NDP Leader Adrian Dix

A provincial NDP government would kill Pacific Carbon Trust

/in /by

The Pacific Carbon Trust would be scrapped if the NDP forms B.C.’s next government, leader Adrian Dix said Monday as he unveiled the party’s environmental platform.

The Climate Action Secretariat would take over from the trust, with carbon-tax revenues used to fund transit and other green projects, he said. Levies paid by hospitals, Crown corporations and post-secondary schools would fund energy-efficiency upgrades for those institutions.

“Since 2008, our public institutions have been paying tens of millions of dollars in levies to the Pacific Carbon Trust,” Dix said. “Instead of using those funds to invest in energy-efficiency initiatives in schools and hospitals, the bulk of the money has been gifted to profitable corporations.”

Read more election coverage HERE

The Pacific Carbon Trust was formed in 2008 to help reduce carbon emissions. Businesses and institutions pay $25 a tonne to the trust for emissions and the trust then buys carbon offsets. However, that meant cash-strapped schools and hospitals had to come up with funds that often then went to for-profit companies offering offsets. Auditor general John Doyle recently found the trust was investing in projects that would have gone ahead anyway.

Environment critic Rob Fleming, who is seeking re-election in Victoria-Swan Lake, said the aim is to make the fund work better.

“It will enable us to expand transit service. Literally more buses on the road. The big flaw is that since 2008, the Liberals haven’t invested a dime into public-transit service.”

But Environment Minister Terry Lake said Dix apparently doesn’t understand the concept of carbon neutrality.

“Turning it over to the Climate Action Secretariat doesn’t change anything and we’ve made some really good improvements, so I’m not sure how he intends to maintain carbon neutrality in the public sector, or maybe he doesn’t think that’s important,” he said.

The Liberals invested $75 million in making public buildings more energy efficient, saving institutions millions of dollars in energy costs, and another $5 million has gone into the carbon-neutral capital program for school districts for energy-efficiency projects that lower their carbon emissions, Lake said.

The NDP also pledged to ban cosmetic pesticides as part of its environmental platform. But a sparse announcement that the NDP will protect endangered species and habitats and reinvest in B.C.'s parks system, with few specifics, drew criticism from Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The NDP’s environment platform is like a blurry moving sasquatch video in regards to potential old-growth forest protections and park creations,” he said. “You can’t discern if it’s real and significant or if it’s just Dix in a fake gorilla costume.”

The cost of the NDP’s environmental commitments is estimated at $36 million in 2013-14, $47 million in 2014-15 and $60 million in 2015-16.

The NDP also announced its agriculture platform, including a program to promote local food in hospitals and resurrection of a cancelled food-marketing program called Buy B.C.

Link to Times Colonist online article: www.timescolonist.com/sports/a-provincial-ndp-government-would-kill-pacific-carbon-trust-1.116909

 

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada
 

EARTH DAY events in VICTORIA and VANCOUVER with the AFA THIS WEEKEND

/in /by

VICTORIA:

Creatively United for the Planet

FRI-SUN APRIL 19-21, 2013
St. Ann’s Academy, 835 Humboldt St., Victoria

A free family event featuring live music, displays, talks, workshops, food, art, dance, and more! Free general admission to festival, see website for schedule and special events tickets. Thanks to the hard work of Victoria photographer and writer Frances Litman!
https://creativelyunitedfortheplanet.com/

SATURDAY April 20, 11:00am-6:30pm and SUNDAY April 21, 12:00-6:00pm: The AFA will be hosting a booth in the Orchard (near the Main Entrance on Humboldt St.). Come visit us to buy AFA posters and cards, and to speak to our friendly staff! FREE!

SATURDAY April 20: See SLIDESHOW presentations by the AFA’s Ken Wu and TJ Watt between 7:00-9:30pm in St. Ann’s Theatre, 835 Humboldt St., Victoria. Part of a larger presentation series. Tickets $20—see www.creativelyunitedfortheplanet.com for details on purchasing.

VANCOUVER:

Earth Day Parade & Celebration

SAT APRIL 20, 2013
11:00am: Parade starting at Commercial and 8th Ave, Vancouver
12:00-3:00pm: Celebration at Grandview Park (Commercial Drive and Charles St., Vancouver)

Free annual festival organized by Youth for Climate Justice Now, featuring a lively costume-filled parade and a celebration with speakers, musicians, displays and fun activities! https://earthdayparade.ca

Join the AFA for the parade (bring forest-themed costumes and placards, and meet at the southwest corner of Commercial and 8th Ave at 11:00am) or come find our table at the celebration at Grandview Park between 12:00 and 3:00pm (AFA cards and posters for sale!).

