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Some say the fate of British Columbia’s old-growth forests rests in the balance

Jun 5 2016/in News Coverage

Here's a new article featuring renowned forest ecologist Dr. Andy MacKinnon about the fate of BC's endangered old-growth forests. Take note that the forest industry and BC government are spinning the situation about old-growth forests to make it appear as if they are not endangered and that they are already well protected – this is completely false, and they do this by including vast areas of stunted marginal non-commercial stands (bog forests, high elevation and far northern old-growth forests on steep rock faces with small trees, etc.) with the productive old-growth stands with big trees that have been heavily logged, and by combining the southern rainforest (Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland) with its different ecosystems, higher levels of logging, and far lower protection levels, with the northern rainforests (Great Bear Rainforest) where 20 years of boycotts by environmental groups of logging companies in the area resulted in a far greater level of protection in a more intact region of the province, ie. they are two different regions.

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Saanich -— The Douglas fir Andy MacKinnon leans against is 40 metres tall. It’s likely more than 500 years old and its fire-scarred trunk is almost two metres in diameter.

In most other countries, the tree would be the largest in the land, says MacKinnon, a forest ecologist who spent three decades with British Columbia’s government researching old-growth forests.

At Francis/King Regional Park, minutes from Victoria, the park’s trees are protected from logging, but about 150 kilometres west of Victoria, old-growth forests with 1,000-year-old trees twice the size of those in the park are being cut down every day, said MacKinnon.

The world’s largest trees face dangers similar to elephants, whales and bison that have been hunted to the brink of extinction, he said.

Right now, MacKinnon said it’s open season on B.C.’s old-growth forests outside of parks or protected areas.

“You hear debates about how much old growth we’d like out on the landscape and some people will say ‘X’ and some people will say ‘Y,’ but I think most people will agree that when you are down to less than one per cent, that’s too little,” he said.

MacKinnon is behind a push by some communities, business groups and politicians to stop logging in old-growth forests. The B.C. Chamber of Commerce recently endorsed a resolution to increase protection of old-growth forests where they have a greater economic benefit if they are left standing.

Port Renfrew, northwest of Victoria, has reported an increase in tourism in Avatar Grove, a 50-hectare section of old-growth forest named after the Hollywood adventure movie.

The Port Renfrew area is also known for Canada’s largest living trees, including a 70-metre tall Douglas fir named “Big Lonely Doug” by environmentalists because it was the only tree left standing after a logging clear cut.

The B.C. government is taking steps to protect forests, including the Great Bear Rainforest protection agreement. It will protect 85 per cent of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest from logging in an area on the central and northern coast of the province.

There are 1,000-year-old western red cedars and 90-metre tall Sitka spruce trees in the rainforest, which is also home to the white kermode bear.

Environmentalists, forest companies and First Nations cheered the deal as a model of compromise after two decades of protests and difficult negotiations.

The environmental applause continued with a new provincial park east of Prince George that’s the world’s only inland temperate rainforest. Cedar and hemlock trees were slated for logging, but local citizens, First Nations and academics built a series of trails into the area known as the Ancient Forest where thousands now marvel at trees with trunks measuring 16 metres in circumference.

Rick Jeffery, president of Coast Forest Products Association, said 55 per cent of B.C.’s coastal forests are under some form of protection from logging.

The days of leaving one tree in a clear cut are gone, said Jeffery, whose organization represents major forest companies that employ 38,000 forest workers in the province.

“This isn’t a jobs versus environment thing,” he said. “We can have both if we do this smartly.”

Steve Thomson, B.C.’s forests, lands and natural resource operations minister, said the Great Bear and Ancient Forest agreements highlight the government’s commitment to protecting old-growth forests.

“It’s about protecting important values and making sure we have that balance that continues to provide jobs and employment in the forest sector.”

The Ancient Forest is considered a natural wonder, a temperate rainforest inland, hundreds of kilometres away from similar coastal rainforests. The province said it would work with the federal government to declare the forest a UNESCO world heritage site.

“Scientifically, the trees are pretty amazing,” said Darwyn Coxson, a plant ecologist at the University of Northern British Columbia. “They really shouldn’t be there.”

Coxson said because the trees take 1,000 years to grow, it’s prudent to focus on what is in the forests now.

“We have a finite supply and the ones that are out there are realistically all you are ever going to have.”

B.C.’s old-growth forests by the numbers

— British Columbia’s old-growth forests boast huge trees that are more than 1,000 years old, but many fear their days are numbered. Here are some numbers on the trees:

— The government says there are 55 million hectares of forests in B.C.

— Twenty-five million hectares are old-growth forests.

— Four million hectares of old-growth hectares are fully protected from logging.

— The Red Creek fir near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island is listed as the world’s largest Douglas fir tree at 73.8 metres tall and its trunk has a diameter of 4.2 metres.

