Region Archives: Canada West

Port McNeill, Alert Bay and Surrounding Communities, B.C. – Atli Resources LP, a ‘Namgis First Nation-owned company, in collaboration with the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC), is celebrating an important milestone in sustainable forestry practices with the successful recovery of 35,000 cubic meters of fibre—equivalent to approximately 700 truck loads. This achievement has been made possible through the crucial support and funding provided by FESBC, highlighting the impactful role FESBC plays in supporting projects that lead to substantial environmental benefits and community development. …As a part of the projects funded by FESBC, waste fibre is being collected and chipped at the Atli Chip facility at Beaver Cove. The fibre comes from areas outside the economic radius of the plant, including areas near Holberg, Port Alice, Woss, and Port McNeill. The chipped fibre is then transported to support the operations of Paper Excellence’s pulp mills in Howe Sound and Crofton.

With wildfire season already underway in B.C., there were no promises of funding or assistance from the Prime Minister when he visited the Central Okanagan on Friday (May 10). During a stop at a West Kelowna fire hall, the PM did mention the federal government’s doubling of the volunteer firefighter tax credit and $800,000 for wildfire training and to increase the capacity of structural firefighters across the country. …“It is likely to be a bad forest fire season,” Trudeau said. “We’re drawing on the lessons that everyone learned with such heroism last year to make sure we can do everything to minimize the impacts of wildfires that will be coming this summer.” …Trudeau also met with Central Okanagan mayors, first responders, and families who lost their homes in the McDougal Creek wildfire.

Press Release from the Prime Minister Trudeau: Keeping Canadians safe from wildfires

The Province is updating limited-entry hunting regulations to sustainably manage B.C. wildlife, respect First Nations’ hunting rights and provide hunters with a diversity of recreational and economic opportunities. The recent changes affect the hunting of moose, caribou, elk, bighorn sheep, thinhorn sheep, mountain goats, white-tailed deer and mule deer. Some regulation changes present new hunting opportunities in various parts of the province, including one regulation that was converted to a general open-season hunt for antlerless white-tailed deer in the Cariboo Region. In both the Skeena and Omineca regions, general open-season hunting for caribou is now all limited-entry hunting. In north Skeena, moose hunting for any bull moose or antler restricted moose in many accessible areas is now limited-entry hunting. The general open season for areas that are remote and without motorized access will continue.

Kim Green

How forestry affects the snowpack and moisture has been the subject of study for years, but new techniques are giving foresters and researchers a more accurate picture. Two research projects were the subject of a public meeting at Selkirk College’s Grand Forks campus on May 2, hosted by the Kettle River Watershed Advisory Council. Two guest speakers led talks on their research projects: Kim Green on hydrological modeling in forest management and Cydney Potter’s research looking at LiDAR to study peak snow water storage in the environment to monitor forest recovery and regenerating stands. Last February, the council discussed some forestry-related subjects it wanted to feature in public meetings and these were voted on, explained RDKB watershed planner Kristina Anderson.

Alana Lettner

As I write this, I’m getting ready to leave for my seventh season of tree planting. I’ve had an eye on the weather all winter, watching as the snowpack levels in British Columbia reach lows not recorded since at least 1970. …Over the years I’ve had many doubts about the ecological benefits of the province’s reforestation practices. But last season marked the first time I started to wonder if tree planting might someday become ecologically unviable in some regions of the province. …I spoke to Sally Enns, who works as a forestry manager contracted by the Cheslatta Carrier Nation. …While she hasn’t finished crunching the numbers yet, she says that across all different blocks, mortality rates were much lower than she’d expected: many of the trees had survived. …While I was heartened to hear about this resilience, I still felt troubled about the future of reforestation efforts. 

Pacific Wild, a Victoria-based wildlife conservation group, is calling on the provincial government to halt what it calls the inhumane and scientifically controversial wolf cull in B.C. “Over the last season between December 2023 and March 2024, 248 wolves have been killed as part of the predator reduction program,” said Mollie Cameron, wildlife specialist at Pacific Wild. “It’s under the guise of protecting caribou in the province.” Cameron says wolves are being used as a scapegoat for the declining caribou population in B.C. and says the real problem is how the government prioritized industrialization and continues to allow logging of critical caribou habitat, including old growth forests. …Cameron says there are two regions in B.C. where caribou are allowed to be hunted, while at the same time, the wolf cull is also taking place in those same regions to protect caribou. …She fears wolves… could potentially become endangered.

