Region Archives: Canada West

Nak’azdli Whut’en has signed two agreements, one each with Carrier Lumber and Dunkley Lumber on forest management and stewardship. Nak’azdli Whut’en and Carrier Lumber have entered into a collaborative planning process to preserve crucial wildlife habitat and to secure a sustainable forest industry into the future. …Chief Aileen Prince said, “This agreement builds a solid relationship that will ensure our territories are respected, and that wildlife has a chance to come back.” …Dunkley Lumber – This agreement is built to enhance economic opportunities while protecting the land. The agreement includes a commitment to a collaborative planning process to ensure that forestry operations respect Nak’azdli land stewardship objectives. …“Dunkley Lumber will work together with Nak’azdli on land stewardship objectives in Nak’azdli’s Traditional Territory. The agreement protects identified values while at the same time providing economic opportunities,” said Dyon Armstrong, VP, Dunkley Lumber.

VANCOUVER, BC – Increasingly severe heat and drought are weakening the health of BC’s forests and killing trees. The growing season for trees is expanding, increasing exposure to frost as well as drought. This change results in significant damage, causing plantation reforestation to fail and decreasing the value of the harvested timber. One solution is to plant more resilient trees, however, identifying which tree species are resilient enough is a challenge. A new Genome BC-funded project will tackle this problem by using drones equipped with advanced remote sensing technologies to rapidly assess the responses of trees to climatic extremes. This will enable reforestation programs to screen for trees that can cope with climate warming, droughts and frost risk. …The project focuses on Douglas fir and western redcedar — two iconic co-occurring conifers with contrasting physiological behaviours and ecological roles in BC’s temperate rainforest ecosystems. 

Writer Lyndsie Bourgon has seen first-hand the damage done by tree poachers in B.C.’s old growth forests, where once-tall Douglas fir, cedar or Sitka spruces have been reduced to “a stump in the woods.”   “Sometimes there is duff and branches left behind because the tree has been cut down and trimmed, and gotten ready for transport out in the back of a truck,” said Bourgon, author of the new book Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods.  “And in some cases, there were actually pretty large chunks of the trunk left behind … for later retrieval.”  Bourgon first became aware of the problem almost a decade ago, when an 800-year-old cedar was taken from Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park in B.C.

Additional coverage in The Tyee: Why Are People Stealing BC Trees?

In the spring of 2020, a Quadra Island resident (the complainant) noticed that old trees had been harvested in woodlot licence W2031. The complainant believed that the woodlot licensee was not permitted to harvest old trees, therefore filed a complaint with the Compliance and Enforcement Branch (CEB) of the Ministry of Forests in the spring of 2021. CEB looked into the matter and found that the licensee had harvested the old trees legally. When the complainant learned this, he filed a complaint with the Forest Practices Board on February 14, 2022, asserting that government enforcement was inappropriate. 

According to a release from the Ancient Forest Alliance, two big tree hunters – Ian Thomas and Colin Spratt – found an ancient western red cedar nicknamed “The North Shore Giant.” It’s estimated to be about 5.8 metres (19.1 feet) in diameter. Spratt posted photos of the find on social media. “This cedar has been growing for easily 2000+ years,” he wrote in a post. “My goal has been to show people that in Vancouver it’s still possible to find Canada’s largest trees still alive and growing,” he said. …They found the tree as they were exploring Lynn Headwaters Regional Park in North Vancouver. The pair of tree hunters found this beast after 10 hours of bushwhacking, so don’t expect to find it on your next hike in Lynn Valley. Still, it’s magical to know that there are giants in the mountains nearby.

