Note: Last week we welcomed the release of the Old Growth Strategic Review panel’s long-anticipated report, which includes strong recommendations to protect old-growth forests & overhaul BC’s forest management regime.
We also welcomed logging deferrals in 9 areas across BC, but closer inspection reveals that some of those areas were already deferred or have little at-risk, productive old-growth.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of BC’s most endangered ancient forests are still at risk. The NDP government must act quickly to protect the most at-risk stands (as the panel recommends) and commit to fully implementing their recommendations.
Read the Narwhal’s explainer piece below:
The Narwhal
September 16, 2020
As rumours swirl of a snap fall election, the NDP government has announced development deferrals for nine areas — but closer inspection reveals a startling absence of old growth, and some areas have already been clear cut
When governments make announcements on a Friday afternoon, it’s usually because they don’t want much scrutiny.
That was clearly the case on Sept. 11 when the B.C. government released a consequential old-growth strategic review report, barely giving reporters a chance to glance at the fine print and recommendations prior to a press conference with Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
Donaldson’s ministry simultaneously sent out a news release announcing the “protection” of nine areas in B.C., totalling almost 353,000 hectares, to kickstart the NDP government’s “new approach to old forests.”
Sounds good, right?
But wait. As the adage goes, the devil is in the details.
“If you look at the facts … it still essentially preserves the core of the old-growth logging industry,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance.
“Left as it is, it will liquidate most of the remaining endangered old-growth.”
So what did the government commit to? And what did the old-growth strategic review report say?
Read on. Get The Narwhal in your inbox!
People always tell us they love our newsletter. Find out yourself with a weekly dose of our ad‑free, independent journalismYour emailYour emailSUBSCRIBE
Did the B.C. government implement permanent protections for old-growth?
In a word, no.
Donaldson announced that development will be temporarily deferred in nine old-growth areas while consultations about future designations are held. “The areas that are announced today are already areas where harvesting is not taking place, and therefore the economic impact in the immediate term is going to be insignificant,” he told reporters.
“Deferrals aren’t protection,” said Wilderness Committee national campaign director Torrance Coste. “They’re two-year deferrals, hopefully to buy time for those forests to be protected.”
Eight of the areas are in southern B.C. — omitting the northern boreal forest and rare and endangered interior temperate rainforest from logging reprieves.
It’s business as usual everywhere else in the province, including in the central Walbran and Fairy Creek on southern Vancouver Island, in endangered caribou habitat in the Anzac Valley northeast of Prince George and on the Sunshine Coast, where residents have stapled felt hearts on old-growth trees as part of an effort to protect the Clack Creek forest from clear-cutting.
“It’s largely talk and log in a lot of cases, with loopholes big enough to drive thousands of logging trucks through,” observed Wu, the founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
Retired B.C. government forester Judy Thomas surveys a clear cut near the Anzac Valley, just north of Prince George, B.C. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
What about the development deferrals?
Clayoquot Sound, with more than 260,000 hectares deferred from development, represents almost three-quarters of the deferrals in size.
But when GIS mapper Dave Leversee crunched the numbers, he found that about 137,000 hectares of the land newly “deferred” from development in Clayoquot Sound is already under some form of protection, including parks, Wildlife Habitat Areas and Clayoquot management reserves.
Less than nine per cent of the total area announced for a development deferral consists of old-growth forests of medium to good productivity, meaning there are optimal conditions for supporting the biggest trees, Leversee discovered.
“There’s a lot of non-forested areas in that number: rocks, mountain peaks, swamps, things like that,” he said of the 260,000-hectare Clayoquot Sound “old growth development deferral” area on the government’s map.
An aerial view of old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, part of a temporary deferral that will prohibit logging in this area for two years. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
It’s much the same story in the Kootenays, where Stockdale Creek and Crystalline Creek in the Purcells are on the list of development deferrals.
Wildsight conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen pointed out that only 0.1 hectare of the 9,600 hectares deferred in Crystalline Creek area, a tributary of the south fork of the Spillimacheen River, was slated for logging.
In Stockdale Creek, just 223 hectares out of 11,500 hectares that received a development deferral were on the chopping block, Petryshen said, noting that both areas provide important grizzly bear and wolverine habitat and connectivity.
“It’s a far cry from the numbers they’re talking about,” Petryshen told The Narwhal.
“While both these watersheds are intact, have very high biodiversity values and need to be protected, most of the old growth in these drainages is not believed to be under immediate threat from logging.”
After Clayoquot Sound, the largest temporary deferral from development consists of 40,000 hectares in the Incomappleux Valley east of Revelstoke, an inland rainforest with trees up to 1,500 years old.
“The deferral areas appear to cover a lot of inoperable forest, or forest that’s already been clear cut,” said Valhalla Wilderness Society director Craig Pettitt.
The society is suggesting that 32,000 hectares of the Incomappleux deferral unit be allocated “to actual endangered forest elsewhere, instead of protecting inoperable or clear cut areas outside of the ancient forest.”
Pettitt said he is happy the Incomappleux has been acknowledged. But he said the inland temperate rainforest — hosting some of B.C.’s rarest ancient forests — is “severely underrepresented” in the government’s announcement. 