Mountain Caribou are Canada's largest old-growth dependent animal.

Caribou count may be lowest ever

/in /by

A herd of endangered mountain caribou in Wells Gray may have dropped to its lowest number, but the latest survey data are under wraps according to a scientist who lives near the park.

Trevor Goward said this year’s count — which found only 58 animals from a herd that numbered 400 in recent years — was leaked and the figures won’t be publicly released for weeks.

“It is a disaster,” said Goward. “I guess they’re holding off for various reasons,” he speculated. “It wouldn’t look good for the government.”

In response to a request from The Daily News, a spokesman with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations said the March data are under analysis and it would be premature to comment on them.

A lichenologist who studies the tree lichens on which the caribou feed, Goward has been lobbying for a moratorium on low-elevation clearcut logging that borders the park in the upper Clearwater Valley.

Clearcuts drive up populations of ungulates such as deer and moose, along with their predators, wolf and cougar, which in turn prey upon the caribou. Caribou are particularly vulnerable; they typically produce one calf every second year.

“It’s got to be this constant eroding of the population by predators,” Goward said. “It’s obvious something is going on. They’re not evolved for high predation.”

For the past five years, the provincial government has focused on a mountain caribou recovery implementation plan in an attempt to rebuild populations. Despite those efforts, the Wells Gray herd has continued to decline, evidence that the plan has failed, Goward contends.

The underlying issue is vanishing old-growth forest, primary caribou habitat. Neither the NDP nor the Liberals has said they would take additional measures to protect old-growth forest, said Ken Wu, founder of the lobby group Ancient Forest Alliance.

“They’re the largest old-growth dependent species in Canada,” Wu said. “This is a large mammal. It’s really one of the iconic species in B.C.” The southern Interior represents the largest concentration of what remains of the species.

The NDP’s forestry plan does not stress old-growth protection, which represents a broken promise by party leader Adrian Dix, Wu said. When Norm Macdonald, NDP forest critic, was in Kamloops on Monday, he characterized old-growth concerns as primarily an Island issue.

“Old growth forests across the province are in danger, especially in areas of the southern Interior,” Wu said. The governing Liberals don’t have a good track record, he added.

“They maintain that they’re managing old-growth forests, which is simply not the case.”

Terry Lake, Liberal candidate for Kamloops-North Thompson and former environment minister, challenged that assertion.

“We have old-growth management areas throughout the province, so I think we are managing that well,” he said, adding there is always a balance between protecting environment and providing economic opportunity.

He believes Canfor has no immediate plans to log in the area and noted that the Upper Clearwater Valley is protected through a management plan established in the late ’90s.

Without seeing the latest data, Lake would not concede that the Wells Gray herd is in serious decline. That bureaucrats would withhold the data is just conjecture, he added.

“The (caribou) recovery plan is not something where you will see results in a couple of years,” Lake said. “You have to look at a 10- to 20-year horizon, and in some cases they may never come back.”

In the case of Wells Gray, it’s the buffer forests that border the park that need to be protected from further logging, environmentalists say. They are also pushing for sustainable forestry on second-growth stands.

The NDP has lost its bearing on the issue, Wu suggested. That’s why their forest plan has been described as indistinguishable from that of the Liberals.

“They have forgotten the history of what they saw in the War in the Woods in the ’90s. If there were ever a time to be bold and keep their promise, the time to do that is now.”

Yet time appears to be running out for mountain caribou. Goward calls the decline “death by a thousand clearcuts.” He’s started an online petition drive through Change.org to pressure politicians.

“We’re watching the demise of something comparable to the decline of the buffalo on the prairies.”

 

Read More: https://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20130419/KAMLOOPS0101/130419802/-1/kamloops01/caribou-count-may-be-lowest-ever

Mountain Caribou are Canada's largest old-growth dependent animal.

