Region Archives: Canada West

Homalco First Nation and Mosaic Forest Management are celebrating a land sale to the Homalco First Nation. The acquisition will expand upon the size of the Nation’s lands in Campbell River, providing exciting opportunities for community development and community togetherness. “We are celebrating more than the acquisition of land for the Homalco people. The land deal has been decades in the making, and it lays the foundation for a future filled with promise and prosperity,” said Homalco Chief Darren Blaney. “…I want to thank Mosaic Forest Management for supporting this vision and making the sale a reality.” The property is in south Campbell River and has frontage along Highway 10 and Jubilee Parkway. The acquired lands formerly owned by Mosaic and managed by its real estate arm, Couverdon, surround the current Homalco lands. The sale was celebrated at a special event hosted by Homalco on January 19.

While protest action involving First Nations peoples blocking industry projects often make headlines and are sensationalized images on our screens, there is a quiet majority of Indigenous workers proudly making tracks in resource industries, says the head of the Indigenous Resource Network (IRN). …IRN reps were recently in Squamish to create content with local Indigenous forestry workers to highlight the importance of First Nations involvement in that industry. “We want to … give voice to what good looks like in resource development, and really profile Indigenous success and go a little deeper than just [resource development] providing the jobs,” said IRN executive director John Desjarlais. …Squamish’s Roger Lewis is one of those people working in the resource sector. …Lewis is the superintendent of special projects with Sqomish Forestry LP,part of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation). …Desjarlais said that in the media, Indigenous folks are often portrayed as blocking projects, but that isn’t the whole story.

The Province is opening the door for more wildland firefighters with in-depth knowledge of local terrain to join the service. Aligned with feedback from the Premier’s expert task force on emergencies, the improvements to the BC Wildfire Service’s hiring process have resulted in more than 1,000 firefighter applicants, with another three months of hiring to go. …Aligned with the work of the Premier’s expert task force on emergencies, a series of enhancements have been made to strengthen pathways for participation in wildfire response, specifically for applicants in rural and remote communities. This work includes expanding First Nations bootcamps… A dedicated training and recruitment model for First Nations communities is being expanded. …Learnings from First Nations bootcamps will be adopted into the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) core curriculum and serve as a model for other First Nations interested in augmenting their response capacity. Additionally, the use of Indigenous initial-response crews is being expanded.

Additional coverage in the Vancouver Sun: B.C. Wildfire Service recruiting more locals to fight wildfires

Wood leftover from Okanagan forestry operations that would once have been burned is now being put to productive use, the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. says. Sixty-six innovative projects undertaken around the province in the past year at a cost of almost $50 million have generated an environmental benefit equal to one million fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, the society said Wednesday. And debris wood that would have filled more than 68,000 logging trucks has been used instead for the making of wood pellets and other products, the society says. “With the help of 66 projects funded in 2023, B.C. is taking necessary steps in battling climate change and becoming more resilient in the face of worsening wildfire seasons,” Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston said in a release.

Canada is regarded as a country of spectacular nature, with magnificent forests. …Listening to government, you could be forgiven for thinking that our forest management practices are beyond reproach. They aren’t. New research confirms what some have known for decades: industrial logging isn’t ecologically sustainable. … A study from Griffith University in Australia [funded by the Natural Resources Defense Council] … found, “The Canadian Government claims that its forests have been managed according to the principles of sustainable forest management for many years, yet this notion of sustainability is tied mainly to maximizing wood production and ensuring the regeneration of commercially desirable tree species following logging.” …In response to the glaring omissions and gaps in the annual “State of Canada’s Forests” report, a coalition of national and regional conservation organizations, including the David Suzuki Foundation, responded with, “The State of the Forest in Canada: Seeing Through the Spin.” 

It’s time to recognize the power of healthy forests in managing global growing flood risk, and to shift towards more sustainable forestry practices and policy. This call is emphasized by UBC researchers in an article in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Dr. Younes Alila, a professor in the faculty of forestry, and his graduate student Henry Pham synthesized decades of hydrology studies and found that many “severely and consistently underestimated” the impact of forest cover on flood risk. As a consequence, it led to forest management practices that were either unsound or poorly informed. …Dr. Alila says the probabilistic framework is designed to understand and predict, for instance, how much of the 2021 Fraser Valley floods could be attributed to climate change, land use change or logging. The approach also can be extended to investigate the causes of flood risk in other cities.