Clear-cut logging of spruce in B.C.’s interior. Less than one-third of the world’s primary forests are still intact yet in B.C.’s interior a temperate rainforest that holds vast stores of carbon and is home to endangered caribou is being clear-cut as fast as the Amazon. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
And then there’s the deferral of about 5,700 hectares in the Skagit-Silver Daisy area, on the edge of Manning Park, where the B.C. government had already announced that logging permits in the Skagit River headwaters would no longer be permitted, but mining exploration has been causing friction with Americans downstream.
Also on Vancouver Island, more than 2,200 hectares were deferred from logging around McKelvie Creek — the last unprotected, intact watershed in the Tahsis region, in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territory. And just over 1,000 hectares, an area roughly the size of two and a half Stanley Parks, were deferred in H’Kusam, near Sayward.
The remaining deferrals consist of just over 4,500 hectares in an area known as the Seven Sisters, northwest of Smithers, and more than 17,000 hectares around the Upper Southgate River in Bute Inlet on B.C.’s mid-coast.
Coste said the Wilderness Committee is waiting on shapefiles and more information from the government so it can determine what portion of the nine deferrals lie in the 415,000 hectares of old forest left in B.C., home to trees expected to grow more than 20 metres tall in 50 years.
“That will be the real test,” he said.
Wait, what did the old-growth strategic review report actually say?
The report, commissioned by the B.C. government, was written by foresters Garry Merkel and Al Gorley.
The 216-page report calls for a paradigm shift in the way B.C. manages old-growth forests. It lays out a blueprint for change with 14 recommendations.
The report says old forests have intrinsic value for all living things and should be managed for ecosystem health, not for timber. It also says many old forests are not renewable, which counters the prevailing notion that trees, no matter how old, will grow back.
The report was widely praised by conservation groups, which welcomed the temporary development deferrals and called on the B.C. government to commit to implementing Merkel and Gorley’s recommendations.
“The report itself is fantastic,” Wu said. “It covers most of what we’ve actually been calling for for decades. What’s needed is to commit to those recommendations.” 
Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt surveys recent old-growth clearcutting by Teal-Jones in the Caycuse watershed in Ditidaht Territory on southern Vancouver Island. Areas of highly productive, endangered ancient forest like this still remain at risk in many regions. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
What did the report recommend?
Top of the list is to engage “the full involvement” of Indigenous leaders and organizations in an old-growth strategy.
Immediately deferring development in old forests “where ecosystems are at very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss” and “prioritizing ecosystem health and resilience” are among the other recommendations.
In an interview with The Narwhal, Merkel said people from all sectors, including forestry, recognize “that the path we’re going down needs to change” and that B.C. forest-dependent communities — which have suffered from recent mill closures and job losses — need sustainable economies.
As such, the report recommends the government support forest sector workers and communities as they adapt to changes resulting from a new forest management system.
“If the government does that, we can minimize the pain through this transition,” said Merkel, the former chair of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation and the Columbia Basin Trust.
“But there is a transition coming in many areas … There are many, many areas that are going to have to do this regardless whether they implement our ideas or not. This is not a surprise.”
Did the government take immediate steps to prevent irreversible biodiversity loss?
No. The government has not followed the panel’s recommendation to immediately defer all logging in old-growth forests that are home to ecosystems at risk of irreversible biodiversity loss.
Under Section 13 of B.C.’s Forests Act, Donaldson can defer harvesting activities for up to four years without compensating tenure holders.
Conservation North director Michelle Connolly said areas at risk of ecological collapse include the Anzac River Valley north of Prince George, which provides critical habitat for endangered southern mountain caribou and a myriad other species, including at-risk migratory songbirds.
“The Anzac is an area of great ecological risk up here and it’s really odd that no protections have been announced for it,” Connolly said in an interview.
Cutting permits have been issued all the way up the Anzac Valley “and they’re going after the highest productivity old-growth spruce, the areas with the biggest trees,” she said.
Forestry giant Canfor and Coastal Gaslink, which is constructing a pipeline for the LNG Canada export project, recently teamed up to build a new road into the Anzac Valley wilderness, Connolly noted.
“The Hart [Ranges] caribou use that whole area. The road, the cut blocks, are in their core habitat.” 
Scientist Michelle Connolly said the Anzac River Valley north of Prince George is at risk of ecological collapse and has not received any protection under the NDP government’s recent announcement. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
Petryshen said development deferrals omit “an incredible” drainage in the North Columbia mountains that BC Timber Sales plans to road and log.
The Argonaut Creek drainage provides critical habitat for the endangered Columbia North caribou herd, which, at 150 animals, is the largest remaining caribou herd in the area.
“It’s spectacular old-growth at lower elevations and then Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir and spectacular summer and winter caribou habitat, and it’s federal critical caribou habitat.”
He said it is hypocritical to move forward with piecemeal deferrals while, on the other hand, “we’re seeing that critical caribou habitat move down the road on logging trucks on Highway 23.”
Coste said the B.C. government is limiting its future ability to ensure the survival of ecosystems by failing to follow the panel’s recommendation.
“There are hundreds of hectares of old-growth being cut down today and removed from the pool of old-growth that we could potentially protect six months, a year, two years, three years from now.”
