Region Archives: Canada West

There’s a lot to be stressed out about these days. But instead of taking medication for low levels of anxiety, your health care provider may soon prescribe spending more time in nature. On Saturday, at COP15, the Canadian Medical Association officially endorsed a B.C. Parks Foundation initiative called PaRx, a national nature prescription program. It’s the first time a national medical organization in the world has endorsed a nature prescription. Dr. Melissa Lem, a director of PaRx, says the CMA endorsement will normalize the idea within the medical profession that nature is essential for good health. What they will typically recommend is at least two hours a week outside, for at least 20 minutes at a time. That could mean going for a hike in the woods. …She said this is the first of its kind in the world, and aligns with the association’s goal of improving health and increasing environmental stewardship.

The Municipality of North Cowichan doesn’t make its money logging so why cut down the trees? On the front page of the wheredowestand.ca website there is a link to a video called “New Old Growth – Our Mature Naturally Generated Forests Vs. Tree Plantations.” The video is filmed in areas of the Municipal Forest Reserve that are presently planned to be clear-cut. I encourage Municipality of North Cowichan taxpayers to spend seven minutes watching this video. I think it is reasonable to ask yourself, “If we aren’t making any significant money logging these aging forests, why do we cut down the trees?” …I have become, perhaps, a little simplistic. I now look at much of our MFR and agree with the Fairy Creek tree huggers – Worth More Standing.

Jennifer Gunter

At the West Boundary Community Forest, we work together to ensure the decisions we make in our forest have the best interest of the community in mind. People play a key role in the prosperity of the community forest and help build healthy communities. Today we introduce Jennifer Gunter, one of the co-founders of the BC Community Forest Association – the voice and advocate for community forests as well as communities seeking to get community forest tenures – and the long-time executive director, who has fervently supported the West Boundary Community Forest. …Gunter has always had a passion for forestry and the environment, and did her undergraduate studies in Geography and Environmental Studies from McGill University, and Masters in Resource Management from Simon Fraser University. The work that community forests across the province are undertaking, in order to adapt to climate change and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, is what excites her. 

During the ‘heat dome’ of 2021 firefighters from the BC Wildfire Service battled a large wildfire in the Trozzo Creek watershed close to many Slocan Valley communities. Thankfully, some of this area was already being managed by the Slocan Integral Forestry Cooperative (SIFCo) to reduce fire intensity. “It was very useful,” said SIFCo manager Stephan Martineau. “That area was used as an anchor for a backburn that burned toward the fire and created a barrier for the advancing flames.” This stopped the fire in its tracks and allowed fire crews to establish and protect the northern edge of the wildfire. …Both the Nakusp and Area Community Forest and the Kaslo and District Community Forest Society have recently received FESBC grants totalling about $350,000 each, while SIFCo received approximately $500,000. Projects range from creating access roads for wildfire crews to thinning out forests so they don’t burn as intensely.

As the public ponders the various manipulated options for managing the North Cowichan Forests the silliness and eco-nonsense from the anti-forestry anti-logging crowd has intensified in our local media.  This campaign is well funded and has never disclosed where its money is coming from to stop logging in this municipal jewel. Is this where some of the $2 million Fairy Creek fundraising ended up? Now our politicians have been duped into stopping logging and creating a quagmire of fake concern about sustainable forestry. North Cowichan is the only municipal forest owner in BC that is considering killing its successful forestry business, egged on by people with little understanding of forest ecology and long on environmental shrillness. It hired a bunch of unqualified university professors with little or no real world experience to present faulty options that poorly reflect on the real value of wood and exaggerated the potential economic benefits of carbon credits.

This letter was also carried in the Victoria Times Colonist.

MONTRÉAL – The Governments of Canada and Yukon are committed to working together to protect and conserve biodiversity, habitat, and species at risk in the Yukon. This will contribute to the goal of protecting 25 percent of land and fresh water in Canada by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, and Yukon’s Ministry of Environment, announced the Canada–Yukon Nature Agreement—the first agreement of its kind—to advance nature conservation and protection across the territory. The Government of Canada will invest a total of $20.6 million to implement the agreement. This will support Indigenous leadership in conservation; increased protection of sensitive habitats; and recovery actions for species at risk, as well as the protection and conservation of new land in the Yukon. The ministers announced the agreement at COP15 in Montréal. The Governments of Canada and Yukon will collaborate with Indigenous peoples and governments to implement Canada’s first Nature Agreement.

