Region Archives: Canada West

Ravi Parmar

Forest Minister Ravi Parmar has needed a positive story for the beleaguered forest sector in BC. Using BC Timber Sales to restore forest health and community safety through treatments like commercial thinning and innovative silviculture is the beginning of one. BC Minister of Forests did say the BC Timber Sale Review would be completed in short order. … “Feedback from the review has made it clear: BCTS is more than just a market-pricing system. It has the expertise and the tools to play a bigger role in active forest management and addressing climate change and British Columbians want to see that happen,” he said at the COFI Convention. The idea that we can mitigate some of the hazards of climate change through actively managing our forests and range landscapes is an idea the WFCA has trafficked in for some time. …In fact, we have put these innovative notions forward to the BCTS Review Task Force.

On March 31, the Supreme Court of B.C. released its decision on a historic case with implications for the future of resource management in Canada. The judge sided with the Haida Gwaii Management Council and Province of British Columbia against logging giant Teal Cedar Products Inc., which argued its profitability had unjustly diminished due to the former’s sustainability regulations and improved forestry stewardship standards. In its defence, Haida Gwaii Management Council and the province pointed to Teal’s careless logging and business practices, which it continued despite expert, repeated advice from Haida and Crown governments. Proceedings involved numerous expert witnesses … in 2023. Almost exactly two years later, the judge dismissed Teal’s claims. …If corporations were to earn the power to sue governments any time they passed new legislation to uphold sustainable and ecologically sound practices, then we would witness a nation-wide proliferation of lawsuits arising from every sector. 

BC has experienced some of the most destructive wildfire seasons in its history. …So how do we recover from wildfires and reduce threats in the future? One way is to bring back a more balanced and resilient forest ecosystem for people and wildlife through Indigenous-led restoration, which is exactly what the Secwepemcúl’ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society (SRSS) is doing. This collaboration by several Secwépemc communities was formed after the 2017 wildfires that blazed through 192,725 hectares of traditional Indigenous territory. To them, restoring forests goes beyond planting trees. Most of the land devastated by wildfires were forests managed to maximize value for commercial logging. SRSS is changing that, using traditional practices that restore mixed forest canopies in a way that benefits communities and wildlife. 

Ione Brown

The North Island Community Forest is a small forest tenure that was offered to the towns of Port Alice, Port Hardy and Port McNeill by the provincial government in 2010. These towns then became shareholders and owners of the forest in March of 2011, managing and harvesting it to provide capital for investing in their communities. On April 3, the board of directors’ chairperson, Ione Brown, gave a presentation on how the community forest operates as well as some new information. Currently, the municipalities of Port Alice, Port Hardy and Port McNeill are shareholders of the community forest. In 2019, The Kwakiutl First Nation and the Quatsino First Nation were offered full equity shareholder positions bringing ownership to five partners with 20 per cent each. Brown said, with the new Indigenous partners, they will have the strength of the community and the support to possibly further expand the tenure. 

The Bow Valley—encompassing Banff National Park, the Town of Banff, Canmore, and MD of Bighorn—is at imminent risk of a catastrophic wildfire. Despite commendable efforts in localized fire prevention (e.g., firebreaks, fireguards, neighbourhood mitigation), it is our opinion no comprehensive measures are in place to address the risk of an extreme wildfire—the kind that devastated Fort McMurray (2016) and Jasper (2024). A fire of that scale in this region would be both a national tragedy and a global environmental disaster. …Our call for action for our federal candidates: Acknowledge the real and rising risk of a Class 6 wildfire in the Bow Valley; While working with the Province and Indigenous Peoples, support federal investment in a landscape-scale fire mitigation strategy for the Bow Valley; Advance policy reform recognizing forests as carbon assets requiring active stewardship; and Champion this initiative as a model for national wildfire and carbon management.

Officials in Fox Creek Alberta are trying to find ways to better protect the community from future fires. One option includes using fungi. …This summer, researchers from Lac La Biche, Alta.-based Portage College will go into the the boreal forest surrounding Fox Creek to collect local fungi. Spores from that fungi could later be used to inoculate wood in man-made slash piles. Forests are thinned to remove wood biomass so there is less material to burn during a wildfire. Wood that has been removed can be stored in massive slash piles, which can be fire risks themselves. Fungi could be used to break down the wood faster, returning them to soil, said Michael Schulz, research chair in environment and sustainability in the boreal forest at Portage College. 

 A local Indigenous leader is calling into question claims being made by a protester in Stanley Park. A small encampment is growing near the iconic totem poles, led by a woman who says she is the hereditary matriarch of the land. But as Alissa Thibault reports, the Musqueam chief says that isn’t true. 

Protecting old-growth forests in the BC interior could generate more than $43 billion over the next century — far more than logging the land, a report says. Research by environmental consultancy ESSA Technologies determined that if all the old-growth forest in regions around the Okanagan and Prince George were fully protected, the carbon storage alone would keep 28 million tonnes of carbon emissions out of the atmosphere over the next 100 years. [Equivalent of] burning 63 million barrels of oil, and worth $43 billion — $33 billion for Prince George and $10 billion for the Okanagan. Even limited protection of only the most at-risk forests would yield $11 billion in benefits. Advisory team included Dr. Duncan Knowler, Dr. Richard Boyd, Dr. Rachel Holt, Dr. Karen Price, and Dave Daust. Funding support for this study’s research … was provided by two anonymous donors. Sierra Club BC provided additional funding to finalize this document for public release.