Stephan Sheppard

As B.C. approaches the one-year anniversary of a heat dome that killed 619 people, experts are urging city planners to expand and protect the province’s urban tree canopy — a surefire way to cool swaths of city streets and save lives without the cost of air-conditioning and overhauling building codes. Stephan Sheppard, a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia’s department of forestry, says creating and preserving consistent urban tree canopy is “the best and the cheapest way to cool whole neighbourhoods as well as individual homes.” Sheppard’s research… involved attaching heat censors on the backs of bikes, found a difference of 8 C between neighbourhoods with higher levels of green canopy and those dominated by asphalt on a hot summer’s day. He says the cumulative effect of consistent tree cover does much more than provide shelter from the sun and shade individual homes.

Gary Mason

…Protests to stop old growth logging in the province have grabbed the public’s attention, but for all the wrong reasons. …So far it’s been a colossal bust. …The people behind the campaign want old growth logging in the province stopped. Period. …The government has remained unfazed and is sticking by its commitment to allow some old growth logging to continue – a position supported by several First Nations communities that rely on these operations for income. …Meantime, there are still vast swaths of old growth forests that are protected. The Save Old Growth folks want it all. …I suppose it’s precisely for this reason that the Stop Old Growth folks thought it was a good idea to partly block [the George Massey Tunnel], snarling traffic for hours. It wasn’t. …Does anyone in this organization honestly believe this tactic won anyone over? …It’s amazing Mr. Haq is still in the country and hasn’t been deported. 

Tanya Ball began her career as a social worker for the Kaska Dene First Nation. Now she runs a land guardian program, working to monitor and protect a vast stretch of the band’s northern British Columbia wilderness. …“Land guardians can help the land heal,” she said. “And the land can help the guardians heal.” Ball is at the forefront of the new way Canada protects its remaining healthy rivers, lakes, forests, mountains and plains. Crown governments would once rope off an area deemed particularly scenic or good for outdoor recreation and call it a park. No longer. “There’s no future when it comes to conservation where the federal government is involved (and) Indigenous people aren’t involved from the get-go,” said federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. “This traditional model is a thing of the past.” Conservation is now something Indigenous people lead instead of something done to them.

When the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan in 1651, he laid out the reasons why we require government and law. In his time, the ruling authority had been, too frequently, the rule of force. …I bring this up because, in at least one sphere of contemporary public life, the social contract has been torn up. …I’m also referring to the zealots who bar roads and bridges in pursuit of saving trees. …Missed a cancer treatment? Paltry. Unable to get to work? Paltry. Couldn’t get the kids to school? Paltry. I have a better choice of words: Nasty and brutish. We’ve seen several years’ worth of this kind of lawlessness now, and on most occasions, the police do nothing. …It is also subordinating the rule of law to the rule of force. Protesters certainly have the right of protest, but with it must come the prescribed consequences.

Nitinaht, Traditional Ditidaht First Nation Territory, B.C. – Indigenous leaders from the Ditidaht, Huu-ay-aht and Pacheedaht First Nations met with protesters today to give final notice to immediately dismantle an illegal camp built across a main logging road on Ditidaht Traditional Territory in Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 44 on Vancouver Island. The Nations’ elected and hereditary chiefs were supported by the Ditidaht Ts’aa7ukw and C̕awak ʔqin Witwak Guardians, and C̕awak ʔqin Forestry personnel, and accompanied by B.C. government representatives and the RCMP. This formal request by the Ditidaht elected and hereditary Chiefs, fully supported by the elected and hereditary leadership of Huu-ay-aht and Pacheedaht Nations as well as C̕awak ʔqin Forestry, follows several unsuccessful but peaceful attempts by Ditidaht to have the illegal camp removed. The camp was built without the free, prior and informed consent of the Ditidaht Nation’s elected and hereditary leadership and violates both traditional Indigenous and provincial laws. 