Clint Carlson

Skill alone is rarely enough for professional athletes to succeed. …The same can be said of elite level loggers, and Clint Carlson, owner of Kaslo, B.C.-based, Sunshine Logging, is a good example of that. But even veterans like Carlson are feeling the pressure these days. …He says that the business environment today is so skewed that it’s hard to make the adjustments needed to facilitate a return to the more balanced business environment that existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. While adjustments have been made in the cubic metre rate forest companies are offering to loggers, it’s still not enough to address the extra costs that loggers are facing. …Because of supply chain issues, many loggers today have to wait twice as long to replace equipment, and at substantially higher prices. …Carlson logs for Kalesnikoff Lumber based in Castlegar [and] customers who have won timber sales bids, such as Stella-Jones and Celgar Pulp.

Elders from B.C.’s Pacheedaht and Wet’suwet’en First Nations have signed an open letter calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to stop siding with industry looking to develop new fossil fuel projects and log old-growth forests. The Dec 14 letter, implores Trudeau to “listen to the youth” and defend “life rather than perpetuating extractivism” through six actions. They include: playing a permanent moratorium on old-growth logging; stopping all construction of new fossil fuel projects…; and ending the surveillance and policing of Indigenous land defenders opposing their development. Together with David Suzuki, the group also implores Trudeau to take federal dollars used to police extractive projects and reallocate them to Indigenous communities so they can develop their own climate solutions and prop up alternative livelihoods. …“This could be your moment, Justin. COP-15 could be the defining moment of your legacy as prime minister,” said the letter.

Alberta has seen the mountain pine beetle invade more than 2 million hectares of land used for forestry, but cold weather and prevention measures have radically slowed the spread. University of Alberta insect researcher Nadir Erbilgin shares the good news.

Chief Peter Bill

Saskatoon and Pelican Lake First Nation signed an agreement to create an urban reserve at a special ceremony in front of a full room of band members at city hall on Wednesday. The urban reserve is located at 1944 St. George Avenue. Pelican Lake bought into the existing business, Adam’s Lumber, at that location. Pelican Lake Chief Peter Bill says the lumber business compliments Pelican Lake’s other forestry interests.  “What you take from the land you’ve got to give back, and reforestation is a big item that we push,” Bill said. “And what we take from, from sakaw askîy (forest and earth), that’s what we’re going to be building our our houses with.” …Pelican Lake has also signed forestry agreements with Tolko and Carrier Forest Products. “The lumber will be supplied direct to Adams Lumber, so it’s a preferred cost,” Bill said.

More than 20 years of work culminated in a historic signing on Nov. 21. Representatives of the Shuswap Band, Town of Golden and Columbia Shuswap Regional District Area A Rural Golden met at the Shuswap Band office near Invermere to sign a historic memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding a possible community forest. Through the signing, the three local governments reaffirmed their desire to come together and better understand one another while working towards the acquisition of the ‘Kenpesq’t Community Forest’ within the Golden Timber Supply Area, says professional forester and longtime volunteer Denise English. The ceremony hosted by the Shuswap Band opened with a prayer and a Shuswap Band Drumming Ceremony. “Everyone left the ceremony, feeling positive and very thankful for the opportunity to share with one another,” says English. Newly appointed Shuswap Band Salmon Chief and Coun. Mark Thomas calls the memorandum monumental.

