Region Archives: Canada West

Mission, BC—Net profit from the City of Mission’s timber sales last year reached a record-breaking $7.5 million. These funds will be transferred to the Forest Legacy Reserve, which can be used by Council to invest in future capital projects for the community. Council heard the update from the City’s Director of Forestry, Chris Gruenwald, at last night’s Council meeting. “2023 was a strong year for our department, despite falling timber markets over the year,” said Chris Gruenwald, Director of Forestry. “While markets overall were down significantly in 2023, we were able to take advantage of strong utility pole markets early in the year. This was combined with significantly lower stumpage prices compared to 2022, which created ideal financial conditions in 2023. It’s also important to acknowledge the hard work of our staff, contractors, and timber buyers, as their commitment to our community is one of the major reasons we were able to achieve these results.”

In a mystical moment on the back corner of Nelson’s Silver King Campus, students in the Selkirk College Forest Technology Program were introduced to an ancient Grand Fir that will soon find its place on the BC Big Tree Registry. First identified as a rarity by local freelance writer Jayme Moye, the massive tree was co-nominated for the registry by instructor Mandy Croppo’s second-year class. …In the nomination package, they named the tree Grandalf the Fir in homage of the wizard Gandalf The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. .. the two-year Forest Technology Program is one of four original programs offered when Selkirk College first opened its doors in 1966. With almost six decades of graduates, program alumni can be found in every corner of the industry across British Columbia and the world.

British Columbia’s ombudsperson Jay Chalke says a decades-old portion of the Transportation Act has holes big enough that a logging truck could drive through. Chalke says it’s “unjust” that a section in the act allows some roads on private property to be automatically considered public if government money is spent on maintenance, without the property owner’s knowledge or consent. A report highlights cases where an owner couldn’t stop logging trucks from using the road through her property, while another thought he was using a public road to get to his property, but when it was blocked the Transportation Ministry said it couldn’t help because the road was private. …property owners are not compensated …when public roads are created and there’s no easy way to determine a road’s ownership. Chalke’s report makes seven recommendations, including that the law be amended to prevent new roads under the act and that a public notice system be created.

The sawmill at Fraser Lake isn’t set to close until May, but the town’s residents were already looking for solutions to that economic problem. West Fraser Timber announced in January that they were permanently closing their operation in Fraser Lake. The Fraser Lake community held a town hall meeting to discuss…their largest employer shutting down. Chaired by Fraser Lake’s chief administrative officer Ethan Fredeen and kicked off by mayor Sarrah Storey; all members of the town’s council table were at the front table, with elected officials from around the region. Their collective message was, we’ve all been in this position too, so we know your pain and we might know how to help. …Many speakers brought up the systemic problem throughout B.C. of a provincial government forest policy allowing major licensees to cut trees down in one community and truck them to some other community’s sawmill.

Angela French

“Most people that get into forestry love the outdoors,” says Angela French of Salmo, British Columbia. Angela moved to the area from Abbotsford in 2013 for Selkirk College’s Forestry Program. Afterwards, she worked for a forestry consultant then at a local family-run mill for five years. …She is worried that the industry and governments are not focusing seriously enough on the immense challenges facing forests today, like increasing drought, wildfires, and damaging insects. …It was harder than Angela thought to make changes from within the industry, although she worked for a supportive, community-centred mill. …Angela thinks the forest industry brings many good things to her province. …In August, Angela was hired by the Creston Community Forest as a supervisor. “I love community forestry. It’s how all forestry should be conducted across the province and globally. It’s based on community-centric values,” says Angela.

A new plan in the works for the Sunshine Coast aims to balance tourism, forestry, and traditional Indigenous interests in the woods. Representatives from the Ministry of Forests spoke to the Strathcona Regional District last week to give an overview of the Sunshine Coast Forest Landscape Plan, which covers mainland territory from north of Campbell River to south of Nanaimo. Bob Craven says it’s been a challenging process, with the interests of five First Nations, coastal communities and logging companies to consider. “In Bute Inlet, for example, there’s ecotourism that’s very important, and so is harvesting,” he said. …He points out the five First Nations taking part in the plan are also forestry licence-holders, and want economic opportunities along with protecting forests for future generations.

People in British Columbia are invited to share feedback on a proposal to add a new Special Forest Management Area (SFMA) supporting regenerative forestry and conservation in the Great Bear Rainforest. The proposed area consists of 7,865 hectares of forested land that would transition from commercial harvesting to being prioritized for conservation and regenerative forestry. The SFMA designation is specific to the Great Bear Rainforest and restricts commercial forestry operations. If approved, this area will be the ninth SFMA within the Great Bear Rainforest. Public comment will be accepted until April 5, 2024, and will allow the Province and Kwiakah First Nation to consider public input into decisions and implementation. It will also provide insight into how the land is being used by the public. The Province is working with Kwiakah First Nation, which seeks an active role in the long-term management of the area. 

