News Coverage Archives

A crisis in Island’s old-growth forests

May 11 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

The current state of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island is now being classified by some as an ecological emergency. Putting this in context, over 90 per cent of the biggest and most productive low-elevation old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have now been logged. Of the remaining 9-10 per cent roughly three per cent is protected in parks or Old Growth Management Areas. The rest of it is up for grabs by logging companies.

There are a number of reasons why we should care deeply about this issue, and take steps to protect our old growth forests. First, they provide habitat for many species and, importantly, they are a crucial habitat to a number of species at risk including the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. Second, these forests are substantial carbon sinks and actually take in more carbon than young forests do. Finally, as anyone who has visited Cathedral Grove can attest, they can play a strong role in local eco-tourism efforts.

Unfortunately, productive old-growth forests are also the most profitable to cut down. While the province has a process in place for old-growth management, the problem is that the approach does not distinguish between high and low-productivity forests. This means that they end up protecting small mountaintop trees and let logging happen in the valley bottoms.

Recently there has been a substantial outcry against the proposed logging that could occur in the Walbran Valley. This is the only contiguous prime ancient forest in southern Vancouver Island large enough to provide habitat for certain species at risk. It is exactly the type of forest we need to be protecting.

While the Walbran is a well-known area, there are a number of old growth forests on Vancouver Island that are at risk including: Nootka Island, East Creek, Edinburgh Grove, Tsitika Valley, Nahmint Valley, Southwest Nimpkish, Echo Valley, Maclaughlin Ridge, Horne Mountain and the Cameron Valley Fire Break.

The reality is that most people and local governments on Vancouver Island support increased protection of our remaining old growth forests. City councils, chambers of commerce and the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities have all called for a limit or for increased protections to old-growth logging on Vancouver Island, yet we have not seen anything concrete from our provincial government.

I have written to the minister on this subject and have proposed some solutions, including that the government designate more old-growth forests as off-limits to logging.

In order to see movement on this issue, we need to have open and inclusive conversation with everyone involved. I will continue to raise the issue at every opportunity and I am ever hopeful that we can start down the path of more sustainable development in our forestry industry on Vancouver Island.

Overwhelming beauty: Almost every inch of Port Renfrew, B.C., inspires awe

Apr 17 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

There’s a certain romance in wondering what lies at the end of the road, and when the road in question is so intriguingly serpentine, sharply twisting and turning its way through the dense forest that runs parallel to the Juan de Fuca Strait off Vancouver Island, there’s a thrilling whiff of adventure in the air too. What lies at the end of the West Coast Highway – or Highway 14, to give it its rather more prosaic name – is Port Renfrew. Or, as I’ve taken to describing it: Tofino 20 years ago.

There’s that same arresting, wild West Coast scenery: wind-blasted Sitka spruce, pristine beaches, softly sloping hills bristling with Douglas fir and hemlock, and those awe-inspiringly huge waves breaking on the shore. But unlike Tofino – farther up the Vancouver Island coast – there are no surf shops or art galleries, no youth hostels or ritzy resort hotels, and very little in the way of, well, anything at all, really. Just endless natural beauty and – thanks to a recent renovation – a rather good pub, and surprisingly stylish seaside cottages.

But change is coming to the sleepy town, thanks to developer Ian Laing and family, who last year bought the pub, cabins and commercial land – essentially most of the town – from the former owner of Harlequin Enterprises (of romance-novel fame). They have big plans for the area, including a gift shop, gas station and commercial zone.

However, right now, with no cell signal, and just a two-hour drive from Victoria, it’s the perfect break for city types seeking a West Coast experience without the crowds. I’d gone looking for storms to watch and trails to hike and found them both in spades. However, I didn’t know that it was possible for rain to be this wet – sure, I was in a rain forest, but c’mon! I could feel it soaking through my usually impenetrable Canada Goose parka, a steady stream from my waterlogged tuque dripping down my face. No wonder it’s nicknamed Port Rainfrew.

After settling in at my cabin at Wild Renfrew, which featured a kitchen, bathtub and huge windows overlooking the ocean, I drove to the Botanical Beach Loop Trail, a part-boardwalk hike deep through the forest on a trail constructed by the youth of the Pacheedaht and T’Sou-ke First Nations.

