Region Archives: Canada West

VICTORIA – An audit of non-replaceable forest licence (NRFL) A89359, held by Yucwmenlúcwu (Caretakers of the Land) 2007 LLP, found Yucwmenlúcwu’s planning and practices generally complied with British Columbia’s forestry legislation. The audit covered activities conducted between Sept. 1, 2020, and Sept. 22, 2022. Activities included forest stewardship and site planning, timber harvesting, wildfire protection, silviculture, and constructing, maintaining and deactivating roads and drainage structures. Auditors assessed these activities for compliance with the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), the Wildfire Act, and applicable regulations and legal orders. “Our audit found that Yucwmenlúcwu complied with most requirements of FRPA and the Wildfire Act,” said Bruce Larson, vice-chair of the Forest Practices Board. “However, the audit identified some practices that need to be improved. Yucwmenlúcwu did not always conduct fire hazard assessments after harvesting or take precautions to prevent damage to nearby trees when burning slash piles.”

Trees communicating? Protecting their offspring? Sending warning signals? Even helping “competing” species? These are some of the incredible things we have heard about the “Wood Wide Web”. But, is it true? Or has the story got ahead of the science? A team of mycorrhizal researchers has discovered some painful truths about these fungal connections we have all come to be fascinated with. Justine Karst breaks down the myths and misconceptions about Common Mycorrhizal Networks (CMN), and the pain it caused her to do so. The first 50min is the science, the last 50 min is the story behind it. 

Public feedback is requested to inform the next stage of the Lakes Resiliency Project to create a forest landscape plan, co-developed with First Nations and forest and range licensees. British Columbians are encouraged to submit their feedback …through an online questionnaire …until May 12, 2023. The draft Current Condition Report examines forest and ecosystem health in the Lakes Timber Supply Area, a 1.5-million-hectare region in north-central British Columbia that consists of several communities, including Burns Lake, Decker Lake, Grassy Plains and Danskin. The report contains the condition of resource values and factors for the area, such as First Nations values, ages and growing stock of trees, as well as the current states of fish, water, wildlife and wetlands. Public responses to the report will support the creation of the forest landscape plan (FLP), aimed at strengthening healthy ecosystem management, including biodiversity, silviculture, visual management, water and wildlife habitat.

Decades of logging has led to a “consistent and strong warming effect” in several salmon-bearing rivers across central BC, adding another layer of heat stress to already struggling juvenile fish, a new study has found. The research, published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences last week, examined 28 tributaries of the North Thompson River between Kamloops and the Rocky Mountains. Along riverbanks where a third of trees had been logged over the past 50 years, average temperatures were found to spike beyond 17 degrees Celsius — enough to stress juvenile coho salmon before they get a chance to migrate toward the sea. …Juvenile coho thrive in rivers with water temperatures between 12 and 15 C in the summer. As water warms, it holds less oxygen. Anything higher than 17 C can stress juvenile coho. …As Cunningham put it: “The health of our streams is deeply connected to the health of our forests.”

A series of ancient landslides have been “reawakened” in BC’s Cariboo region, costing hundreds of millions in federal disaster assistance funds and prompting warnings that logging is connected to the problem. The slides and flooding in spring of 2020 and 2021 washed out roadways surrounding Quesnel, where geotechnical studies have also linked ongoing land movement beneath hundreds of homes with historic, slow-moving landslides. …A B.C. government web page attributes the “unprecedented slides and road washouts” in the Cariboo to wildfires and weather patterns linked to climate change, saying the historic slides were “reawakened” and “reactivated.” But University of B.C. forestry professor Younes Alila says forest loss due to extensive logging, as well as mountain pine beetle infestation and wildfires, is playing a key role in the hydrological disruptions behind the slides. Alila said he’s concerned money being spent on rebuilding roads will be wasted if officials and engineers don’t account for that.

As protesters gathered for their weekly effort to share their ‘Free the Permit’ message, MLA Jackie Tegart arrived in Merritt with other opposition members to support the Aspen Planers employees and contractors affected by recent closures and curtailments at the company’s Merritt mill. Tegart said she and her colleagues were there to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with forestry workers, who she said are being ignored by the provincial government. Along with Tegart, BC Liberal MLAs Mike Bernier and Michael Lee also joined protestors as the official critics for forestry and indigenous relations, respectively. Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz was also in attendance to show his support. “These workers and their families are hurting. They need reassurance that the government is working swiftly to get them back on the job,” said Tegart. 