What does the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council say?
B.C. First Nations Forestry Council CEO Charlene Higgins said the council is disappointed the government has chosen to engage with First Nations “after the fact” and not as partners in the process, especially given the cultural significance of many old-growth areas.
“Public consultation and engagement stakeholder processes, and asking for submissions, really doesn’t recognize First Nations as governments and as rights holders,” Higgins told The Narwhal.
“There’s been no meaningful input and engagement with First Nations.”
Higgins said the process doesn’t reflect commitments made in B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and the government’s commitment to work in cooperation and collaboration with Indigenous peoples on forest policy changes, legislation and practices.
She said the council supports the nine development deferrals provided they were decided in full consultation with First Nations in whose territories the deferrals lie. (Donaldson underscored that the deferrals all have the support of local First Nations.)
“Many First Nations have their own policies around old growth and they have their own old growth areas that they recognize, and the province needs to ensure that these areas line up,” Higgins said. 
An aerial view highlighting extensive clearcut logging of productive old-growth forests in the Klanawa Valley on southern Vancouver Island, B.C. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
What about protections for big trees?
Donaldson’s ministry also announced that work is underway to protect up to 1,500 “exceptionally large, individual trees” under the special tree protection regulation, introduced last year by the government to protect monumental trees.
Coste called the big tree protections a “drop in the bucket.” They represent, at most, the preservation of 1,500 hectares of old-growth across the province — an area smaller than four Stanley Parks — because each monumental tree gets a one-kilometre buffer zone around it, he pointed out.
“Big trees are important but there’s so much more to old-growth forests than just those big trees.”
Connolly, from Conservation North, called the protection of individual trees “a joke,” saying her science-based group sees more than 1,500 trees from the interior wet belt going down Highway 97 in a single day.
“They don’t understand what is a minimum expectation for conservation,” she said.
Higgins, from the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council, said there has been no First Nations input into the protection of individual trees.
“Without nations having any input into what is considered a large tree species, there’s a potential for a disconnect.”
“Many First Nations have developed their own strategy for what they deem as culturally significant areas,” she said. “It’s been a really flawed process that really doesn’t reflect First Nations input.
But Wu said big tree protections are an important part of protecting what little remains of B.C.’s high productivity old growth.
“The goal is, and has always been, protection of old growth ecosystems. That’s got to happen on the trees and groves level, and on the level of watersheds, landscapes and ecosystems.” 
Tahsis Mayor Martin Davis stands beside a giant old-growth Douglas-fir tree in the McKelvie Valley, part of a temporary deferral that will prohibit logging in this area for two years. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
Is this really a new approach to managing old-growth?
No — at least not yet.
Merkel said the panel is recommending deep structural changes that go far further than saving a few key areas, although he said that is also important.
“If that’s all we do, we won’t change the way we’re doing things.”
“We’re talking about changing a system that started almost a century ago. We’re fundamentally turning a corner here in how that whole thing works. That’s going to take a little bit of time.”
For example, it will take several years to figure out the pieces that need to change to align with the panel’s recommendation to make ecosystem health a priority as an overarching directive for managing old-growth, he said.
If the government acts on the panel’s recommendations immediately, Merkel said there will be substantial changes in the short-term “and we will get incrementally better over time.”
What happens next?
Conservation groups want the government to implement the report’s 14 recommendations within the timeline laid out in the report, with immediate, mid-term and long-term actions taken over the next three years.
So far, the government hasn’t committed to any of the recommendations, or to the timeline.
Donaldson told reporters that managing old-growth forests while supporting workers and communities “has been a challenge in the making for more than 30 years and it won’t be solved immediately.”
“But we know that the status quo is not sustainable,” the minister said. “Obviously, it’s not good for the industry to cut it all down, there’s no plan for transition. And we know that unchecked logging in old-growth threatens crucial biodiversity values. But at the same time, putting an abrupt halt to old-growth logging would have devastating impacts on communities and workers across B.C., especially on the coast.”
As rumours swirl of a snap provincial election this fall, Donaldson said the government will provide a progress report on a “renewed old-growth strategy” in the spring of 2021. (Shortly after announcing the deferral areas, Donaldson announced he will not be seeking re-election.)
Merkel said he and Gorley have agreed not to judge the government at this point. “They haven’t outright said they aren’t going to do it,” he said regarding the recommendations.
“Our job was to think about what needed to happen,” he said. “We needed to put it out there. Now, the world has to think: ‘Are we ready, and can we do it?’ ”
Read the original article
Thank you to our generous business supporters!
/in Thank YouThank you to our Ancient Forest Fundraisers!
A big thanks to the following businesses for supporting the AFA: Silver Wilds for donating 5% of their monthly sales; the newly incorporated DuckDuck Co. is generously donating 50% of proceeds from select t-shirt sales; SeaFlora Skincare became a generous monthly donor; Scend Sails donated 10% of their monthly sales recently; artist Jeremy Herndl has a beautiful painting of an old-growth forest for sale and will donate 50% to the proceeds; Arc’teryx Victoria for dedicating 100% of the proceeds from their large die cut stickers; Dream Designs for their generous donation generated from sales of their handmade, non-medical face masks; Skye Dreamer for supporting us three years in a row by donating 10% of sales from his nature art calendar; Silent Forest Designs for donating $1 from every sale of their beautiful handmade artwork; and OneUp Components for their incredible $10,000 donation! Thank you all again – We are so grateful to each of you!