In the heart of winter, plenty of leafy greenery was still on display; ferns glossy from the rain curled on each side of the trail, and mossy old man’s beard hung wispily from the soaring Douglas firs and chunky western red cedars. I was alone among the trees, and for a while, the only sound was the steady thrumming of torrential rain on the forest canopy and the squelch of my boots along the trail, until I started on a downhill section and heard the sea pounding the rocks below.

When I arrived on the beach, I shrieked with delight: Sitka spruce hunched low by the water determinedly growing in the gaps between the rocks – and oh, what rocks. Frilled like a mille-feuille pastry, ridges of shale and quartz jutted through black basalt and smooth sandstone, where centuries of relentless waves had worn deep tidal pools. I’d have loved this as a kid; this wasn’t a sandy beach where you’d build castles and lie snoozing in the sun. This was a beach to wear rain boots in all weathers, puddle-jumping and exploring the miniature world of the tidal-pool aquariums that trapped all kinds of fascinating marine life: urchins, starfish and chiton, until the tide rolled back in again.

Still, on a soaking day like this, I contented myself with picking over the rocks for an hour or so, before climbing the stairs back to the trail. Dried off and warmed up later, I tore into crisp, battered, juicy halibut and piled-high poutine with a decidedly fancy wine-kissed gravy at the Port Renfrew Pub. No ordinary middle-of-nowhere boozer, behind the bar there was an excellent selection of locally distilled spirits from the nearby Sheringham Distillery, and wine from small B.C. suppliers such as Unsworth Vineyards in Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley.

Sleepy after my feast, I curled up by the fire in my wooden cottage and watched entranced as plumes of rain-forest mist swirled up from the trees on the far-off hills, while the waves lashed the beach beyond my window. That night I was lulled to sleep by the sound of rain beating down on the roof, and I could hear the howl of the wind and the crash of the ocean outside.

The stormy deluge continued the next day and I ran through a sudden hailstorm to meet Drea Gibson for a guided hike through Avatar Grove to find “Canada’s Gnarliest Tree.” An ex-local, now living in nearby Shirley, “Day Trip Drea” runs guided hikes and camping trips around the area, and she proved a fun fount of knowledge.

There’s a fascinating back story to Avatar Grove, which only got its name a few years back after the Ancient Forest Alliance campaigned to have the area saved from logging and it was declared a protected area in 2012. Named after James Cameron’s epic 2009 movie, it’s home to some of the most ancient trees on Vancouver Island and just a few minutes drive from Port Renfrew. Unlike Cathedral Grove, a protected old-forest area on the way to Tofino, Avatar Grove is no simple stroll. Although the AFA has been laying down boardwalk to protect the root systems of the trees, there’s still plenty of clambering over logs and navigating slippery slopes before you reach the famous Gnarly Tree. You spend so much time looking where you’re going, in fact, that when you finally stop and look up, it’s more than a little overwhelming. Thoughts crash through your mind in rapid succession: Oh wow, that’s so beautiful. Oh man, that’s so big! And, most importantly: How the hell did anyone even think about logging this treasure?

As Gibson and I stop to take in the jaw-clanging abundance of arboreal beauty, we talk about the attractions of the area: “The really big draw is that there is nothing to do,” she says with a grin. “It’s wild and it’s rugged; you can hike, swim, fish and just have your own spot here.” Throughout the summer, Gibson says, the little town transforms again as the handful of other businesses open for the season, and the cabins and campgrounds are full of visiting families. “It still feels pristine and untouched,” Gibson adds. “I love Port Renfrew because it’s quiet and quaint and gorgeous.”

As we clamber back down to the road again, the rain finally dries up and I’m rewarded with an extraordinary, vivid rainbow emblazoned across the sky.

Later that day I explore the sandy beach at the Pacheedaht Campground; again I’m the only person there to watch bald eagles wheel overhead as I perch on an orange arbutus log. As magic hour swings around, the light turns the gun-metal grey sea into a golden-apricot swath of silk shimmering between the mountains and the shoreline. I sigh with contentment and happiness – and rainbows – found at the end of the road.

