Old-Growth Coastal Douglas Fir forest in Metchosin

Lawsuit aims to save endangered Douglas fir ecosystems on Vancouver Island

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Environmental groups are suing the provincial government in hopes of saving the last remaining pockets of coastal Douglas fir forests on Vancouver Island.

The Wilderness Committee, ForestEthics Solutions and Ecojustice filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a court order preventing the province from allowing logging on Crown land in the coastal Douglas fir biogeoclimatic zone.

The groups are claiming that the province is violating its own laws, which are supposed to protect ecosystems from destruction.

“This is a greenwash test case,” said Valerie Langer, ForestEthics Solutions forest conservation director.

“The province brags that it has world-leading environmental laws. Clearly this is misleading and it’s about time that the province put some teeth into environmental protection.”

Coastal Douglas fir forests were recognized by the province as endangered ecosystems in 2006. But, since then, it has been logging as usual, said Torrance Coste, Wilderness Committee Vancouver Island campaigner.

“This forest type is listed under B.C.’s forest laws as being at risk, but instead of being protected, the entire forest is being wiped out,” he said.

The issue came to a head with the province giving the go-ahead in 2011 for the logging of DL 33, a patch of coastal Douglas fir near Nanoose Bay, Coste said.

A fraction of the remaining ecosystem is on provincial Crown land, and only a few hectares of that is prime old-growth, which should make it vital for the province to enforce full protection, Coste said.

A Forests Ministry statement said it would be inappropriate to comment on the lawsuit.

There are 256,800 hectares of coastal Douglas fir remaining on southern Vancouver Island and parts of the Fraser Valley and Sunshine Coast, but only 23,500 hectares are on provincial Crown land. Of that, 39 per cent is fully protected, including 1,600 hectares protected under the Land Act in July 2010, the ministry statement said.

About 80 per cent, or 205,800 hectares, is privately owned. The remaining 11 per cent, or 27,400 hectares, is on federal and municipal land.

“The major threat to coastal Douglas fir ecosystems is continued urbanization, not logging,” a ministry spokeswoman said.

Last year, the province formed a partnership with local governments and conservation groups to further protect ecosystems and educate private landowners, she said.

Coste said the record of private owners, mainly large logging companies, is “appalling” and he has little hope the patches of endangered forest will be protected.

The aim of the court case, expected to be heard this year, is to protect what is left of coastal Douglas fir on Crown land, said Devon Page, executive director of Ecojustice, whose lawyers are leading the case.

“Do our laws say ‘protect the environment’ in one clause, but, in the next, provide a loophole to legally destroy it, or is the province legally required to protect these endangered forests and species,” Page said.

“If the government is breaking its own law, then we want the courts to make the province take action to protect the last of these endangered forests.”

Read More:https://www.timescolonist.com/lawsuit-aims-to-save-endangered-douglas-fir-ecosystems-on-vancouver-island-1.145148

A ship loaded with raw logs awaiting export. Nanaimo

BC Liberal Government More Than Tripled Raw Log Exports to Foreign Mills

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The BC Liberal government more than tripled the amount of unprocessed, raw logs leaving the province to foreign mills during their reign of power, according to recent figures provided by BC’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations (Min. of FLNRO) to the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA).

From 2002 to 2012, over 47 million cubic meters of raw logs were exported from BC to foreign mills in China, the USA, Japan, Korea, and other nations. This contrasts to about 14.8 million cubic meters from 1991 to 2001 under the NDP government. Over the past two years alone, in 2011 and 2012, record levels of raw logs were exported from BC, 13.2 million cubic meters in total. [see info sources and details below]

“The BC Liberals have decimated the province’s forestry workforce through massive raw log exports, industry deregulation, and unsustainable practices. 30,000 BC forest workers lost their jobs and over 70 mills were shut down under the BC Liberals, yet they’ve allowed companies to cut at near record levels,” stated Arnold Bercov, national forestry officer of the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada. “Under the BC Liberals, we lost both our forests and our jobs, it’s nuts.”

