Region Archives: Canada West

Three years after the Old Growth Strategic Review, the province has made three big recent announcements. …The three announcements — the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework, the Tripartite Framework Agreement on Nature Conservation and the conservation financing mechanism — each cited another shift B.C. has committed to: First Nations would co-develop the laws and policies to come. This was the first recommendation of the Old Growth Strategic Review, aimed at unrooting the long erasure of Indigenous nations’ jurisdiction and rights over their land. This “paradigm shift” will be put to the test as the announcements give way to their promised councils, negotiations and eventual decisions. Robert Phillips, the political executive for the First Nations Summit, is encouraged by the intentions so far, but wary of the time-worn grooves of inaction. …For decades, B.C.’s forest industry has been ruled by the steady beat of the allowable cut determination. 

Adam Olsen

BC Green Party MLA Adam Olsen is calling on B.C.’s minister of public safety to form a special policing unit dedicated to investigating the suspicious deaths and disappearances of First Nations people in the province. Olsen, who is from the Tsartlip First Nation and represents Saanich North and the Islands, said he’d like to see B.C. investing as much in protecting First Nations people as it does in policing opposition to resource development — opposition that is frequently Indigenous-led and generally occurs in remote areas. …In 2017, the RCMP formed the Community-Industry Response Group, or C-IRG, to enforce protest-related injunctions granted to industry. Over the past six years, the force has spent more than $60 million on the unit. Most of that went to break up demonstrations against pipelines and old-growth logging. …C-IRG also spent over $19 million breaking up protests against old-growth logging on Vancouver Island. 

Frank Varga

Frank Varga, the General Manager of Burns Lake Community Forest, attended a delegation of B.C. Forest Practitioners led by the UBC Faculty of Forestry team in Finland. Varga was the only representative from Burns Lake among the 31 delegates. The other representatives were from the Office of the Chief Forester, four educational and research institutions, the Federation of B.C. Woodlot Association, Six Forestry Consultants, B.C. Timber Sales, the Pulp and Paper Coalition, the Council of Forest Industry, private landowners, and community forests in B.C. The trip lasted for 10 days and the purpose was to understand Finnish history and the development of their forest industry that adds value to their climate change mitigation and adaptation to biodiversity actions.

ALBERTA — Pulp mill waste destined for the landfill could instead be useful as an organic fertilizer that can help reduce the environmental impact of using conventional fertilizers while improving soil and tree growth, University of Alberta research shows. A two-year study conducted on a hybrid poplar tree plantation in northern Alberta showed that compared with using conventional fertilizers alone, adding biosolids — wood and other fibres left over from pulp and paper production — reduced harmful greenhouse gas emissions from the soil. Combining biosolids and conventional fertilizer also improved soil fertility, the study showed. The findings provide new insight into what effect biosolids could have if they were redirected for use on tree plantations that feed the forest industry, says Scott Chang, the study’s lead author and a professor in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences.

Murray Wilson is a retired registered forester with views on BC’s forestry management practices.

Twenty-three cutblocks in the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) tenure area are slated or proposed for harvest from 2023 to 2028 according to SCCF’s 2023-2028 Forest Operations Plan released last week. Eleven blocks are new to the list. This is the first time in two years the SCCF has had new proposed blocks on its plan, said executive director Sara Zieleman at the plan’s launch on Nov. 20. The official comment period for the plan is open to Dec. 20 on the new provincial Forest Operations Mapping (FOM) portal – SCCF offered to be early adopters of the portal and test the system. …Manager Warren Hansen and Zielman fielded crowd questions about climate change and old-growth recommendations on maintaining preserving forests, highlighting that 41 per cent of their tenure area is outside of operational consideration. Several crowd members including Elphinstone Logging Focus spokesperson Ross Muirhead, disagreed with their assertion that SCCF is following old growth recruitment recommendations. 

Eddie Petryshen, of Wildsight, is on a detective mission in the Nagle Creek Valley, 150 kilometres north of Revelstoke, B.C., to ground-truth provincial government logging maps he obtained in May. The maps outline the government’s plans for new clearcuts in the disappearing inland temperate rainforest, in core habitat for an endangered caribou herd. According to BC Timber Sales … the cedar and hemlock trees slated for logging are between 224 and 336-years-old. Petrywhen, who’s been scrolling through forest inventory data and cross-matching maps, isn’t so sure. …Following Petryshen’s trip to the Nagle Creek Valley, the government paused plans for auctioning off the five Nagle Creek cutblocks, according to the B.C. Ministry of Forests. In an emailed response to questions, after turning down The Narwhal’s request to interview B.C. Forests Minister Bruce Ralston or another spokesperson, the ministry said one cutblock was deferred “for old-growth protection” following consultations with local First Nations. 