Ancient Forest Alliance 2021 Calendars are here!
/in AnnouncementsThe Ancient Forest Alliance 2021 CALENDAR is hot off the press!! From the popular tourist destination Avatar Grove and old-growth “hotspot” Fairy Creek to the majestic bald eagle and more, each month showcases a spectacular image of BC’s magnificent ancient forests and the species that call them home. All photos are by AFA’s renowned photographer TJ Watt and are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks.
$25.00 each; 3 or more $20.00 each. Great as holiday gifts!
To get yours:
• Visit our online store www.staging.ancientforestalliance.org/store/
• Give us a call 250-896-4007
By purchasing an AFA calendar you’re helping us continue our work to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable, second-growth forest industry.
Thank you most gratefully!
AFA’s Andrea Inness on the Great.com podcast
/in AnnouncementsEarlier this month, the AFA’s own Andrea Inness was featured on Great.com‘s podcast Great.com Talks With… where she discussed the plight of BC’s rare and endangered old-growth forests, what must be done to protect them, and how concerned folks around the world can help get involved.
Learn more and listen to the podcast interview online or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Vote today and help shape the future of old-growth forests
/in AnnouncementsThanks to all of you, ancient forest protection has become a top election issue. Over the last few weeks, BC’s old-growth forests have been discussed in multiple political debates, news stories, online content, party platforms, and campaign speeches. Almost 1,400 messages have been sent and all three parties have made election promises that could profoundly impact the fate of BC’s endangered old-growth.
It’s now up to you to decide which party will put ancient forests first and to cast your vote.
If you need a last-minute refresher on where each party stands on old-growth logging and related forestry issues, check out our short election video and election report card.
And if you’re heading to the polls today, here’s a quick guide to help you ensure your vote gets counted!
• Voting places are open today from 8am to 8pm. Click here to find polling stations for your riding or use the Where to Vote App.
• You can also cast your ballot at any district electoral office from from 8am to 8pm. Find the district electoral office nearest you
• If you have a vote-by-mail package, it must be returned in person before 8pm at any district electoral office, voting place, or participating Service BC location. If you mail it, it won’t be received in time and won’t be counted. For more information, visit Election BC’s vote by mail page.
• Make sure to bring a valid ID with your name and address and don’t forget your mask!
• For more information, visit Elections BC.
Your vote could help create a better future for BC’s magnificent old-growth forests.
For the trees,
The AFA team,
VIDEO: BC 2020 Election- Vote for Old-Growth Forests
/in VideoThis election, let’s vote for an end to the logging of BC’s endangered ancient forests and a rapid transition to a sustainable, second-growth forest industry.
Watch the video below to find out where each of BC’s major parties stand on old-growth and visit our website for more details on each party’s platform.
For information on how and where to vote on October 24th, visit https://elections.bc.ca
Where do BC’s Major Political Parties Stand on Old-Growth Logging and Related Issues?
/in AnnouncementsThe BC government has called a snap election for October 24th, putting critical issues like the continued logging of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, reconciliation with Indigenous Nations, climate change, forestry practices, and the economy into the spotlight.
We’ve prepared a summary of where each of BC’s three major parties stand on old-growth and related issues and given each party a grade to help voters make informed decisions this election.
For information on how and where to vote visit Elections BC
BC NDP
Old-growth forest policies
GRADE: D
Over the last three and a half years, the BC NDP have continued to enable the massive, widespread destruction of BC’s old-growth forests at the same rate as the BC Liberals even as endangered species like mountain caribou and spotted owls continue to dramatically decline in numbers. They also failed to implement their 2017 election platform commitment to “take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model” to sustainably manage BC’s old-growth.
Instead, in 2019, the BC NDP announced they would protect 54 big trees on BC’s Big Tree Registry and convene an independent panel to review BC’s forest policies. The panel’s final report was released in September, at which time the NDP announced they would enact a regulation estimated to protect up to 1,500 more of BC’s biggest trees. They also announced two-year logging deferrals in 353,000 hectares (ha) in nine areas across BC. However, only 3,800 ha – just 1% – of the 353,000 ha contains productive old-growth forest with big trees – the type of forest the old-growth panel has recommended the BC government take immediate action to protect.
In their 2020 election platform, the BC NDP promised to work with First Nations governments, labour, industry, and environmental groups to implement the Old Growth Strategic Review panel’s recommendations to protect old-growth forests. The 14 recommendations outlined in the independent panel’s report are a blueprint for a complete paradigm shift in the way BC manages old-growth forests, putting ecosystem health and biodiversity above timber values. However, the NDP haven’t committed to implementing the recommendations on the panel’s three-year timeline and they have failed to protect the last remaining 3% of BC’s productive, big tree old-growth forests. They have also failed to commit critical funding to support the creation of new protected areas; help BC transition to sustainable, value-added, second-growth forestry; and support First Nations’ land-use plans and sustainable economies.
Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition
GRADE: D
Since coming to power, the NDP have failed to curb the export of raw, unprocessed logs from BC’s coast – something the NDP were strongly in support of doing while in opposition. Although the NDP claim to want to get more value out of BC logs, and despite continued job loss and mill closures across BC due to decades of unsustainable harvesting and a lack of long-term planning, they still haven’t devised a comprehensive economic strategy or committed sufficient funding to expand BC’s value-added wood manufacturing sector, help forest-based communities diversify their economies, or expedite the transition to a sustainable, second growth forest sector.
Instead, the NDP have allowed old-growth forests to be logged to make wood pellets for BC’s burgeoning biofuels industry (which releases massive amounts of CO2 emissions) and have promoted the use of mass timber in public buildings as a “sustainable” alternative to concrete, even though it could be manufactured using old-growth trees.
In their platform, the BC NDP promise to allocate a specific portion the annual allowable cut to value-added producers and say they will continue “revitalizing” BC’s forests through greater investments in tree planting and wildfire prevention. As part of their post-COVID Economic Recovery Plan, they also promise to support resource communities facing job loss, help retrain impacted workers, and develop higher value goods.
BC Green Party
Old-growth forest policies
GRADE: A+
The Greens have been outspoken about the need to protect endangered old-growth throughout their time in government. For example, in the spring of 2019, they called on the BC NDP to enact immediate moratoria on old-growth logging in hotspots on Vancouver Island and to invest in mill retrofits to aid the transition to a sustainable second-growth industry.
In their election platform, the BC Greens promise to put an immediate end to the logging of old growth forests in high risk ecosystems and partner with First Nations to fully implement all of the old-growth review panel’s recommendations. They also commit to enacting legislation that establishes forest ecosystem health and biodiversity as an overarching priority and establishing funding mechanisms to support old-growth protection and communities.
Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition
GRADE: A+
The Greens have promised to ensure small producers in BC have better access to fibre and to incentivize value-added wood manufacturing, including non-traditional uses of BC wood.
They have committed to ending raw log exports, reducing emissions from forestry, and ensuring that First Nations, municipalities, and regional districts reap more benefits from BC’s forest sector.
Finally, the BC Greens promise to support forestry workers and communities in the transition away from old-growth logging by investing in retraining and by supporting more sustainable use of BC’s forests, for example, through investments in tourism and carbon economies.
BC Liberal Party
Old-growth forest policies
GRADE: F
During their time in power, the BC Liberals significantly increased the rate of old-growth logging in BC’s interior and allowed Old-Growth Management Area boundaries in many parts of BC to be adjusted to allow for more logging. Using stumpage fees and taxpayers’ dollars, they aggressively marketed BC old-growth wood abroad and reduced old-growth forest retention targets in the Central Interior to prop-up ailing mills. They also deregulated vast areas of private, corporate forest lands that were once publicly regulated, opening up major tracts of protected old-growth forests for liquidation. The Liberals’ key area of progress in reducing the rate of cut was in the Great Bear Rainforest, where the AAC was reduced by 40%, and in Haida Gwaii, where the AAC was reduced by 50%.
The BC Liberals’ current forestry platform [Original article no longer available] is the unsustainable status quo: maintain business-as-usual logging (which includes clearcutting old-growth forests), support mass timber construction projects made from BC wood, and plant more trees. They also promise to “modernize” management practices and provide more public subsidies to make it easier and cheaper for companies to log. Their platform makes no mention of the need to protect old-growth forests. In fact, they promise to introduce legislation to protect the “working forest” – an approach that would see the vast majority of BC’s remaining endangered old-growth logged.
Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition
GRADE: F
The BC Liberals dramatically increased the rate of raw log exports during their 16 years in power, quadrupling average annual log exports to over 6 million cubic meters each year, resulting in the loss of thousands of potential forestry jobs in BC. They removed the local milling requirement, granted scores of log export permits from Crown lands, issued general exemptions against log export restrictions for the entire North Coast, and removed Tree Farm Licences on corporate private lands, opening the floodgates to log exports.
They have not made any commitments in their 2020 platform to curb raw log exports, invest in value-added wood manufacturing, or help forest-based communities diversify their economies or transition to second-growth logging.
Union of BC Indian Chiefs passes old-growth forest resolution
/in AnnouncementsExciting news! The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) has passed a resolution calling on the BC Government to work with First Nations to protect old-growth forests while engaging and supporting Indigenous communities.
The resolution, passed last month at the UBCIC AGM, follows the BC government’s Sept 11 release of a report by an independent panel tasked with reviewing BC’s forest policies. The panel’s report contains 14 recommendations that form a blueprint for a new BC forest regime that is centred on Indigenous involvement and puts ecosystem health ahead of timber values.
In the resolution, the UBCIC Chiefs-in-Assembly call on the province to implement all 14 of the panel’s recommendations and to expand logging deferrals to encompass “all threatened old-growth forests” in consultation with First Nations.
They also call for funding to support First Nations-led land-use plans, Indigenous Protected Area management, private land purchase, and conservation economies.
Read the full resolution here:
Cast your vote for ancient forest protection!