Quinton Hayward

This year’s theme of “Everything is Connected” was present throughout the conference.  There was meaningful presentations around reintroducing fire as a landscape level management tool, creating more value from the harvested volume, recruitment and retention of professions into the industry, and collaborative planning with Indigenous groups on Forest Landscape Plans. There were also discussions on ecosystems integrity and technology to help evaluate ecosystem integrity, wildfire urban interface and continuing to build resiliency to wildfires and the path ahead for Indigenous relations. There was a strong focus on Indigenous joint-planning management and decision making. It is very clear in the presentations and from the nation members present at the conference, that nothing will happen on the ground in forestry without First Nations being involved. This is consistent with the government’s direction and should not be a surprise or anything new to those working with natural resources.  

Wildfire fighting and forest management decisions are potentially being hampered by inaccurate government data that misrepresents forest fuel loads in British Columbia’s Interior, a new study has found. The B.C. government says the provincial wildfire service is working with the study’s lead author and others to close the data gap, which involves “mismatches” between remotely-sensed mapping, forest fuel classifications, and observations on the ground. …The researchers from the University of B.C. and Canadian Forest Service acknowledge that mapping forest fuels is “notoriously challenging” despite its importance in influencing and predicting wildfire behaviour. …Lead author Jen Baron says fixing the data will help officials identify and respond to fire-prone areas, though will likely require a “huge lift.” …The national and provincial forest inventory data are largely derived from aerial imaging, and Baron says it was “significantly underestimating” the density of underbrush that serves as a conduit for flames travelling up to the forest canopy.

On February 20 I attended the latest meeting of the Williams Lake and area Community Wildfire Roundtable held at the Cariboo Fire Centre at the Williams Lake Regional Airport. The facilitator, Mike Simpson, who contracts with the Fraser Basin Council guided the 41 participants from a wide variety of backgrounds including five levels of government, UBC , forestry consultants, industry and private citizens. …The session started with UBC grad students Mike Stefanuk and Georgina Preston (via zoom link) describing their research in the dry belt fir stands. …One of the positives coming out of these roundtables is the ongoing need to examine and improve the communication between the various participants and the public. …The Fraser Basin Council (FBC) is a charitable non-profit society that brings people together to advance sustainability in the Fraser Basin and across British Columbia. …

Todd Loewen

The Alberta government will spend more to monitor and combat wildfires in 2024, and put aside a bigger contingency fund after taking out more than $1 billion to deal with the most destructive wildfire season on record. In total, drought and wildfire expenses for the last fiscal year added up to $2.9 billion, including agriculture disaster support. After nearly three-quarters of a $1.5-billion contingency fund went toward wildfire response in 2023, the UCP government’s 2024-25 budget is boosting the total to $2 billion. Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen said Friday that an additional $55 million will go toward wildfire management this year, with $151 million in total spending over the next three years. That will increase the number of nighttime wildfire-fighting helicopters from one to three, add two new air tanker contracts and more drones for aerial surveillance.

A professor at the University of Northern BC has been tapped to study the ecological impacts of glyphosate-based pesticides on forests. …Canada’s regulatory regime deems the pesticides safe, but its assessment does not account for the potential chronic impact of low-level exposure and does not examine forests. Researchers have found low-level exposure to glyphosate can impact the health of animals’ gut microbiomes. …Because the federal government does not track where, when and how pesticides are used, it is impossible to know exactly how much glyphosate is sprayed on Canadian forests each year. However, researchers estimate tens of thousands of hectares are sprayed each year, except in Quebec where the practice was banned in 2001. …Lisa Wood, who is working on the project in Alberta, BC and Alberta said, “because of the extent of the use, we start to think about how the previous research applies in these extensive-use cases — are there aggregate effects?”

