Region Archives: Canada West

Mission, BC—A total of 80,000 trees will be planted in the Mission Municipal Forest this year as part of the Forestry Department’s annual silviculture and reforestation program.  “There are very few things that define Mission more than its Municipal Forest,” said Mayor Paul Horn. …Planting started earlier this spring and will result in a mix of three varieties being added back to the land. …This year’s trees are Douglas fir, Western red cedar, and Western white pine.  “The soils and plant life are key indicators to what tree species are best suited to that ecosystem,” said Kelly Cameron, Forest Technologist at the City of Mission. “  …As part of its climate change adaptation strategy, the Forestry Department is also working with the Province to allow for more inclusion of deciduous tree species in harvest areas as a means to increase diversity and resiliency in future forests.

VICTORIA – An audit of a range agreement for grazing cattle in the Quesnel Natural Resource District found that the rancher met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act. The range tenure was selected randomly for audit. “Range practices were consistent with the range-use plan and the legal requirements, and protected water values,” said Kevin Kriese, chair, Forest Practices Board. “The rancher did a good job of protecting resources while grazing their cattle on public land.” The tenure covers just under 10,000 hectares in total and permits grazing of 620 Animal Unit Months (an AUM is the amount of forage consumed by a cow in a 30-day period). It is located 30 kilometres northwest of Quesnel, within the territories of the the Secwépemc, Tŝilhqot’in and Dakelh Nations. The auditors examined range planning and practices for compliance with the act and the Range Regulation. 

Alice Palmer

The headline on the Fairy Creek protest website blares, “Only 2.7% of B.C.’s original productive old growth forests remain standing.” Readers are implored to volunteer, donate and “join the movement.”  As a B.C. resident, I am alarmed that people — maybe even you, if you are reading this article — are being encouraged to glue themselves to highways and stage hunger strikes over what is essentially a tall tale.  The supposed “fact” that less than three per cent of B.C.’s productive old growth remains standing, and the implicit suggestion that we’re about to lose that too, are both patently untrue.  There is actually much more old growth left, and the majority of it is protected from logging.  …Enormous, awe-inspiring trees are part of B.C.’s cultural identity, as is impassioned debate over their conservation. However, before risking your life for the cause, I beg you: please read the science first. You’ll be glad you did.

The District of Sicamous received exactly the same response as the Columbia Shuswap Regional District to a request for a moratorium on logging in the Wiseman Creek watershed. At its April 13 meeting, council received a letter from Grace Chomitz, a planning forester with BC Timber Sales (BCTS). In the letter, Chomitz referred to the District of Sicamous’ recommendation to halt logging activity for two years in the Sicamous Creek and Wiseman Creek watershed – areas impacted by the Two Mile Road wildfire in 2021 – due to there being a high risk of debris flow. The district’s recommendation was in response to a referral from BCTS regarding salvage logging proposed for areas of the watershed. …Chomitz said BCTS has conducted its own studies of the watershed and that harvesting within the fire area will help to make it “more resilient to bark beetles.” 

Hundreds of volunteers are preparing to battle vast swaths of invasive Scotch Broom on Vancouver Island as part of an annual culling. An organization called Broombusters Invasive Plant Society is the one leading the charge in hopes their actions will minimize the impacts that the Scotch Broom has on the surrounding ecosystem. The invasive plant was brought to the Island more than 150 years ago and has spread since then — causing problems that include crowding out native plants, preventing forests from regrowing and changing the chemistry of the soil. Broombusters says that the plant is highly flammable as well, making it a hazard in dry forest areas and nearby power lines, especially during B.C.’s wildfire season. Broombusters says the best way to eradicate it is to cut it now — as close to the ground as possible — while its brilliant yellow blooms are in full display.