— The Cheewaht Lake cedar in Pacific Rim National Park on the southwest edge of Vancouver Island has a circumference of 18.34 metres. It is estimated to be between 2,000 and 2,500 years old.

Editorial: Good ecology is good economics

Jun 4 2016/in News Coverage

What’s good for the environment is good for the economy. That’s a concept most British Columbians embrace and it’s what the B.C. Chamber of Commerce appears to have decided in seeking protection for some old-growth forests.

The chamber voted this week to ask the province to expand protection of old-growth forests in areas where they have, or likely would have, greater economic value if left standing.

The resolution also called on the province to enact new regulations — incorporating such strategies as an old-growth management area, wildlife-habitat area or land-use order — with an eye on eventually legislating permanent protection through provincial-park or conservancy status.

The doesn’t mean the chamber of commerce has suddenly become an environmental-advocacy group — it still has its eye firmly on the economy. The proposal applies only to old-growth forests in areas accessible for tourism — the chamber still supports loggers’ rights to harvest timber for more remote forest stands, even if they have ecological value.

Still, it’s an acknowledgment that forests can have value beyond the amount of timber than can be taken out of them.

Natural resources have always been important to B.C. — logging, mining and fishing have long been mainstays of the province’s economy. But B.C. is also known for its incredible natural environment, and the province’s two aspects often collide.

The conflict between the economy and the environment reached a peak in the mid-1990s, when protests and blockades were set up to prevent the clear-cutting of old-growth forest in Clayoquot Sound. It was a tipping point that brought about a major shift in policies and attitudes.

The timber industry was no longer “king” in B.C., and non-aboriginals began increasingly to see through the eyes of peoples for whom the forest has been home for millennia. It moved us closer to a balance between protecting the environment and sustainably harvesting its resources.

It’s an uneasy balance and, sadly, is often not achieved, but at least “sustainability” and “environmentally friendly” are widely accepted as worthwhile goals. It’s becoming more widely accepted that a healthy environment and a healthy economy are not mutually exclusive.

In fact, as the B.C. Chamber of Commerce indicates in its motion, protecting the environment can be good for business.

Old-growth forests and other pristine areas of B.C. attract an increasing number of visitors, and will continue to generate jobs forever. When an area is logged off, the jobs are gone until the forest regenerates, and that takes a long, long time. We should remember, too, that forests are about more than esthetics or recreation — they are vital to the health of our watersheds and even the air we breathe.

Businesses are increasingly recognizing that environmental sustainability is not only good business, it is essential. More and more investors are demanding that corporations be environmentally responsible as well as fiscally responsible.

They have recognized what we must all recognize — that if we don’t look after the environment, we won’t have an economy.

The Economics of Protecting Old-Growth Forest: An Analysis of Spotted Owl Habitat in the Fraser Timber Supply Area of British Columbia

Jun 4 2016/in Announcements

A 2008 study from SFU showed that old-growth forests in the southwestern mainland of BC are more valuable if left standing than if logged, based on their value for tourism, recreation, carbon, and non-timber forest products. Vancouver Island has even more old-growth forest tourism and carbon rich forests than the Fraser Timber Supply Area on the mainland where the study focused, and it's likely that any such economic analysis would show even stronger results for the economic case to protect our old-growth forests on the Island. See the study: https://davidsuzuki.org/publications/reports/2008/the-economics-of-protecting-old-growth-forest-an-analysis-of-spotted-owl-habitat/ And see the full resolution of the BC Chamber of Commerce calling for expanded protection of old-growth forests here:
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1009

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This document is a detailed economic study of forests inhabited by the endangered spotted owl. The study, led by Duncan Knowler, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University's School of Resource and Environmental Management, looks at the economics of protecting old-growth forests inhabited or known to have been home to the spotted owl, one of the most endangered forest-dwelling bird species on the North American continent.

The goal of this study was to take a first step towards a rigorous examination of the main land use options for coastal old growth forest with the intent of determining which one is optimal for society. Its authors do not estimate the value of all costs and benefits associated with the different land use options; instead, they focus on estimating the forest values related to timber, non-timber forest products, recreation and carbon sequestration/storage. They do not attempt to estimate other ecosystem services such as watersheds, nutrient cycling, and control of soil erosion. The report assesses the opportunity costs of preservation of old growth forests with adjustment for these selected potential benefits from preservation. As such, the study is concerned with spotted owl conservation but not exclusively so. The study considers a specific forest area, the Fraser Timber Supply Area (TSA), which is located in southwestern British Columbia to the east and northeast of Vancouver.

The results suggest that under a broad range of parameter assumptions there would be a net benefit rather than an opportunity cost associated with increased preservation of old growth forests. In other words, the benefits of preservation in terms of increased recreational opportunities, non-timber forest products, and carbon sequestration and storage outweigh the costs in terms of lost producer surplus from timber harvesting.

A short summary of this report, Dollars and Sense: The Economic Rationale to Protect Spotted Owl Habitat in BC, is also available.

See here to download PDF of report