Conservationists Launch Petition for BC’s Endangered Mountain Caribou, Call on BC’s Politicians to Protect Ecologically Vital Forests

/in /by

 

Conservationists have launched an on-line petition calling on BC’s politicians to commit to protecting critical lowland forests that buffer the province’s gravely endangered Mountain Caribou against predators. Clearcuts adjacent to Mountain Caribou habitat support increased moose and deer, and so bolster predator populations that also prey on caribou. See the petition at: www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/help-save-canada-s-mtn-caribou

Mountain Caribou are the world’s most southerly reindeer and Canada’s largest old-growth dependent animal. Resident almost exclusively in British Columbia, their population has declined precipitously in recent decades, from 2500 animals in 1995, to 1900 animals by 2007, to 1500 animals by 2013 (i.e., a 40% decline since the 1990s). Since 2002, they have been formally designated as Threatened in Canada. See: www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/speciesconservation/mc/

The petition comes in response to pending plans by Canfor to undertake major logging in the Clearwater Valley adjacent to the southern boundary of Wells Gray Provincial Park. It calls for an immediate moratorium on logging in the valley through a provincial Land Use Order. It also urges the B.C. government to establish low-elevation “Caribou Matrix Management Zones” throughout the range of the Mountain Caribou. Such management zones are needed adjacent to high-elevation winter habitat, which already receives protection. Link here for maps and further details: www.wellsgrayworldheritage.ca

The petition has the backing of the Ancient Forest Alliance (www.AncientForestAlliance.org), a provincial conservation group working to protect BC’s endangered forests, and is being spearheaded by Trevor Goward, a well-known lichenologist and naturalist who makes his home in the Clearwater Valley.

“Surely it ‘s unthinkable that the BC government would endorse logging plans guaranteed to enhance wolf and cougar populations adjacent to Wells Gray, home of one of the largest remaining mountain caribou herds anywhere,” stated Goward. “Wells Gray’s southern herd has declined by about one-third in the past decade. If we can’t maintain a viable population of Mountain Caribou in a vast wilderness park like Wells Gray, then what hope is there of doing so elsewhere? This makes a mockery of B.C.’s Mountain Caribou Recovery Strategy.”

“BC’s politicians have a moral obligation to save one of BC’s most endangered and iconic large mammals by establishing a moratorium on industrial logging in the Clearwater Valley by Wells Gray Park, and to restrict logging in the lowland matrix habitat across the Mountain Caribou’s range,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “We’ve seen old-growth dependent species decline, including the Spotted Owl, Marbled Murrelet, and now the Mountain Caribou, under successive BC Liberal and NDP governments who’ve lacked the will to do what it takes to halt their slide towards extinction. Now is the time, before the upcoming election, for BC’s politicians to commit to make it right.”

On paper the BC Liberal government’s 2008 Mountain Caribou Plan looks good, promising to rebuild BC’s Mountain Caribou population from 1,700 in 2008 to 2,500 animals by 2027. This will be achieved, it claims, through a three-pronged approach comprising: first, 2.2 million hectares of mostly high-elevation forests set aside as winter habitat; second, intense predator control targeted at wolves and cougars; and third, management of mechanized backcountry winter recreation.

Actually, one government caribou recovery team argued for inclusion of a fourth prong, what they called ‘matrix habitat’: low to mid-elevation forest not necessarily occupied by mountain caribou but capable, when logged, of supporting moose and deer and hence their predators in substantial numbers. “What the recovery team was urging,” notes Goward “was a commitment by government to refrain from creating ever more clearcuts in matrix habitat. Unfortunately, this did not happen. As a consequence, the government’s plan has largely entrusted the Mountain Caribou’s future to a costly regime of predator control: a war on wolves.”

“The very idea that a workable recovery strategy could be founded on a war against predator populations largely of its own creation seems incredible. It is like hoping to raise chickens without building a chicken coop. You can blast away at predators as long as you like, but the problem never disappears. Sooner or later you lose your chickens,” Goward notes.

Wells Gray Provincial Park supports the world’s second largest populations of Mountain Caribou. However, since 2002 the park’s southern herd has declined from 325 animals to only 200 animals a few years ago. By creating more habitat for deer and moose, and hence for predators, the pending logging proposal by Canfor would further stress a herd already in serious decline.

Goward would like to see an extension to the park’s boundaries southward to help make Wells Gray ecologically self-sustaining. This has been done twice in the past: once in the mid- ‘50s, and again in the mid- ‘90s. The habitat needs of Mountain Caribou played a major role in both decisions. Protecting a small area adjacent to the park would be a significant step towards the recovery of the Wells Gray herd.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is running a campaign calling on the province to protect old-growth and endangered forests, to ensure sustainable, value-added forestry jobs, to implement a sustainable rate of cut, and to end the export of raw, unprocessed logs from BC to foreign mills.