The B.C. government has provided more than $696,000 in grants to four local governments and one First Nation in the Cariboo Fire Centre to support wildfire-risk-reduction initiatives and help keep communities safe. These Community Resiliency Investment (CRI) grants are part of more than $13 million provided to 107 recipients throughout B.C. following the latest application intake in the program’s FireSmart Community Funding and Supports category. “Last year’s devastating fire season highlighted the importance of implementing FireSmart activities around B.C. communities and, as we saw in Logan Lake, it can make a big difference,” said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests. “In Budget 2022, our government committed $90 million in community grants to complete FireSmart initiatives and fuel-management activities that will help safeguard homes and communities from wildfire threats.” …Mitigating wildfire threats is a shared responsibility of the provincial government, local governments, First Nations, industry, stakeholders and individual British Columbians. 

Additional coverage in CFJC Today by James Peters: Kamloops, Merritt, local First Nations among communities to receive fire prevention grants

Fire has shaped ecosystems on Earth ever since there was vegetation and an ignition source, including lightning, to ignite them. In addition to these natural processes, human use and management of fire have also impacted ecosystems and biodiversity. Prior to European settlement, many Indigenous peoples in BC used fire to sustain biodiversity and break up the landscape to limit fire spread and severity. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, as natural and human-caused fires impacted growing communities, fire suppression practices began—a practice that through the decades has impacted the development of forest ecosystems. Today, the impacts of climate change on forest health with BC’s more than 100 years of fire exclusion and suppression is highlighting new challenges and shifting paradigms in forest and fire management. Resource managers are looking at ways to restore the natural role of fire in the landscape—to support resilient, healthy forests while reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

One often hears that the forests of the Sunshine Coast are so productive that they practically beg to be logged, that no amount of logging (read clear-cutting), could possibly put a dent in this apparently inexhaustible resource. This sophistic conception of the forest as anthropocentric extractive resource is built on the old colonial productivism paradigm, which is the opposite of the ecological conception of the forest as an infinitely complex ecosystem whose equilibrium has evolved over millennia, to sustain all living beings and not only humans. …Apparently, the logging company known as the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) is of the opinion that this old forest [Blk EW24] is not worth keeping as it is surrounded by logged out land (land which used to be “productive” forests no doubt…).

In 2021, British Columbia endured one of the worst wildfire seasons on record, fuelled in part by record-breaking temperatures across the province in June—including in Whistler. …Aside from some smoky skies, Whistler largely avoided the impacts of the 2021 wildfire season—but that doesn’t mean local officials are sleeping easy. …Avoiding a similar fate to Lytton is top of mind for the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW), which is why mayor and council voted to adopt a new Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan (CWRP) at the April 5 council meeting. The new CWRP—which replaces the 2011 Community Wildfire Protection Plan—was drafted by B.A. Blackwell & Associates with input from community stakeholders and RMOW staff. …While the plan recommends thinning forested areas in and around Whistler, particularly along the Highway 99 corridor, FireSmarting high-risk neighbourhoods is its highest priority.

Spallumcheen officials are not going to allow chainsaws on Rose Swanson Mountain without a fight.  The province has once again approved selective logging in the popular recreational area near Armstrong and Spallumcheen.  When plans to log the beloved green space were first made public last year, there was an uprising of support to stop the cutting of trees.  Spallumcheen officials were critical of a lack of public consultation when the plan was first announced.  A website was launched, as was a petition, and the growing pressure forced the province to put the plan on hold.  Friends of Rose Swanson Ecosystem Society (FORSES) was formed to bring people together to protect the mountain. …Spallumcheen Mayor Christine Fraser said the “township is committed to do whatever it has to do to protect the area.”  

Brent Eichler

On April 11, CBC Radio’s On the Coast broadcast an interview with two of the founders of Save Old Growth, Zain Haq and Brent Eichler.  They both came across as intelligent, thoughtful members of society who care deeply about the potential annihilation of the human species as a result of rising greenhouse-gas emissions.  Eichler cares so much, in fact, that he’s just entered the fourth week of a hunger strike. He’s refusing solid food to try to get a public meeting with the minister responsible for B.C.’s forests, Katrine Conroy.  Save Old Growth wants the province to retain the remaining 2.7 percent of B.C.’s original ancient forests to help address the climate and biodiversity crises. …But the John Horgan government has refused to meet with Eichler, 57, and another Save Old Growth activist, 69-year-old Howard Breen, who has entered the third week of his hunger strike.