Steven Peters is concerned about the impact of wildfires on his family’s business — and the local forestry industry as a whole. He is the third generation to work for Evergreen Lumber, a lumber mill based in La Crete, Alberta, that has operated for more than 30 years. But it felt a singe from last summer’s wildfires — even through the winter months, which brought little snow. …A record 2.2 million hectares of forest burned in Alberta last year — much more than the five-year average of 226,000 hectares. Dry conditions and drought persisted throughout Alberta, leaving the provincial government and lumber industry concerned about what this summer might bring. …During a wildfire update last week, Alberta Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen encouraged industry to harvest as much [burnt timber] as possible. …This year’s allowable cuts are still being assessed, said Aspen Dudzic, for the Alberta Forest Products Association.

Cindy Daniels

The Municipality of North Cowichan and local First Nations will work together to establish a co-management framework and plan for the municipality’s 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve. The Quw’utsun Nation and North Cowichan said the agreement is a significant step towards the shared stewardship of the MFR. …progress was also made on investigating a shared forest carbon-credit program in the MFR, continued dialogue on future trail development, direct awarding of silviculture contracting to qualified Quw’utsun Nation companies, and a full review and mapping for the protection of culturally sensitive areas. …While the work on establishing a co-management framework and developing a plan is underway, North Cowichan will suspend all new decisions or initiatives related to the MFR. …“Cowichan Tribes, along with the other Quw’utsun Nation communities, is looking forward to working more closely with North Cowichan to take up our stewardship responsibilities within our ancestral territory,” said Cowichan Tribes Chief Cindy Daniels.

The most celebrated of classic air tanker aircraft, the two surviving Martin JRM Mars water bombers are both headed to retirement in museums. Coulson Aviation recently announced plans to place the air tanker Hawaii Mars in the British Columbia Aviation Museum, while Philippine Mars will go to the world-class Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The Martin JRM Mars seaplanes represent the pinnacle in American flying boat transport aviation technology. …In 1959, a consortium of Canadian logging interests formed Forest Industries Flying Tankers and purchased the four remaining JRMs for modification as firefighting air tankers. One was lost fighting fires, one was considered irreparably damaged in a 1962 storm, and the last two of the named JRMs, Hawaii Mars and Philippine Mars, served as giant firefighters from the mid-1960s well into the 21st Century. They were based on Sproat Lake at Port Alberni located in the southern third of Vancouver Island.

Natasha Caverley

Phil Burton

Natasha Caverley and Phil Burton have been appointed to the Forest Practices Board for three-year terms. Caverley holds a masters in education in counselling psychology and a PhD in organizational studies from the University of Victoria. …Caverley has more than 20 years of experience in workshop facilitation, management and organizational behaviour, and knowledge product development with an emphasis on Indigenous fire stewardship. She is a co-author of the book Blazing the Trail: Celebrating Indigenous Fire Stewardship… Burton is a registered biologist and a professor emeritus in the department of ecosystem science and management at the University of Northern British Columbia. …Previously, Burton served as a manager with the Canadian Forest Service during the Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative and has worked as an environmental consultant. Graduating with a bachelor of science in biology and land-use studies from the University of Saskatchewan, he then earned masters in science and PhD degrees in the United States. 

Xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səlilwətaɬ Territories, VANCOUVER, BC – The B.C. Watershed Security Fund is launching its first phase of support for watershed projects and initiatives to help communities respond to urgent and long-term watershed needs. The Fund’s first grant program application intake opens June 3, 2024 until June 26, 2024. A larger intake and funding stream is planned to open in late 2024/early 2025. The Real Estate Foundation of BC (REFBC) and the First Nations Water Caucus (Water Caucus) – with the First Nations Fisheries Council (FNFC) – are excited to announce this important early step in flowing critical resources to communities. The group is collaborating as partners to provide interim Fund stewardship, and to support co-development of a permanent, co-governed entity that will oversee and manage the Fund over the longer term. The Fund was established in 2023 through a historic contribution by the Province of B.C. of $100 million to kick start the creation of the Fund.

Williams Lake residents attended this morning’s pacific salmon restoration dialogue… The event, hosted by the University of British Columbia Institute for Oceans and Fisheries, had a goal of hearing the views and concerns from various municipalities to bring forward to the Province. Project Lead for Salmon Dialogues, Brian Riddell says there’s some overlap to the different local salmon issues. “There are common themes emerging. There is a lot of frustration with government not addressing particular local needs,” says Riddell. “The other part is forestry is definitely a major concern in BC, extensive logging and then leaving the area so the First Nations are left with a problem to address”.  Riddell added that water management and fisheries management are other common concerns being heard.

