Region Archives: Canada West

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.

The Nature Trust of British Columbia, one of the province’s leading non-profit land conservation organizations, has started a fundraising campaign to protect 129.2 hectares (319 acres) of wetland, riparian forest, and mixed forest ecosystems. The property, known as Ferguson Lake-Wetlands, is located in the city of Prince George. The land is adjacent to the Ferguson Lake Conservation Area, a 31-hectare conservation area owned by The Nature Trust of BC. With the purchase of Ferguson Lake-Wetlands, the contiguous protected land will expand to be 160 hectares. These private conservation parcels are connected to provincial Crown land parcels, forming a natural wildlife corridor and increasing connectivity within the region. Ferguson Lake – Wetlands has merchantable timber value and its purchase will ensure that its mature and old growth riparian forests and wetlands are protected in perpetuity.

The Towns of High River and Okotoks are requesting a moratorium on logging in Southern Alberta. Both were approached by the Calgary Climate Hub (CCH) requesting signatures of support for a pause on a planned logging project from Spray Lake Sawmills. The project would see the company harvest 1,100 hectares of Kananaskis Country forest and has seen opposition from several groups in Alberta, particularly due to the claim that the project was accelerated from 2026 to 2023 in a matter of months. CCH reasons for a moratorium include potential negative impacts on the Highwood Watershed, harm to several threatened species, a lack of engagement with First Nation Communities, harm to Kananaskis Country despite the province’s stated goal of protecting the region, and a claim that “Spray Lake Sawmills does not have a proven track record of restoring clearcut areas in the timeframe that demonstrates the forest is regenerating.”

Conservationists say they have high hopes a proposed shift in B.C. policy could result in revolutionary change for forest protection. The province is currently conducting consultations on its draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework, which it describes as “a new and strategic direction for a more holistic approach” to stewarding land and water resources for future generations. …“Despite a very boring name, it may actually be one of the most consequential conservation policies in Canadian histories if it lands correctly,” Ken Wu, executive director of the endangered ecosystem alliance, said of the proposed framework. …The industry group B.C. Council of Forest Industries told Global News Thursday that it was still reviewing the plan. “Its potential direct impacts on our sector are not clear yet, and will depend on what the final policy looks like,” the council said in a statement.

The Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) summarized timber supply area apportionment decisions from the Ministry of Forests at their meeting on Nov. 9. The summary indicated that the ministry has allocated 400,000 additional cubic metres of harvest in the Lakes Timber Supply Area (TSA) on top of the 970,000 cubic metres listed in the apportionment from Community Forest Agreements, Woodlots and First Nations Woodland Tenures. Director of RDBN from Electoral Area B [Burns Lake] Michael Riis-Christianson pointed out that more than 400,000 cubic metres for Lakes TSA are needed to harvest two sawmills within the area. Director of RDBN from Electoral Area E [Francois/Ootsa Lake] Clint Lambert said Cheslatta Carrier Nation lost $3.8 billion in timber this summer because of Lucas Lake, Wells Creek and East Ootsa Lake wildfires. He said these timber feed the sawmills and the town’s economy.

OTTAWA – The federal agency tasked with reviewing complaints against the RCMP says the police force is causing “significant delays” to an investigation of a unit set up to deal with protests against energy and logging projects. In an investigation update this week, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP says it has received “little information or records” since July from the police force’s E Division, headquartered in Surrey, B.C. The commission says it has made progress in its probe of the controversial Community-Industry Response Unit, but says finishing the investigation will be delayed. It says a recent meeting between the commission and the RCMP outlined “concerns about the delays,” and the force has since provided it with more than 400 files, though “significant” information is yet to be provided.

…On Thursday evening, Nov. 23, about 300 people packed into the North Shuswap Community Hall in Celista for a meeting hosted by resident Jim Cooperman. Titled Shuswap Firestorm: The Last Straw, the meeting offered an opportunity for the public to see a PowerPoint presentation Cooperman has provided as evidence for the B.C. Forest Practices Board’s investigation into BC Wildfire Service’s planned ignition that took place around 4 p.m. on Aug. 17 in an attempt to prevent the spread of the Lower East Adams Lake wildfire (later renamed Bush Creek East when the two wildfires combined). “When I started talking… you could hear a pin drop,” said Cooperman, noting the crowd was there to take in the information he’s gathered with help from others, including registered professional forester Rob Morrow who, after viewing the planned ignition site on Oct. 3, shared his own findings with Cooperman.

A massive western red cedar tree found near Nitinat Lake is large enough to be protected by provincial legislation, but it’s surrounded by trees that could be logged, which activists say highlights the need to protect intact old-growth ecosystems. Joshua Wright, an old-growth activist who documents large trees before they’re cut, found the tree in Looper Creek near Nitinat Lake. He measured the largest at 3.88 metres in diameter.  Its size puts it just above the province’s threshold for protection from being harvested. The province sets out the minimum diameter at which trees must be protected, by species. The threshold is highest for western red cedars in coastal zones, at 3.85 metres. For several others, the threshold is above two metres, including yellow cedars, black cottonwoods in coastal zones and Douglas firs on the coast.

The following is from the Nov. 9 issue of Tree Frog News entitled “Forest Management in Finland –Learnings for BC Forestry” by Cam Brown, Ken Day and eight others. I discussed some of the basic comparisons in an August 2023 article but this report provides some important differences such as Finlands “extensive private land ownership, greater resolution of Indigenous ownership, more homogeneous ecosystems, gentle topography, extensive road and bio-energy infrastructure. …The large amount of privately owned forest may seem too extreme to B.C. residents who are used to lots of crown land to recreate on but in Finnish policy, Every Person’s Right, “allows everyone access to private lands which helps support a positive societal view of forest lands. The culture appears biased toward ‘active forest management’ outside of national parks. …It is the differences in the management of their forests that we should take a close look at.

It’s been an extraordinary month for nature protection in British Columbia. A slew of unprecedented funding and legislative announcements have come in almost too fast to keep up with. Taken together, they underscore a sea change in the stewardship of Canada’s most biodiverse province. This marks a historic turning point for B.C., and a potential road map for the rest of Canada — one that was unimaginable when Premier David Eby first took office under the cloud of an ugly tussle with the environmental movement just one year ago. …What’s happening before our eyes is a whole-of-society restructuring … trying to recover from the hangover of 150 years of colonial plunder. …In light of those developments, we should pause to acknowledge and celebrate the moves that B.C.’s NDP is making. Not just to be nice, but to show them — and the rest of Canada — that these kinds of deals can win elections, too.