Tammy Bradford & Brian Reynolds

The Creston Museum has restored a piece of history with the return of the logging arch.  On April 6, the impressive piece of equipment was unloaded and put back on display after a long journey home from restoration in Manitoba.  Originally built in Michigan, C.O. Rodgers brought the logging arch into the Creston Valley sometime between 1908 and 1913 for use in the logging operations at Canyon City Lumber Company.  A logging arch is a horse-drawn skidding machine featuring two giant wheels – 10 feet in diameter – joined by a massive axle in the centre. After chaining a large log or stack of logs to the axle, the simple device would raise one end to make it easier to be dragged out of the bush by horses to the nearby sawmill.

The RCMP is investigating after spikes were found in a fallen old growth tree in the Fairy Creek injuction area.  On April 7, Sooke and Lake Cowichan RCMP were alerted to a spiked tree located near the Granite Mainline Forest Service Road. Employees with a security company located approximately 30 metal tree spikes that had been driven through the trunk of a fallen old growth tree that had been dragged to the area from where it had been cut.  …The RCMP say it is believed the spiked tree was intentionally placed in order to hinder forestry workers from safely conducting their operations. In addition, PVC piping was found inside the log which was intended to be used as a “sleeping dragon”, a device commonly used by protestors to secure themselves to a physical structure.

Ben Parfitt

As hundreds of protesters trying to stop logging of old-growth forests were arrested at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island last year, the B.C. government raked in big money from logging companies.   In total, it collected more than $1.8 billion dollars in stumpage fees — a number that would have been higher still but for the protests.  Nothing in the past 15 years comes close to that revenue benchmark, a figure that underscores that it is not just the logging companies who benefit financially from logging old-growth or primary forests, but the provincial government as well.  New research by the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows, however, that the whopping stumpage revenues of last year mask trouble ahead.  …The long predicted “falldown effect” is here. Logging rates are plummeting as old-growth or primary forests never before subject to industrial logging disappear.

A joint release went out today (Thursday) on behalf of the Lhtako Dene Nation and West Fraser stating that working together will strengthen industry and further sustain resilient communities in the Quesnel area.  “For many decades, we have consistently seen West Fraser’s forest professionals demonstrate how sustainable forest management in Lhtako Dene traditional territory, can balance environmental, economic and community values, using planning and management techniques that reflect our values,” said Chief Clifford Lebrun.  “Currently, West Fraser is trialing different harvesting techniques, reforestation practices, managing for medicinal plants and wildlife, as well as prioritizing important fisheries values-all of which are of great importance to us. Through our enhanced commitment, we are building on this approach by working together closely, managing the forest on Lhtako Dene traditional territory for values important to use and the public overall,” said Lebrun.

Police are investigating after 30 nails and a PVC pipe were found embedded into the trunk of a fallen old growth tree in the Fairy Creek injunction area. Sooke and Lake Cowichan RCMP were called on April 7 after security guards in Fairy Creek logging area found what appeared to be a number of nails driven through the trunk of a fallen tree. They also found a PVC pipe inserted into the middle of the log, which had been dragged from the area where it was cut. Investigators believe the nails were intentionally placed as a way to stop forestry workers from conducting their operations. …“This tactic to impede forestry operations is not only illegal, but is extremely dangerous,” said Chief Supt. John Brewer.

Drones flew over a wildfire-charred landscape in British Columbia last November, dropping thousands of tree seeds on the blackened ground. The flights were part of an experimental trial to reseed First Nations forests that were lost to the monumentally destructive 2017 fire season. With drones on their side, people in the area hope that reforestation can move faster — especially as wildfires continue to worsen. …“We just wanted to find another method of planting that would complement our current, traditional planting methods using tree planters,” Guichon says. …The results of the trial in British Columbia will be coming in over the next year or so and will hopefully yield some positive — and plentiful — findings. Data from these test runs will be used to shape the future of drone-seeding surveys, puck-drop techniques, and reforestation projects.