Bruce Ralston

Statement from Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests: This year was the worst wildfire season on record here in B.C. There is no question that climate change is real, and we are feeling its impacts firsthand. Our approach to managing B.C.’s forests must also change. That’s why we are putting people and communities first by using the best science and data available and collaborating with First Nations, local communities and industry to develop new, long-term approaches to forest management. Funding for wildfire prevention programs has doubled, the locations of five new Forest Landscape Plans (FLPs) tables were announced last month, and we recently introduced legislative amendments that expand the use of cultural and prescribed burning. …By taking deliberate and thoughtful action, and through partnering with organizations like FESBC, we continue to ensure the safety, vitality and resilience of forests and communities across B.C.

Forestry workers, First Nations and mills are getting to work on Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC)-supported projects that reduce wildfire risk, lower greenhouse gas emissions and provide recovered fibre to mills and bioenergy facilities. “Through a $50-million grant this year from the Province, FESBC and their project partners are making significant progress to enhance forest resiliency to wildfire and climate change,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. FESBC-supported projects are often aimed at helping communities remove excess fibre from forests to reduce fuel for potential wildfires and provide raw materials for bio-products and bioenergy, helping B.C. reduce greenhouse gas emissions. …Fully funded by the Province, B.C. announced $50 million in January 2023 to help FESBC evaluate and fund projects. Of the 61 projects receiving grants from FESBC in 2023, nine are wildfire risk-reduction projects and 52 are fibre-recovery projects. Some serve both needs.

The Cowichan Valley’s Doman family has donated $50,000 to the BC Forest Discovery Centre to go towards a new building to commemorate the family’s long history in forestry on Vancouver Island. It will highlight the many achievements of the three Doman brothers — Gordon, Herb and Ted — who founded the Doman Lumber Company in 1955, and the family over the decades since then. Chris Gale, general manager of the BC Forest Discovery Centre, said the new building dedicated to the Domans will allow the centre to tell the story of the family the way it should be told. “The Domans’ contribution to the forest industry on Vancouver Island is gigantic,” he said. “A large lumber truck donated by the family will be located in the open end of the building and the rest will be dedicated to telling the story of the family. The family has supported us in all aspects of the centre’s operations.”

Fraser Butt

High Praire, Alberta — The rampant fires that have burned across Canada in the last few years have left people wondering what can be done to prevent such devastation from happening again. Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. woodlands manager Frazer Butt says that historical data shows forests in Alberta would burn every 35 to 100 years without suppression and prevention efforts. “The forest industry understands that fires are an important part of the landscape and a natural part of the forest lifecycle, but large out of control wildfires endanger human lives, communities, and infrastructure,” he says. “As part of the Forest Management Planning process in Alberta, companies operating on public land must develop long-term Forest Management Plans that forecast 200 years into the future,” he adds. …“The forest industry harvests less than a one per cent of Alberta’s forests each year and regenerates harvest areas to ensure we continue to have strong, biodiverse, healthy forests,” he says.

American forest conservationist Josh Wright has discovered a giant Western red cedar on Vancouver Island that has since been named the Knight Tree. Wright lives on the Olympic Peninsula but grew up on southern Vancouver Island. He was involved with the Fairy Creek movement and said he “spent the past five or so years watching place after place, there, get destroyed by logging.” The Knight Tree stands on unceded Ditidaht territory in Caycuse Valley, an area known for its old growth and logging protests that began in 2020. “I’m sad to see all the logging that’s happening in our area,” said Vera Edgar-Cook, a Ditidaht elder. “I get, I guess, a sense of devastation when I see it.” The discovery last week of the tree is a kind of harbinger of hope. The cedar is 3.88 metres in diameter, but only just qualifies for protection under the Special Tree Protection Regulation.

• BCCFA meeting with Minister Ralston in Victoria
  Each fall, the BCCFA board and staff meet with elected officials and ministry leadership in Victoria for conversations on BCCFA priorities.
• The Community Forest Agreement is 25 years old
  In 1997, then Forests Minister David Zirnhelt announced a Community Forest Pilot as part of the Jobs and Timber Accord. In 1998, under Bill 34, the Community Forest Agreement (CFA) legislation was established. It was intended that the CFA would be different, providing a tool to test new and innovative ways to manage BC’s forests and increase community involvement.
• New Draft BC Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework Released
• Bill 41, the Forest Statute Amendment Act, 2023 MoF has committed to engaging with the BCCFA on the development of the regulations that will bring the new provisions into force.

Members of B.C.’s General Employees Union are lobbying for transformational spending on the B.C. Wildfire Service they hope will enhance public safety and make it easier for it to recruit and retain members. The BCGEU represents roughly 1,800 firefighter professionals, including wildland firefighting crews, dispatch operators, administrative professionals and information officers that support their work. According to the B.C. government, the B.C. Wildfire Service had close to 2,000 people on staff in February of last year but only 267 of those were year-round and full-time positions. “We were trying to get across a message to both the governing and opposition parties, that the wildfire system is in crisis and that crisis is rooted in a lack of compensation,” BCGEU treasurer Paul Finch said. Their main message to MLAs? Unless there is more money and a restructuring, the B.C. Wildfire Service will not be able to meet the demands of the coming wildfire season.

