CFAX
October 10th, 2019
The AFA’s Andrea Inness was interviewed on CFAX last week about the damning results of the Ministry of Forests investigation into BC Timber Sales’ logging of old-growth forests in Nahmint Valley. Hear her breakdown of the findings, what they mean, and how the BC government should respond.
Global News BC
Watch this Global News story, where Forests Minister Doug Donaldson manages to dodge responsibility for BC Timber Sales’ non-compliance in the Nahmint Valley.
Instead of taking ownership, this government is choosing to bury its head in the sand, silence its own Compliance and Enforcement Branch by stripping them of their authority to investigate BCTS, and look the other way while tens of thousands of endangered ancient forests are liquidated in BC every year.
The NDP government needs to do much more than protect 54 of BC’s biggest trees, starting with placing an immediate halt on logging in the Nahmint Valley and other old-growth ‘hotspots’ before BC’s last, largely intact ancient forests are gone for good.
Victoria, BC – BC Timber Sales’ current and historic harvest plans for the Nahmint Valley have consistently failed to comply with the BC government’s own legally-binding land-use objectives, according to recently released reports from a Ministry of Forests investigation into old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island.
Documents obtained by the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) under a Freedom of Information request reveal that BCTS, the BC government’s own logging agency, not only misinterpreted legal objectives set out in the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan (VILUP) for the retention of old-growth forest in the Nahmint Valley, among other things, they also neglected to use readily available ecosystem data and best available science in their planning and miscalculated specific old-growth forest retention targets set out in the BC’s government’s Biodiversity Guidebook.
“The BC government is apparently failing to live up even to their own wholly inadequate standards for the protection of old-growth forests, which, after over a century of industrial logging, are endangered in large parts of BC, including on Vancouver Island,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner, Andrea Inness.
“As a result of BCTS’ non-compliance, too much old-growth has been and continues to be logged in the Nahmint Valley, even by the government’s own standards, and not enough of it has been protected to adequately represent the diversity of forest ecosystems in the valley or to avoid biodiversity loss. Sadly, though, this scenario is playing out in many parts of the province, even where logging is compliant, because BC’s old-growth forest retention targets are far too low. We’re therefore calling on the BC government to immediately prioritize the setting of new, science-based old-growth protection targets to protect what remains of BC’s ancient forests.”
The Forest Ministry’s investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by the AFA in June 2018 that raised concerns about the destructive logging of some of Canada’s biggest and oldest trees in the Nahmint Valley, located in Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations territory, including the felling of Canada’s ninth-widest Douglas-fir tree. The logging sparked widespread public outrage and criticism of BC Timber Sales (BCTS), the BC government’s logging agency responsible for auctioning off cutblocks in the valley.
In the 2000 Vancouver Island Summary Land Use Plan, the Nahmint Valley was identified as having particularly high biodiversity values and was thereby designated, by Ministerial Order, as a Special Management Zone in order to minimize development impacts.
“The Nahmint Valley is a unique and very special place,” stated Inness. “It was supposed to be managed differently than other forests, with emphasis placed on maintaining old-growth forests and biodiversity. These reports suggest the BC government is privileging the timber industry over biodiversity protection, recreation, wildlife and salmon habitat, and cultural heritage in the Nahmint, to the extent that they are willing to break their own rules.”
The investigation, conducted by the Forest Ministry’s Compliance and Enforcement Branch (CEB), also briefly reviewed past Forest Stewardship Plans for the Nahmint Valley and found “legacy compliance issues with timber harvesting in the Nahmint Valley” going back 18 years. As a result, and if left unresolved, the CEB asserts that “serious cumulative impacts may occur on the land base over time.”
“These findings have enormous implications,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer, TJ Watt. “If this can happen in the Nahmint Valley, then it could be happening in any or all areas where BC Timber Sales operates. We just don’t know.”
Since the Nahmint investigation, the Forests Ministry has purportedly stripped the Compliance and Enforcement Branch of its authority to investigate BC Timber Sales, meaning that, while private companies can be investigated and penalized should they violate the law, BCTS will not be held to the same standard nor be accountable to the public.
In an August 2018 letter, written in response to the CEB’s initial investigation findings, BCTS argued that logging in the Nahmint Valley cannot be non-compliant with the government’s land-use objectives since the Nahmint Valley Forest Stewardship Plan was approved by a District Manager. However, as the CEB points out in its subsequent response, District Managers do not have the authority to override legal orders or government-set objectives and FSPs cannot be used as a shield to allow non-compliant logging to occur.
“This is indicative of a corrupt system,” said Watt. “BCTS clearly feel entitled to operate above the law and believe that publicly-agreed upon values and objectives for the Nahmint Valley are far less important than catering to the timber industry, no matter what the cost to BC’s ancient forests, wildlife, and communities.”
While minor changes were made to the Nahmint Valley Operating Plan following the AFA’s complaint, the CEB’s recommendations that logging in the Nahmint Valley immediately cease, that an amended Forest Stewardship Plan be prepared demonstrating how planning would adhere to VILUP in future, and that future harvesting plans be placed on hold, were all ignored by the ministry.
Meanwhile, old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley continued throughout the investigation and carries on today, unhindered. In fact, at the time of the investigation’s conclusion in October 2018, over 400,000 cubic metres was planned to go to public tender for harvesting. The AFA has also recently analyzed BCTS’ Multi Year Development Plan for the Nahmint Valley and identified over 600 hectares of old-growth forest to be auctioned off in coming years under the current, non-compliant Forest Stewardship Plan.
The ministry also intends to legalize draft Old Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) by spring 2020, despite the ministry’s investigation having revealed the draft OGMAs are in violation of VILUP and “do not adequately address the old-growth retention targets needed to maintain landscape biodiversity.”
“Legalizing the OGMAs would essentially allow BCTS get away with years of non-compliant logging in the Nahmint Valley,” stated Inness. “But it’s not enough to ensure that future planning is compliant with BC’s outdated, pro-industry laws. There is an urgent need for sweeping changes to BC’s forest system, starting with legislation that prioritizes biodiversity and ecological integrity over timber supply.”
The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to immediately halt logging in old-growth forest “hotspots” of high conservation value, including the Nahmint Valley; use its authority over BCTS to quickly phase out issuance of old-growth timber sales and implement conservation solutions on BCTS-controlled lands; and introduce an ecosystem-based management approach to forestry throughout BC, with science-based targets for old-growth forest protection.