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada

NDP Leader Adrian Dix

NDP Forestry Platform Fails Ecologically and Continues the Unsustainable Status Quo of Old-Growth Depletion and Overcutting

/in /by
For Immediate Release
April 15, 2013
NDP Forestry Platform Fails Ecologically and Continues the Unsustainable Status Quo of Old-Growth Depletion and Overcutting
This morning the BC NDP released their forestry platform that fails to bring in any environmental measures and essentially continues the unsustainable status quo of old-growth forest liquidation and overcutting at the expense of ecosystems and communities.
 “This is a disappointing flop of a forestry platform, ecologically-speaking. It continues the unsustainable status quo of resource depletion in this province that is causing the collapse of species, ecosystems, and human communities. Nowhere does it mention the need to protect endangered old-growth forests and to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, the central forestry land-use conflicts.  All it says is to plant more trees. Tree farms do not replicate ancient forests for supporting endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, or wild salmon,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director.
The NDP’s forestry platform  includes such items as investing in more tree-planting, expanding global markets for BC wood products, reducing raw log exports (with no details how besides “work with stakeholders”), creating a jobs commissioner, training more workers, and better inventorying forestry resources. See: www.bcndp.ca/files/BG-BCNDP-130415_-_Forestry.pdf
A legislative proposal released last Thursday for an “Old Growth Protection Act” by the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre (ELC) would incorporate science-based targets and timelines to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests. See:  www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=624 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb09Z0-4rmE
The BC Green Party committed last Friday to the key parts of the Old-Growth Protection Act. See: [Original article no longer available]
The BC Liberals’ have not indicated any change from their unscientific stance that old-growth forests are not endangered, and that they’ve managed them well. They leave a largely anti-environmental legacy of supporting old-growth liquidation across most of the province, large-scale environmental deregulation, grossly unsustainable expanded harvest levels, massive raw log exports, and the loss of over 30,000 forestry jobs while tens of millions of raw logs have been exported.
“The NDP’s forestry platform fundamentally fails forestry-dependent communities, as the main driver in the loss of forestry jobs over the past 20 years is unsustainable resource depletion. Continuing the status quo of high-grading the biggest and best old-growth trees in the lower elevations, and overcutting  in general has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, more expensive to reach, and lower in value. As our second-growth forests mature, we’ve been shipping them off as raw logs to foreign mills,” stated Wu. “We need to protect our endangered old-growth forests, ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and to have clearly defined policies that will end the export of raw, unprocessed logs out of the country. The NDP’s forestry platform does none of that.”
NDP Leader Adrian Dix, during his 2011 campaign to become party leader, promised to: “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans.” (see point #4 in “Ecosystem Management”)  [Original article no longer available]
While several NDP MLA’s have championed protecting specific old-growth forests while in Opposition, which the Ancient Forest Alliance has given kudos for, at this time Dix and the NDP party as a whole have not followed up, developed any specifics, re-mentioned, or even officially adopted Dix’s earlier leadership promise for a province-wide old-growth plan.
On Saturday, comments by the NDP’s Environment Critic Rob Fleming in the Times Colonist suggests the party supports scientific conservation assessments of our old-growth forests as proposed by the “Old-Growth Protection Act”. See: www.timescolonist.com/news/world/ancient-forest-alliance-calls-for-science-based-forest-plan-1.109973  This is a recent step forward. However, the party has not committed yet to the plan’s actual protection scheme that would end old-growth logging in endangered regions –  the crux of the plan.
 “The NDP seem to have a short memory and have forgotten about the ‘War in the Woods’ during their reign in the 1990’s, and we need to push them to remember,” stated Wu.  “We’ll give credit where credit is due, and we want to give the NDP credit. They can still move forward with additional policy commitments before the election, such as a provincial old-growth plan based on science and timelines – if they don’t, then clearly Adrian Dix has broken his promise. That’s no way to head into an election.”
On Vancouver Island, about 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Most productive forests on Vancouver Island and in BC are now second-growth which should be managed sustainably. See:  www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php
See spectacular photos of our old-growth forests at: https://16.52.162.165/photos-media/  (NOTE: Media are free to reprint any photos, credit to “TJ Watt” if possible. Let us know if you need higher res shots too)
See a recent ancient forest campaign video at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YTizBF-jE
Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada
Old-growth redcedar stump in the Klanawa Valley. Vancouver Island

NDP forest plan ‘minor deviation from unsustainable status quo’: critic

/in /by

The New Democratic Party's forestry platform released this morning is a major disappointment, said Ken Wu, the executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance environmental group.

“I'm just looking at this with rage here,” he said in an interview. “This is a minor deviation from the unsustainable status quo.”