A fresh case of illegal caribou harvesting on the winter road northeast of Yellowknife is being investigated, the NWT government says. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources says officers found “nine caribou suspected to have been illegally harvested” inside a Bathurst herd no-hunting zone on March 18. Evidence was collected by officers at the scene. The investigation remains open,” the department stated. An additional case related to the “suspected wastage of one caribou” northeast of the Ekati diamond mine is also being investigated. Anyone with information about that case is asked to call North Slave wildlife officers on (867) 873-7181. “Most hunters on the winter road are harvesting safely and respectfully out on the land, and we are all working together to support the conservation and recovery of threatened barren-ground caribou herds,” the department stated.

With a primary focus on rehabilitating dead pine stands in the Chilcotin region and transforming them into productive forests, Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. (CCR) was established in 2017. The severe wildfires that ravaged the region that same year reinforced the pressing need to restore the heavily burned forest stands with minimal economic value. In response, CCR, which is a joint venture company owned by the Tŝideldel First Nation and the Tl’etinqox Government, applied for and received a grant of $3.4 million from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) to reduce wildfire risk and restore mountain pine beetle-damaged forests near Alexis Creek. Since then, CCR has continued to secure substantial grant funding from FESBC and partnered with other major players such as Natural Resources Canada, Shell Canada, and local companies like Tolko, Drax, and Atlantic Power to promote the rehabilitation and restoration of the Chilcotin forests.

Amid devastating mill closures in B.C. communities, and warnings of declining timber supply, B.C. Premier David Eby recently announced his government’s latest forestry measures. We’ve been here before. What have politicians, communities, environmentalists and policy wonks called for in response… more selective logging that protects biodiversity and endangered species and more local manufacturing. But these solutions have been known for decades. So, why haven’t these changes been implemented? …There are two primary obstacles. The first is B.C. forestry is dominated by a coalition of forestry companies, unions and the B.C. government — what political scientist Jeremy Wilson called the “wood exploitation axis.” The axis has persisted through boom and bust, for a good hundred years. …The second obstacle to change is the constant threat of capital flight, the fear of investment moving to other, often cheaper, parts of the world. …It’s time for B.C. to quit the race to the bottom.

A student-built satellite from the University of Alberta that will capture images of active wildfires has made it into orbit after a successful launch last week. The satellite Ex-Alta 2, a miniature satellite about the size of a loaf of bread and weighing about two kilograms, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre aboard the Falcon 9 SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft on March 14. “The moment it launched there was a pin-drop silence,” Thomas Ganley, lead manager on the AlbertaSat’s project, said. The atmosphere was celebratory and he and his teammates were there to watch the countless years of their hard work blast off into space as part of a resupply mission to the International Space Station. “Everyone was in awe and just jaw dropped looking at the amazing marvel happening in front of us.”

Tom Prior

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. … is not quite as it seems. A veteran of countless logging road blockades, court battles and public protests against logging of old growth forests … 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. Prior noted that one year ago the province was maintaining it did not know how much old growth was left in the province. “(N)ow, apparently, the B.C. NDP knows exactly where and how much ‘OG’ is remaining,” he pointed out.

Ever wondered about the lengths that Parks Canada is going to in order to help the whitebark pine tree return to its former glory?  If you have six minutes to spare, then put “Planting the Future” on your agenda.  That’s the name of the short online video that it produced to educate the public on its decades-long effort to help both the whitebark and limber pines to fight extinction.  “I’m thrilled with the video,” said Brenda Shepherd, monitoring and species-at-risk biologist in Jasper National Park.  “We’re a pretty committed bunch across the parks. I felt like that really came through in the video: how passionate the group is and that we’re really aimed at action. It’s nice, instead of monitoring species and watching them decline, to actually take action to help a species recover. It’s pretty exciting.”

MERRITT, B.C. — Three months have passed by and Aspen Planers has yet to receive an approved cutting permit from the B.C. government. Numerous employees have been thrown out of work as a result. The employees, along with community members stood together at a rally Friday morning (Mar. 17) in Merritt to voice their concerns.  “We just wanna go to work,” Mill Manager of Aspen Planers Surinder Momrath told CFJC Today. “Government should do what they need to do. Figure it out and issue the permits so we can go to work.  Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz was also in attendance. Reminding everyone how the potential closure of the mill can impact the entire community.  “It affects certain things such as fuel, tires and groceries because people are looking after their families,” Goetz said. “When this kind of thing starts to happen, everybody pulls back and holds on.”

