Region Archives: Canada West

Wildfires are breaking out more often, persisting for extended periods, and burning with greater intensity. So, what can be done to protect communities, save lives and preserve ecosystems? In many territories, the main causes of fire are lightning, humans, or poorly maintained powerlines. Can drones provide advantages in fire fighting situations? …“Fire has an ecological and historical role in many Canadian ecosystems,” John Davies, a senior wildland fire specialist in British Columbia, told us. “Our grasslands and our forests have evolved with fire as a natural means to regenerate. But these large, destructive fires are not natural and they can negatively impact ecosystems. Wildfire patterns are changing, and that’s causing us concern. We need to detect them early, hit them fast, and try to keep them small. By providing real-time, persistent, actionable incident information, we increase the efficiency and safety of our operations.”

Canada’s Forests Minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, said he is reflecting on hard lessons from this year’s record wildfire season, including the possible need for standardizing firefighter training across provincial borders and beyond. Wilkinson said while the curriculum for firefighter training remains primarily a provincial responsibility, all levels of government and firefighting jurisdictions need to look deeper into “greater interoperability” of crews regardless of where they are based. …The season has seen firefighters from across Canada and overseas converge on hot spots, particularly in British Columbia. Wilkinson announced $400,000 in funding for a pilot project with the International Association of Firefighters. …A Kris Liivam, president of Arctic Fire Safety Services said Canada needed to create a national training standard for firefighters, rather than each province and territory having its own. Adding, the U.S. had already implemented a countrywide training standard, and a similar system should be introduced in Canada.

Canada’s highest court has refused to hear an appeal of a British Columbia Supreme Court decision that acquitted a demonstrator of criminal contempt for taking part in a blockade of old-growth logging on Vancouver Island. In its decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed the appeal application from the B.C. Crown and awarded costs to the demonstrator who now uses the name Emily Henderson. As is customary, the high court did not provide reasons for its ruling. Henderson was cleared of contempt in February when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson found RCMP officers only read a shortened version of an injunction to hundreds of protesters, including Henderson, who were arrested at the Fairy Creek logging blockade on southern Vancouver Island. …Henderson’s acquittal prompted the B.C. Prosecution Service to withdraw contempt charges against eleven old-growth logging protesters in April, while many similar cases remain before the court.

Prosecutors in B.C. have withdrawn cases against nearly 150 protesters who were arrested for participating in a blockade around old-growth logging on Vancouver Island after a judge this year found Mounties did not read the full text of a court order to the group. A statement from the B.C. Prosecution Service on Thursday confirmed cases against 146 protesters have been dropped because their ability to succeed was “placed in doubt” by a ruling that acquitted protester Ryan Henderson in February. “Those cases are now concluded as a result of this ruling,” read an email to CBC. The confirmation comes hours after the Supreme Court of Canada said it would not hear the Crown’s appeal of the Henderson decision, marking the end of the legal road for prosecutors trying to keep the cases against protesters alive. The ruling is also a victory for demonstrators who said officers’ script did not pass the legal test.

In British Columbia, forestry is not just an industry; it’s a way of life, deeply interwoven with our communities and environment. But misconceptions and misinformation often overshadow this crucial aspect of our province. Logging and forest product manufacturing support British Columbians’ quality of life, and debates about the future of the sector require a clear and factual look at forestry management. …Despite its balanced approach, it’s not uncommon to hear some voices online call for a shutdown of part or all of the forest industry. In fact, some say the sector is a drain on BC’s economy. And if that was truly the case, it would make sense to place a higher priority on conservation than economic activity. But the truth is, forestry is the lifeline for many of BC’s rural communities and small cities, especially in the interior.

The the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, together with President and Chief Scientist Jodi Hilty from Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y), announced a contribution of more than 1.9 million dollars to improve ecological connectivity in southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta. This collaboration supports the Highway 3 Wildlife Mitigation Initiative by enabling infrastructure projects, communications, research, and Indigenous engagement activities. The funding, originating from Parks Canada’s National Program for Ecological Corridors, will minimize the impact of Highway 3 on wildlife in the area, particularly by decreasing collisions and linking habitat currently fragmented by the highway. It will also help support Reconnecting the Rockies, a project BC has prioritized, and is already underway …to improve connectivity at a critical point along the 3,200 kilometre Yellowstone to Yukon wildlife corridor.