Things were looking up …in Revelstoke last year. COVID-19 restrictions were winding down, and demand for accommodations from restless travellers was strong. The numbers stayed strong even when nearby wildfires in mid-July covered the town in a layer of ash. But by early August tourists started looking elsewhere, like Vancouver Island, in search of fresh air and sunshine. …Tourism businesses all across the Interior are bracing themselves again for the impact of wildfires on their operations as they try to rebound from two years of pandemic restrictions. …The BC Wildfire Service says the 2022 fire season is off to an average start, and a heavy snowpack in many parts of the Interior is a positive sign. However, regions such as the Okanagan continue to experience deep drought conditions in the soil; last year’s intense blazes had a lasting impact, leaving the area susceptible to burns.

… A recent study conducted in an aspen forest near Barrier Lake, Alta., found that insect populations had dropped significantly as a result of an overabundance of earthworms — an invasive species in North America. The researchers found that in areas with the highest mass of earthworms, there were 61 per cent fewer individual insects, 18 per cent fewer insect species and a 27 per cent reduction in the total mass of insects on average. …Findings showed that earthworms are a formidable foe for many insects when it comes to food and habitat resources in the studied forest, said Dr. Jochum, particularly those that must compete with them to eat the dead plant and animal material found on forest floors. …policymakers also need to consider earthworms when managing natural ecosystems, which includes taking care to ensure developers are mandated to implement checks-and-balances that consider potential earthworm spread.

An international team of scientists has published a new peer-reviewed study on the importance of protecting primary forests in B.C.’s interior wetbelt (IWB) bioregion for the climate.  Scientists from the University of Northern BC, Griffith University in Australia, the Conservation Biology Institute in Oregon, Wild Heritage in Oregon and Conservation North were part of the study. …According to Dr. Dominick DellaSala, “The region contains under-appreciated carbon stocks. In their natural state, these forests constitute an irreplaceable natural climate solution, but we’re turning them into lumber and threatening to turn them into pellets.” …“For the very first time, we have a comprehensive assessment of how important BC’s interior rainforests are to the global climate and how much has been lost to logging. In the case of climate change, the forest is worth far more standing then cut down for wood products.”

Ben Parfitt

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says in a new report that logging companies in B.C. are quickly cutting down available trees, and that supply is dwindling. In the report, resource policy analyst Ben Parfitt writes that the amount of wood expected to be harvested in the coming years is half the amount logged 15 years ago. At the time, the province was dealing with the catastrophic pine beetle infestation… harvesting dead trees before they rotted away. …Parfitt reports that while pine trees harvested has now dramatically declined, harvest of other species including spruce, fir, hemlock and cedar has increased to replace them. “We are running out of trees in British Columbia,” he said. “The industry has logged too much, too quickly, with the government’s blessing.” …Follow-up questions from CBC News, which included Parfitt’s concern that the supply of trees to harvest in the province is dwindling, weren’t answered.

Additional Coverage in Policynote, by Ben Parfitt: The last of the green gold: With the best trees gone and revenues plummeting, what’s next?

Village of Burns Lake council approved a motion during an April 5 meeting to submit a resolution to the North Central Local Government Association and Union of B.C. Municipalities to lobby the province to maintain the current tabular rate stumpage structure for community forests. This comes after the Burns Lake Community Forest sent an information package to council from the B.C. Community Forest Association containing reasons not to change the current structure. The package stated that tabular rates account for the added costs and objectives involved in the management of community forests and provide simplified administration and flexibility that enables innovative forest management that is responsive to community needs and priorities. …”The proposed policy change undermines the ability of community forests to achieve the very objectives and benefits that the government, communities, and First Nations partners seek and value,” said Burns Lake Community Forest General Manager Frank Varga.