Rashaduz Zaman

University of Alberta research provides new insight into how harmful fungal infections could affect the ability of lodgepole pines to defend themselves from deadly mountain pine beetle attacks. Using five different pathogens, the study revealed that the fungal infections had varied effects on the trees’ defence chemistry, suggesting that they could either be more resilient or more susceptible to subsequent attacks by the insect. The findings could lead to new ways to protect mature lodgepole pine trees — important to forest ecology and the forest industry — from disease and insect infestation, says Rashaduz Zaman, who led the study, from the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences. One of the most widespread coniferous trees in western North America, lodgepole pines make up about 35 per cent of the forested land in Alberta and British Columbia, and are becoming more vulnerable to pests as global temperatures grow warmer, he notes.

PARKSVILLE, BC — Parksville council has endorsed a resolution that urges the province to purchase and conserve 30 per cent of the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region (MABR). Amit Gaur brought the motion, which will go to the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) convention in April. …Gaur said he chose 30 per cent because it aligns with the federal government’s goal of conserving 30 percent of Canada’s land and water by 2030. He added close to $1 billion has been set aside in the tripartite agreement. …Mayor Doug O’Brien said he has “reservations” and pointed out much of the land is owned by Mosaic Forest Management, rather than the Crown. “I feel it would exceed your billion dollars easily, just for one land purchase,” O’Brien said. …Council voted in favour of Gaur’s resolution, with O’Brien opposed.

British Columbia’s use of glyphosate has drastically declined in recent years. Yet, the landscape of monoculture forests left after decades of chemical herbicide spraying could still spell a widespread ecological disaster for the province. …Convenient and cost-effective, Roundup has been vehemently opposed by First Nations and other groups and its use has declined. However, the monoculture forests it produced are still being maintained by other means. UBC Professor of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Cindy Prescott and her colleagues agree that it is far more “ecologically intelligent” to have diverse species that include non-conifers, for both the above and below-ground health of the forest. …the focus on rapid regrowth of conifer crops is an outdated and problematic perspective, according to Prescott. …Fortunately, in recent years the has been a paradigm shift in the forestry sector, at least partly due to the work of Gary Merkel. 

EDMONTON — Sunk in bedrock, the Marmot Creek well in Kananaskis Country has been there for generations, says University of Saskatchewan water scientist John Pomeroy. It’s one of the few groundwater monitoring wells that Alberta has in the mountains. Away from any human influence, it’s a good indicator of what’s actually happening. “The lowest water levels are all in the last seven years and the levels are much lower now than they were in the ’70s and ’80s,” Pomeroy said. “It’ll be a climate signal that we’re seeing.” …About 600,000 Albertans depend on groundwater, and scientists and rural officials say not enough is known about the effects years of drought have had on the unseen flows beneath our feet. “We have to make sure we’re managing groundwater and surface water as a common resource,” said Pomeroy. “If we deplete one, we’re depleting the other.”

Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) received an update on the future of the Lakes Timber Supply Area from representatives of the provincial forest ministry. Anthony Giannotti, pricing and tenure director, informed board that the current allocations of allowable annual cut in the Lakes TSA have 970,000 cubic meters, which were decided in 2021. …Michael Riis-Christianson, said he was concerned about the shelf-life of burnt and mountain pine beetle-killed timbers and how these volumes can vary from the 2018 wildfires. …Neal Marincak, Nadina Natural Resource District’s resource manager, said from his understanding that Fraser Lake is still salvaging the 2018 wildfire burnt timbers and addressed that the shelf-life remains only for a year. …Clint Lambert was concerned about burnt timber sales and questioned where it could be salvaged quickly.

After last year’s record-breaking wildfire season, crews across western Canada are looking to new technology to help in future fights. Alberta has added a new tool capable of tackling wildfires from the air — in the dark.

