Region Archives: Canada West

In the heart of B.C.’s Cariboo region lies an old-growth rainforest valley untouched by industrial logging or road building. …This week, two years after local ranchers and loggers objected to clear-cutting plans for the valley, the Simpcw First Nation declared the Raush River watershed an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area, signalling their intention to protect the valley and exercise their right to control what happens there. “The area has had little resource development, and we intend to conserve it,” George Lampreau, Kúkwpi7 (Chief) for Simpcw stated. …The Raush is the largest undeveloped, unprotected watershed in southern B.C. It’s part of the province’s vanishing inland temperate rainforest that scientists warn is nearing a state of ecological collapse following decades of industrial logging. …Carrier Forest Products Ltd., a B.C.-based company with mills in Prince George and Saskatchewan, holds logging rights to the Raush.

If you were unable to attend the 2023 ABCFP conference  you can still register and gain access to recordings of all 13 conference sessions — each of which qualifies for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours. Watching all conference sessions, plus the ABCFP annual general meeting, is worth 17 hours of continuing professional development. Cost for a post-conference access pass is $150, plus GST. Delegates can access all sessions until May 10 with your conference access code. Some of the most popular conference sessions include:

• What Have We Learned in an Era of Mega Fires?
• Climate Smart Forestry: Managing Forests for a Changing Climate
• Indigenous Leadership and Co-managing BC’s Forests
• Flexibility in Approaches to Forest Landscape Planning
• Sink or Source? Forest Carbon Dynamics and the Role of Forest Management and Wood Products in Climate Change Mitigation

Heather Beresford

In many ways, the inherent dilemma—some might say, contradiction—at the heart of Whistler’s publicly managed forest, the Cheakamus Community Forest (CCF), is the same that the resort itself continues to grapple with. The CCF, meanwhile, is a 33,000-hectare forest, co-managed by the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW), and the Lil’wat and Squamish Nations, that was one of the first forest operations in B.C. to employ a holistic, ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach that is designed to consider all aspects of ecosystem health and ensure its long-term viability. But, of course, the CCF is also a business, and the commercial logging that takes place there, as well as the jobs it provides, are important, and often misunderstood, aspects of that viability. It’s a dynamic the CCF’s new executive director and former RMOW environmental stewardship manager Heather Beresford knows full well.

Premier David Eby announced in January 2023 that the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) would be receiving $50 million to further help reduce wildfire risk in communities and to utilize more forest waste fibre. This is very exciting news. People in communities across British Columbia will be able to breathe easier, literally. While there will still be forest fires of course (as nature intended), the intensity of fires in the treated zones near communities will produce less smoke (due to less woody fuel). The other type of projects that will be funded will turn woody logging waste into green energy or useful forest products. Logging waste is uneconomic (high cost, low value) and would otherwise be slash-burned. Not burning these wood piles means less smoke in the air and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

The TV series Big Timber follows Kevin, Sarah, Eric and Jack – logging, salvaging logs and working the family sawmill on Vancouver Island. …The show is in its’ third season, and the unscripted format has garnered a large following. Sarah Flemming, a former operating room nurse has been general manager of the company for the last dozen years or so. The two told Today in BC Host Peter McCully, what it’s like to watch themselves on TV and have a production crew following them around day to day. Wenstob also talks legacy trees and old growth forests, and what the company is doing to minimize their environmental impact, as well as his thoughts on raw log exports versus added value wood products.

UBC Forestry Professor Younes Alila discusses the impact of logging and forestry loss in the Cariboo region.

Additional coverage in CBC Video Logging and Landslides

Decades of logging activities near rivers in B.C.’s Interior are driving up the temperatures of coho salmon habitats and threatening the species’ survival, according to a new study. The study by Simon Fraser University and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), published last month in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, looked into 28 tributaries of the North Thompson River watershed from Kamloops to Valemount. It found the more extensive the logging activities near headwater streams, the higher the water temperature during the summer. Among tributaries with upstream riverbank trees harvested between 1970 and 2019, those with 35 per cent of trees harvested had a summer water temperature 3.7 C higher than those with five per cent of trees harvested, data showed. …Zeman also says the province has taken steps to amend the Forest Range Practices Act in order to protect the landscape, but significant landscape restoration must be undertaken.