The AFA is also calling on the Province to scale-up its efforts to modernize land-use planning in partnership with First Nations, to pair that process with funding for the sustainable economic development and diversification of First Nations economies in lieu of old-growth logging, and to support the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas. Finally, the Province must help to diversify forest-based communities and support the transition to a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest sector.
The Forest Practices Board is also undertaking its own investigation into the AFA’s complaint about old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley. The Board has previously stated they expect their investigation will be completed by the end of the year.
Documents obtained under the AFA’s Freedom of Information request can be accessed here:
See a timeline of events and summary of the investigative findings, prepared by the AFA.
The Narwhal
Judith Lavoie
October 7th, 2019
Some of you may have already seen the pictures.
Vast stands of old-growth douglas firs and cedars, toppled. A grim-looking individual, perched atop a stump, staggering in size, its history harkening back to pre-colonial times, sap oozing beneath their feet.
British Columbians are near-immune to such images these days, with old-growth clearcutting a common sight and common practice. But something about the images coming out of Vancouver Island’s Nahmint Valley struck a chord.
A photo gallery posted by the Ancient Forest Alliance to Facebook in May of 2018 became a near-immediate viral sensation, being shared more than 4,800 times.
The organization, during an ancient forest expedition with the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance, found exceptionally large douglas fir, including the fifth and ninth widest ever recorded in B.C., scattered among the remains of an extensive clearcutting operation.
The groups documented old-growth cedar stumps measuring a staggering 12 feet (3.7 metres) in diameter.
Something felt wrong about the scope and scale of the logging operations in the Nahmint Valley to the expeditioners.
And they were right.
Following their expedition, the Ancient Forest Alliance submitted a complaint to the compliance and enforcement branch at B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
The findings of two subsequent investigations would confirm a deep-rooted suspicion that BC Timber Sales (BCTS), the government agency responsible for auctioning provincial logging permits, was thwarting protection rules and violating the principles of old-growth management plans.
The results of those investigations, obtained by the Ancient Forest Alliance through a Freedom of Information request, and reviewed by The Narwhal, show BC Timber Sales is not complying with rules designed to ensure sufficient old-growth forest is retained to avoid loss of biodiversity.
One of these investigations, conducted by a compliance and enforcement officer with the Ministry of Forests, recommended logging in the Nahmint Valley be halted, that future harvesting tenures be put on hold and that the agency should be prevented from establishing Nahmint old-growth management areas — which are created to protect old growth and achieve biodiversity targets — while problems are addressed to avoid legitimizing ongoing overcutting.
The second investigation was conducted outside the ministry and came to similar conclusions, documents released through the Freedom of Information request revealed.
Yet despite the clear and unequivocal tone of recommendations made by investigators in the summer of 2018, little change has been effected on the ground, where clearcutting in the Nahmint has continued unabated.
“None of the recommendations have been implemented,” Andrea Inness, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner, told The Narwhal.
The ministry report was conducted by senior compliance and enforcement specialist Bryce Casavant, who is no longer working for the provincial government.
“When I left government a few weeks ago, logging was continuing and there were 490,000 cubic metres scheduled to go to market by next spring,” Casavant told The Narwhal.
“Suffice it to say they are planning on extensive logging in that area despite the findings of the report,” he said.
Making the situation more frustrating, Casavant said he was told during the investigation that, in future, the compliance and enforcement branch would no longer investigate BC Timber Sales as government would not charge the organization.
“I got told at one point to close the investigation down and not to write a report and just send an internal memo and they would sort it out,” Casavant said.
BC Timber Sales, which was created in 2003 by the former BC Liberal government, manages 20 per cent of the province’s annual allowable cut, making it the biggest tenure holder in B.C.
When asked whether the compliance and enforcement branch is still able to investigate BC Timber Sales, a ministry spokeswoman, in an emailed response, said “compliance and enforcement can investigate BCTS and they can charge BCTS with infractions.”
But Casavant, who now works for Pacific Wild as a conservation policy analyst, said he was left with no doubt that investigations into the timber sales agency were not welcome.
BC Timber Sales and the law enforcement services at the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations are closely related and so, when problems arise, the answer is to come up with some fancy spin-doctoring, Casavant said.
“The problem is that there’s no true independence in the law enforcement service and forestry officers. The government will tell you that they are not related to BCTS, but in practice it’s not true. They all work out of the same office, side by side, day in and day out. They share the same deputy minister. There’s no true separation,” he said.
The timber sales agency is treated more favourably than other logging corporations, Casavant said.
“They are not treated the same as everyone else.”
The second, independent investigation found that planning for old-growth management areas appears ad hoc, “aiming to achieve the bare minimum required legally, rather than following good conservation design.”
“Our assessment suggests that the Nahmint demonstrates failure of professional reliance at maintaining publicly-agreed-upon values and priorities,” the report found.
Inness said it might be a good thing existing draft old-growth management areas in the Nahmint haven’t been legalized.
“The planning that went into the delineation of those OGMAs was flawed. When those areas were mapped, when those lines were drawn on maps, BCTS didn’t even look at ecosystem data or consider best practices,” she said.
Inness further suggested those draft areas were designed to support a bigger take for logging companies.
In addition to the two 2018 investigations, a Forest Practices Board investigation into the Nahmint is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
That investigation means the ministry cannot comment, according to a spokeswoman.
“The Forest Practices Board is currently investigating. That is all the information we can provide at this time,” ministry spokeswoman Dawn Makarowski said in an emailed response to questions from The Narwhal.
On the ground in the Nahmint Valley — under parcels auctioned by BC Timber Sales — giant trees continue to fall, threatening habitat for species such as the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk.
The agency has plans underway to auction off more than 400,000 cubic metres of old growth and, despite a specific recommendation to pause such actions, BC Timber Sales is moving to have draft Nahmint old-growth plans legalized.
In the formal complaint, submitted to the Ministry of Forests, Ancient Forest Alliance’s Inness wrote operations in the Nahmint appear to be in violation of the official land-use plan for Vancouver Island.
The intent of the Vancouver Island Land-Use Plan, established in 2000, is to retain a critical mass of old-growth.