/in Take ActionAncient Forest Enthusiast Cycles Across BC to Jasper
/in Thank YouWe’re extremely grateful and inspired by those who use their passions to help build the ancient forest movement! During September, big tree enthusiast and bicyclist, Michael, embarked on a cross-province cycling trip from BC to Jasper to raise awareness for the AFA and BC’s ancient forests. Michael also cycled in Mexico recently where he followed migrating animals like gray whales, vultures, and monarch butterflies. In his latest venture, he showed his support for BC’s old-growth forests and the many species and communities that depend on them.
Thank you, Michael! To learn more and to support the journey, check out his website: https://michaelrsuds.wixsite.com/mikebikesacrossbc
B.C.’s old-growth forest announcement won’t actually slow down logging: critics
/in News CoverageNote: Last week we welcomed the release of the Old Growth Strategic Review panel’s long-anticipated report, which includes strong recommendations to protect old-growth forests & overhaul BC’s forest management regime.
We also welcomed logging deferrals in 9 areas across BC, but closer inspection reveals that some of those areas were already deferred or have little at-risk, productive old-growth.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of BC’s most endangered ancient forests are still at risk. The NDP government must act quickly to protect the most at-risk stands (as the panel recommends) and commit to fully implementing their recommendations.
Read the Narwhal’s explainer piece below:
The Narwhal
September 16, 2020
As rumours swirl of a snap fall election, the NDP government has announced development deferrals for nine areas — but closer inspection reveals a startling absence of old growth, and some areas have already been clear cut
When governments make announcements on a Friday afternoon, it’s usually because they don’t want much scrutiny.
That was clearly the case on Sept. 11 when the B.C. government released a consequential old-growth strategic review report, barely giving reporters a chance to glance at the fine print and recommendations prior to a press conference with Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
Donaldson’s ministry simultaneously sent out a news release announcing the “protection” of nine areas in B.C., totalling almost 353,000 hectares, to kickstart the NDP government’s “new approach to old forests.”
Sounds good, right?
But wait. As the adage goes, the devil is in the details.
“If you look at the facts … it still essentially preserves the core of the old-growth logging industry,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance.
“Left as it is, it will liquidate most of the remaining endangered old-growth.”
So what did the government commit to? And what did the old-growth strategic review report say?
Read on. Get The Narwhal in your inbox!
People always tell us they love our newsletter. Find out yourself with a weekly dose of our ad‑free, independent journalismYour emailYour emailSUBSCRIBE
Did the B.C. government implement permanent protections for old-growth?
In a word, no.
Donaldson announced that development will be temporarily deferred in nine old-growth areas while consultations about future designations are held. “The areas that are announced today are already areas where harvesting is not taking place, and therefore the economic impact in the immediate term is going to be insignificant,” he told reporters.
“Deferrals aren’t protection,” said Wilderness Committee national campaign director Torrance Coste. “They’re two-year deferrals, hopefully to buy time for those forests to be protected.”
Eight of the areas are in southern B.C. — omitting the northern boreal forest and rare and endangered interior temperate rainforest from logging reprieves.
It’s business as usual everywhere else in the province, including in the central Walbran and Fairy Creek on southern Vancouver Island, in endangered caribou habitat in the Anzac Valley northeast of Prince George and on the Sunshine Coast, where residents have stapled felt hearts on old-growth trees as part of an effort to protect the Clack Creek forest from clear-cutting.
“It’s largely talk and log in a lot of cases, with loopholes big enough to drive thousands of logging trucks through,” observed Wu, the founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
Retired B.C. government forester Judy Thomas surveys a clear cut near the Anzac Valley, just north of Prince George, B.C. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
What about the development deferrals?
Clayoquot Sound, with more than 260,000 hectares deferred from development, represents almost three-quarters of the deferrals in size.
But when GIS mapper Dave Leversee crunched the numbers, he found that about 137,000 hectares of the land newly “deferred” from development in Clayoquot Sound is already under some form of protection, including parks, Wildlife Habitat Areas and Clayoquot management reserves.
Less than nine per cent of the total area announced for a development deferral consists of old-growth forests of medium to good productivity, meaning there are optimal conditions for supporting the biggest trees, Leversee discovered.
“There’s a lot of non-forested areas in that number: rocks, mountain peaks, swamps, things like that,” he said of the 260,000-hectare Clayoquot Sound “old growth development deferral” area on the government’s map.
An aerial view of old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, part of a temporary deferral that will prohibit logging in this area for two years. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
It’s much the same story in the Kootenays, where Stockdale Creek and Crystalline Creek in the Purcells are on the list of development deferrals.
Wildsight conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen pointed out that only 0.1 hectare of the 9,600 hectares deferred in Crystalline Creek area, a tributary of the south fork of the Spillimacheen River, was slated for logging.
In Stockdale Creek, just 223 hectares out of 11,500 hectares that received a development deferral were on the chopping block, Petryshen said, noting that both areas provide important grizzly bear and wolverine habitat and connectivity.
“It’s a far cry from the numbers they’re talking about,” Petryshen told The Narwhal.
“While both these watersheds are intact, have very high biodiversity values and need to be protected, most of the old growth in these drainages is not believed to be under immediate threat from logging.”