Red-legged frog habitat on B.C. Timber Sales’ (BCTS) cutblock TA0521 is the centre-point of an Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) call for a “stop work” order and a complaint to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, one authority that provides certification to BCTS. Responses to those reports of suspected wrongdoings related to amphibian habitat on the upper Roberts Creek site are pending. …In an April 7 press release, ELF proclaimed “BCTS needs to step back from the brink on this [TA0521] block, immediately inform the contractor that the block has been cancelled and negotiate an out of court settlement.” …On June 18, 2024, Muirhead photographed a red-legged frog on the site, which was confirmed by a registered biologist. BCTS was alerted, as that species is “blue” listed on the provincial government’s endangered species list. BCTS undertook an amphibian study in August of that year as a precursor to harvesting work commencing.

The British Columbia Supreme Court recently ruled that Teal Cedar Products Ltd. failed to show that the provincial government engaged in constructive expropriation or breached its duty of good faith or an oral agreement to keep the company whole. The regulatory regime applicable in [the case] was BC’s Forest and Range Practices Act, 2002. Teal Cedar Products Ltd. operated two tenures on Haida Gwaii… The licensee had the exclusive right to harvest from certain lands over a specific period upon obtaining a cutting, road, or special use permit. …BC enacted the Haida Gwaii land use objectives order (LUOO) in December 2010. Teal sold its operations on Haida Gwaii to A&A Trading Ltd. six years later….The Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that the province did not act in bad faith when it enacted the LUOO. The court found that the tenure agreements contemplated reconciliation, encompassing the recognition and protection of Aboriginal rights and interests.

The Indigenous Resource Network is releasing a new short documentary highlighting the story of Ntiyix Resources LP in Westbank.  ‘tmixʷ: A Holistic Commitment to Our Forests’ explores the connections between Indigenous forestry professionals and the land. “We are beyond excited to release ‘tmix’,” said John Desjarlais, executive director at IRN. “This project represents the IRN’s commitment to telling a meaningful story of the many examples of what ‘good’ looks like in natural resource development.” The film showcases the blend of traditional knowledge and modern forestry practices, while also addressing Okanagan wildfires and Indigenous-led management practices in forest restoration. ‘tmixʷ: A Holistic Commitment to Our Forests’ was released on April 9 and is available to watch on IRN’s YouTube channel here.

Contractors hired by the City Of Kelowna are busy conducting fuel mitigation on Dilworth’s Mountain this week to protect nearby homes in the case of a wildfire. “We have a crew from Cabin Operations doing understory thinning, pruning surface removal and we will be doing some tree falling too, at later stages,” explains Reece Allingham with Deering Forest Management. The goal is to reduce wildfire risk by removing enough fuels to keep any potential wildfire on the ground and out of the tree canopy. That includes the removal of small conifers that can act like ladders carrying flame up into the taller trees. Crews are watching out for wildlife while they work. City staff have been conducting bird sweeps in the area. …many nearby homes are surrounded by cedar and juniper hedges. While popular for privacy and sound buffers they also pose a significant danger. 

On Friday, at the Council of Forest Industries conference in Prince George, Forest Minister Ravi Parmar suggested that provincial parks and Old Growth Management Areas could be logged for so-called “wildfire resilience.” “Parks and Old Growth Management Areas should be safe from logging, period,” said Jenn Matthews. “Minister Parmar is using peoples’ fear of fire to lessen resistance to the idea of logging in areas that are supposed to be industry-free.” …In central-interior BC, landscapes have become homogenised from colonisation, fire suppression and resource management, which is making them less resistant to wildfire. …“We need prudent fire hardening directly around communities to protect human life and property, but what Minister Parmar suggested at COFI sounds like a timber grab,” said Michelle Connolly.

On Monday, members of council, dignitaries, developers and elementary students gathered under rain-soaked tent tops to witness 262 acres of forest be dedicated as park. “This is a true milestone for our community,” Mayor Mark Sager said, reflecting back on the work of previous councils and activists to put the park dedication project – known as the Upper Lands – into motion. “Combining this parkland with the other areas [of previously dedicated park], we’re now creating 3,400 acres of continuous parkland, and I’m told it’s one of the largest urban parks in the world,” Sager said. Last May, the district dedicated 1,932 acres in the Upper Lands region as park.

Protecting the most at-risk old growth forests in two B.C. timber supply areas would lead to $10.9 billion in economic benefits over the next century, a new report has found.  However, those gains would be wiped out if logging were to carry on as it is today across the Prince George and Okanagan timber supply areas, concluded the environmental consulting firm ESSA Technologies in a report published Monday. Together, the two timber supply areas (TSA) contain about 10 per cent of B.C.’s total old-growth forests mapped in 2021. If they were fully protected, modelling in the report found the two regions’ old-growth forests could generate up to $43.1 billion in net economic benefits over the next 100 years. That accounts for $4.1 billion in losses in timber production across the two supply area.