The chances of putting  a complete stop to clearcut logging in West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain seem to be fading as more information comes out through the public consultation meetings the BC forest products company is holding before the scheduled 2026 cut. Opponents of the plan to clearcut [are] asking for a variety of things that all amount to pumping the brakes on logging the area. …if the province were to step in between now and 2026 and reverse their decision to allow West Fraser to go ahead, the timber company would be entitled to financial compensation for all the planning work that’s been done. Vice-President of Canadian Woodlands D’Arcy Henderson explained that anyone running a lumber mill has a significant and ongoing investment in people and equipment that requires a guaranteed, continuous flow of raw materials. 

At our Surrey Distribution Center, we recently began a journey towards a cleaner, greener operation by conducting an electric shunt truck trial. As part of looking into adopting an electric shunt truck into our logistics fleet, we borrowed one to try out. “It is really exciting to do a trial with this emerging technology.  We were fortunate that Seaspan Ferries was able to lend us this unit for a trial,” says John Dumbovic, Manager of Transportation and Logistics who initiated this trial. “These EV shunt trucks do the same work using much less energy with minimal C02 emissions. This trial gives us a good understanding of the utility of these EVs and that they can operated in this industrial environment.” Seaspan Ferries, who are one of the first companies on the west coast to use electric shunt trucks, imported the trucks from Sweden.  Currently, Seaspan is in the trial phase of incorporating electric shunt trucks into their operations, having ordered two units.

Last year, Metro Vancouver set a target to expand its urban forests to cover 40 per cent of the region by 2050. But according to recently published data, that plan is already backsliding. …The latest numbers, presented in a report from Metro Vancouver staff, mean hard artificial ground now covers 54 per cent of the urban containment boundary, while only 31 per cent is covered by trees. The report says pressures from growth, along with new provincial housing legislation, “will likely lead to further tree canopy cover losses and impervious surface increases”. …[This] comes amid the projected arrival of one million more residents over the next 36 years, requiring 500,000 new housing units. …The Metro report says tree planting should prioritize high-density urban cores. Those include downtown Vancouver’s seafront, the Lonsdale area in North Vancouver, Richmond Centre and neighbouring areas, New Westminster, Surrey’s city centre, White Rock and the City of Langley. 

We are thrilled to announce that ten faculty members in Forestry received Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grants in the most recent competitions. Congratulations to Tom Booker, Alex Moore, Isla Myers-Smith, Jeanine Rhemtulla, Lizzie Wolkovich, Nicholas Coops, Bianca Eskelson, Haibo Feng, Jaya Joshi, and Felix Wiesner. The NSERC Discovery Grant Program is a competitive grant program supporting basic discovery research at Canadian universities in the natural sciences and engineering.

Dave Campbell, the head of the province’s River Forecast Centre, says persistent drought conditions in B.C. stretch back to 2022, so the province is heading into this summer with “multi-year” precipitation deficits. Satellite photos show rivers in the Interior running narrower and shallower than the same time in 2023, which went on to be one of B.C.’s driest years on record. …B.C. officials held a news conference on Thursday to announce several new measures to help people prepare for threats such as drought and wildfires, which include an online tool for household emergency planning, an updated drought information portal and upgrades to the BC Wildfire Service mobile app. Nathan Cullen, minister of water, land and resource stewardship, said the province is facing a “serious” situation with the potential for continued drought, and he asked people to take steps to reduce their consumption to conserve water.

ALBERTA — Timber harvester West Fraser said the open house Wednesday that drew a large crowd was to allay fears over its plans to clear-cut in a popular recreational area near Bragg Creek, and to collect input on how it’ll be done. But for some who came to question company staffers, the event left more questions and concerns. …Shaun Peter with Bragg Creek & Kananaskis Outdoor Recreation told West Fraser Alberta chief forester Richard Briand… the company should follow the lead of other industrial users who have rights in the area but have chosen not to exercise them due to social and environmental pressures. …West Fraser’s Tyler Steneker said “we already met with mountain bike groups and we’ve committed to going to the trails and walking it with them”. “It’s about discussing how much of a buffer there’ll be — it’s feeling it, not just staring at maps.