This morning NDP leader Adrian Dix released a five point plan for forestry. It included a commitment to skills training for the industry, more emphasis on forest health, improved inventory and building markets for B.C. wood. It also talked about reducing the export of raw logs and re-instating a jobs protection commissioner.

The plan calls for $30 million in added spending on forestry in 2013-2014, building to $100 million five years from now.

“There are some aspects that are progressive, but there's not a lot of detail,” said Wu. Restricting raw log exports is positive, for example, but today's announcement didn't say how the NDP would do that, he said.

During the NDP leadership contest, Dix promised an NDP government would develop “a long-term strategy for old-growth forests,” which Wu made note of at the time.

“He has not kept his promise,” said Wu, adding the NDP could still make that commitment. “They need to do it soon. At this point I'd say the NDP just don't get it on forest conservation. They still have a chance, but this forestry platform is a flop ecologically.”

Wu said individual MLAs such as Scott Fraser in Alberni-Pacific Rim have championed the protection of old growth forests. “We need the entire NDP party to make it part of their platform to protect endangered old growth and ensure sustainable second growth forestry.”

The NDP platform says the party would take five years to double the number of seedlings planted by the government on Crown land to 50 million annually.

In a February interview, NDP forestry critic Norm Macdonald criticized the BC Liberal government for failing to meet an earlier commitment to be planting 50 million seedlings a year by 2012.

Noting at least one million hectares were already known to be not sufficiently restocked, Macdonald said, “Any competent government, and it comes down to competence, any competent government looks after its most valuable asset.”

Link to article on The Tyee website: https://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2013/04/15/ForestStatus/

Photograph by: DARRYL DYCK

NDP’s forestry-policy plank sparks partisan ire, disappoints ecologists

/in /by

PRINCE GEORGE – New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix has released a multimillion dollar election plan that he believes will help grow and improve B.C.'s forest industry, but critics say the proposal makes promises that will be hard to keep.

In Prince George Monday, Dix announced the five-point forestry plan that would see $310 million invested in the industry over five years if his party wins the election in May.

The NDP leader announced his government would invest in skills training, to improve forest health, to expand global markets for B.C. lumber and to cut raw log exports, while it reinstates a jobs protection commissioner.

“Skills training is really the principle focus of our economic plan, to ensure young people have the skills they need for the jobs of the future,'' Dix said.

The B.C. Liberal Party immediately criticized the plan, saying it lacks policy details.

“After months of delay, I think British Columbians were expecting more,'' said Forest Minister Steve Thomson in a news release.

George Hoberg, a forest policy expert at the University of British Columbia, said Dix's promise to reduce raw log exports will be hard to keep.

“Raw logs are always something that politicians talk about, but it's actually very hard to deliver in terms of either policy or real change in the industry,'' Hoberg said.

“Our comparative advantage is in raw resource material or in commodities, not in more labour-intensive value-added production,''
he said.

The NDP's commitment to improve forest health includes an emphasis on increasing the province's research capacity, updating forest inventories and doubling the number of seedlings planted annually.

Hoberg said he is impressed with the plan's focus on forest health.

“The biggest challenge that we face in forestry is renewing the forest that has been disseminated by the mountain pine beetle and the Liberals have not been particularly effective at investing resources on that,'' Hoberg said.

“The one big change that we will likely see, if the NDP is elected, is a greater commitment to government funding of inventory and silviculture,'' he said.

Hoberg was surprised at the lack of discussion of environmental issues in the NDP plan – something he said the Liberal forestry plan also lacks.

Ken Wu at the Ancient Forest Alliance called the plan “a big disappointment ecologically.''

“It essentially continues the unsustainable status quo of old growth liquidation and over cutting which has led to the collapse of ecosystems and communities,'' Wu said.

Dix campaigned for party leadership with a promise to address old growth deforestation, but he now appears to be reneging on his commitment, Wu said.

“We are hoping that the party will move forward with additional policy commitments in the lead up to the election so that Dix fulfills his promise to develop a provincial old growth plan which was his 2011 leadership bid promise,'' Wu said.

Dix said the plan was developed in consultation with forest industry businesses, union leaders and with communities.

Some of the suggestions are in line with a 2011 report created by the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union, which suggests tightening raw log exports and increasing staff levels within the B.C. forest service.

A spokesperson from the Council of Forest Industries, which represents over a dozen forest companies in the province, wasn't available for comment.