Vancouver Island’s old-growth forest an ‘ecological emergency’: Sierra Club

Apr 1 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Looking down from an elevation of 400 kilometres or so, Vancouver Island appears to be covered by a mostly intact jade-green forest from one end to the other. Using a Google Earth mapping tool that incorporates logging data, however, the Sierra Club of B.C. has created a different image – one showing just a few remaining pockets of rich old-growth forest.

“This can be described as an ecological emergency,” said Jens Wieting, forest campaigner for the Sierra Club of B.C. “The last big, contiguous old-growth areas with giant trees, such as the Walbran on the southern island and East Creek on the northern island, should be considered as rare as white rhinos.”

Just one-tenth of Vancouver Island’s most productive old-growth rainforest with the tallest trees remains unlogged, he said, and some of that is currently approved for logging.

The B.C. government states that on Vancouver Island, 46 percent of the forest on Crown land is still covered by old-growth forest, but Mr. Wieting said that figure is inflated because the province includes less productive ecosystems such as bogs or sparsely treed high elevations. What remains, he said, is a patchwork of forests that are too small to ensure biodiversity.

“For Vancouver Island and British Columbia’s south coast, we believe it is urgent to develop a new conservation plan to safeguard the remaining intact areas and to restore older second growth so that we can have some connectivity,” he said in an interview.

In February, environmentalists celebrated an agreement to protect the Great Bear Rainforest on B.C.’s central coast. That historic pact ensures that 85 per cent of the old growth will not be logged, includes economic benefits for First Nations and provides the forest industry with a green seal of approval for the timber it is allowed to harvest in the region.

With that agreement completed, environmental campaigns have shifted to other regions. The Sierra Club of B.C. has highlighted logging of old growth just outside the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park on southern Vancouver Island, and Mr. Wieting said the province should be looking at the objectives of the Great Bear Rainforest there as well.

The province has set aside 1.8 million hectares of old-growth forests on the coast for protection as parks or other conservation areas. Under the Forest and Range Practices Act, it sets targets for old-growth preservation within geographic and biological regions that range from 1 to 28 per cent. It maintains that those parcels are large enough to maintain biodiversity.

However, the independent Forest Practices Board has questioned the government’s stance. In a 2012 report, the board said the province has improved its old-growth forest management plans but concluded there is “a compelling need for government to undertake comprehensive effectiveness monitoring to determine whether or not efforts to protect biodiversity in these areas are actually effective.”

The provincial Forests Ministry issued a written statement noting it has since pledged to increase tracking and monitoring of old-growth forests.

Richard Hebda, the Royal B.C. Museum’s curator of botany and earth history, said in an interview the Sierra Club’s Google Earth mapping tool confirms what his own research has suggested – that there is not much old-growth forest left on Vancouver Island, and that what is left is not well connected.

That is troubling, he said, because B.C.’s intact coastal forests will be crucial in adapting to climate change: “Healthy forests are going to play an important role in our future.”

Dr. Hebda said the most resilient forests are those that have been intact for thousands of years, weaving together a complex system of hydrology, soil formation, nutrient cycling and more into an ecosystem that is more capable of surviving changes in climate.

Logging doesn’t just remove the trees, he said, but unravels that living fabric that holds those systems together.

“We need a hard-nosed investigation of what we want these forests to be doing: Do we want to protect biodiversity? Do we want them to be very good at storing carbon? Then we can decide how much forest we actually need,” he said. “I think the answer will be a much higher percentage than we now have.”

Council endorses Pop for Parks

Mar 22 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Saanich council has put their support behind Pop for Parks, an initiative calling on the provincial government to direct unclaimed bottle deposits into a land acquisition fund.

On Monday, council voted 8-1 in favour of the resolution, which is to be submitted to the AVICC and the UBCM. If approved, B.C. residents could see $10 to $15 million annually put toward creating and protecting green spaces in the province.

The recommendation was brought to council in a joint report by Couns. Fred Haynes and Vic Derman. Haynes noted that about 20 per cent of bottles and cans are not returned, creating windfall profits for the beverage industry.

“What we’re seeking in this resolution is attention to that fund, and it might be that part of the fund is used for parks,” said Haynes. “The aim is to raise this issue and have that fund looked at as a possible source of revenue for parks.”