No one in Southside (central BC) will forget 2018. It was the year the community lost eight homes, 45 other structures and almost 200,000 hectares of forest. …those who remained behind to fight the fires faced a heavy-handed police response and criticism from politicians who accused them of putting people at risk. …In the wake of that season, the community got together and formed Chinook Emergency Response Society, also known as CERS, which provides local communication, co-ordination and education for wildfire response, but does not directly fight fires. Its purpose is to build relationships, its volunteer directors say — both within the community and with government agencies. …CERS could provide a road map for other communities that want a role in wildfire response — like in the Shuswap, where many residents defied evacuation orders this summer to stay back and fight, leading to clashes with authorities.

A hemlock looper moth infestation in Stanley Park will result in the removal of 160,000 trees, the Vancouver park board announced on Wednesday. Nearly one-quarter of all trees in Stanley Park have been damaged by the outbreak, which has also affected parts of North and West Vancouver. Stanley Park has roughly half a million trees in total. …The park board says the tree removal is an effort to support public safety and mitigate risks to key infrastructure in and around Stanley Park. …The removal will take place over a number of years. However, traffic in the area will be affected over the coming months, including as soon as this weekend. …Impacted areas will be replanted with tens of thousands of native species, including Douglas fir, western red cedar, grand fir, big Maple Leaf and red alder trees.

As wildfires increasingly cause negative impacts to communities, many are demanding more proactive and locally driven approaches to address wildfire risk. A shift away from centralized governance models where decision-making is concentrated in government agencies that prioritize reactive wildfire suppression. In British Columbia, Community Forests are emerging as local leaders facilitating proactive wildfire management. To explore the factors that are enabling local governance approaches to managing wildfire risk, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 Community Forest managers across BC. Managers highlighted financial and social capacity, especially trust and relationships with both community members and government agencies, as crucial factors influencing their ability to undertake proactive management. …Despite ongoing challenges, Community Forests emphasized the importance of scaling up their efforts to address wildfire risk and are a critical form of local wildfire governance that can help advance proactive wildfire management across BC.

British Columbia — Woodlots play a critical role in wildfire risk reduction because of their close proximity to communities. Of the 840 woodlot licences in BC, 80 percent are located in the wildland urban interface. By managing stand density and fuel loading in these forests, licensees can address wildfire risk issues in this province, one woodlot at a time.

When a little gray bird with black wings flies into a bushy tree on the edge of a steep mountain slope, ecologist Alana Clason scrambles to find her binoculars. …Clason studies mountain ecosystems and leads an extensive, complex restoration project in northwest B.C. focused on protecting whitebark pine, an endangered tree species. Between climate change, deforestation, competition from other tree species and an invasive fungus called blister rust, whitebark has been in decline for over a century. It’s the only tree in Western Canada on the federal list of endangered species. …But scientists working to save the species from extinction are far from defeated. Studying the bird — a member of the corvid family called Clark’s nutcracker — is one part of figuring out how to keep the tree around for generations to come. “The nutcracker is the only dispersal agent for whitebark,” Clason explains.

Backed by a $15.2-million commitment from the federal government, a First Nations community on the west coast of Vancouver Island intends to buy out forestry tenures to stop old-growth logging in selected watersheds around Nootka Sound. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation has declared a string of “salmon parks” in its traditional territories that includes more than 66,000 hectares of watersheds. The parks are designed to protect critical salmon habitat by maintaining and restoring the land where it intersects with marine ecosystems. Logging can damage the rivers where salmon spawn, and deforestation has been tied to warmer rivers that reduce survival rates for young fish. The salmon parks of Nootka Sound offer an example of a shift that is coming across the province as a result of the new $1-billion Nature Agreement signed on Nov. 3 between Canada, B.C. and the First Nations Leadership Council. Significantly more land will be designated for conservation, which in turn will change how and where the province exploits its natural resources.

When he was a boy, Ron Tomma would leave after breakfast to run freely with his brother through their ancestral territory. …Now, when Tomma hunts, he has to move carefully so he doesn’t trip or twist an ankle. Tomma, a knowledge keeper in his First Nation in B.C., has to push through undergrowth in a forest that was once as clear as hiking trails. Most of the berries are gone and the water is undrinkable. He blames the change on pesticide use by cattle ranchers and logging companies. So, it was no surprise to him when the Bush Creek fire tore through Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw, his First Nation about 70 kilometres from Kamloops. …Tomma has a message for other bands. Take a good look at your forests and do what you can to clean it up. Harvest it for firewood or other resources, and ensure the community is protected.