“After walking through various recent cutblocks planned by BC Timber Sales in the Nahmint Valley, we believe BC Timber Sales’ forest stewardship plan fails to meet the results and strategies set out in the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan … that rare and underrepresented site series and surrogates be represented and protected,” Inness wrote.
The plan identified the Nahmint Valley as a special management zone, which prioritizes “environmental, recreational and cultural/heritage sites” rather than old-growth logging, but the investigation found that, although mapping of the valley’s unique biological features exists, the best available data was not used to protect unique ecosystems, retain biodiversity or protect large diameter trees.
The ministry’s internal inspection found logging in the Nahmint suggests a “high likelihood of government noncompliance” with the land use plan.
Investigators concluded that there appear to be “legacy compliance issues” with timber harvesting in the Nahmint — meaning the overcutting probably dates back 18 years.
This failure to implement proper protections for the Nahmint is what led investigators to warn BC Timber Sales should not legalize new old-growth management zones until those failures have been addressed.
Yet, although there have been tweaks to the system, with small changes to cutblock locations, there is no indication that BC Timber Sales is planning to act on the investigation’s recommendations.
“It seems that eventually they will just carry on with business as usual,” TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder, told The Narwhal.
In the internal documents detailing the investigations, a BC Timber Sales response claimed the agency’s planning is “generally” consistent with best practices and stated that logging in the Nahmint Valley cannot be in violation of the land use plan because the region’s forest stewardship plan was approved by a district manager.
That defence drew outrage from Inness.
“Approved forest stewardship plans do not override legal orders or government set objectives and can’t be used as a shield to allow non-compliant logging to occur,” she said.
“This is indicative of a truly corrupt system where, according to BCTS, logging can never be in non-compliance with the law, so long as a district manager signs off on it.”
The justification has Inness worried BC Timber Sales might be out of compliance with land-use plans for other areas of Vancouver Island.
“This has broader geographic implications as other special management zones and geographic areas managed by BC Timber Sales may have been — and continue to be — similarly mismanaged,” Inness said.
“They have been way over-logging and it opens up Pandora’s box. If it is happening in the Nahmint and they have completely misinterpreted the targets here, where else is it happening?” she asked.
Many contentious areas controlled by BC Timber Sales have high recreational value or are close to communities, which increasingly puts it at odds with local communities and First Nations. The Nahmint Valley is in traditional territories of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations.
Brandy Lauder, Hupacasath First Nation elected councillor, said she is not surprised that BC Timber Sales is ignoring recommendations to stop logging old growth.
“I am not shocked … This is the way government works,” said Lauder, adding that she is witnessing over-logging of old growth throughout the Alberni Valley, which is affecting the movement of wildlife as habitat is lost.
“Until the province actually tells BC Timber Sales not to log, they are going to continue. It will have to come from (Premier) John Horgan. They will just keep on operating and saying they are working on it. As long as they say they are working on it, they think they can just keep on going,” she said.
Last year, Hupacasath sent an open letter calling on the provincial government to halt old-growth logging in the Nahmint and work collaboratively with the band to protect the area’s old growth and, especially, the biggest trees and monumental cedars.
The letter to the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation called on the government to immediately extinguish all approved cutblocks in Hupacasath traditional territory and establish “best management practices for coastal legacy, monumental and old-growth trees.”
In July the province announced new protections for 54 old-growth trees listed in the B.C. Big Tree Registry, four of which are in the Alberni-Clayoquot region. But the plan drew criticism from those concerned with the scale of old-growth logging in some of the last intact zones on Vancouver Island.
In its announcement for the big tree protections, the province claimed 55 per cent of old-growth forests on Crown land in B.C.’s coastal region are protected from logging. Yet the majority of that protection exists in the Great Bear Rainforest while on Vancouver Island 1,300 hectares of new old-growth cutblocks have been approved in 2019.
Long-time environmental advocate Vicky Husband, who worked to tighten up the Vancouver Island land-use plan before it was adopted in 2000, said she always feared the plan lacked teeth.
“We got some important changes, but not nearly enough was fully protected and now the ancient forests are in fragments over most of the island,” she said
“Nahmint is very, very contentious and what BCTS is doing, with the B.C. government’s backing, is promoting logging in some of the last areas left.”
Forests are being gutted and government can be misleading about how much ancient forest is left on Vancouver Island, Husband said.
“We have protected only 5.5 per cent of the original extent of ancient, big, old tree forests on Vancouver Island and just about one per cent of the dry Douglas fir forest. Imagine how we, a so-called progressive society, have done so little to protect the amazing forest heritage that we inherited,” she said.
“I am appalled. The public must act now to save what is left and then work to restore these incredible forest ecosystems.”
Inness said it appears government agencies are either willfully ignoring or misinterpreting B.C.’s already inadequate forestry rules.
“We have such a desperate need in this province for forestry to be done differently and they can’t even follow their own laws,” she said.
Casavant said ecologically rich places like the Nahmint Valley suffer irreparable harm when the province ignores its own rules.
“In today’s society it’s completely unacceptable for government to be involved in what should be classified as unlawful activities,” he said.
“If you are in non-compliance you can’t just say, ‘well maybe there’s a problem, but we are just going to go ahead.’ If you are in non-compliance and your plan requires you to follow the legislation, it is just wrong to go ahead.”
Casavant argues there should be legislation to ensure an impartial law enforcement service can investigate BC Timber Sales’ activities and charge them when necessary.
“BCTS should be treated, instead of a branch of the ministry, as a stand-alone Crown corporation,” he said.
Having an investigative branch embedded within the ministry is “absolutely ludicrous,” he added.
“We can’t have everybody working in the same office right from the planning stage to the approval stage to the investigation when something goes wrong.”
During the summer the province asked for public feedback on the Forest and Range Practices Act, with changes expected over the next two years, but many fear changes will come too late to save the sizeable swaths of old growth needed, especially to protect biodiversity.
A report from the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre says that, in high productivity areas such as valley bottoms, less than 10 per cent of the original old growth remains.
“On Vancouver Island, only about a fifth of the original, productive old-growth rainforest remains unlogged. More than 30 per cent of what remained standing in 1993 has been destroyed in just the last 25 years,” it says.
See the original article
Earlier this year, we visited the town of Tahsis on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island to explore the McKelvie Valley and learn first-hand from local residents why this rare, intact watershed needs protecting.