Likewise, Derman acknowledged that the money would do a lot of good for the local environment, even if it wasn’t entirely used to acquire green spaces.

“I think there is an opportunity to mandate that a fair amount of this unredeemed deposit on the part of the public should go to something like parks,” said Derman.

Coun. Leif Wergeland voted against the proposal, but only because he wanted council and residents to consider if there are other options where the money would be better spent.

“The acquisition and protection of ecologically sensitive private lands in B.C., I don’t think anyone around this table or in this room can really argue with that,” he said. “The question I think we have to ask ourselves and the greater community is, if these funds are accessible to us, acquiring and protecting parkland, is that the most important issue facing us? It could well be, but I think we should look at that before we just look at one area and say we’d like to put money into this.

“For that reason only, I support the environment, but on this issue, I’d like to be sure this is where our residents and council really want to put the money.”

Ancient Forest with some of the largest cedar trees in B.C. will be class A park

Mar 16 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Great news! The province has established a new 11,900 hectare protected area east of Prince George that includes important tracts of the famous ancient redcedar groves in the inland temperate rainforest. Thanks to the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, the Northern Wetbelt Working Group (who have been working for a substantially more extensive, science-based protected areas network in the region to protect more of the inland temperate rainforest) and the province for this important step forward in old-growth forest protection!

Also take note you can still sign-on to the Northern Wetbelt Working Group's letter for expanded protection in the region (if you haven't already) at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16hq-R8ZOylR-wLSz9OjbxRdf4NYHYnG9Uo1Lu12qr0U/viewform

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PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — A unique rainforest comprised of some of the largest cedar trees in British Columbia is set to become a provincial park.

Premier Christy Clark has announced that 119 square kilometres of forest in northern B.C. will become a class A provincial park under legislation to be introduced Wednesday.

The designation would protect the Ancient Forest, also known as Chun T'oh Wudujut to local First Nations, from timber harvesting and other commercial activity.

Located about 120 kilometres east of Prince George, the forest is part of the only known inland temperate rainforest in the world, and is home to many different plant and wildlife species.

Prince George MLA Shirley Bond says in a release that the 1,000-year-old trees are “historical natural wonders” with trunks measuring up to 16 metres around.

The province is also planning to work with the federal government to have the area considered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site based on the outstanding value of the ancient trees.

Pops for Parks movement comes to Saanich

Mar 7 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

A proposal to save the environment using unclaimed bottle deposits may soon be endorsed by Saanich council.

On Monday, Saanich council is set to consider endorsing a proposal, prepared by the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre for the Ancient Forest Alliance, that would turn over unclaimed bottle deposits to the BC government for a land acquisition fund to create and maintain green spaces. The local conservation group is pushing for the resolution to be submitted to the AVICC and UBCM, and later to the provincial government.

“Upon the purchase of a beverage, BC customers pay a deposit on the container, which is refunded when the container is returned,” reads a report prepared by Coun. Fred Haynes. “If the container is not returned, the deposit remains with the beverage industry.

“‘Pop for Parks’ proposes the redirection of unredeemed container deposits to an important cause: the acquisition and protection of ecologically sensitive private lands in BC.”

Ken Wu, executive director of the alliance, said states such as New York and Michigan have enacted similar legislation because unclaimed deposits are seen as windfall profits that should belong to the state and used for public benefit.

“They basically take the unredeemed bottle deposits and file them into land acquisition for conservation,” said Wu. “It comes out to about $10 to $15 million per year. It wouldn’t increase anyone’s taxes because this is already a pot of money that, right now, is going to the beverage container industry.

“They’re floating around on the streets and polluting the environment, so it makes sense to take the proceeds and better the environment through protecting green spaces.”

The District of Highlands has already endorsed the proposal, with other local municipalities expected to follow suit.

While the CRD already has a land acquisition fund of its own, Wu said it’s time the BC government chipped in to help create and protect more environmental areas.

“The park acquisition fund through the CRD is highly successful – it’s already helped to purchase about 4,500 hectares and raised about $35 million since it was implemented in 2000,” said Wu. “We want a provincial equivalent – the province has got to do its part as well.”