A private island off the coast of Nanaimo is being donated in the highest-value land transfer in the history of the Islands Trust Conservancy. Link Island, a 21.5-hectare island between Gabriola Island and Vancouver Island valued at $3.73 million, has been donated to the conservancy by Betty Swift, who died in 2021. According to a release from Islands Trust Conservancy, Swift left instructions regarding the land transfer. The family’s dream is that the Link Island Nature Reserve can become a location for climate-change research. The land transfer means the reserve now has a new conservation covenant held by the Nanaimo and Area Land Trust and the Gabriola Land and Trails Trust, the release noted. …The conservancy stated that it is currently developing a management plan and is initiating conversations with multiple First Nations “whose territory and interests” include Link Island.

MONTRÉAL – Parks Canada and the Seal River Watershed Alliance, announced a commitment to work together on a feasibility assessment for an Indigenous protected area in the Seal River Watershed. The Seal River Watershed includes portions of the ancestral territory of four First Nations—the Sayisi Dene First Nation, Northlands Denesuline First Nation, Barren Lands First Nation, and O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation. Together, these First Nations have created the Seal River Watershed Alliance to work on their behalves to support a shared vision of protecting the nations’ respective ancestral lands. Located in northern Manitoba, the Seal River Watershed is one of the richest carbon sinks in the world, and one of the world’s largest remaining ecologically intact watersheds, spanning over 50,000 square kilometres.

B.C. Premier David Eby’s newly appointed cabinet is about to decide the fate of a handful of proposed projects, each with a slew of implications to biodiversity and climate. …As politicians at COP15 make promises to conserve land and water for biodiversity, it remains to be seen whether their provincial counterparts will green-light projects that eat away at critical habitat and fuel the climate crisis. …The projects B.C. will soon need to make a call on include the Sukunka open-pit coal mine, FortisBC’s Tilbury liquefied natural gas expansion, the Cedar LNG floating terminal and a Port of Vancouver expansion in the Fraser River estuary. …Canada was criticized for allegedly putting its forest industry ahead of conservation. B.C. also continues to approve logging permits in tracts of old-growth forest, home to one of the last viable caribou herds in the southern part of the province.

Re: Canada calls for more help to plant two billion trees (Castanet, Dec. 9) The author should be careful not to use words like “destroyed” in what should be a fact-based piece of journalism. In B.C., and most parts of Canada, the forest companies have contractors who do their logging. Those loggers make up some of the most sophisticated operators in the world today. Trees are cut using low soil impact methods and within a few years, the cut areas regenerate, most often from having been planted with native species of high genetic diversity. We need to stop slamming the people in our communities who deserve credit for the work they do. When you have time, (reporters) are welcome to come by our seed orchard in Coldstream, where we produce tree seeds for reforestation in B.C. I would be happy to give (them) a better understanding of how forestry is practiced in our province.

Notable forestry sector leaders have donated $2.5 million towards BCIT’s new Technology and Trades Complex, the school has announced.  The contribution was given to its INSPIRE campaign, which will help benefit more than 20 trades and technology programs.   “With ongoing innovation and growing demand for climate-friendly building solutions, Canfor is excited to support BCIT’s growth as an interconnection between the forestry and construction sectors,” Canfor CEO Don Kayne said in a news release.   “With some of the most advanced labs and simulation facilities in the country, the TTC will be a training space that showcases high-value wood product applications, including our leadership in mass timber.   “Forestry has a proud history in BC, and we see exciting opportunities for the future as the world turns to lower carbon products to build greener homes, businesses, and communities.”

B.C.’s newest provincial park was once slated for logging. Now, advocates and the local First Nation want to expand it. …Darwyn Coxson’s eyes light up in wonder as he walks through a trail in Ancient Forest Provincial Park, or Chun T’oh Whudujut in the Lheidli T’enneh language, in northern British Columbia. Hundreds of giant old-growth trees, stretching high enough to block out the sun, surround him.  But what catches his attention is something much smaller: a small clump of lichen. … Now they’re pushing to expand the park’s boundaries. Coxson says more than 2,400 species of plants, lichens, and mosses have been found in the region, some previously undiscovered. …In 2016, after years of lobbying by the hiking club and Coxson, among others, the provincial government worked with logging companies, including Vancouver-based forestry company Canfor, to protect the land now known as the Ancient Forest Provincial Park.