Indigenous people looking to work in B.C.’s forest sector will have more opportunities to learn, train and develop in-demand skills through two new provincial grants. Supported by the StrongerBC Economic Plan, the Province is providing funding to the First Nations Forestry Council (FNFC) for the Indigenous Forestry Scholarship Program (IFSP) and an online forestry careers-matching tool to help increase the number of Indigenous students and community members studying and working in the forest sector. Provincial funding of $437,000 will support the FNFC in developing a new online forestry careers matching tool, part of the implementation of the B.C. First Nations Workforce Strategy, branded as Forestry Connect. The online tool helps students and community members find jobs, education and training opportunities within the sector. The tool is expected to launch by March 2023, with the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council as the first host community.

Chiefs from the Dididaht, Huu-ay-aht and Pacheedaht First Nations faced off against protesters who were wearing masks and camouflage Thursday, as an illegal encampment and blockade grew in Dididaht territory near Nitinat. “We ask you to clean up your mess, pack up and leave as soon as possible,” Dididaht’s elected Chief Brian Tate told protesters. … “It’s quite shocking as far as respect goes”, said Jeff Jones, elected Chief of the Pacheedaht First Nation. The encampment is built at the very same spot, as the ‘Hummingbird camp,’ where the first arrests took place in last summer’s Fairy Creek protests. So the RCMP’s presence Thursday suggested there is growing concern this camp could grow into that. …What’s different at this new camp, which was set up three weeks ago, is that the protesters are calling themselves “We Are One” and some could be seen carrying weapons.

Additional coverage in the Victoria Times Colonist, by Nina Grossman: Logging protest camp ordered off Ditidaht territory by community’s leaders

Zain Haq

One Save Old Growth activist is expected to be released from custody while another remains in jail for another week after corrections staff failed to get him to his bail hearing. International student and SOG organizer Zain Haq, who turned himself into the Canada Border Services Agency on Tuesday, is expected to be released from the immigration holding centre in Surrey following his detention review hearing Thursday morning. “The (presiding) member of the immigration division has ordered his release on conditions,” Haq’s lawyer Randall Cohn told Canada’s National Observer Thursday evening. …Haq is also currently facing five charges of mischief. However, neither Cohn nor CBSA have clarified the actual reasons why the border agency is investigating the 21-year-old climate activist from Pakistan or the conditions of his release.

KAMLOOPS — Effective noon next Thursday (June 30), Category Three open fires will be prohibited throughout the Kamloops Fire Centre. In a news release from BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) Thursday June 23, the burning prohibition is to help prevent human-caused wildfires and protect public safety. Prohibited activities that would constitute a Category Three open fire include: any fires larger than two metres high by three metres wide; three or more concurrently burning piles no larger than two metres high by three metres wide; burning of one or more windrows; burning of stubble or grass over an area greater than 0.2 hectares. The prohibition will remain in place until Oct. 15, 2022, or until the public is otherwise notified. …However, the prohibition doesn’t ban campfires that are half-metre high by a high-metre wide or smaller and does not apply to cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes. 

Following the devastating 2021 wildfire season, experts from the University of British Columbia are calling for more proactive prevention this year. Researchers from the university’s Faculty of Forestry say climate change is causing more wildfires and causing them to be much more intense. “We have to recognize that we need to coexist with wildfires,” said researcher Dr. Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz. She and her colleagues Dr. Lori Daniels and Dr. Kira Hoffman say that people need to start approaching wildfire management the same way we approach other natural disasters, like floods or earthquakes. …From a community perspective, they urge updating building codes, thinning commercial timber plantations to reduce fire fuel, and clearing fallen trees.

BC Timber Sales will be proceeding with plans for salvage logging and mitigation work in the Sicamous Creek and Wiseman Creek watersheds. The B.C. government agency says so in a May 31 letter to the District of Sicamous – despite concerns raised for the safety of residents of the Sicamous Creek Mobile Home Park. On June 3, a second evacuation alert was issued for the mobile home park. It was prompted by concern expected precipitation would increase the risk of a landslide in the watersheds above. …In response to BC Timber Sales’ (BCTS) plans to salvage harvest within the watersheds, both Sicamous council and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District called for a moratorium on logging. BGC Engineering recommended no salvage logging take place in areas affected by the wildfire until 2024, when the situation could be reassessed.