[Saanich News article no longer available.]

Tall trees turning Port Renfrew into tourist hot spot

Feb 20 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

The discovery of a grove of massive and unusual cedar trees six years ago has slowly been attracting more and more tourists from around the world to the tiny community of Port Renfrew.

And now the business community says it’s better for the local economy to move on from logging, and set its sights instead on ecotourism.

Port Renfrew is a two hour drive from Victoria, along Vancouver Island’s west coast.

“To be able to drive somewhere, and to be able to immerse themselves in an environment that looks the same, is the same, the way it was perhaps 1000 years ago, is a wonderful experience,” said Dan Hager, President of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce.

A short drive from the centre of Port Renfrew brings you to Avatar Grove.

TJ Watt discovered the unusual and massive cedars while exploring the area with a friend in 2009.

“We found these incredible gigantic trees that are covered in these amazing burls,” said Watts.

Watt’s group the Ancient Forest Alliance along with the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce campaigned to have the area saved and in 2012 the provincial government declared Avatar Grove a protected area and word of it’s unique beauty started to spread.

“Avatar started to bring a lot of people, and they started coming and every year they came more and more and more,” said Hager.

In the peak of summer, it’s estimated up to 200 people will visit the “gnarly” trees each day, many from Europe, and the United States.

“There’s been a massive influx of tall tree tourism and the town has re-branded itself as the Tall Tree Capital of Canada,” said Ken Wu with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

But the Tall Tree Capital was actually built on falling trees and signs of the forest industry dot the hills all around.

“Logging really has the origins of Port Renfrew, the reason the road is there because of logging, but we can bring more people and more revenue into Renfrew through tourism than from logging, taking the trees out,” said Hager.

Hager says you can see the impact ecotourism is having on the tiny community of 250 as developers build cabins and cottages for people from around the world who want a closer view of Vancouver Island’s raw beauty.

One of the most iconic tall trees in the Port Renfrew area is affectionately known as “Big Lonely Doug”.

The second largest douglas fir in Canada, it is nearly four meters wide and 67 meters tall, and estimated to be roughly 1000 years old.

It was saved as a wildlife tree when the area was logged a few years ago.

And it is just one more reason local business and environmental groups say the remaining ancient forests in the region need to be protected.

“Giant douglas firs, big red cedars, these are primeval forests, sort of Jurassic Park type landscapes that really deserve protection there’s so little left,” said Wu.

But for many in the area the tall trees remaining are a sign of transformation, for a town ready to cut ties with its logging roots and plant a new seed for a future in tourism.

Port Alberni, Vancouver Island’s Forestry Capital – Sustainability Champion?

Feb 15 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

In recent years, there has been considerable public concern in Port Alberni over logging in its China Creek drinking watershed, in particular over McLaughlin Ridge’s magnificent old-growth Douglas-firs which shelter wintering deer and is also home to endangered species.

Additional concerns have also erupted over proposed logging along “The Hump’s” forested highway buffer, at the “Lookout”, on Mount Horne above Cathedral Grove, and at the Cameron Valley Firebreak – which is akin to a “second Cathedral Grove” with its rare ancient Douglas firs and herds of Roosevelt elk. All of these stands are owned by Island Timberlands.

McLaughlin Ridge, the Cameron Valley Firebreak, and Mount Horne were all intended to be protected as Ungulate Winter Ranges for wintering deer and/or elk until negotiations between the B.C. government and Island Timberlands fell apart, subsequent to the lands’ removal in 2004 from their Tree Farm Licence (TFL). These lands, along with another 78,000 hectares, were once regulated to stronger public standards within their TFL’s – their removal thereby deregulated most of the environmental laws that otherwise would have protected the scenery, riparian zones for water quality and wild salmon, deer and elk winter ranges, endangered species habitats, and many old-growth stands, as well as restrictions on raw log exports.

However, hundreds of Port Alberni residents have attended public forums in recent years to speak out about the fate of these forests, and hundreds more have attended rallies against raw log exports where forestry workers and conservationists have stood together in solidarity. The Port Alberni city council has also passed a resolution calling for the protection of McLaughlin Ridge in the drinking watershed and has met with Island Timberlands over the past year seeking a conservation solution. During the same period, Island Timberlands seems to have taken pause at McLaughlin Ridge and has indicated that they are open to potential buyers – for how long, we don’t know.