Rachel Holt

Herb Hammond

A local ecologist who is often critical of the B.C. government’s forest practices is cautiously optimistic about a new plan to improve biodiversity and ecosystem health. Dr. Rachel Holt, in a public presentation, said the Draft BC Biodiversity and Ecological Health Framework, released in November, contains statements never before made by the provincial government. “It’s quite unusual for the government (to state that) the health of ecosystems and biodiversity is really paramount … and that the other things (including logging) have to fall into place around that,” she said. …Holt says the big question is whether the government can get all ministries on board with a new way of thinking. …She said the new framework document uses the term “ecosystem based management.” West Kootenay forest ecologist Herb Hammond has been using variations on that term, and helping his clients practise it, since the 1980s. He now uses the term “nature-based stewardship.”

The recent extreme cold in Alberta has done much to assist the province’s efforts in battling the mountain pine beetle. Mountain pine beetle populations in Alberta have declined 98 per cent since their peak in 2019, said the Ministry of Forestry and Parks. Extended periods of extreme cold below -38 C can cause up to 95 per cent mortality of over-wintering mountain pine beetles. …In Jasper National Park, the last population survey in late 2022 showed that the mountain pine beetle’s numbers have dropped 94 per cent since 2019. The survey also showed a sharp decline in trees killed by the pest for the fourth consecutive year with zero living larvae found. In order to mitigate the risk of wildfire and other negative impacts to the forest industry, watersheds and endangered species, the province will continue to invest in the mountain pine beetle control program to ensure its continued success.

A Forest Appeals Commission panel has ruled in favour of a case put forward by the Adams Lake Indian Band, lowering an administrative penalty levelled against the band by more than $65,000. According to a written decision published by the panel, which hears appeals and other matters related to the province’s forestry act, the Adams Lake Indian Band was found to have violated the Forest and Range Practices Act in the summer of 2019 when several truckloads of unweighed logs were transported to a place other than a scaling station. …The Adams Lake Indian Band filed an appeal of the decision. Jeffrey Hand, panel chair of the Forest Appeals Commission decided on the appeal. The band appealed the original penalty on the grounds that it “did not receive any economic benefit as a result of this contravention.” The band asked for the fine to be reduced to $2,000.

The deputy leader of the federal Green party, Angela Davidson — also known as Rainbow Eyes — has been convicted of seven counts of criminal contempt for her participation in the Fairy Creek logging blockades on Vancouver Island. In a B.C. Supreme Court decision, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled Davidson breached a court-ordered injunction and her bail conditions in connection with protest activities. Hinkson said Davidson’s conduct was “defiant, repeated and public, and certainly not minimal,” and declined to acquit her for her role in 2021 and 2022. Sentencing has not been determined. The Fairy Creek protest began after logging permits were granted in 2020 allowing Teal Cedar Products to cut timber,  in areas northeast of Port Renfrew. …Davidson contends she was subjected to “disproportionate policing resources on account of her identity as a visibly identifiable Indigenous person.” However the judge said the fact that hundred of other individuals were arrested does not support the argument.

Additional coverage in My Comox Valley Now, by Grant Warkentin: Protester-turned-politician convicted of contempt for actions during Fairy Creek blockades

The Yukon is facing the reality of longer, more intense wildfire seasons by paying special attention to how its communities are prepared, according to fire information officer Mike Fancie with Yukon Wildland Fire Management. He said that means coming up with community wildfire protection plans for all Yukon communities. “We need to have strategies in place to reduce wildland fire risk around individual communities in the Yukon,” Fancie said. ..“It’s important for us to look ahead to why we need to build our resiliency to wildfires based on the fact that in the Yukon we’ve chosen to live in the boreal forest,” he said. …Reducing the risk of wildfires involves things like FireSmart work, developing fuel breaks, prescribed fires and stand conversion, which Fancie said refers to flipping parts of the forest by removing evergreen trees and replacing them with aspen trees.

Northern myotis bats, which are federally listed as endangered, are found in many parts of Canada. They’ve been documented in different regions of B.C. According to the B.C. Conservation Data Centre, there’s a dearth of data on the size of the provincial population. Lausen says the bats’ inland temperate rainforest habitat is so badly eroded scientists aren’t sure how the bats are faring, or how successfully they’re able to reproduce in the region. “Are they still here?” she wonders. “Because if they’re still here, we should be trying to mitigate habitat loss.” The bats need all the help they can get. A deadly fungal disease called white-nose syndrome is moving westward and north. The disease, which has killed millions of bats in North America, is expected to render some bat species extinct. Detected in bats in Washington and Alberta, it’s thought to be only a matter of time before it spreads in B.C.