Globe and Mail online article: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/ndps-forestry-policy-plank-sparks-partisan-ire-disappoints-ecologists/article11253131/

AFA’s Old-Growth Forestry “Report Card” for the BC Liberals, NDP, Greens, and Conservatives

/in /by

April 15, 2013

Old-Growth Forestry “Report Card” for the BC Liberals, NDP, Greens, and Conservatives

The following is a summary on the positions of BC’s main political parties on old-growth related forest policies and some additional forest policies. The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on BC’s political parties to commit to a science-based “Old-Growth Protection Act” with targets and timelines to end old-growth logging in endangered regions and to ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry instead.

BC LIBERAL PARTY

The BC Liberal Party has a long anti-environmental record in regards to the management of old-growth forests and forestry jobs in most of BC.

The BC Liberal government in general has supported and defended the large scale liquidation of old-growth forests across most of BC, deregulated numerous forestry laws that protected the environment and jobs, facilitated the massive expansion of raw log exports to foreign mills, and oversaw the net demise of over 30,000 BC forestry jobs and the closure of over 70 mills in BC.

Some policies and positions they’ve undertaken:

  • Supported and defended the continued large-scale liquidation of old-growth forests across most of BC.
  • Have repeatedly engaged in PR-spin to make it seem that old-growth forests are not endangered. They have repeatedly included millions of hectares in their PR stats of marginal, low productivity old-growth forests of stunted trees in bogs, on rocky slopes, and at high altitudes generally of non-commercial value, along with the productive old-growth stands (ie. the “ancient forests”) of commercial value, to inflate the statistics of remaining old-growth forests.
  • Deregulated vast areas of forest lands on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast by removing Tree Farm Licences from corporate private forest lands. This resulted in a failure to implement planned Old-Growth Management Areas, Ungulate Winter Ranges, and Wildlife Habitat Areas formerly intended to protect old-growth forests, many of which are now being logged. It also resulted in the removal of prohibitions against real estate development and raw log exports on those lands.
  • Have opened up scenic protections, known as Visual Quality Objectives, in vast regions of the province that protected old-growth and mature forests for the tourism industry.
  • Are proposing to open up Old-Growth Management Areas, Wildlife Habitat Areas, Ungulate Winter Ranges, Recreation Areas, and Visual Quality Objectives in the Central Interior for logging.
  • Vastly increased the Allowable Annual Cut, the total harvest level for BC, to vastly unsustainable rates at almost 80 million cubic metres per year over the past decade.
  • Issued countless log export permits from Crown forest lands, so that today almost 6 million cubic metres of raw logs are being exported to foreign mills. They have ignored their own advisory committee’s advice, the Timber Exports Advisory Committee, to not allow the export of raw logs from northern Vancouver Island but instead to ensure they go to BC sawmills.
  • They weakened forest practices regulations on both Crown and private forest lands.
  • Within BC’s 95 million hectares of land, they did substantially increase old-growth protections in a roughly 8 million hectare portions of the coast. In the Central and North Coast, Haida Gwaii, and Squamish District, they expanded old-growth protections significantly through new Provincial Conservancies, as well as regulatory protections in the Central and North Coast and Haida Gwaii. This was done under First Nations pressure and threat of boycotts by Greenpeace and ForestEthics in international markets.
  • They have created regulatory protections on about 2 million hectares of high elevation mountain caribou habitat, much of which is of low or no commercial value, but also excluded much of the low elevation forests from protection.
  • They’ve continued establishing Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s) through land use planning processes as originally established by the NDP government of the 1990’s. However, they dragged out these processes for over a decade, allowing prime old-growth forests to be logged in the meantime. Much of these Old-Growth Management Areas have been placed within existing parks, in low productivity old-growth forests, and the designation itself in some regions has loopholes that allows for forest destruction to continue within some OGMA’s.

BC NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY (NDP)

The NDP released its forestry platform today which makes no mention of old-growth protection, the environment, or sustainability.  See:  www.bcndp.ca/files/BG-BCNDP-130415_-_Forestry.pdf

NDP Leader Adrian Dix, during his 2011 campaign to become party leader, promised to: “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans.” (see point #4 in “Ecosystem Management”)  [Original article no longer available]

Several individual NDP MLA’s have championed protecting specific old-growth forests while in Opposition, but at this time Dix and the NDP party as a whole have not followed up, developed any specifics, re-mentioned, or even officially adopted Dix’s earlier leadership promise for a province-wide old-growth plan.