After Clayoquot Sound, the largest temporary deferral from development consists of 40,000 hectares in the Incomappleux Valley east of Revelstoke, an inland rainforest with trees up to 1,500 years old.
“The deferral areas appear to cover a lot of inoperable forest, or forest that’s already been clear cut,” said Valhalla Wilderness Society director Craig Pettitt.
The society is suggesting that 32,000 hectares of the Incomappleux deferral unit be allocated “to actual endangered forest elsewhere, instead of protecting inoperable or clear cut areas outside of the ancient forest.”
Pettitt said he is happy the Incomappleux has been acknowledged. But he said the inland temperate rainforest — hosting some of B.C.’s rarest ancient forests — is “severely underrepresented” in the government’s announcement.
Clear-cut logging of spruce in B.C.’s interior. Less than one-third of the world’s primary forests are still intact yet in B.C.’s interior a temperate rainforest that holds vast stores of carbon and is home to endangered caribou is being clear-cut as fast as the Amazon. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
And then there’s the deferral of about 5,700 hectares in the Skagit-Silver Daisy area, on the edge of Manning Park, where the B.C. government had already announced that logging permits in the Skagit River headwaters would no longer be permitted, but mining exploration has been causing friction with Americans downstream.
Also on Vancouver Island, more than 2,200 hectares were deferred from logging around McKelvie Creek — the last unprotected, intact watershed in the Tahsis region, in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territory. And just over 1,000 hectares, an area roughly the size of two and a half Stanley Parks, were deferred in H’Kusam, near Sayward.
The remaining deferrals consist of just over 4,500 hectares in an area known as the Seven Sisters, northwest of Smithers, and more than 17,000 hectares around the Upper Southgate River in Bute Inlet on B.C.’s mid-coast.
Coste said the Wilderness Committee is waiting on shapefiles and more information from the government so it can determine what portion of the nine deferrals lie in the 415,000 hectares of old forest left in B.C., home to trees expected to grow more than 20 metres tall in 50 years.
“That will be the real test,” he said.
Wait, what did the old-growth strategic review report actually say?
The report, commissioned by the B.C. government, was written by foresters Garry Merkel and Al Gorley.
The 216-page report calls for a paradigm shift in the way B.C. manages old-growth forests. It lays out a blueprint for change with 14 recommendations.
The report says old forests have intrinsic value for all living things and should be managed for ecosystem health, not for timber. It also says many old forests are not renewable, which counters the prevailing notion that trees, no matter how old, will grow back.
The report was widely praised by conservation groups, which welcomed the temporary development deferrals and called on the B.C. government to commit to implementing Merkel and Gorley’s recommendations.
“The report itself is fantastic,” Wu said. “It covers most of what we’ve actually been calling for for decades. What’s needed is to commit to those recommendations.”
Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt surveys recent old-growth clearcutting by Teal-Jones in the Caycuse watershed in Ditidaht Territory on southern Vancouver Island. Areas of highly productive, endangered ancient forest like this still remain at risk in many regions. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
What did the report recommend?
Top of the list is to engage “the full involvement” of Indigenous leaders and organizations in an old-growth strategy.
Immediately deferring development in old forests “where ecosystems are at very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss” and “prioritizing ecosystem health and resilience” are among the other recommendations.
In an interview with The Narwhal, Merkel said people from all sectors, including forestry, recognize “that the path we’re going down needs to change” and that B.C. forest-dependent communities — which have suffered from recent mill closures and job losses — need sustainable economies.
As such, the report recommends the government support forest sector workers and communities as they adapt to changes resulting from a new forest management system.
“If the government does that, we can minimize the pain through this transition,” said Merkel, the former chair of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation and the Columbia Basin Trust.
“But there is a transition coming in many areas … There are many, many areas that are going to have to do this regardless whether they implement our ideas or not. This is not a surprise.”
Did the government take immediate steps to prevent irreversible biodiversity loss?
No. The government has not followed the panel’s recommendation to immediately defer all logging in old-growth forests that are home to ecosystems at risk of irreversible biodiversity loss.
Under Section 13 of B.C.’s Forests Act, Donaldson can defer harvesting activities for up to four years without compensating tenure holders.
Conservation North director Michelle Connolly said areas at risk of ecological collapse include the Anzac River Valley north of Prince George, which provides critical habitat for endangered southern mountain caribou and a myriad other species, including at-risk migratory songbirds.
“The Anzac is an area of great ecological risk up here and it’s really odd that no protections have been announced for it,” Connolly said in an interview.
Cutting permits have been issued all the way up the Anzac Valley “and they’re going after the highest productivity old-growth spruce, the areas with the biggest trees,” she said.
Forestry giant Canfor and Coastal Gaslink, which is constructing a pipeline for the LNG Canada export project, recently teamed up to build a new road into the Anzac Valley wilderness, Connolly noted.
“The Hart [Ranges] caribou use that whole area. The road, the cut blocks, are in their core habitat.”
Scientist Michelle Connolly said the Anzac River Valley north of Prince George is at risk of ecological collapse and has not received any protection under the NDP government’s recent announcement. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
Petryshen said development deferrals omit “an incredible” drainage in the North Columbia mountains that BC Timber Sales plans to road and log.