The discovery of three rare species of lichen in an Annapolis Valley forest has led the province to scale back a planned cut on Crown land in the area. Protesters are hopeful it won’t go ahead at all. Lichen found in 17 spots … have been reviewed by lichenologists with the Department of Natural Resources and “appropriate buffers of 100 metres have been applied to areas with confirmed sightings,” a spokesperson for the department. That has shrunk the approved harvest… from an initial 24 hectares to 10 hectares. …The province previously said it would proceed with logging in the area, but not in several locations buffering rare lichen. Protesters weren’t happy with that, saying there was a likelihood of more lichen still to be found. They launched a citizen-led search of the forest… Logging company WestFor Management Inc., said it will follow the department’s ecological forest management guidelines…

Katrine Conroy, B.C. Minister of Forests, was in Williams Lake on June 16 to make a $25 million funding announcement and tour Forest Enhancement Society of B.C.(FESBC) projects in the area. The $25 million will fund another round of FESBC projects aimed at reducing wildfire risk and enhancing wildlife habitat, reducing greenhouse gases, forest recreation and ecological resiliency. While in town for the day, Conroy toured previous projects supported by FESBC. …Tsideldel and Williams Lake First Nation development corporation projects have both been utilizing grinders to turn burnt trees and wood debris removed for ecosystem restoration and fire hazard reduction in the area into biomass fuel to help supply Atlantic Power’s Williams Lake Power Plant. Affordable biomass has been harder to source since demand for wood biomass has gone up, partially at least due to the expansion of pellet production.

After spending weeks at the soggy blockade, 17-year-old Miguel was back at his parents’ place in Nelson nursing a cold. He’d missed about a month of high school to help protect the Argenta-Johnsons Landing Face, an intact stretch of forest in southeastern B.C., from logging. …Forest protectors had been on site since April 24 in an effort to prevent the area from being logged by timber company Cooper Creek Cedar Ltd. RCMP arrived on May 17 … arresting 17 people, including Miguel… Over the decades, forest tenure changed hands a few times, but most of the face remained unlogged. Until now. Today, Cooper Creek Cedar is logging five cutblocks …on the face, but it also plans to build a network of roads, opening up a new, previously inaccessible region to logging. In turn, the long fight to include the face in the Purcell conservancy area has been reinvigorated.

[VIDEO includes additional content not included in the print version] Commuters travelling between West Vancouver and downtown were told to expect delays Wednesday morning as a protest temporarily blocked traffic on a major crossing. …Wednesday’s blockade is the latest in a string of traffic-disrupting protests that have aggravated commuters in recent months. The group says they want to see an end to logging of old growth forests in British Columbia through legislative changes. …Many of the group’s members have been arrested multiple times, including its co-founder, Zain Haq.  The international Simon Fraser University student has been arrested 10 times at various climate-related protests since 2020. And on Feb. 15, he was sentenced to two weeks in jail for criminal contempt of court after violating an injunction involving the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Now, Haq is worried his climate activism has made him a target for deportation.

Terrance Coste

In the summer of 2021, the fight over old-growth forests reached a fever pitch. …The B.C. government was scrambling to …respond to the public uproar.  …By 2019, the NDP government launched its old-growth strategic review resulting in a report entitled A New Future for Old Forests, released four months later. …Premier John Horgan called a snap election 10 days after the report’s release and campaigned hard on old-growth, promising to implement all the report’s recommendations… Horgan announced in June 2021 that a second panel was needed. This one consisted of technical experts who would determine which ancient forests should be set aside. …The Horgan government has made some nice promises about the importance of ancient ecosystems. Because of the lack of immediate interim protection to ensure the best patches of old-growth don’t continue to fall and the absence of meaningful funding to make these protections possible, the B.C. government is still failing on that score.