Conservationists and forestry workers have found common ground in opposing raw log exports and have joined together in numerous rallies and protests over the past decade for sustainable forestry. The BC Liberal government expedited raw log exports by removing the local milling requirements (appurtenancy) that historically tied companies with logging rights on Crown lands to also provide BC milling jobs; by removing vast areas of Tree Farm Licences that once regulated private forest lands on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast; by issuing record numbers of log export permits on Crown lands; by removing log export restrictions from vast regions of BC’s northern coast; and by overruling the recommendations of their own Timber Exports Advisory Committee.

At the same time the BC Liberal government failed to create any regulations or adequate incentives to retool old-growth mills to handle second-growth logs or to develop value-added facilities. “The BC Liberal government has been a failure on both counts: to ensure that BC logs go to BC mills that can process them, and to foster new mills and value-added facilities to handle logs currently without BC processors,” stated Bercov.

“If we’re going to protect our endangered old-growth forests while maintaining forestry employment levels, we need to do more with less – that is, we need to develop a value-added, sustainable second-growth forest industry. Ramping-up raw log exports while overcutting our forests goes precisely in the opposite direction, it’s doing less with more,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The BC Liberal government’s forestry policies can be summed up as: liquidate the old-growth, close the old-growth mills; liquidate the second-growth, export the raw logs; remove the TFL’s and sell-off prime forest lands for real estate development. The BC Liberals have acted as the despoilers of beautiful British Columbia for both natural and human communities.”

Additional BackGround Info

BRITISH COLUMBIA – RAW LOG EXPORTS

Year      Crown lands (m3)   Private Lands (m3)   TOTAL (m3)

2002        1.5 million                 2.3 million                 3.8 million
2003        1.5 million                 2.1 million                 3.6 million
2004        1.2 million                 2.3 million                 3.5 million
2005        1.8 million                 3.0 million                 4.8 million
2006        1.5 million                 2.8 million                 4.3 million
2007        0.9 million                 2.6 million                 3.5 million
2008        1.0 million                1.9 million                  2.9 million
2009        1.3 million                1.4 million                  2.7 million
2010        2.5 million                2.0 million                  4.5 million
2011        4.0 million                2.8 million                  6.8 million
2012        4.0 million                2.4 million                  6.4 million

Total        21.2 million             25.6 million                46.8 million (rounded sum) 

                                                                                        47,025,665 (exact sum)

Source: Ministry of Forest, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO) – data provided to the Ancient Forest Alliance in April, 2013

See a chart on historic log export levels (eg. through the 1990`s under the NDP government) on page 20 of the Log Exports Review at: https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/ftp/het/external/!publish/web/exports/generating-more-wealth.pdf

See the decline in forestry employment levels in BC, most dramatic during the reign of the BC Liberal party: https://16.52.162.165/drop-in-employment-in-bcs-forestry-sector/

There were about 1,067 cubic metres of timber harvested per job in 2019: https://theorca.ca/resident-pod/less-bang-for-our-bucking/

At its core, the massive export of raw logs has been driven by a combination of the BC Liberal government’s deregulation of the forest industry and by the industry’s unsustainable depletion of the biggest best old-growth trees at the lower elevations.

The overcutting of the prime stands of old-growth redcedars, Douglas-firs and Sitka spruce in the lowlands that historically built the wealth of the forest industry – and for which coastal sawmills were originally built to process – has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, lower in value, different in species, and harder to reach high up the mountainsides and in the valley headwaters. Today, more than 90 per cent of the most productive old-growth forests in the valley bottoms on B.C.’s southern coast are gone.