Turns out, local Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations are championing a new conservation model called Salmon Parks to protect old-growth forests & restore salmon habitat in Nootka Sound, including in the McKelvie.
Speak up! Tell the BC NDP to support Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas like the Nootka Sound Salmon Parks. ⬇️
www.ancientforestalliance.org/send-a-message
Douglas Magazine
October 3rd, 2019
A few determined rays of sunlight pierced to the forest floor, illuminating electric green moss in pools of light. Branches, filigreed with lichen, arced above like the flying buttresses of a Gothic cathedral.
Watt was moved by the sheer beauty of these old-growth giants and also by the realization that most Vancouver Island valley bottoms, like the Walbran, located outside of existing parks and protected areas, had already been razed to stumps and replaced with relatively scraggly second growth.
Roughly 1.5 million hectares, or about 75 per cent of the original two million hectares of productive old-growth forest on Vancouver Island has been cut, according to the conservation group Ancient Forest Alliance.
“Going to the Walbran completely blew my mind. Walking through this forest with thousand-year-old trees was stunning,” says Watt, who grew up in Metchosin and was no stranger to places of natural beauty. “But we had driven through miles and miles of clear cut forest to get there.”
Four years later, he and a friend were driving up and down logging spurs in search of tall trees in the Cowichan Valley, a part of southern Vancouver Island that boosted the past fortunes of logging giants like MacMillan Bloedel.
Toward the end of a so-far-fruitless day of big-tree hunting, they neared Port Renfrew and spotted huge cedar candelabras poking above the canopy next to the Gordon River. They drove up a side road for a few kilometres, parked, then walked downhill, back toward the river, into an almost magical world.
“I knew right away we had found something special,” Watt recalls about the moment he first encountered the cedars of what would soon become known as Avatar Grove.
It was remarkable given that this grove of massive trees was less than a half hour’s drive from Port Renfrew, on a road that almost anyone could manage in a low clearance, two-wheel-drive vehicle, yet likely wasn’t known by anyone other than some foresters and local Indigenous Pacheedaht people.
Avatar Grove, named for the then just-released James Cameron blockbuster movie, proved Watt’s knack for coming up with catchy and marketable names. (Recently, he was party to another big tree find near Port Renfrew, this one of moss-covered maples and Douglas firs — they called it Mossome Grove.) It triggered a feverish conservation campaign and the launch of a new non-profit, The Ancient Forest Alliance, with fellow activist Ken Wu.
“It was wild. People started visiting Avatar [Grove] by the thousands, and media coverage went viral — locally, nationally and internationally,” Watt says.
The rest is history. Avatar Grove got protected, and its international popularity eventually resulted in sleepy Port Renfrew rebranding itself as the “Tall Tree Capital of Canada.”
Thanks in large part to the tall-tree hunting efforts of Watt, fellow conservationist Ken Wu and others, more and more people, and not just tree hunters, are beginning to view big trees left standing as more economically valuable than trees that have been cut down and turned into lumber and paper. It’s also a sign of the times.
Raw Logs: What’s the Reality?
Vancouver Island’s forest sector is far from what it used to be. Local manufacturing capacity was in decline even before 2003 when Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government scrapped a provision in the Forest Act called appurtenance — the requirement that companies with tenures to harvest Crown forest, or publicly owned forest, must operate mills in communities located within the geographical area of given tenures.
In a 2018 study for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, longtime forest policy analyst and former Vancouver Sun journalist Ben Parfitt took a sweeping look at raw-log exports and mill closures. Between 2013 and 2016, approximately 26 million cubic metres of raw logs were shipped out of B.C., and old growth accounts on average for half of raw-log exports. In 2016, the volume of raw log exports jumped 6.2 per cent year-over-year, according to Parfitt’s research.
The three largest exporters of raw logs happen to be big players on Vancouver Island: Western Forest Products, Island Timberlands and TimberWest Forest Corporation. (TimberWest and Island Timberlands were affiliated in 2018 under the umbrella of Vancouver-based Mosaic Forest Management.)
In 2016, TimberWest, which owns 327,000 hectares of timberland on Vancouver Island, sent more than two million cubic metres of raw logs out of the province. As raw-log exports rise, manufacturing capacity stalls. Since 1997, roughly 100 mills have shut in B.C. Parfitt gathered numbers from BC Stats showing that the forest industry shed 22,400 jobs over the past decade, mostly in lumber and pulp and paper manufacturing. Parfitt’s math claims 3,600 of those job losses are due directly to raw-log exports.
The decline of Vancouver Island’s forest sector is writ large in Campbell River. In 2008, TimberWest shut its sawmill, putting 257 people out work, and the following year closed its sawdust, pulp and container board division, resulting in another 440 job losses. Then, in 2010, Catalyst Paper closed its Elk Falls paper mill and axed 350 workers from its payroll.
Today Campbell River, a city that’s proximate to some of the planet’s most productive temperate conifer forests, watches as barge and shiploads of raw logs sail past its shuttered mills destined for the Lower Mainland booms, many of them eventually shipped to offshore mills.
Parfitt says this decline has taken on an obscene twist at the Harmac Pacific pulp mill near Nanaimo where a dearth of fibre, a by-product of the sawmilling sector that was once plentiful on Vancouver Island, has forced the company to chip raw logs to feed its operations.
So what gives? Parfitt says the reasons are complex. The removal of appurtenance had an impact. Downward shifting global demand for newsprint and paper is partly to blame. However, many of the big companies like TimberWest have made conscious business decisions not to reinvest in modern coastal mills and instead go for the low value, easy dollar from raw-log exports. Though domestic buyers are supposed to have the right of first refusal to buy B.C. logs, exports continue to climb.
The B.C. government recently announced changes to the Forest Act that will give the province more control over forest tenures, and Premier John Horgan has even hinted at bringing back appurtenance.
Speaking at the annual Truck Loggers Association last January, Horgan noted that “employment on the coast has declined by about 40 per cent.
“Lumber production has dropped by 45 per cent, pulp production by 50 per cent,” Horgan said. “At the same time, log exports from Crown land have increased by nearly tenfold.”