An investigation into a special unit of the RCMP will focus on police conduct at several resource industry stand0ffs in B.C. the past two years, including one in the West Kootenay.  The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) will look into the actions of the the RCMP “E” Division Community-Industry Response Group (CIRG), which was formed in 2017 to respond to protests against industrial projects in B.C.  One of the incidents to be investigated is the police enforcement of an injunction obtained by Cooper Creek Cedar against protesters at Salisbury Creek near Argenta in the summer of 2022, which led to 17 arrests.  The investigation also will probe enforcement tactics in two other conflicts: the Coastal GasLink Ltd. injunction on Wet’suwet’en traditional territory and the Teal Cedar Products Ltd. injunction in the Fairy Creek watershed on Vancouver Island.

Twenty communities and organizations around the Columbia Basin are increasing their capacity to prepare for and reduce the chances a wildfire will occur, spread and cause damage. To do so, they’re receiving $2.5 million through a partnership between the Province of British Columbia and Columbia Basin Trust. Tailored specifically to the Basin, this program is one aspect of the Province of B.C.’s Community Resiliency Investment Program. Partners include the Province’s Ministry of Forests, BC Wildfire Service and Columbia Basin Trust, which is administering the funding. …The program supports a range of projects. For example, actions may include hiring a FireSmart coordinator, developing plans to do prescribed burns, carrying out innovative fuel management activities or providing training on how to do FireSmart assessments.

Additional coverage in My East Kootenay Now, by Ryley McCormack: Funding local wildfire management projects

Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Forest  is the largest urban forest in Canada, at 285 hectares, and home to a variety of wildlife, dozens of songbirds and hundreds of plants, some rare. But it might have ended up looking like any other suburban area in the city, if not for the stock market crash in 1929. Many of the 18 kilometres of trails — bordered today by Roblin and Shaftesbury boulevards, Wilkes Avenue and Chalfont Road — follow the old road cuts from a neighbourhood once cleared but never developed. …According to the Manitoba Historical Society, developments closer to the city centre attracted the investors who might otherwise have been interested in Tuxedo. …In 1972, Tuxedo amalgamated with Winnipeg and 12 other suburbs, and in 1973 the forest was preserved as a municipal nature park. …The Charleswood branch of Winnipeg’s Rotary Club has been custodian of the forest for nearly four decades, maintaining and adding to the amenities.

The Trans Mountain pipeline, owned by the federal government, is a culprit in the destruction of endangered spotted owl habitat, The Narwhal has learned in a new twist to 11th-hour efforts to save the owl from extinction in Canada. The B.C. NDP government, elected in 2017 on a platform that included using “every tool in [the] toolbox” to stop Trans Mountain from being built, quietly approved 24 new cutblocks for the pipeline in habitat federal scientists deemed necessary for the owl’s survival and recovery, including old-growth forests.  According to the non-profit group Wilderness Committee, the cutblocks fall in the Coquihalla River valley, east of Hope, and along the Fraser River between Chilliwack and Hope. …The pipeline’s destruction of spotted owl habitat puts the federal government, which owns Trans Mountain, in a very awkward situation. 

Thanks to Google Earth Engine, people are able to see the effects of humans on our ecosystems happen in a flash. On Vancouver Island specifically, it’s easy to see the deforestation of Fairy Creek near Port Renfrew as well as several other locations. The provincial government recently made an announcement on efforts in protecting some of Vancouver Island’s last precious old-growth groves and pristine ecosystems. …This innovative tool also sheds light on urban sprawl in metro areas such as Greater Victoria, specifically, the Westshore. In 1984, when the timelapse began, the population of Greater Victoria was around 242,000. Now the population has grown to nearly 398,000. Greater Victoria is limited in where it can sprawl to, but Langford and the entirety of the Westshore have boomed and sprawled considerably over the past 39 years. 

Saya Masso

Saya Masso stands in front of a culturally modified tree. It has two massive crevices down its trunk, leaving a large smooth block in the middle of otherwise bumpy bark. This smooth block was left after Tla-o-qui-aht (ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ) people cut planks from the tree for a long house hundreds of years ago — a way of harvesting the wood they needed while preserving a living tree for centuries to come, he explains. …Logging companies didn’t approach forestry management in the same way. …So they fought back. In 1984, Nuu-chah-nulth people famously turned away B.C.-based logging company MacMillan Bloedel, which planned to clear cut old-growth forests. It was the first major logging blockade in Canadian history, and the beginning of a series of blockades in Clayoquot Sound known as the War in the Woods. 