Coastal mills generally haven’t been retooled to handle the changing profile of the forest with smaller trees as the lowland ancient forests have been depleted. Today hemlock and Amabilis fir stands (“hem-bal” in industry jargon) constitute most of the remaining old-growth stands, and Douglas-fir, cedar, and hemlock constitute most of the maturing second-growth stands. At a critical juncture in 2003 the BC Liberal government removed the local milling requirements (through the Forestry Revitalization Act), thus allowing tenured logging companies to shut down their mills instead of being forced to retool them to handle the changing forest profile. This allowed the companies to then export the unprocessed logs to foreign countries.

In a report for the B.C. Ministry of Forests (Ready for Change, 2001), Dr. Peter Pearse described the history of high-grade overcutting in BC`s coastal forests: “The general pattern was to take the nearest, most accessible, and most valuable timber first, gradually expand up coastal valleys and mountainsides into more remote and lower quality timber, less valuable, and costlier to harvest. Today, loggers are approaching the end of the merchantable old-growth in many areas … Caught in the vise of rising costs and declining harvest value, the primary sector of the industry no longer earns an adequate return …”

B.C.’s coastal forest industry, once Canada’s mightiest, is now a remnant of its past. Over the past decade, more than 70 B.C. mills have closed and over 30,000 forestry jobs lost. As old-growth stands are depleted and harvesting shifts to the second-growth, B.C.’s forestry jobs are being exported as raw logs to foreign mills due to a failure to retool old-growth mills to handle the smaller second-growth logs and invest in related manufacturing facilities.

In his 2001 report, Pearse also stated: “Over the next decade, the second-growth component of timber harvest can be expected to increase sharply, to around 10 million cubic metres … To efficiently manufacture the second-growth component of the harvest, 11 to 14 large mills will be needed.” Today, more than a decade later, there is only one large and a handful of smaller second-growth mills on the coast.

While old-growth forests are being liquidated, second-growth stands are also currently being overcut at a rapid pace mainly for raw log exports, thus limiting future options in general for a sustainable forest industry.

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

Free presentation on old-growth forests

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Are you worried about more old growth forests being sacrificed for jobs and export and development? Are you lamenting the loss of the native plants and animals from our woodlands? Are you concerned about the air quality and the health of the trees, lungs of the planet?

Join the Ancient Forest Alliance's Ken Wu and TJ Watt for a slideshow presentation on the current status, ecology, wildlife, and related policies that affect BC's old-growth forests and how we can work to ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry. You will see photos and recently updated maps from BC's coastal old-growth forests and inland rainforest.

Hosted by the Comox Valley Land Trust, Lake Trail Neighbourhood Connections and the Comox Valley Conservation Strategy, The Ancient Forest Alliance will present a slideshow about the ecology, policies and status of BC's old-growth forests as part of the their upcoming tour of key BC communities to promote old-growth protection and sustainable second-growth forestry.

Jack Minard, executive director of the Comox Valley Land Trust, will give a short presentation on a proposal to protect the Comox Lake Watershed and prevent the need for a $25 million dollar treatment plant. There are old growth patches throughout the watershed and this proposal aims to save these remnant forests as well.

This free event will take place at Lake Trail School in the Drama Room on May 8. Doors open at 6: 45 with presentations starting at 7 PM sharp.

AFA campaigner and photographer TJ Watt presents at a previous AFA slideshow.

Slideshow in COURTENAY: "BC’s Old-Growth Forests: The Ecology, Status, Policies, and the Campaign for Sustainable Forestry"

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When: Wednesday May 8, 2013
Time: 7:00-9:00 pm,
Where: COURTENAY BC, Drama Room, Lake Trail School, 805 Willemar Ave

Join the Ancient Forest Alliance’s Ken Wu and TJ Watt for a slideshow presentation on the current status, ecology, wildlife, and related policies that affect BC’s old-growth forests and how we can work to ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry. Updated photos and maps from BC’s coastal old-growth forests. Discussion afterwards.