But Parfitt believes a return to a local manufacturing regulation that died more than 15 years ago is a long shot and says the industry would likely fight it. He says he hasn’t heard anything substantive coming out of Victoria that will stem the tide of raw-log exports, curtail the cutting of increasingly rare Island old growth or stimulate investment in modern local mills, measures environmental groups like the Ancient Forest Alliance and the Wilderness Committee have been calling for in recent years. Pam Agnew is spokesperson for Vancouver-based Mosaic Forest Management, the firm that assumed management of timberlands owned by both TimberWest and Island Timberlands following an agreement struck in 2018. She is clear about the direction of these Island timber companies.
“We don’t manufacture. We sell logs to mills,” Agnew says.
According to Parfitt, there’s also a socio-demographic shift at play in once raw-resource-dependent communities that has resulted in forestry jobs and policy dropping from its position as public issue number 1 like it was back in the 1980s and early 1990s when the War in the Woods raged in Clayoquot Sound.
“Many people are moving to Vancouver Island to retire or for other lifestyle attributes like recreation,” Parfitt says. “The last thing they want is a new mill to open up in town.”
Forestry is Still a Factor
Still, all things considered, forestry hasn’t faded from Vancouver Island’s balance sheet. There are currently 140 wood-processing operations, employing 4,000 people and generating more than $1.7 billion in annual revenues, according to the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance (VIEA).
At a June 20 Island Wood Industry Forum sponsored by VIEA, the hot topics were improving access to fibre and stimulating value-added manufacturing, with specific focus on pressure-treated lumber, glulam and cross-laminated timber and wood-fibre insulation.
In April, as part of its forest-industry rejuvenation efforts, VIEA announced a $100,000 Waste Wood Recovery Project that will explore ways to better sort waste wood and make more of it available to manufacturers. The message from VIEA is that despite the transformation of Port Renfrew from resource to tall-tree tourism, there are still many Vancouver Island workers who derive a living directly or indirectly from forestry.
It’s bread and butter for Paul Beltgens, an industry veteran whose family founded Paulcan and Jemico Enterprises in Chemainus in the mid 1980s, specializing in the milling of both softwoods and local hardwoods, like maple and alder.
The exodus of manufacturing jobs in the form of raw-log exports angers Beltgens, who has worked in the forest sector since he was a teenager on the MacMillan Bloedel payroll.
“The bottom line is, I don’t like to see logs exported,” says Beltgens, from his Chemainus operation, which employs roughly 40 people when it’s going full throttle.
“We used to be a leader in the world, and now our big forest companies are owned by pension plans.”
Beltgens currently pays $90 per cubic metre for raw logs (roughly one telephone pole’s worth of wood). He sells products across the world, including in Mexico, China and Vietnam. He’s also made a side career over the past few decades managing the installation of sawmills in countries such as Russia, Bolivia, New Guinea and Costa Rica, built in part from machinery and infrastructure cannibalized from mothballed B.C. mills.
A New Vision
There is a bright spot in Vancouver Island’s forest economy currently shining on Port Alberni. In 2017, San Group, a diverse Langley-based forest products manufacturer, with operations around the world, bought Coulson Forest Products’ specialty cedar mill in Port Alberni. Now the company is nearing completion of a new $70 million processing facility that will have a finger-joining, lamination and small-log line capable of milling logs with three-inch diameter tops.
The San Group plant will add more than 130 high-paying jobs to the local economy. Port Alberni hasn’t seen this kind of investment in the local forest products sector in decades. (Since the economic boom days in the 80s and 90s, sawmill production has dropped more than 20 per cent, and pulp and paper is down close to 60 per cent.)
While many coastal operators double down on log exports or churning out dimension lumber, the San Group is focusing on value-added products and technology geared toward smaller second growth.
“When you butcher an animal, you try to use every part of the animal,” says company president Kamal Sanghera. “We’re trying to use every part of the log instead of selling two-by-fours and two-by-sixes. We don’t go with the grain, we go against it.”
The San Group sells to 26 countries around the world, and instead of milling a product and trying to force it down the market’s throat, Sanghera says first they ask their customers what they want. Consequently, the San Group plans to produce a wide range of products from its Port Alberni plant, from window components and fascia to soffit material, bevel and channel siding.
“We’re developing markets and technology to add value,” Sanghera says. “As a Canadian, I feel we should be developing something to bring manufacturing jobs back to Canada.”
Sanghera calls the exodus of logs from B.C. a “travesty,” and San Group is proof positive that entrepreneurial spirit can still breathe new life into forestry.
That’s music to the Port Alberni economy.
“There hasn’t been a lot of good news in the forest sector around here since I came to Port Alberni six years ago,” says Bill Collette, CEO of the Port Alberni Chamber of Commerce. “The San Group is moving fast, and they will have a significant positive impact.”
While Port Alberni experiences a mini-forest economy renaissance, Port Renfrew is headed in a different direction.
Changing Times
Back in the early 2000s, if you had asked Watt if he could ever see himself sitting on a chamber of commerce board, he probably would have laughed in your face. Times change. Today, he’s on the board of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, an indication that this once logging- and fishing-dependent community is looking at forests through a different lens.
Between the Avatar Grove, Big Lonely Doug, Red Creek Fir, San Juan Spruce and the Jurassic Grove, Port Renfrew is enjoying a mini-tourism boom. The community has become a poster child for tall-tree tourism. However, old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley southwest of Port Alberni continues to put Vancouver Island forest practices in the cross hairs of conservationists and on the agendas of coastal communities.
Though the Port Renfrew chamber hasn’t quantified the economic impact, president Dan Hager says anecdotal evidence and conversations with tourists over coffee at Tommy’s Diner suggests it’s significant, alongside sport fishing.
“We’re getting people from Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States who are coming here for the trees. For many of them, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Hager says.
And many chambers of commerce on the Island are voicing support for old-growth forest protection. Fifteen Vancouver Island and Gulf Island chambers of commerce met with provincial officials on July 30 to urge stronger protection of “old-growth rainforest to the economic benefit of tourism-based communities,’ among a half-dozen other coast-specific concerns.
Previous to that, in 2015, the Port Renfrew chamber called for the halt of controversial logging in the Walbran. Hager, born and raised in Saskatchewan, doesn’t consider himself a “tree hugger.” He’s more of a pragmatist, willing to look at trees in a different light.
“We went against the grain when we said as a community that forestry is not the only way to get value out of tall trees,” Hager says. “It’s like bear viewing versus bear hunting. If you leave these trees standing, people will come again and again. Cut them down, and you’ll make some stuff, but the forest will never be the same.”
