Blog Archive Layout

Big trees bring out our inner tree hugger

Sep 26 2014/in News Coverage

We go searching for them, we hug them, we’re often speechless in their presence, but what makes big trees so special? Sally Aitken, a professor of forest and conservation sciences, explains the connection we feel to these majestic giants of the forest. The Faculty of Forestry now runs the BC Big Tree Registry, a database of the biggest specimens in the province.

Why do we love big trees?

They are the largest organisms that we can see, touch and feel. They’re often very old and the idea of something that lives much longer than our human lifespan is interesting. We have trees that were around before our parents or great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents were born. These massive and beautiful organisms represent a biological legacy. We’ve harvested a lot of our old forests and those big trees that remain become more precious because there are fewer of them around.

What makes B.C.’s big trees unique?

The zone that extends from California to B.C. is one of two places where we find the biggest and tallest trees in the world. Our coastal rainforests harbour some absolutely enormous tress and it has to do with the conditions we find here–mild year-round temperatures and lots of rainfall. We have enormous Douglas-fir, Western redcedar, and Sitka spruce. The province is home to 50 different tree species and for some of those species we have the world’s largest specimens. We have the largest trees in Canada by far and ours are almost as big as the biggest trees in the world, the redwoods of California.

People are able to nominate trees into the BC Big Tree Registry. Are new big ones still being found?

It’s very exciting that trees are still getting nominated that are champion trees. Recently a group on the Sunshine Coast found some of the largest mountain hemlocks that have ever been observed. The sadder tales are the ones of trees like the ‘Big Lonely Doug,’ the second largest Douglas-fir in the province.

A lot of nominations come in from people who work in forestry and in logging. These people find trees in areas that people don’t normally walk through. Of course, there are also a number of people, including those on the Big Tree Committee, whose hobby is finding big trees. Big tree hunters love to go out to areas that haven’t been explored and look for big trees.

One member of our committee said there are big ones that are still out there to find. We want to make anyone a big tree hunter or nominator and we’ve made changes to the BC Big Tree Registry so that anyone can nominate a big tree.

What can we learn from older trees?

We know that the mortality rates of old trees are increasing with climate change. The registry helps us and citizens monitor the health of these giants over time. People will tell us if a big tree blows over, loses its top, or dies. The registry also produces data on the type of ecosystems that these trees are found in, and this information can guide certain research. We need to know where these big trees are so we can conserve them, as a biological legacy of the past, as important members of forest ecosystems today, and for future generations.

As part of National Forest Week the Faculty of Forestry is holding an event on Thursday, Sep. 25 to celebrate the BC Big Tree Registry that will include a tree climbing demonstration.

See article and view video of Climbing Big Lonely Doug at: https://news.ubc.ca/2014/09/24/big-trees-bring-out-our-inner-tree-hugger/

UBC to track B.C.’s largest trees: re-launches database

Sep 26 2014/in News Coverage

UBC has re-launched their big tree database, cataloging the biggest trees in B.C.

The registry has been revamped and is now available online to the general public.

Users can search for big trees near their homes using interactive maps.

With the new database, anyone can nominate a big tree for verification by a tree expert.

To view the database, go to bigtrees.forestry.ubc.ca

VIEW VIDEO at: https://globalnews.ca/news/1583769/ubc-to-track-b-c-s-largest-trees-re-launches-database/

OPINION: Torrance Coste: No right time to create more tree-farm licences

Sep 25 2014/in News Coverage

Have you ever had a friend who just won’t listen when everyone is telling them to get out of an unhealthy relationship? That’s what comes to mind when I think of the B.C. government’s relationship with tree-farm licences. No matter how many British Columbians speak out to say they’re a bad idea, every year the provincial government renews its push for more TFLs.

In 2013, the Minister of Forests quietly tried to rush a bill through the legislature to enable conversions of public-forest lands from volume-based tenures to area-based tenures, or TFLs. The alarm was raised by First Nations, unions, forestry experts, opposition party members and environmental groups such as the Wilderness Committee, because this would give too much control to giant logging corporations. The backlash and public outcry forced the government to shelve the legislation.

This year, the government hired former B.C. chief forester Jim Snetsinger to lead a review and write a report on how to create more TFLs. The report was released just before the Labour Day long weekend.

First, it’s worth noting a few positives about the report’s release. After receiving it, the government stated it won’t introduce legislation to create more TFLs this year or in the spring of 2015, citing the landmark Tsilhqot’in decision by the Supreme Court as a reason for holding off. The report also recognizes the importance of community support and acknowledges the lack of social licence as an impediment to creating more TFLs.

This is a big shift from past forest policy in B.C., where social licence has been an afterthought, if considered at all.

To many, this is seen as a victory for the thousands of British Columbians who spoke out against TFLs during the review. But on the whole, the report misses the mark, failing to recognize the major shortcomings of existing TFLs and leaving the door open for new ones.

The government’s rationale for more TFLs is to stabilize timber supply and improve the economy in forest communities. But even the government’s own statistics show that these arguments are astonishingly weak.

Between 1990 and 2011, just over a third of the mills in the B.C. Interior closed. On the coast, where TFLs cover far more land than in the Interior, more than half of all mills closed, and that’s without the presence of the mountain pine beetle. On the coast, the proportion of raw log exports (an extremely controversial practice vehemently opposed by forest workers’ unions and environmentalists alike) is a staggering 13 times higher than in the Interior.

The government claims more TFLs will help small community and family-owned forest companies. Again, this is a far cry from the reality. Across B.C., 80 per cent of the harvest from TFLs is done by just five huge companies.

This corporate domination was a primary concern during the review period. Even the CEO of logging giant Canfor acknowledged this, stating public opposition was too strong and that now “is absolutely not the time to make changes in tenure administration.” Snetsinger’s report briefly mentions these concerns, but doesn’t make concrete recommendations that would limit corporate control in B.C.’s forests.

The report then recommends increased consultation, review and monitoring for any new TFLs, all of which probably isn’t possible in today’s understaffed and underfunded Ministry of Forests.

Finally, the report states that the review received lots of input on expanding TFLs, both in favour and opposed. This suggests that there were as many people supporting the government’s agenda as there were in opposition, which is inaccurate. Out of 4,300 written submissions, only 15 were in favour of more TFLs.

There’s no question we need to make some big changes in forest management in B.C. Our top priorities should include banning raw-log exports and prioritizing local jobs, ensuring First Nations have access to forest resources they’ve used since time immemorial and conserving remaining old-growth forests to preserve wildlife, protect drinking water sources and sequester climate-changing carbon.

Increasing corporate control by creating more TFLs would make all of this harder to achieve.

The strongest part of the report is that it acknowledges the public’s desire to address the future of forestry in B.C. Every time we’ve had the chance to comment on forest management, people across the province have called on the government to end the corporate stranglehold on public forests.

We can’t just take a “break” from TFLs until after the spring of 2015. It’s time to end this relationship for good.