On April 13, 2013, comments by the NDP’s Envirornment Critic Rob Fleming in the Times Colonist suggests the party supports scientific conservation assessments of our old-growth forests as proposed by the “Old-Growth Protection Act”. See: www.timescolonist.com/news/world/ancient-forest-alliance-calls-for-science-based-forest-plan-1.109973. This is a step forward.  However, the party has not committed yet to the plan’s actual protection scheme that would end old-growth logging in endangered regions –  the crux of the plan.

On raw log exports, the party has promised to “reduce” raw log exports, but no details have been given beyond “working with stakeholders”.

BC GREEN PARTY

The BC Green Party committed on April 14 to undertake a science-based old-growth plan to protect endangered old-growth forests, to recruit second-growth forests into becoming old-growth, and to increase the export tax on raw logs to support value-added manufacturing in BC. See: www.andrewjweaver.ca/bc_green_party_forestry_action_plan

The party is also calling for a reduction in the overcutting of second-growth forests and phase-out of clearcutting. See:  www.greenparty.bc.ca/forestry

BC CONSERVATIVE PARTY:

The BC Conservatives have no mention in their platform or website about old-growth protection, sustainable forestry, or anything environment-related to forestry, and as such we assume at this time that they support the status quo of large scale old-growth liquidation and raw log exports.

In fact, about the only thing mention of forestry in their platform is a statement that “the BC Liberals have shown little enthusiasm for the development of British Columbia’s abundant natural resources.”

 

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada
Old-growth logging near the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island.

NEW Old-Growth Protection Act! SEND a MESSAGE to the NDP-Government-in-Waiting

/in /by

**Please FORWARD far and wide!**ACTION ALERT! April 14, 2013

Proposed BC “Old-Growth Protection Act”

LETTERS NEEDED NOW to the NDP Government-in-Waiting!

There are only TWO days left until the official 28 day campaign period begins (ie. when the “writ drops”) in the lead-up to the May 14 BC Election.

NOW is the MOST important time for YOU to SPEAK UP for our Ancient Forests and Sustainable Forestry Jobs!

A proposed BC “Old-Growth Protection Act” has just been released by the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria. The science-based plan would incorporate timelines to immediately end or quickly phase-out old-growth logging in endangered regions of BC. See more info on the proposed act at:

CTV News Clip:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb09Z0-4rmE

Media Release:  https://16.52.162.165/old-growth-protection-act-needed-to-preserve-bcs-natural-heritage/

The BC Liberals are in all likelihood going to lose power in May. This is a necessity, given their long, unapologetic, anti-environmental history of large-scale old-growth forest liquidation, massive overcutting, environmental deregulation, and overseeing the demise of tens of thousands of BC forestry jobs while tens of millions of raw logs were exported to foreign mills. It’s important to remember this while at the ballot box on May 14.

Now, with an NDP government in all likelihood about to take power, we are asking that the NDP COMMIT to the key tenets of the proposed Old-Growth Protection Act and to not continue the disastrous, unsustainable status quo in BC’s forests. [SEE “Where Do the Parties Currently Stand” down BELOW]

**** PLEASE take just a couple MINUTES to WRITE a QUICK EMAIL to the NDP! ****

Let BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix (adrian.dix@bcndp.ca), NDP Forestry Critic Norm MacDonald (norm.macdonald.mla@leg.bc.ca), NDP Environment Critic Rob Fleming (rob.fleming@bcndp.ca), and your own NDP Candidate (find at:  https://www.bcndp.ca/team) know that you expect them to:

  1. Commit to the “Old-Growth Protection Act”, or a similar plan, that establishes science-based targets and timelines to quickly end old-growth logging in endangered regions of BC.
  2. Ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry to sustain BC’s forestry jobs, instead of allowing massive raw log exports to foreign mills.
  3. Reduce the unsustainable rate of overcutting in BC’s forests that is causing the collapse of ecosystems and rural communities.

* Be sure to include your full mailing address so they know which riding you live in and that you’re a real person.

* Be sure to let them know if you are a member of the NDP party!!

*** NOTE:  In addition, you can SEND a MESSAGE (but also please write your own email, above, which is most effective) to the BC NDP and also Premier Christy Clark through our website:  www.BCForestMovement.com  (IMPORTANT: If you’ve used this website before, note that it sends a DIFFERENT message now with important changes, and YES, you can and should send this NEW message).

**********************************************

WHERE DO THE PARTIES CURRENTLY STAND on OLD-GROWTH PROTECTION?

The BC Liberals have not changed their unscientific, anti-environmental stance that old-growth forests are not endangered and that they’ve managed them well. They will likely lose power, and deserve to, unless they radically change their stance.