This article is from the October/November 2019 issue of Douglas.
See the original article
Times Colonist
September 1, 2019
The expanse of ragged stumps, stretching up a steep slope beside Schmidt Creek, on northeast Vancouver Island, serves as a graphic example of controversies over old-growth clearcuts approved by B.C. Timber Sales and a growing push-back from those who want better protection for intact forests.
The clearcut, above the world-famous Robson Bight orca-rubbing beaches, has drawn the ire of conservation groups, whale biologists and First Nations, provoking questions about how B.C. Timber Sales is assessing parcels of old growth for auction
B.C. Timber Sales, which was created in 2003 by the Liberal government, manages 20 per cent of the province’s annual allowable cut, making it the biggest tenure holder in B.C. This year, the government agency plans to auction off about 600 hectares more old-growth forest on Vancouver Island, an area about 1.5 times the size of Stanley Park. The agency has plans to auction off another 8,800 hectares in future years.
Old-growth trees are at least 250 years old and are prized by timber companies. As they become increasingly rare, B.C. Timber Sales is auctioning off parcels close to communities or recreation areas, meaning conflict is more likely, said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club B.C.’s forest and climate campaigner.
“They are running out of places to find timber where they can log without conflict, so they end up pursuing what I call extreme old-growth logging,” Wieting said.
Floods, droughts and fires are also shining a spotlight on the impacts of climate change, made worse by logging.
“These forests provide clean water, clean air and carbon storage,” Wieting said.
The mandate for B.C. Timber Sales puts the standalone agency in a straitjacket, Wieting said.
“Auction 20 per cent of B.C. volume no matter what. So, instead of using B.C. Timber Sales to develop and implement best practices in the midst of climate and species emergencies, they behave like a machine designed with a single purpose: find the fibre,” he said.
That is not how B.C. Timber Sales sees its mandate and, in an emailed response to questions, a spokesperson said forestry practices are rooted in the precautionary principle and failing to auction off 20 per cent of the allowable annual cut would “put the integrity of the timber pricing system at risk.”
Still, there is no doubt that many recent logging decisions made by B.C. Timber Sales have provoked community outrage.
In addition to the Schmidt Creek logging, controversies include clearcut logging in the Skagit Doughnut Hole, beside Manning Park, which brought protests from the U.S and accusations that B.C. was breaking an international treaty; plans to log the old growth adjacent to Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, a proposal that was put on hold to allow consultations with the operator of a nearby eco-lodge; and clearcut logging in the Nahmint Valley, west of Port Alberni, where one of the biggest Douglas fir trees in Canada was felled, despite objections from conservation groups.
“The fact that this is being done by the government of B.C. should make everyone’s blood boil,” said Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island campaigner for the Wilderness Committee.
At the Schmidt Creek site, the immediate fear is that landslides and silt will harm the beaches where threatened northern resident killer whales rub themselves on the smooth pebbles.
“When you take that much wood and forest off a hillside, it’s a physical certainty that there will be earth erosion either from a major rainfall or from cumulative erosion,” said Mark Worthing, a Sierra Club B.C. climate and conservation campaigner, who visits Schmidt Creek regularly and dives in the water around the rubbing beaches.
When Worthing visited Schmidt Creek in June, he was horrified to see the aftermath of logging, which had been carried out by Lamare Group of Port McNeill. The timber rights had been bought at auction last year from B.C. Timber Sales by Super-Cut Lumber Industries of Langley for more than $13 million.
“It was like a punch in the gut. They are just hammering this poor little valley,” Worthing said.
Orca researcher Paul Spong, whose OrcaLab research station is on nearby Hanson Island, believes the logging will inevitably affect the rubbing beaches, which he describes as a massage parlour for whales, and he fears the cultural activity, passed down through generations of whales, could be disrupted.
There are already changes to the beaches and observers say whales are visiting for shorter periods of time.
It is difficult to understand why B.C. Timber Sales would approve logging in the area, especially as the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve was created in 1982 largely to protect the rubbing beaches, Spong said.
“We are very concerned because it is so central to the whales. … It’s outrageous that they are logging old-growth trees on steep slopes. I think they should just be left alone. It’s just common sense when you’re coming to the last of the old growth,” Spong said.
“I totally expected an NDP government to do things differently and, with respect to forestry and logging old growth, they are not doing things differently. It’s business as usual. It’s beyond disappointing.”
In an emailed statement, B.C. Timber Sales said the beaches were examined in 2016 by a regional geomorphologist who concluded that “carefully planned harvesting in Schmidt Creek is unlikely to affect the rubbing beaches.”
Initial observations suggest the beaches are eroding due to wave action, likely because of sea-level rise and severe storms, and there is no evidence of sediment affecting the beaches, the statement said.
While opponents of the clearcutting say silt will inevitably wash down on to the beach, B.C. Timber Sales said the logging is taking place in a side valley on slopes that are not directly above the beaches and that the Ecological Reserve includes 467 upland hectares, which protect the orca habitat.
Then there is the complicated question of Indigenous consent, with critics claiming that logging companies and B.C. Timber Sales are picking and choosing which Indigenous groups to consult.
Chief Rande Cook, known as Makwala, who heads the Ma’amtagila First Nation, said Schmidt Creek is in Tlowitsis-Ma’amtagila territory and he was devastated by the logging.
“I have never seen so many yellow cedar logs and there were some culturally modified trees that were cut down,” said Cook, who was not consulted about the logging plans.
There are long-standing differences of opinion between the Tlowitsis and Ma’amtagila people, Cook said.
“These people only want to consult with the First Nations they know they can get a pro-business outcome with,” he said.
In a statement, B.C. Timber Sales says the area had an archaeological overview assessment, a member of the Tlowtsis First Nation took part in field work during preliminary field reconnaissance and no culturally modified trees or areas with archaeological potential were identified.
The statement also says B.C. Timber Sales has adopted strategies to protect suitable red and yellow cedar for cultural purposes and to protect the province’s biggest trees, meaning more than 300 cedar and 66 legacy trees have been protected from harvesting.
Jobs and money are at the heart of many of the decisions and B.C. Timber Sales says “approximately 8,000 people are directly and another 10,000 people are indirectly employed as a result of BCTS’s auction of timber, as well, the net revenue generated from these auctions are returned to the government so as to support many of the programs the government offers the citizens of B.C. Curtailing BCTS operations would have significant impacts on all British Columbians.”