Starting this fall, a timber harvest will begin in an area of Kananaskis Country in southwest Alberta and it is sparking worries among some environmentalists. The 1,100 hectare plot of forest borders the Highwood River and is close to the B.C. border. It has been identified as a harvest area through the province’s Forest Management Plan, which was last updated in 2021. The harvest will be carried out by Spray Lake Sawmills over the course of two years. Groups concerned about the harvest have begun a campaign calling on people to write to the provincial government to re-think the decision because of how it may impact wildlife and reduce recreation opportunities for people. …Ed Kulcsar, VP of Woodlands for Spray Lake Sawmills said there has been lots of work done beforehand to determine this was an appropriate spot for a harvest, and previous rounds of public consultation did not identify much negative feedback.

VANCOUVER — As another BC summer unfurls in the shadow of massive wildfire devastation, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that all fires are bad. But a growing community of forestry experts, Indigenous firekeepers, and fire specialists are advocating for controlled burns—which can actually help keep our forests safe. Cultural burning, also called prescribed fire and intentional fire, does not damage the land, but rather allows it to grow back healthier, says Joe Gilchrist co-founder of the Interior Salish Firekeepers. …While the provincial government is helping to reintroduce cultural burning, Gilchrist finds the approval process slow and onerous. It usually takes between two and five years to get permission for a burn, and even then, if conditions aren’t ideal, it can’t happen. He also says that the BC Wildfire Service wants to control the process, and he wishes it was more of an Indigenous-led partnership.

Nelson, BC – The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation is proud to announce over $8 million in funding for 167 fish and wildlife conservation projects across B.C. this year, with over $1.2M allocated to projects in the Kootenay region. For over 40 years, the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF) has provided grants to a large network of recipients who undertake conservation projects. With support from the HCTF, a wide range of nonprofit organizations, First Nations and Indigenous communities, Provincial ministries, and community groups implement projects that protect B.C.’s wildlife, freshwater fish, and their habitats. Since 1981, the HCTF has funded over 3,550 projects representing an investment of over $215 million for conservation in B.C. Among this year’s projects in the Kootenays is the enhancement of the elk winter range in the Upper Kicking Horse Canyon. …The project is being supported by the HCTF and the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. (FESBC) with $63,580 in co-funding this year. 

In this edition, you’ll find:

• Summers in BC are synonymous with wildfires and this year is no different. In fact, 2023 is officially BC’s worst wildfire season on record in terms of hectares burned. And woodlots have not gone unscathed.
• General manager continues woodlot tour. Gord Chipman, FBCWA General Manager, has toured many woodlots and by mid-July achieved his goal of connecting with more than 200 woodlot licensees in 2023.
• Registration is now open for the 2023 Woodlot Conference and AGM on October 26-28, 2023 in Cranbrook, BC! 
• Students get their feet on the ground with Project Forest Management. High school students from Nechako Lakes School District took part in the annual Project Forest Management in May.

The Parksville Museum has recently opened the “Mosaic Pavilion”, a new exhibit celebrating the proud history and bright future of forestry on Vancouver Island. The open-air, interactive displays encourage visitors of all ages to discover the majesty of BC’s forests, and to learn about modern, sustainable forest management practices. “Mosaic is committed to giving back to the communities near our working forests, and with our forestry pavilion being the only one of its kind on Central Vancouver Island, it’s allowing us to fill an important community need,” said Rob Gough, Mosaic Forest Management’s President and CEO. “We’ve enjoyed working with the Parksville Museum to create the Mosaic Pavilion, which is sure to educate, delight and inspire visitors to see forests and forestry in an insightful new way.”

Many municipal governments are forced to issue boil water warnings year after year. In addition, their communities suffer repeated flood events. This is widely known. What is not so well known is why. The BC government, in short, has chosen to protect almost none of the province’s numerous watersheds.  Watersheds are being degraded across British Columbia, while the provincial government has not assumed its obligation to sustainably manage forest and water resources. The situation in many communities is so serious that organizations have formed to advocate for watershed protection.  The Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance is one such group.  …The PWPA laments industrial activities and resource extraction occurring within the watershed, which they note is, “the place where you get your drinking water”.  …Already in 2014, the BC Forest Practices Review Board warned that BC legislation protecting watersheds was inadequate.