• The BCCFA 2024 Conference & AGM will take place in Mackenzie, BC on June 11 – 13. Registration will open March 18, sponsorship opportunities are available now. 
• Climate Change Adaptation Project The Harrop Procter Community Forest (HPCF) now has a real climate action plan with clear management priorities and site-specific treatments. They want to collaborate with other interested Community Forests to do the same in order to scale up and refine methods.
• A series of educational wildfire risk managment films To reach and interest a broad audience on it’s wildfire risk reduction work, HP partnered with the Province of BC and Columbia Basin Trust to produce a series of short films.
• Landscape Resiliency and Wildfire: A Primer for Collaborative Dialogue In November 2023, the Mitigating Wildfire Initiative (MWI) at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue organized a two-day workshop in Williams Lake.
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BURNS LAKE, BC — The province has initiated a wolf cull near Burns Lake as part of a predator reduction activity to protect the endangered Tweedsmuir-Entiako caribou herd. …Confirming the wolf cull activity in the area, Octavian Lacatusu, Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship public affairs officer spokesperson, said the Tweedsmuir-Entiako caribou herd is located in west-central B.C., approximately 50 kilometres southwest of Burns Lake. He said that the herd is designated as threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act, which was why the wolf cull was initiated. …He said that the decline of southern mountain caribou across B.C. has been attributed to extensive habitat change leading to a shift in the predator-prey dynamics of caribou. In the Tweedmuir range, he added that the mountain pine beetle epidemic, associated salvage logging, and large wildfires have contributed to significant landscape disturbance.

Mike Flannigan

KAMLOOPS, BC — A wildfire expert at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops is tipping his hand on a national wildfire response. Mike Flannigan says he can see the BC Wildfire Service working together with a National Wildfire Service to help speed up the deployment of crews and resources from other parts of the province, during extreme wildfire situations. Flannigan says this as he points to a recent poll, suggesting 75 per cent of Canadians support a wildfire fighting effort. “I could see a national one working in those extreme periods and be hand and glove with the BC Wildfire Service. …“BC does not have enough crews to deal with 100 new fire starts in 24 hours, but calling in help, ahead of time would hopefully let us deal with it.” …Additionally, Flannigan suggests a national response would also reduce the need to call in international crews to help.

Archie MacDonald

Murray Wilson

Retired foresters Archie MacDonald and Murray Wilson presented at the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board meeting in Salmon Arm. The two retired foresters, with more than 35 years experience in the forest sector, said British Columbia’s forests are in poor health and in dire need of a new management prescription to reduce future frequency and intensity. “We have become increasingly frustrated about the misinformation and doom and gloom being spread about wildfires and are equally concerned about the lack of any meaningful measures being put forward by the provincial government to combat wildfires,” said MacDonald. “This is concerning because 95 per cent of the province is Crown land and the vast majority falls within the jurisdiction of the provincial government.” While frustrated with the province’s management, MacDonald said he and Wilson are encouraged by the programs in place at the community level designed to reduce the impact and intensity of wildfires.

Out in the bush near Fort Babine, B.C. is a plot of recently planted tree seedlings. They are destined to be under unusual levels of scrutiny as they battle for survival and growth—if they grow at all. The odds are stacked against them. …The Fort Babine site includes species not normally planted in that part of west central British Columbia. … The list includes Douglas fir; ponderosa pine; western larch; cedar and birch. The Fort Babine plantation site initiative is being spearheaded by the B.C. Ministry of Forests with the support of a variety of forest industry partners. The hope is the Fort Babine plantation will become part of a chain across the province. The mixed species plantations are in direct response to B.C.’s warming climate. The idea is the various Fort Babine’s across the province will in time produce a useful insight into which tree seedlings respond best, and where.

In 2021, a deadly heat dome produced a devastating wildfire season across British Columbia. While immediate media coverage often focuses on evacuations and the numbers of homes destroyed, many First Nations say what these fires do to the land in their territories — and the cultural lives of their communities — is often overlooked. IDEAS visited St’át’imc territory around Lillooet, B.C. to learn how 21st-century wildfires are reshaping the landscape — and their consequences for plants, animals, and humans alike. This two part-series follows a post-wildfire research project led by northern St’át’imc Nations — Ts’kw’aylaxw, Xwísten, and T’it’q’et-P’egp’íg’lha — alongside the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC and the Lillooet Regional Invasive Species Society. More than two years after the McKay Creek wildfire, the nation and their co-researchers are working to document the effects of wildfires — and to chart a new future based on Indigenous approaches to healing and balancing an ecosystem.

Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society (BFWSS), a grassroots citizens group in southern BC, is launching a campaign … to push for a new Forest Act so that forests are protected so that communities are safe. As a result of massive losses of intact primary forests due to industrial forestry, BC communities are faced with: decreases in agricultural and drinking water supply and quality; more drought; more fires; and more floods. Scientists, such as Dr. Younes Alila, have been sounding the alarm… Communities and Indigenous groups on the land are paying the price. Despite calls from BC residents to reduce logging of primary forests, the BC government is not changing industrial forestry practices. Volunteer-led groups do not have the resources or influence of the forestry lobby. …BFWSS has a plan to join forces with grassroots groups and Indigenous people across the province to push for a new Forest Act.