More than twice the number of British Columbians work in tourism as in forestry and, on the streets, there are demonstrations demanding that the province halt old-growth logging, backed by a petition organized by Sierra Club B.C. and Leadnow, signed by 20,000 people. A letter last year from 223 international scientists urged the province to take immediate action to protect B.C.’s temperate rainforest, and the B.C. Green Party is among the groups asking for a moratorium on old-growth logging on Vancouver Island.
Sonia Furstenau, Green Party house leader, finds it disappointing that old-growth logging is continuing at the same rate as under the previous Liberal government.
“While there seems to be an acknowledgement that the world and conditions have changed very quickly, the practices aren’t [changing],” Furstenau said.
She would like to see community forests form the basis of future forest policy. That would allow decisions to be made with input from residents and First Nations so the community is not undermined by decisions made at the provincial level, Furstenau said.
Climate change also needs to be factored into all decisions, she added.
“We can’t just continue with business as usual and then see what happens. We know what’s going to happen,” she said.
The B.C. government has asked for input to improve the Forest and Range Practices Act and the University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre, in a report for Sierra Club B.C., is calling for the same level of protection used in the Great Bear Rainforest to be used as a model for all the province’s forests — something the NDP included in its election promises.
The report also asks for more Indigenous input with agreements incorporating traditional ecological knowledge in all decisions.
“The B.C government should partner with the federal government to enable Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and contribute to the international and national commitment to protect 17 per cent of the land by 2020,” it says.
Many are puzzled that logging practices have not changed under the NDP. TJ Watt, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, believes one difficulty is that there have been few staff changes within the Forests Ministry.
“I think the NDP is being given the same information around the incorrect idea that old-growth forests aren’t endangered and there’s nothing to worry about … when, in fact, we know that is not the case,” he said.
Furstenau agrees there has been little change within the ministry. “It’s very hard to change course in a radical or transformative way when you are still getting advice from the same people,” she said.
Estimates of the remaining old growth in B.C and the amount that is protected differ wildly, mainly depending on how old growth is defined.
The Environmental Law Centre report says that, across the province, in high-productivity areas such as valley bottoms, less than 10 per cent of the original old growth remains and an even smaller amount is formally protected.
“On Vancouver Island, only about a fifth of the original productive old-growth rainforest remains unlogged. More than 30 per cent of what remained standing in 1993 has been destroyed in just the last 25 years,” it says.
Many of the contentious areas are on Vancouver Island, and Forests Minister Donaldson has said that 50 per cent of old growth on Vancouver Island, or more than 520,000 hectares, is protected. But Wieting counters that Donaldson is referring to half the remaining old growth — therefore, the more old growth that is logged, the higher the percentage of protected forest.
Watt said provincial figures include low-productivity forests that grow at high elevation or in bogs.
“Almost 80 per cent of the original productive old-growth forest and over 90 per cent of the low-elevation, high-productivity stands where the largest trees grow has already been logged,” Watt said.
This article first appeared in The Narwhal, an award-winning online magazine focused on the natural world (thenarwhal.ca)
See the piece the Times Colonist here
Parks Canada also releases progress update on 75 commitments to prioritize ecological integrity and improve commemoration of historical places
VICTORIA, Aug. 19, 2019 /CNW/ – Canadians cherish nature and depend on it for clean air and water, vibrant communities, and solutions to climate change. Home to the longest coastline in the world; one quarter of the earth’s wetlands and boreal forests; 20 percent of its fresh water; and precious habitat for birds, fish, and mammals, Canada has a special responsibility to protect nature today and for generations to come.
That’s why the Government of Canada launched Canada’s $1.35 billion Nature Legacy initiative, the single-largest investment in nature conservation by a government in Canada’s history. Canada’s Nature Legacy will help double the amount of nature protected on land and in our oceans, transform how government protects and recovers species at risk, and advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Conservation also contributes to Canada’s economy through tourism and jobs, and it can bring benefits 10 to 20 times greater than the original investment.
Today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, announced the first in a series of 67 conservation initiatives launching in every province and territory, as part of Canada’s Nature Legacy initiative. These projects are supported by the $175 million federal Canada Nature Fund’s Target 1 Challenge, to expand a connected network of protected and conserved areas across Canada.
Minister McKenna announced $3.9 million in federal funding to help the Tahltan Central Government work with its members and other stakeholders on a land-use planning process that provides further clarity and certainty across their territory in northwestern British Columbia. The Tahltan Nation have been leaders in working with British Columbia to advance environmental stewardship and protection along with strong economic development focused on mining and its related business. The Tahltan Nation’s territory is home to various species at risk and culturally significant boreal forest watershed and wetland habitat. Conservation efforts in the region would enhance connectivity with the Yellowstone to Yukon corridor, the Great Bear Rainforest, and other protected areas.
Further details about other projects moving forward under the Canada Nature Fund’s Target 1 Challenge will be released as agreements with local partners are finalized.
Minister McKenna also announced that the Government of Canada intends to invest through Canada’s $100 million Natural Heritage Conservation Program, in advancing the protection of additional hectares of land and water in Clayoquot Sound, in partnership with the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations and non-profit organizations. This support will help to connect Strathcona Provincial Park with the outer coastal provincial parks and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The investment will also protect important habitat for over 15 federally listed species at risk, support the land-use visions of the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, and enhance their capacity to fully participate in the process.
While making the announcement on conservation initiatives, Minister McKenna took the opportunity to release a report card on the progress Parks Canada is making on implementing the 75 recommendations arising from the 2017 Minister’s Round Table Let’s Talk Parks, Canada!, the largest public engagement in Parks Canada’s history. One of the key recommendations was the establishment of an independent working group focused on ensuring that the principles of ecological and commemorative integrity are the first priority when making decisions at Parks Canada. Dr. Peter Robinson, previously the CEO of Mountain Equipment Co-op and the David Suzuki Foundation, led the independent working group and will continue to advise Parks Canada on the ongoing implementation of the commitments. The independent working group’s report released today will help to ensure that national parks can continue to be diverse and healthy ecosystems for the future, and national historic sites can continue to tell the many stories that have shaped our country and our shared heritage.