On July 7, 2022, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint about the BC Wildfire Service’s (BCWS) efforts to control the Lytton Creek wildfire near the Manning Creek Forest Service Road (FSR) between Spences Bridge and Merritt. The complainant believes that the BCWS intentionally lit a fire, known as a ‘planned ignition’, when it should not have. The Board investigated whether the BCWS complied with the requirements of the Wildfire Act related to fire control and whether the decision to carry out fire control, in this case, was reasonable.

On August 3, 2022, the Forest Practices Board received a complaint from a Chase resident about forest planning and practices within woodlot W0337. The complainant was concerned about notification of local residents, mapping water licences, fire hazard abatement, water management, the achievement of a visual quality objective, and government enforcement. The investigation considered whether the licensee met legal requirements for hazard abatement, water management, visual quality objectives, and whether government enforcement was appropriate.

A First Nation in B.C.’s Interior has declared a sizeable section of land near the Alberta border as a protected area.  On its Facebook page, Simpcw First Nation announced that it declared the Raush Valley an Indigenous protected and conserved area (IPCA).  Also known as Riviere Au Shuswap, the valley is located in the Rocky Mountains, near Mount Robson Park, and part of it is already protected by BC Parks.  “This self-declaration is made based on the inherent rights and jurisdiction that Simpcw has over Simpcwul’ecw, our unceded territory, as the decision-makers and stewards of the (land),” the First Nation said in its release.  “Designating the Raush Valley as an IPCA is a commitment to Simpcw’s intentions to conserve this biodiverse valley, and to protect (the Simpcw peoples’) traditional and ongoing use of the area.”

Alice Palmer

Speaking at a recent forestry conference in BC, futurist Nikolas Badminton enthused about recent forestry innovations, such as mass timber high-rises, wood-based windows, and electricity-generating floors. Indeed, one has only to open their daily newspaper to be inspired about the promise of a “bioeconomy” replacing carbon-intensive materials such as cement or plastic with bio-based ones such as wood fibre. Unfortunately, while wood is increasingly viewed as a climate-friendly building solution, the logging activities that provide this wood are not viewed in the same positive light. Many people believe industrial forestry to be environmentally damaging in terms of both carbon emissions and biodiversity conservation. These beliefs frequently carry over to the media and various levels of government. …However, if we want to both take advantage of the multiple carbon benefits of building with wood and conserve 30% of the earth’s surface, we’ll need to make some tough decisions.

Boreal forests and their peatlands are one of the largest natural absorbers of carbon on the planet. But as climate change heats up northern latitudes, that carbon sink is increasingly at risk of going up in smoke. A study published earlier this month in the journal Science found the 2021 boreal wildfire season released a record 480 megatons of carbon — far more than the combined yearly emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector, transport and buildings. The fire season, which stretched across boreal forests in Canada, the U.S. and Russia, could be a sign of things to come, concluded the study. …“It’s not only 2021,” said Yang Chen, a wildfire researcher at University of California Irvine and another co-author on the study. “When we look at the past 20 years, we see a clearly increasing trend in emissions, and in the future, with further warming, the scenarios like 2021 will occur more frequently.” 

A team of volunteers from all over B.C. is dedicating their time to protect communities from wildfires. Dubbed Team Rubicon, the group is made up of vets and retired first responders. “We’re hoping that as we continue to build depth in this program, we’ll be able to offer our services to more communities and property owners as we continue down this pathway of mitigation,” says Jeff Becker, national training manager for Team Rubicon Canada. The “skilled civilian disaster technologists” offer their services at no cost to homeowners and are engaging with communities with a proactive response before the disaster strikes. …Their new fire mitigation program hopes to support communities at risk from wildfire. …“Really what we’re trying to do is reduce or remove the fuel sources, whether it be surface fuels, ladder fuels… pruning trees up to about two meters above the ground,” he says. 