A joint presentation of the Ancient Forest Alliance with the Comox Valley Conservation Strategy and the Comox Valley Land Trust

Sponsored by the Lake Trail Neighbourhood Connections Project and Tsolum River Restoration Society

Ancient Forest Alliance's Ken Wu stands alongside a 14ft wide redcedar stump from an old-growth tree cut down on Edinburgh Mountain near Port Renfrew.

VIDEO: Save BC’s Endangered Old-Growth Forests & Forestry Jobs!

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Watch on the AFA’s YouTube channel.

May 2013

Send your LETTER to government at www.BCForestMovement.com
Please SIGN our PETITION at ancientforestalliance.org/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/

BC’s old-growth forests are world renowned for their beauty and grandeur, where moss-draped trees can grow as wide as living rooms and as tall as downtown skyscrapers

Old-growth forests are vital to support wildlife, including numerous species at risk;
they’re fundamental pillars of BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry;
they store vast amounts of carbon to counteract climate change;
they provide clean water and support wild salmon;
and they’re vital to many First Nations whose cultures evolved in old-growth forests over millennia.

A century of unsustainable overcutting has largely eliminated the biggest and best trees in the biologically-diverse valley bottoms and lower elevations that historically built BC’s forest industry.

This has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, lower in value, and more expense to reach high up the mountainsides

As a result, dozens of old-growth mills have closed and tens of thousands of BC workers have lost their jobs over the past two decades as the finest old-growth stands have been depleted.

Much of the remaining old-growth forests are marginal stands in bogs, on steep, rocky slopes, and at high elevations with small and stunted trees, and generally have little timber value. Meanwhile, the last endangered old-growth stands on the productive growing sites with big trees, or ancient forests, are still being targeted for logging.

As our second-growth forests mature – which now comprise most of BC’s productive forest lands — there has been a lack of government regulations and incentives to ensure investment in coastal second-growth mills and wood processing facilities. This has resulted in the mass exodus of raw logs to China, the US, and other nations at the expense of BC job opportunities.

With a provincial election approaching on May 14, 2013, British Columbia is now at a crossroads:  The BC Liberal government and the NDP opposition can choose a bigger, wiser vision to protect our endangered old-growth forests and ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry.

Or they can fail to learn from our history’s mistakes and continue to support the disastrous status quo of unsustainable, short-sighted resource depletion in our forests that is causing the increasing collapse of ecosystems and communities. Politicians who fail to recognize this trajectory and the need to take a new direction, don’t deserve power.

And it’s citizens who speak up, organize, mobilize, and vote with an informed conscience, who are key to creating the political will among our elected representatives.

Please SEND a MESSAGE to BC’s politicians at www.BCForestMovement.com and take part in the campaign for sustainable forestry!

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 Can

NDP Leader Adrian Dix

URGENT- Strong Old-Growth Commitment Needed from BC’s NDP – Speak Up Now!

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URGENT- Strong Old-Growth Commitment Needed from BC’s NDP – Speak Up Now! SEND a NEW MESSAGE at:  www.BCForestMovement.com

Last week the BC NDP mentioned in their Main Election Platform that they will “protect valuable old-growth forests”, though they have not yet specified key details like “how much”, “where”, or “when”. Previously, the NDP’s Forestry Platform and their initial Environment Platform made no mention of old-growth forests or sustainable forestry, so this is a step forward for the party. What is needed now is a stronger commitment for a comprehensive, science-based old-growth protection plan that will fully end old-growth logging in endangered ecosystems and regions of BC. Already 91% of the high-productivity valley bottom ancient forests on BC’s southern coast with the “classic” monumental trees have been logged, while 99% of the old-growth Coastal Douglas Firs have been logged. There is a large scale ecological crisis in BC’s woods and our politicians must understand this if they are to be elected.