Quotes
“Nature is one of Canada’s most precious resources. The conservation projects we are announcing today, including a commitment to pursuing expanded protection for the iconic Clayoquot Sound, are significant steps toward doubling the amount of nature we are protecting in Canada’s lands and oceans. By working to protect nature with Indigenous Peoples and other partners across the country, we can support vibrant communities, reverse the alarming decline of plants and animals, and address the impacts of climate change—ensuring our kids and grandkids can also experience the incredible natural landscapes and wilderness we cherish today.”
– Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Canada
“British Columbians are creating an impressive natural legacy through promoting sustainability and protecting our rich biodiversity. This investment by the federal government in coordination with Indigenous nations and local communities creates a better future for our children and grandchildren. As we move forward, we will continue to work with our partners to make sure these investments and projects enhance British Columbia’s efforts to protect our natural heritage.”
– George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Province of British Columbia
Quick facts
See the original article here.
Ha-Shilth-Sa
July 30th, 2019
Some of the largest trees in B.C. have gained protection, thanks to an announcement from the provincial government in mid-July, including at least eight giants in Nuu-chah-nulth territory on Vancouver Island.
On July 17 B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development listed 54 trees that were previously unprotected will not be preserved from logging. These trees are on Crown land and among the largest in the province, as they are listed in the Big Tree Registry compiled by the University of British Columbia.
Some of these trees are in Nuu-chah-nulth territory on western Vancouver Island, including a Sitka Spruce near Port Renfrew that measures 62.5 metres in height with a diameter of 3.71 metres, another 49-metre Sitka spruce on the south portion of Meares Island and a western red cedar on the north part of Meares measuring 46.9 metres in height and 5.64 metres in diameter. Also listed among those to be protected is the iconic Big Lonely Doug, a 70.2 metre Douglas fir that was left to be the only tree standing in a clearcut near Port Renfrew.
In a measure to prevent similar scenarios in the future, each of the 54 trees will be surrounded by a one-hectare buffer zone that will also be protected, according to the province.
“These trees represent an important part of B.C.’s natural heritage, and British Columbians have said they want them preserved,” stated Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson. “What we are announcing today is the start of a broader conservation about the future of old-growth management in this province.”
The announcement follows growing concern last year over accelerated old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley south of Sproat Lake. In May 2018 the Ancient Forest Alliance discovered a Douglas fir measuring over three metres in diameter that was logged in the area, dimensions that would rank the tree among the largest of its species in Canada. Over the last three years BC Timber Sales has auctioned over 300 hectares of old-growth in the Nahmint Valley for harvest, including five timber licences that were sold without the consent of the local Tseshaht First Nation.
In November the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council called on the provincial government “to work with them in slowing down, or even stopping, the rapid disappearance of old-growth forests within Nuu-chah-nulth territories.”
“Old growth forests are valuable ecosystems than can never be reproduced,” stated NTC Vice-President Andy Callicum in a media release. “The forests play an important role in protecting wildlife throughout the winter, and for providing Nuu-chah-nulth peoples the medicines and roots contained in them.”
In Victoria last April the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and their supporters celebrated the 35-year anniversary of Meares Island being declared a tribal park. During the event Tla-o-qui-aht carver Joe Martin spoke of the importance of using only what one needs from the forest.
“We’re not allowed to just go and take a tree,” he said. “There’s a protocol with it: you have to go visit that site several times.”
“Sit with it for a long time to make sure there’s no eagle’s nest, wolf dens or bear dens around,” added Martin. “Mother nature will provide for our need, but not our greed.”
But this might not align with the economic aims of BC Timber Sales, which declares its vision as “to be an effective timber marketer generating wealth through sustainable resource management.” BCTS operates in 33 communities across the province and supports over 8,000 jobs through its sales and management of Crown forest land. The logging of old growth continues to be a big part of these operations.
“As with previous years, the amount of harvest being auctioned by BC Timber Sales on the coast this year is approximately 50 per cent old growth and will continue to be for the foreseeable future,” stated a BCTS spokesperson in an email to Ha-Shilth-Sa. “This is what the timber supply, economic base and community employment across the coast is based on.”
see the original article
Victoria News
July 22, 2019
Ever heard the saying “can’t see the forest for the trees?”
It’s when you are standing too close to something and lack the broader perspective and are not able to see the big picture. Or, if you are looking at things one at a time, you might not see their connection with all the others.
You can use this saying as an analogy for literally any situation, so it’s deeply ironic that it arises in the recent announcement by the BC NDP provincial government that they are going to protect 54 individual old-growth trees plus the hectare immediately in their vicinity, or their “friends.”
I won’t complain about the 54 trees they are protecting. It’s a big victory that the province is not allowing the entire forest to be logged right up to the ancient creature’s stem, like we see with “Big Lonely Doug.” However, it’s disturbing that there is so little willingness to step up and do what actually needs to be done. Chiefly, we need to protect the integrity and function of ecosystems, not trees.
As we heard consistently throughout the Spring legislative session, the Minister of Forests, and his government, see only the value of the fibre. The value of a standing old-growth forest seems to be only in its economic potential for it to become a clearcut. That’s it. The government’s message box is an attempt to have it both ways, maintain the status quo and change. The direct quote from Minister Doug Donaldson from Question Period is,
“We’re committed to protecting old-growth forests as well as continuing with a vibrant forestry sector — the 24,000 jobs that rely on old-growth forests in this province. And we’re undertaking an old-growth management plan, and we’ll be conducting public engagement soon on that plan.”
It appears this is the first step in the development of the management plan. The public consultation is coming soon.
READ ALSO: Big Lonely Doug among largest old-growth trees now on protection list
Unfortunately, forestry “management plans” are actually a euphemism for tree cutting plans.
It’s simply not good enough to protect individual trees. What we need is watershed management plans or ecosystem management plans. As our world changes around the last remaining old-growth forests, they are quickly becoming far more valuable than just the amount we can make by turning them into two by fours. It’s the oxygen we breathe and the water supply of our communities. One ministry logs and another has to swoop in and fix the mess with a $150 million engineered solution; there is seemingly no connection between the two — except, for the future of your community and your tax dollars.
What hasn’t changed is the government’s message box. Even with a change in Minister and a change in government, the message box does not change. Perhaps it’s time to step back and take a look at the forest for the trees.
Adam Olsen is the BC Green Party MLA for Saanich North and the Islands
Read the original article