Advocates against old-growth logging have been blocking a bridge over the Gordon River with a large wooden statue of a screech owl for the past week.  A camp was set up north of Port Renfrew last Saturday to prevent forestry company Teal Jones from accessing cut blocks 7265 and 7263 on Edinburgh Mountain, organizers said on social media.  Savage Patch, an organization that has claimed responsibility for the latest blockades, said they are unrelated to the Rainforest Flying Squad, one of the primary organizers of the 2021 Fairy Creek blockades.  …In a statement to the Times Colonist Saturday, the Pacheedaht Nation said they are asking for blockaders to leave and to respect the First Nation’s right to manage the land.  “These individuals are trespassing on Pacheedaht First Nations territory despite our repeated request,” the statement said. “They do not speak for us, nor represent our interests.”

Half of the biodiversity in forests is unseen because it lives belowground. These organisms are miniscule in size, but their importance to the ecosystem is enormous. In a single teaspoon of forest soil there are thousands of species and billions of individual organisms. …This new appreciation of the importance of living roots in sustaining life belowground should prompt us to rethink forest management. Harvesting trees severs the critical flow of resources belowground, directly reducing the abundance and diversity of soil life. However, harvesting practices that retain living trees within 15 metres of each other, can maintain soil life throughout the harvested area. Forest harvesting practices that retain a portion of the living trees, such as continuous cover forestry and retention forestry can help keep the soil alive in harvested forests.

The British Columbia government has shot and killed 80 barred owls since 2007 as part of a program that is intended to help prevent the extinction of the Northern spotted owl in Canada. The country’s population of spotted owls has continued its catastrophic decline. As of last fall, there was one spotted owl remaining in the wild… However, the province maintains that the lethal removal of barred owls, a natural competitor of spotted owls, is still required. It pins its hopes on a captive breeding program … Wildlife management officials in B.C. have declared the barred owl an invasive species… But some conservationists call the strategy a misdirection – they say the government is scapegoating another species, when the real problem is logging in the old growth forests… Joe Foy of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee said the barred owl [is] a convenient fall guy for decades of logging. [A Globe and Mail subscription is required to read the full story]

The days of fighting wildfires are long and exhausting, so when crews return to camp, the last thing they want to do is search out a place to sleep or find something to eat. Behind the firefighters battling what is B.C.’s most destructive wildfire season is an army of more than 1,400 contracted support staff, doing everything from first aid to sandwich making. Among them is Susanne Callihoo, who manages the Takla incident camp in north−central B.C. for the contract service agency Horizon North. Her job, she explained, is to ensure the camp runs smoothly, that fire crews have all their essential needs met and are as “comfortable” as possible when they finish a shift on the fire lines. “They’re away from home … so we want to keep them well fed and housed,” she said.

Last year, Vancouver-based nonprofit organization Stand.earth put out an investigative report called Tall Talk estimating the risk that old-growth forests are facing across the province. The investigation relied on satellite imagery to conclude that the provincial government has not followed through on its promise to stop (or “defer”) the destruction of at-risk forests. The woman behind the screen in that investigation was Robertson. Robertson has been a senior investigative researcher with Stand.earth since 2020. …“My first experience working in environmentalism was when as a teenager I participated in the blockades to protect Clayoquot Sound, led by [Stand.earth’s international program director] Tzeporah [Berman],” Dasilva said in a release. “I vowed then and there that I would continue fighting for our forests.”

John Rustad

VANDERHOOF BC — Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad is blaming the B.C. government for its failure to get forestry permits approved as the reason for the province’s latest sawmill curtailment. On Wednesday, citing “a continuing lack of uncertainty around economical log supply,” the Sinclar Group announced it will permanently reduce its sawmill and planer production from two shifts to one at Nechako Lumber in Vanderhoof. Rustad, the leader of the Conservative Party of B.C., says forestry operations in Prince George, Houston, Chetwynd and Merritt are among many other B.C. communities suffering from uncertainty caused by government inaction. “This NDP government’s inability to get forestry permits done is killing well-paid jobs, all across BC,” said Rustad. …The shift elimination will affect 60 workers in Vanderhoof and will also impact twice as many workers in the woods as well as tertiary jobs in the region.