Currently, the BC Liberals contend that “old-growth forests are not disappearing” while the BC Greens have committed to a science-based plan to fully protect endangered old-growth forests.
Tracts of old-growth forests are regularly protected in BC each year through the implementation of regional land use plans that designate new Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s), often in marginal old-growth stands with stunted trees – while at the same time larger areas of productive old-growth forests are logged. The crucial question on the NDP’s old-growth plan is if it would exceed the inadequate protection levels of the status quo under the BC Liberals and restrict or end the logging of endangered old-growth forests in any region of the province. Without further details, the NDP’s stance could very well be just a continuation of the unsustainable status quo. In fact, BC’s top industry insiders so far say it is [see details BELOW].
PLEASE SPEAK UP!
Putting pressure on NDP candidates is the MOST IMPORTANT thing YOU can do to protect our ancient forests now!! The NDP will likely form BC’s new government in less than three weeks. There’s a large scale ecological crisis underway in BC’s ancient forests as we lose biodiversity and as ecosystems collapse, and continuing the status quo is simply untenable. Right now, THOUSANDS of people must tell the NDP to make a stronger, detailed commitment on protecting old-growth forests. The NDP must be given full credit if they come forward with a strong old-growth commitment before this election – if they don’t, their failure must also be noted.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
– SEND a MESSAGE (even if you’ve done so before – it’s a NEW message) to BC’s politicians at:  www.BCForestMovement.com
– RAISE the Old-Growth Issue at ALL-CANDIDATES DEBATES. Ask the candidates if they will “Commit to end the logging of endangered old-growth forests and to ensure sustainable, value-added, second-growth forestry” and to “End the export of raw logs to foreign mills”.
– SPEAK to Political Canvassers at your door from the NDP or other parties about your old-growth and forestry concerns.
– WRITE LETTERS to the EDITORS (under 200 words, include your name, mailing address and phone number so they can verify you’re real) to the Times Colonist (letters@timescolonist.com), Vancouver Sun (sunletters@vancouversun.com), The Province (provletters@theprovince.com), BC Community Papers [Original article no longer available] – includes Monday Magazine), Georgia Straight (letters@straight.com) and others.
– POST your concerns on FACEBOOK pages and in online forums and commentary sections following news articles.

**** MOST EFFECTIVE  ***  EMAIL, PHONE, and ASK to MEET your NDP Candidate to “commit to a science-based old-growth protection plan that will fully end old-growth logging in endangered regions, and to ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry.”

