harvesting of clams, prawns and other fisheries in Nanoose Bay playing a big part.

"The wealth of this province was founded on forestry and this is the first time we've had the opportunity to get a piece of that," he said.

Bell said while he has ordered his ministry to review the FPB's documents on DL33, he doesn't anticipate including it as part of the goal to protect the 20% of the CDF ecosystems.

"The issue here is a difference of opinion between the professional biologist we have and the biologist hired by the FPB, but we've concluded it's not prime land," he said.