Communities in the Kootenay region are collectively receiving $2.5 million for wildfire mitigation projects through a funding partnership between the Columbia Basin Trust and the Province. “Wildfire-resilient communities are built through partnerships and people working together to protect our forests and surrounding communities,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. “These wildfire risk reduction projects are a valuable part of healthy, sustainable forest management in BC. Thank you to Columbia Basin Trust and the 20 communities and organizations around the Basin that are doing this important work.” The Columbia Basin Trust is administering the funding to 20 different communities in the Columbia Basin, as the funding partners also include the Ministry of Forests and the BC Wildfire Service, through the province’s Community Resiliency Investment Program.

Thirty years after B.C.’s War in the Woods, where do things stand in the fight for old-growth forests? That’s the question The Narwhal’s Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood and David Suzuki posed on a trip to the site of that seminal battle against logging in Clayoquot Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  “The forest is still standing,” Suzuki notes, but “the bridge is breaking down.” The impacts of the historic logging blockade are on full display in Clayoquot Sound, and the subject of the brand new documentary War for the Woods airing this Friday on CBC’s The Nature of Things (you can already stream it here on CBC Gem).  Steph and David take viewers on that 30-year journey through archival footage, old-growth maps and interviews with members of First Nations who have stewarded these lands for thousands of years. 

UNIVERSITY OF BC — Forestry students are about to see a massive change in how their faculty grants undergraduate degrees. Starting in fall 2024, five of the Forestry department’s seven existing Bachelor’s degrees will become majors under a new, unified Bachelor’s of Science in Natural Resources. Currently, the faculty offers seven direct-entry undergraduate programs, five of which are Bachelor’s of Science. These five will be combined into the new program, with students having the option to choose bioeconomy sciences and technology, conservation, forest management, forest operations, forest sciences or wood products as majors. New students will no longer need to choose which Bachelors of Science program they want to pursue before coming to UBC. Rather, they will take a common core of 20 credits in first year before having to declare their major going into second year. 

Re: Pellet sector not to blame for forestry problems. In his letter, David Elstone’s absolution of the forest industry is history by omission, a version that does not withstand closer scrutiny. What Elstone fails to tell readers is that the forest industry made its own bed and is responsible, not for the mountain pine infestation itself, but for the way in which it chose to log dead wood and where. …As to Elstone’s trumpeting of a recent study that found that 85 per cent of the B.C. pellet industry’s fibre supply comes from byproducts of sawmills, we are left asking: Who financed the study? Drax? Who provided the data? Drax? And why didn’t the forest professionals who authored the study use the same data sourced by Ben Parfitt from official government records?

A report card from B.C. environmental organizations said the province is still continuing to score failing grades as old-growth forests remain at risk. Sierra Club BC, Stand.earth, and the Wilderness Committee issued their fifth report card, assessing the B.C. government’s progress in implementing the Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR) recommendations. The report card comes two-and-a-half years into the provincial government’s three-year timeline for implementing all 14 recommendations from the OGSR. “It is crucial because we are close to the brink with some of the last endangered old-growth forests.” said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC. …“We are nowhere close to the implementation of the three-year promise from the government — it has not translated to the ground,” Wieting said. The organizations gave the province failing grades on issues including action on funding for conservation, changing course in forest stewardship and transparency.

Columbia Basin Trust’s most recent Ecosystem Enhancement Program will provide funding to ten projects that seek to enhance biodiversity and ecosystems throughout the region. CBT will distribute $2.6 million in support to four large-scale projects around the Basin and $316,000 to six smaller scale, shorter-term projects, to prioritize on-the-ground action aimed at improving ecological health and native biodiversity. The Ecosystem Enhancement Program has supported 27 total programs. …Kimberley’s Randy Moody, president of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada (WPEFC) has spent nearly two decades working to preserve and protect the endangered tree species in the Purcell and Rocky mountains.

Suzanne Simard

In her scientific memoir, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, forestry researcher Suzanne Simard gracefully intertwines her private and professional lives. As a child, she learned the rough-and-ready ways of her logging ancestors and developed a deep devotion and commitment to forests. As a researcher, she pressed colleagues to look beyond the superficial, above-ground perception that forests are merely collections of individual trees. …For her inspiring and illuminating writing, she will be presented with the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science at The Rockefeller University on April 17. Named after its first recipient, noted physician-scientist and essayist Lewis Thomas, the prize was established in 1993 by Rockefeller’s Board of Trustees.