Contractors who responded to Sunshine Coast Community Forest’s (SCCF) call for tenders for logging of cutblock EW 24 will be waiting until further input is received from the shíshálh Nation to hear if the work will proceed. “In EW24, as with all areas we operate in, we go through a multi-step review process with the shíshálh Nation. This includes an archaeological assessment conducted by the shíshálh Nation’s archaeologist,” SCCF administrator Sara Zieleman said. “This assessment … is subject to final review and acceptance by the shíshálh Nation’s technical team, and hiwus and council. EW24 was still in the midst of this process when an area was identified which required further archaeological review.” …Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) expressed concerns that the location may be of archaeological significance. …ELF has also stated opposition to logging of EW 24 as the cutblock is located within the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) Chapman Creek community watershed. 

Doug Kerley

By the end of the Easter long weekend Creekside Wood Supply’s sawmill will have fallen silent. Mill owner Doug Kerley said there simply isn’t enough wood to keep his employees working and the business viable. Kerley attributes the shortage to a variety of things but maintains that the government’s policy around opening areas to timber harvest is the main culprit. The areas where Kerley can log are now slim pickings after years of harvesting, he told the News. He said he needs trees he can cut a six-by-six piece of lumber out of, or it isn’t worth staying in operation. He says the supply of those trees has dwindled and his efforts to lobby for new harvest areas have not been successful. …Kerley will shut down his mill but doesn’t plan to sell the equipment immediately, leaving time for a restart if more timber can be found.

QUESNEL, BC –Effective immediately, Albert Nussbaum, BC’s acting deputy chief forester, has set a new allowable annual cut level for Tree Farm Licence 53 in the central Interior near Quesnel. The new AAC for the TFL is 240,000 cubic metres. This is an increase of approximately 9.6% which was set in 2010. The new AAC reflects objectives for all forest resource values and input provided by the Lheidli T’enneh Nation. …TFL 53 is held by Dunkley Lumber Ltd. and covers an area of 87,839 hectares. The TFL was heavily affected by the mountain pine beetle epidemic that peaked in the mid 2000s, and the licensee implemented a successful salvage program. …The deputy chief forester’s AAC determination is an independent, professional judgement, based on information ranging from technical forestry reports, First Nations and public input, and the government’s social and economic goals.

In the summer of 2021–, founder and CEO of Ecoflix,– David Casselman, asked me to travel on behalf of Ecoflix to Fairy Creek, British Columbia on Vancouver Island.  British Columbia on Vancouver Island. The plan was to document  the battle to save Old Growth trees in British Columbia, but also to bring in a broader  perspective of global ancient forest destruction in the Amazon and elsewhere. The Last Stand film’s content is divided between the protest at Fairy Creek, and the  impact of industry and government on Amazonian rainforests and Asian jungles. Everyone involved in this struggle understands that we need wood in our societies for a  lot of purposes. …Even the most fervent  protestors we spoke do agreed that this is a battle not against logging, but for the  Ancient Trees. …The Last Stand can be streamed from 22nd April on Ecoflix.com.

VERNON, BC — A book showing the experiences of people impacted by the White Rock Lake wildfire is being released to support two great causes. Virginia Dansereau was a volunteer with Emergency Support Services in Vernon during the fire when she started writing down stories and quotes from people who came in seeking help. She met two other volunteers, Sue Urquhart and Heather Clay [and] together they decided to publish a book; ‘Smoke and Ash: Reflections on the 2021 Vernon B.C. Area Fires’ about the massive wildfire containing photos, paintings, short stories, experiences and poems. …Despite the impact the fire had on people’s properties and both mental and physical health, there is a message of resilience. …The book launch is April 23.

If a major forest company can do it, so can the Municipality of North Cowichan.  That’s the take away message from the announcement that Mosaic Forest Management — B.C.’s biggest holder of private forest lands — is deferring logging on 40,000 hectares to pursue the sale of carbon credits.  The logging deferral covers an area eight times larger than the 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve and will be in effect for at least 25 years.  The initiative offers a potential new path for North Cowichan, which is in the midst of two consultations — one with the public, the other with First Nations — on the future of the municipal forest reserve, also known as the Six Mountains.  …The UBC Partnership Group — UBC forestry, 3Green Tree Consulting, and Coastal Douglas-Fir Conservation Partnership — will be presenting forest management options soon for the public’s consideration.