*** PS. Make sure you let them know if you’re an NDP MEMBER, VOLUNTEER, or PREVIOUSLY VOTED NDP.
*** PPS. Don’t let your candidate skirt the old-growth issue by offering countless excuses, egs. “We’ve already committed to protecting old-growth” (but the question is “how much?” “where?”, “when?”, “will you fully end old-growth logging in any major regions like Vancouver Island or the Lower Mainland?” etc.), “We’ve committed to planting more trees” (a tree farm does not replace an old-growth forest), “We need better inventories first before we can make any specific old-growth commitments” (existing inventories are more than good enough to know we’ve already logged most productive old-growth forests, updated inventories today will show even less remain), “We will invest in forest health” (the largest threat to forest health is large scale old-growth depletion and unsustainable logging), “After the election we can talk with stakeholders” (after the election politicians will no longer feel pressure to change the entrenched status quo), “We don’t know the province’s real financial situation until we take power, it would be irresponsible to make such commitments before we figure out the finances” (this is not a spending issue, it’s one of regulations and legislation to restrict an unsustainable activity), “We will protect endangered species habitat which will protect old-growth” (good, but we need stand-alone old-growth protection legislation, not possible partial protection indirectly through other measures…).
Here are some NDP CANDIDATES with their ridings, phone, and email (Find all the NDP candidates at: https://www.bcndp.ca/team).
DETAILS and MORE INFO:
The BC NDP’s platform briefly mentions they will “Protect wetlands, estuaries, and valuable old-growth forests” but elaborates no further. “How?”, “To what extent?”, “Where?”, and “When?” are all vital questions that must be answered for the promise to be meaningful. See:  https://16.52.162.165/news-item.php?ID=642
The NDP’s Forestry Platform released on April 15 makes no mention of old-growth protection, sustainability, or the environment. It commits to investing in more tree-planting (tree plantations do not replicate old-growth forests), expanding global markets for BC wood products (ie. BC old-growth logs and lumber sold to China, Japan, USA, etc.), reducing raw log exports (with no details how besides “work with stakeholders”), creating a jobs commissioner, training more workers, “improving” forest health (ie. intensive silviculture), and better forest inventories. See: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=630
Even the presidents of BC’s two largest old-growth logging industry associations, Rick Jeffrey of the Coast Forest Products Association (CFPA) and John Allen of the Council Of Forest Industries (COFI), have both stated that the NDP’s forestry platform represents the status quo, with little difference from the BC Liberal government’s policies. See:
“Parties’ Forestry Platforms Show Few Differences, Industry Insiders Say”: www.timescolonist.com/parties-forestry-platforms-show-few-differences-industry-insiders-say-1.111472
and “Global TV: Cathedral Grove and NDP on Forestry”
The BC Green Party has committed to a science-based plan to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry. See: www.andrewjweaver.ca/bc_green_party_forestry_action_plan [Original article no longer available] and www.greenparty.bc.ca/forestry
The BC Liberals still hold their unscientific stance that “old-growth forests are not disappearing” and that they’ve managed them well, and are leaving an anti-environmental legacy of old-growth forest liquidation and environmental deregulation across most of BC.
There is hope though. Recently, NDP leader Adrian Dix changed course and announced his opposition to increased tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet from the Kinder Morgan pipeline due to huge public pressure on his candidates, ie. public pressure on candidates led to candidates pressuring Dix. The same process is underway for BC’s old-growth forests if YOU speak up. See:
Additional Articles:
Times Colonist: Ancient Forest Alliance calls for science-based forest plan
The Globe and Mail: NDP’s forest-policy plank sparks partisan ire, disappoints ecologists
The Tyee: NDP forest plan ‘minor deviation from unsustainable status quo’: critic
Maclean’s Magazine: Earth Day forms backdrop to BC Election Campaign
Youtube Clip: Save BC’s Endangered Old-Growth Forests and Forestry Jobs:
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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

Slideshow Presentation in VICTORIA: "BC’s Inland Temperate Rainforest: Upper Fraser Ancient Cedar Stands – A proposed new World Heritage site in B.C."

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Slideshow Presentation in VICTORIA: “BC’s Inland Temperate Rainforest: Upper Fraser Ancient Cedar Stands – A proposed new World Heritage site in B.C.” and “The STATUS and ECOLOGY of BC’s South Coast Old-Growth Rainforests”

When: Thursday May 2, 2013
Time: 7:00-9:00 pm
Where: VICTORIA, Ambrosia Centre, 638 Fisgard St.
Admission:  $5
Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/164625060366158/

1) Presentation on the Inland Rainforest and Old-Growth Cedar Stands east of Prince George by Dr. Darwyn Coxson, Ecosystem Science and Management Program, UNBC.

2) Presentation on the NEWEST MAPS and STATUS of the Old-Growth Forests of Vancouver Island and the Southwest Mainland of BC, as well as the Ecology and Politics of these forests, by Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Emerging research from the University of Northern BC has highlighted the global rarity of ancient redcedar stands of the upper Fraser River watershed east of Prince George. This forest type within BC's inland temperate rainforest has been heavily impacted by human activities, and few ancient cedar stands remain today in the upper Fraser River watershed. Findings support the designation of these landscapes as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and researchers are proposing the immediate protection of high-conservation value stands within BC's park system. Learn more in this talk by Dr. Darwyn Coxson, Professor in the Ecosystem Science and Management Program at UNBC.

Ambrosia's bar will be open so bring your ID if you like.