In mandate letters to his land stewardship and forestry ministers, B.C. Premier David Eby says he wants to double the amount of protected land in the province, support new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and move faster on recommendations around the logging of old growth trees.  They’re conservation goals advocates have been calling on for years to protect B.C.’s unique biodiversity, which has thousands of species at risk due to development and climate change. “This is potentially a major leap toward protecting endangered ecosystems and the most at-risk, productive stands of old-growth forests left in B.C.,” said Ken Wu in a release from the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance. Experts say protected areas help mitigate the worst effects of climate change, contribute to diversifying local economies and advance reconciliation with First Nations.

Peter Rusland

It’s astonishing to read the municipality’s article published free in December’s Valley Voice. That story concerns our municipal forest reserve program’s history and revenues — plus our current public discussion and survey regarding our nationally rare reserve’s future. The public input deadline is Dec. 31, 2022. Incredibly, our municipal managers fail to explain in the Voice our survey’s four forest-reserve options — spanning Status-Quo logging to Active and Passive conservation. It’s disgraceful how our staff arguably shows bias implying the survey’s Status Quo (continued logging) option No. 1 would best benefit taxpayers and municipal revenues.;:

Additional coverage in the Lake Cowichan Gazette, letter by Bryan Senft: Forestry profit analysis for public consumption

Caroline Cochrane and Justin Trudeau

Two Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories are working to establish a new Indigenous protected and conservation area. Deninu Kue First Nation and the Fort Resolution Métis Government are planning to protect portions of their traditional territory in the Slave River Delta and Taltson River watershed. They say the protections are crucial for food security and economic and cultural activities. The groups have signed a $3.1-million contribution agreement with Environment and Climate Change Canada to establish the new area. Ducks Unlimited Canada and the NWT chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society are supporting the effort. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau separately announced this week $800-million in funding over seven years for four large Indigenous-led conservation efforts across Canada.

Trees both give and take when it comes to carbon dioxide. If forest management is to become one of the tools of nature-based climate solutions, the trick will be to ensure they continue to take more than they give. That doesn’t necessarily mean halting all logging in Canada, according to a new report by the Canadian Council of Academies, Nature-Based Climate Solutions. However, it does suggest changes in the way forests are managed. …The report recommends:

• For working forests… the elimination or reduction of slash burning.  
• The use of harvest waste for bioenergy, though it argues against the harvesting of whole live trees in boreal forests.
• Allowing trees to grow longer and larger before being cut, and harvesting trees as crops with replanting and commercial thinning.
• Prescribed burning as a way of reducing risks of wildfires.  
• Increasing stewardship by First Nations, and the sale of carbon credits.

Additional coverage by Nelson Bennett in Business in Vancouver: Nature based solutions play ‘modest’ role in climate mitigation

This week and next governments, scientists and conservation experts… will set a course to end nature loss around the world and to create a nature-positive future. But what does that really mean for us, here in British Columbia? …When I look around my local landscape in the East Kootenay, I can see the growing impact of our activities on the forests, waterways and open spaces that surround our towns and cities. I believe most of us know we need to find a better balance in how we coexist with these places. Consider our wetlands, for example. …The loss has been substantial in places like the South Okanagan and Vancouver Island, where over 85 per cent of historical wetland habitat has been drained, filled or otherwise damaged. And still these places are under increasing pressure from development, overuse and climate change. …But we can reverse these trends. In fact, we’re well underway.

David Eby

The B.C. government has committed to protecting 30 per cent of the province’s land by 2030, joining global efforts to protect nature and reverse potentially disastrous biodiversity loss. The commitment to double B.C.’s current land protections was made in Premier David Eby’s mandate letter to Nathan Cullen, B.C.’s new Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. Eby instructed Cullen to ensure land operations in the province guarantee sustainability for future generations and to work closely with Indigenous communities to achieve that goal. “We have seen the impacts of short-term thinking on the BC’s land base — exhausted forests, poisoned water and contaminated sites,” Eby’s states. “These impacts… threaten the ability of entire communities to thrive and succeed.” The letter instructs Cullen to partner with the federal government, industry and communities, and to work with Indigenous communities.