The Argonaut Creek drainage provides critical habitat for the endangered Columbia North caribou herd, which, at 150 animals, is the largest remaining caribou herd in the area.
“It’s spectacular old-growth at lower elevations and then Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir and spectacular summer and winter caribou habitat, and it’s federal critical caribou habitat.”
He said it is hypocritical to move forward with piecemeal deferrals while, on the other hand, “we’re seeing that critical caribou habitat move down the road on logging trucks on Highway 23.”
Coste said the B.C. government is limiting its future ability to ensure the survival of ecosystems by failing to follow the panel’s recommendation.
“There are hundreds of hectares of old-growth being cut down today and removed from the pool of old-growth that we could potentially protect six months, a year, two years, three years from now.”
What does the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council say?
B.C. First Nations Forestry Council CEO Charlene Higgins said the council is disappointed the government has chosen to engage with First Nations “after the fact” and not as partners in the process, especially given the cultural significance of many old-growth areas.
“Public consultation and engagement stakeholder processes, and asking for submissions, really doesn’t recognize First Nations as governments and as rights holders,” Higgins told The Narwhal.
“There’s been no meaningful input and engagement with First Nations.”
Higgins said the process doesn’t reflect commitments made in B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and the government’s commitment to work in cooperation and collaboration with Indigenous peoples on forest policy changes, legislation and practices.
She said the council supports the nine development deferrals provided they were decided in full consultation with First Nations in whose territories the deferrals lie. (Donaldson underscored that the deferrals all have the support of local First Nations.)
“Many First Nations have their own policies around old growth and they have their own old growth areas that they recognize, and the province needs to ensure that these areas line up,” Higgins said.
An aerial view highlighting extensive clearcut logging of productive old-growth forests in the Klanawa Valley on southern Vancouver Island, B.C. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
What about protections for big trees?
Donaldson’s ministry also announced that work is underway to protect up to 1,500 “exceptionally large, individual trees” under the special tree protection regulation, introduced last year by the government to protect monumental trees.
Coste called the big tree protections a “drop in the bucket.” They represent, at most, the preservation of 1,500 hectares of old-growth across the province — an area smaller than four Stanley Parks — because each monumental tree gets a one-kilometre buffer zone around it, he pointed out.
“Big trees are important but there’s so much more to old-growth forests than just those big trees.”
Connolly, from Conservation North, called the protection of individual trees “a joke,” saying her science-based group sees more than 1,500 trees from the interior wet belt going down Highway 97 in a single day.
“They don’t understand what is a minimum expectation for conservation,” she said.
Higgins, from the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council, said there has been no First Nations input into the protection of individual trees.
“Without nations having any input into what is considered a large tree species, there’s a potential for a disconnect.”
“Many First Nations have developed their own strategy for what they deem as culturally significant areas,” she said. “It’s been a really flawed process that really doesn’t reflect First Nations input.
But Wu said big tree protections are an important part of protecting what little remains of B.C.’s high productivity old growth.
“The goal is, and has always been, protection of old growth ecosystems. That’s got to happen on the trees and groves level, and on the level of watersheds, landscapes and ecosystems.”
Tahsis Mayor Martin Davis stands beside a giant old-growth Douglas-fir tree in the McKelvie Valley, part of a temporary deferral that will prohibit logging in this area for two years. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
Is this really a new approach to managing old-growth?
No — at least not yet.
Merkel said the panel is recommending deep structural changes that go far further than saving a few key areas, although he said that is also important.
“If that’s all we do, we won’t change the way we’re doing things.”
“We’re talking about changing a system that started almost a century ago. We’re fundamentally turning a corner here in how that whole thing works. That’s going to take a little bit of time.”
For example, it will take several years to figure out the pieces that need to change to align with the panel’s recommendation to make ecosystem health a priority as an overarching directive for managing old-growth, he said.
If the government acts on the panel’s recommendations immediately, Merkel said there will be substantial changes in the short-term “and we will get incrementally better over time.”
What happens next?
Conservation groups want the government to implement the report’s 14 recommendations within the timeline laid out in the report, with immediate, mid-term and long-term actions taken over the next three years.
So far, the government hasn’t committed to any of the recommendations, or to the timeline.
Donaldson told reporters that managing old-growth forests while supporting workers and communities “has been a challenge in the making for more than 30 years and it won’t be solved immediately.”
“But we know that the status quo is not sustainable,” the minister said. “Obviously, it’s not good for the industry to cut it all down, there’s no plan for transition. And we know that unchecked logging in old-growth threatens crucial biodiversity values. But at the same time, putting an abrupt halt to old-growth logging would have devastating impacts on communities and workers across B.C., especially on the coast.”
As rumours swirl of a snap provincial election this fall, Donaldson said the government will provide a progress report on a “renewed old-growth strategy” in the spring of 2021. (Shortly after announcing the deferral areas, Donaldson announced he will not be seeking re-election.)
Merkel said he and Gorley have agreed not to judge the government at this point. “They haven’t outright said they aren’t going to do it,” he said regarding the recommendations.
“Our job was to think about what needed to happen,” he said. “We needed to put it out there. Now, the world has to think: ‘Are we ready, and can we do it?’ ”
Read the original article