The fact that so many Port Alberni residents are standing up for both environmental protection and sustainable forestry jobs today seems quite incredible if you remember the early 1990’s. During the era of the Clayoquot Sound protests, Alberni had a reputation among environmentalists as the town to avoid while hitch-hiking to Tofino. Today, Port Alberni has become a major centre of environmental concern for forests. For those who’ve experienced the history, it may seem quite remarkable – but not if you realize that it’s in the interest of forestry workers to ensure a sustainable industry that retains jobs, and for environmentalists to support sustainable forestry jobs in order to transform the economic and political forces causing the environmental destruction.

Port Alberni in the 1970’s was reputed to have the highest per capita income of any town in Canada due to numerous high-paid, unionized forestry jobs based on the “green gold” – vast stands of accessible, valley-bottom giant Douglas firs, Sitka spruce, and red cedars in the region. By 2014, with the best old-growth stands long since depleted, Port Alberni was ranked at the bottom of MoneySense magazine’s annual list of the best places to live in Canada. Port Alberni residents have been understandably irked by the label, given the down-to-earth kindness of many of the local people and the area’s natural beauty.

The situation in Port Alberni, from extreme economic prosperity to significant collapse, has been shared by many of B.C.’s coastal communities over the past two decades – and in fact, by communities around the world as a result of the pattern of unsustainable, high-grade resource depletion.

B.C.’s forest industry was historically built on logging the biggest and best old-growth stands in the valley bottoms and lower slopes. Over time, the remaining trees have become smaller in size, lower in value and more expensive to reach on steep slopes at high elevations, far away in valley headwaters. Today on Vancouver Island, over 90% of the productive, valley-bottom old-growth forests that historically built the forest industry have now been logged. This has resulted in diminishing returns for the forest industry as expenses have gone up and revenues have declined, resulting in the closure of old-growth dependent sawmills everywhere and the loss of thousands of forestry jobs. In the mid 1990’s almost 100,000 people were directly employed in B.C.’s forest industry – today, about 60,000 remain.

Around the world – whether one looks at fishing down the food chain or old-growth logging – this pattern of high-grade resource depletion of taking too much, too fast of the biggest and best, has resulted in the collapse of both ecosystems and of resource dependent communities. Not only do we lose the biodiversity – and water quality in this case – we lose the jobs.

The decline in forestry employment has particularly been exacerbated as the B.C. Liberal government has largely deregulated the forest industry, removing the local milling requirement in 2003 that – had it remained – would have mandated that companies convert their old-growth mills to handle the maturing second-growth stands. Instead, as the original mills shut down, there has been a mass exodus of raw, unprocessed logs leaving the province for foreign mills, facilitated by the B.C. government which has been marketing our logs and last old-growth stands in China.

However, the people of Port Alberni are speaking up today for their drinking watershed, their last old-growth stands, and for sustainable, second-growth forestry jobs. An individual of particular note is Jane Morden, the coordinator of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance, and her team of concerned residents who have worked hard to bring these issues to the forefront of municipal and provincial attention in recent years. Over the past year there have been talks between the municipality and the company towards a possible resolution for McLaughin Ridge – although nothing is ever certain until there is legislation and funding, which will require provincial leadership now.

In a move that could bolster the local momentum, 16 major conservation and recreation organizations, including the Port Alberni Watershed Forest Alliance and the Ancient Forest Alliance, signed a statement in January calling on the B.C. Liberal government to establish a $40 million/year Natural Lands Acquisition Fund that would help to purchase and protect private lands of high environmental value – for example, McLaughlin Ridge and Mount Horne by Port Alberni.

In other words, there is hope – Port Alberni, long known as the forestry capital of Vancouver Island, could become the forest sustainability capital of Vancouver Island if we all keep working for a better future.

Metchosin supports stopping old-growth logging

Feb 9 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

While it’s not quite a New Years resolution, Metchosin resolved to prevent any more logging of old-growth forest on provincial Crown Land on Vancouver Island.