The BC Green Party recently committed to the key parts of the Old-Growth Protection Act. See: [Original article no longer available]

The NDP seem to support scientific conservation assessments for our old-growth forests, as indicated by yesterday’s comments of the NDP’s Environment Critic Rob Fleming about the Old-Growth Protection Act (see: www.timescolonist.com/news/world/ancient-forest-alliance-calls-for-science-based-forest-plan-1.109973). This is a recent step forward.  However, they have not committed yet to the plan’s actual protection scheme that would end old-growth logging in endangered regions – this is the central part of the plan.

In mid-March, a Global TV piece aired about old-growth forests and the NDP’s forestry platform. Nowhere was old-growth protection mentioned as being part of the NDP’s forest policies (rather, their main policy was to “plant more trees”) and the Council Of Forest Industry (COFI) president commented that there was nothing of concern to the timber companies with the NDP’s forest policies. Let’s hope the party’s forest policies have evolved since! See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOz232HDx3Y

NDP Leader Adrian Dix, during his 2011 campaign to become party leader, promised to: “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the Province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans.” While several NDP MLA’s have championed protecting specific old-growth forests while in Opposition, at this time Dix and the NDP party as a whole have not followed up, developed any specifics, re-mentioned, or even officially adopted Dix’s earlier leadership promise for a province-wide old-growth plan. DIX MUST BE MADE to KEEP HIS PROMISE. See Dix’s 2011 promise (#4 Ecosystem Management) at:  [Original article no longer available]

See the Ancient Forest Alliance’s new Youtube Clip on Saving BC’s Endangered Forests and Forestry Jobs at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YTizBF-jE

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada

Ancient Forest Alliance calls for science-based forest plan

/in /by

*Note: The Green Party has adopted the key recommendations of the Environmental Law Clinic’s proposed Old-Growth Protection Act. It appears that the NDP support the scientific assessment component of the proposal, however they have not yet committed to the calls for protection and fully ending old-growth logging in endangered regions.

______________

Up-to-date science and legislation without massive loopholes is needed to protect B.C.’s remaining old-growth forests, says the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Clinic.

The proposed Old-Growth Protection Act was produced by the clinic at the request of the Ancient Forest Alliance. The group’s executive director, Ken Wu, hopes it will spur the government to action.

“It’s time for a new, science-based plan,” he said.

An industry transition to second-growth trees is inevitable as the last unprotected old-growth stands are logged, Wu said.

“We simply want the B.C. government to ensure the transition is completed sooner, while these ancient forests still stand.”

The proposal, which is similar to a plan released Friday by the Green Party of B.C., is based on immediately stopping old-growth logging in critically endangered forests and phasing out old-growth logging where there’s a high risk to biodiversity and the ecosystem.

Major elements of the plan include appointing a science panel to carry out inventories and forest risk assessments, establishing different harvest rates for old-growth and second-growth, and legally designating old-growth reserves so there are consistent, enforceable rules.

Calvin Sandborn, the clinic’s legal director, said the plan is practical, science-based and politically doable.

“We wanted something that would fix the flaws in the current system, and the flaws are numerous,” he said.

Protection now offered by old-growth management areas is limited, Sandborn said.

Boundaries are adjusted to move protected areas away from valuable old-growth stands, logging is conducted under the guise of protecting forest health, small, stunted old-growth trees are protected, rather than big stands, and areas protected under forest rules can still be harvested by the oil and gas industry, Sandborn said.

If science and current mapping were used to establish which areas should be protected, much of the political heat would disappear, especially as protecting ancient trees produces more jobs over the long term than cutting them down, he said.

“These trees are our equivalent of the ancient cathedrals of Europe,” he said.

Forests Minister Steve Thomson could not be reached Friday.

NDP environment critic Rob Fleming said the proposed legislation “speaks to the urgency of the issue.”

“The idea of a science panel to assess the inventory of old growth on the Island is a good one, and I think it’s supportable,” he said. “It echoes an earlier call from the Forest Practices Board.”

The Green party is also calling for more science-based assessments and a provincial inventory of remaining old-growth forests.

“Given the scarcity of remaining productive old growth in much of our province, it is clear that we need to head in a new science-based direction to manage our forests,” said Green leader Jane Sterk.

The party also wants to see incentives for companies to retool mills so they can handle second-growth trees, and emergency protection for endangered ecosystems, such as the eastern Vancouver Island coastal Douglas fir zone.