Area D director Kelly Backs wants logging of BC Timber Sales (BCTS) cutblocks TA0521 near Joe Smith Creek delayed pending further review. Detailing three areas of concerns related to forest harvesting in the upper slope areas near Roberts Creek, he filed a motion to that effect for Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board consideration. …It calls for the SCRD to request BCTS withdraw the blocks from current operating plans until concerns over potential impacts of logging on downstream properties, water users and infrastructure have been addressed. It requests BCTS complete hydrogeological studies to assess potential impacts on area well and surface water supplies. In addition it would have the SCRD ask the province to legally designate TA0521 as a spatial Old Growth Management Area for recruitment purposes which Backs cited as recommended by the BC Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel.

There is common agreement that the coastal Douglas-fir forest is the rarest and most at-risk forest type in the province. A coalition of 40 conservation organizations and all levels of government — the B.C. Forests Ministry among them — is consistent on that point. …While North Cowichan owns its 5,000-hectare-plus Municipal Forest Reserve outright — in theory, making it easier to protect — others must raise millions of dollars to acquire much smaller parcels of the same forest type from private landowners.  Case in point: the Cumberland Community Forest Society has raised about $6 million, including project costs, to purchase more than 220 hectares of coastal Douglas-fir from private timber companies. Money came from sources such as private individuals, trusts and foundations, and various levels of governments. Fund-raising activities and special events also played an important role.

Rod Moorcroft

Re: Changes recommended for watershed logging. The draft hydrology report released on March 11 by BC Timber Sales recommends a reduction in cut areas on Mount Elphinstone from 25 per cent to 20 per cent, to reduce the risk of flooding and protect the health of our aquifer recharge area. This is not a good news story. It is incomprehensible why, in this time of climate change, anyone would seriously propose clear-cutting in our watershed. Mature forests are what stabilize the slopes, reduce the risk of flooding, and regulate the recharge of water into the aquifer that supplies drinking water to more than 10,000 people. The report claims that the proposed logging poses a low risk to our groundwater supply, aquifer recharge and flooding. However, the report also states that nobody really knows to what degree aquifer recharge will be affected by logging. So why take the risk? 

CASTLEGAR, BC — The Province of B.C. is ‘logging for extinction’ despite its claims to be reducing logging in old growth forests, claims a long-time Nelson activist. Tom Prior said the provincial government recent contention that logging of old growth has declined by 42 per cent in B.C. — from an estimated 65,500 hectares in 2015 to 38,300 hectares in 2021 — is not quite as it seems. A veteran of countless logging road blockades, court battles and public protests against logging of old growth forests since the 1980s, Prior said the statement was made to pacify “armchair” environmental organizations to win green votes in the upcoming provincial election. “If they were managing our forests responsibly we would not have every ‘wide ranging’ species in the province endangered,” he said.

Local governments are invited to attend a virtual session on old growth on Thursday, April 13th. Hosted by UBCM, in cooperation with the Province, the session will focus on the Province’s approach to implementing the Old Growth Strategic Review recommendations. …On February 15, UBCM expressed concerns about the lack of local government engagement on the process and steps taken to advance the OGSR recommendations. UBCM noted that the process currently being undertaken by the Province, in partnership with First Nations, would result in the co-development of a declaration on ecosystem health and biodiversity as well as an action plan. This new, holistic approach to protecting old growth forests will result in a paradigm shift in how forests, water and lands in BC are managed. Recognizing that this new approach will have significant impacts on many BC communities, UBCM asked the Province to engage specifically with local governments. 

In the March newsletter you will find:

• Join us for the BCCFA’s 2023 Conference & AGM
• Why is the Indicators Survey so Important?
• The 2022 Robin Hood Memorial Award recipient was the Wetzin’kwa Community Forest 
• Watershed Security Strategy and Fund Intentions Paper and Engagement Survey
• The Safety Committee has developed Planning for Safety in Partial Cutting and Weather Events and Worker Safety