The resolution will see a letter go to the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities, seeking its support for a request to amend the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan to protect all remaining old-growth forest.

“The amount of old growth remaining on southern Vancouver Island is a small fraction of what it used to be, and old growth has all sorts of value – economic, social and environmental value,” said Metchosin Coun. Andy MacKinnon. “We thought it was timely to create a resolution to save the remaining old growth for ourselves and future generations.”

The longtime forester and biologist said such trees at Avatar Grove, and Big Lonely Doug – left standing in the middle of a clearcut, it’s considered the second-largest Douglas fir tree in Canada – attract visitors to the area. He pointed to an estimate showing that only 13 per cent of old-growth forest on southern Vancouver Island remain.

“These are some of the largest trees on the planet, some of the largest living organisms that have ever existed on earth,” MacKinnon said. “And some people visit to view these stands, so there is an important economic resource even if you don’t log them.”

The Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities is one of six regional groups under the umbrella of the Union of B.C. Municipalities. It deals with issues and concerns of the 51 municipalities and districts it represents on the Island.

MacKinnon said it’s inevitable that the logging of old-growth forests will stop.

“This will happen when all the old-growth forest outside of protected areas has been logged and the logging will transition to second growth,” he said. “The halt to logging old growth will happen sooner rather than later; this resolution calls for an immediate halt.”

Most of B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest protected

Feb 3 2016/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

VANCOUVER – A jewel in the crown of British Columbia’s magnificent landscape — the Great Bear Rainforest — has been largely protected from logging in a landmark agreement between First Nations, forest companies, environmental groups and the government, Premier Christy Clark said Monday.

The land-sharing deal 20 years in the making will protect 85 per cent of the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world, located on B.C.’s central coast about 700 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

The Great Bear Rainforest, stretching from the Discovery Islands northwards to Alaska, is 6.4 million hectares, and more than half the region is covered by ancient forests. The agreement ensures 85 per cent of the forests — 3.1 million hectares — are permanently off limits to logging.

“This is what Vancouver used to look like,” said Clark as images of vast forests were displayed on screens during a news conference at the University of B.C.

“It is proof of what we can do if we decide to find common purpose,” she said.

Clark’s government will introduce legislation this spring that enshrines the deal and includes benefits-sharing agreements with area First Nations.

Twenty six First Nations, environmental groups, coastal forest companies and the government reached the agreement after more than a decade of negotiations.

The agreement also ends the commercial grizzly bear hunt and protects habitat for the marbled murrelet, northern goshawk, mountain goat and tailed frog.

Coastal First Nations spokeswoman Chief Marilyn Slett said reaching the pact was not an easy task but the eco-based management pact is the “modern term to describe what we’ve always done. Our leaders understand our well-being is connected to the well-being of our lands and waters.”

Coast Forest Products Association chief executive officer Rick Jeffery said the deal involved complex talks between groups with opposing points of view, but compromise and success was achieved over time.

“It’s unprecedented in the history of our province,” said Jeffery. “It’s a unique solution for a unique area.”

Environmentalist Richard Brooks said 95 per cent of the area was open to logging 20 years ago, but protests, blockades and ensuing negotiations resulted in Monday’s agreement that ensures most of the forests will not be logged.

“Each of us took tremendous risks to step into the unknown and bridge the huge divide,” said Brooks, describing the collaboration. Three environmental groups, Greenpeace, Forest Ethics and Sierra Club of B.C., are part of the deal.

Jens Wieting of the Sierra Club said logging in the remaining part of the forest will be tightly controlled.

“There is certainty for forestry, 15 per cent of the region’s rainforest will remain open for forestry under very stringent logging rules, the most stringent that you can find in North America.”

The area was officially named the Great Bear Rainforest by then-premier Gordon Campbell in 2006. Environmentalists had given the area the name years before that in an effort to protect the central coast from logging.

The area is also home to the kermode or sprit bear and is where nine area First Nations declared bans on bear hunting in their traditional territories.

Wieting said those involved in the agreement realized the region is globally important because there are so few temperate rain forests left on the planet.

“It is larger than the Netherlands or Belgium or Switzerland and it is really a global responsibility to find solutions to protect the ecological integrity and support communities in this region.”