Monthly Archives: December 2017

A B.C.-based forest advocacy group has recently found an ancient grove, home to one of the biggest Sitka spruce trees in the country, on Vancouver Island. …The forest … is located on lands owned by TimberWest Forest Corp. …According to a statement sent to The Globe and Mail, TimberWest said it has protected the Sitka spruce tree and the surrounding stand for many years, and it isn’t planning to change its operation. “We are committed to the responsible stewardship of our working forest, and actively solicit the input of interested stakeholders to strike the appropriate balance between ecological, social and economic interests. There are no plans to deviate from the conservation status of this grove in our inventory management,” TimberWest’s spokeswoman Monica Bailey said in an e-mail.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia are using drones to investigate how much damage the 2017 wildfire season wreaked on B.C.’s forests. By flying the unmanned machines over B.C.’s Interior, graduate students and a professor in forestry can not only see the size of the area burned but can also use the drones’ high-resolution images to create 3D models of the forests. “We can observe the effect and severity of the fire on each individual tree and use all this information to really understand the general patterns in which fires occur,” Nicholas Coops, the Canada research chair in remote sensing and a UBC professor, said in a release. Previously, forests were surveyed using aerial imagery and satellite imagery. Those images have a rather coarse resolution, and the ones taken by drones are much higher quality. The new technology enables researchers to see forest details down to the centimetre.

Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne took the unusual step of appearing as a delegate in front of his council’s committee of the whole Dec. 6 to shed some light on how council is dealing with the latest controversy over the Community Forest (SCCF). … As SCCF’s sole shareholder, through Sechelt Community Projects Inc., Sechelt council has been under pressure to call off the planned harvesting. The group Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) has argued that EW28 should be preserved because it has high recreational and ecological value and falls partially within the area marked out in the Roberts Creek Official Community Plan for potential inclusion if the province ever decides to expand Mt. Elphinstone Provincial Park. … “There was no uptake of that notion at the ministerial level… It’s considered by the ministry as part of the working forest and a delay would not really have the affect we have in mind.”

VICTORIA – In a move to better align harvest practices with the intent of the chief forester’s allowable annual cut decisions, changes are being made to how timber partitions are enforced throughout British Columbia. When making allowable annual cut (AAC) decisions, the chief forester can specify portions of the harvest attributable to different timber types, geographic areas or types of terrain. Harvest limits to reflect partitions within individual licence agreements can then be set by ministerial order if voluntary compliance with the partition is not achieved. “The chief forester makes use of partitions to protect the sustainability of B.C. timber supply, and we need the necessary tools to fairly enforce those partitions and track how they are working in the field,” said Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson.

A forest advocacy group says it has discovered an unprotected old-growth forest that is home to a near-record sized Sitka spruce tree on Vancouver Island. The Ancient Forest Alliance says the 3.3-metre wide tree was found on lands owned by TimberWest Corporation, near the town of Port Renfrew, also known as Canada’s tall tree capital. According to the Big Tree Registry, the tree is the tenth widest Sitka spruce in Canada. Now the group, which lobbies to keep old-growth forests from being logged, is petitioning B.C.’s New Democrat government to buy the land from TimberWest.  …TimberWest and B.C.’s Ministry of Forests have been contacted with a request for information about potential plans for the area.

Tyler Berry won what appears to be the Northwest Guide Outfitters last award for best grizzly bear Dec. 2. “It took us 50 hours on horseback, 10 days of grueling hunting, it didn’t come easy,” said Berry of the journey to get the bear. “I’ve been in the bush for 13 years, since I was 17. I’m 30 now and that was my first grizzly guided hunt that I’ve done and it could be the last.” The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said while the ban on trophy hunting is in effect, the regulations are currently being finalized. Under the ban it is illegal for a hunter to keep a grizzly’s head, paws or hide after a kill.

B.C. environmentalists want Ottawa to take measures to protect mountain caribou, which they consider to be in imminent danger of extinction. The University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre and the Valhalla Wilderness Society have presented a petition to federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna claiming that all 10 of B.C.’s most southerly mountain caribou populations are at risk.  They’re seeking federal cabinet approval of an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act that would put in place strategies to conserve the populations. …The petition says that a provincial strategy to recover the caribou has failed because the government has refused to curb most logging of the caribous’ old-growth forest habitat and has also neglected to implement snowmobile bans recommended by its own team of biologists.

Tensions between the Council of the Haida Nation and the province of British Columbia have escalated, with the Haida telling forestry companies they will not be allowed to log timber sold to them by the province. Letters have been sent to two companies who recently purchased logging rights on Haida Gwaii, saying that because the Haida Nation did not approve the purchases, they will not be recognized. The letters are the latest in a series of actions the nation has taken to express its displeasure with the province’s management of forestry assets on the archipelago off B.C.’s West Coast. Haida Nation president kil tlaats ‘gaa (Peter Lantin) has warned frustration among the Haida “has built up to a place where it’s going to build up.”