Region Archives: Canada West

Barrett Lenoir and Kris Brekke

Two environmental non-profit organizations, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Northwest Territories Chapter (CPAWS-NWT), have been operating in the Northwest Territories (NWT) for decades and recognize the importance of protecting these natural spaces. DUC and CPAWS-NWT acknowledge that by pooling resources and focusing on common goals, more can be accomplished. Today, a Collaboration Agreement has been signed to leverage their shared capacity – which means more positive outcomes for NWT. …DUC and CPAWS-NWT have teamed up to assist with efforts to establish an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) in the Slave River Delta-Taltson watershed area, led by Fort Resolution Métis Government and Deninu Kųę́ First Nation. The Collaboration Agreement enhances DUC and CPAWS-NWT`s ability to deliver the most effective conservation outcomes for the territory by committing to work on collective goals while sharing expertise, funding, capacity, and other resources.

PRINCE GEORGE, BC — Mayor Simon Yu could not help but notice the absence of young people at the Future of Forestry forum this week. Yu is worried the current state of the forest industry in the province, with Interior sawmills and pulp mills shutting down permanently or curtailing their operations in response to current market conditions and the perceived lack of economic fibre is swaying younger generations away from considering forestry careers. He told the forum crowd he wants to establish a community forest in the city managed by local government, First Nations and/or community groups to create employment and tourism and demonstrate and foster innovative forest management practices he says will encourage teens and young adults to become tree planters, work on logging crews thinning forests or in pulp and sawmills.

People can get involved in the timber supply review for the Sunshine Coast Timber Supply Area (TSA) by submitting comments before May 1, 2023.  Under the Forest Act, to ensure that B.C.’s forests are managed sustainably, the chief forester must determine the allowable annual cut (AAC) in each of the province’s 37 timber supply areas and 33 tree farm licences at least once every 10 years. The public is invited to provide comment on this update to the management of B.C.’s forests.  As part of this public review, a discussion paper has been released that provides the results of a timber supply analysis. …This review will support continued First Nations’ engagement and participation in defining a sustainable harvest level for the Sunshine Coast TSA. …he Sunshine Coast TSA covers approximately 1.9 million hectares on the southwestern coast. The current AAC for the Sunshine Coast TSA is approximately 1.2 million cubic metres.

A pair of recent studies — one American and one Canadian — has found a disturbing number of ecosystems in North America face collapse unless there’s a significant conservation effort.  B.C. has the second highest number of threatened ecosystems in Canada after Ontario, according to a report earlier this year by a leading Canadian conservation group.  That study, by the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, found this country has 315 globally threatened ecosystems that are ranked by NatureServe as vulnerable to collapse. Of those, 26 are deemed critical, including the Western Red Cedar/Salal Forest ecosystem in B.C. under threat from logging.  …The American report, by NatureServe, analyzed data from more than 1,000 scientists in the U.S. and Canada and found that 40 per cent of animals and 34 per cent of plants in the U.S. are at risk of extinction, while 41 per cent of ecosystems are facing collapse, meaning they won’t be able to sustain wildlife.

A rally in support of old-growth protection will be held at Grizzly Plaza this Saturday (Mar. 4). The rally, hosted by Revelstoke-based group ‘Old Growth Revylution’, will be held in support of a province-wide rally held in Victoria last weekend (Feb. 25). According to Old Growth Revylution, the provincial government’s response to old growth forest protection has been ‘poor’. “Despite recent government announcements for action, progress is slow while logging continues,” said Old Growth Revylution in a press release. “We demand immediate action in the protection of the Inland Temperate Rainforest and more immediate action on the logging of our primary forests across the province.”

PRINCE GEORGE — Liam Parfitt, the owner of Freya Logging, knows the forest industry is in trouble and believes he has a helpful solution. “I think that selective logging is the only way to fix our big clearcuts from, starting in the ‘80s – all our clearcuts are actually full of wood and they can give us the wood we need to keep our mills open and keep our jobs,” said Parfitt, who spoke at the Future of Forestry forum at UNBC. …He refers to pine stands he sees in the forest as a “circle of death,” because they are too dense to support moose populations. If some of those trees are removed, deciduous vegetation will naturally propagate in that space and animal habitat will be restored. …He says Canfor and West Fraser are willing to change adopt thinning operations.

In an auditorium filled with about 100 people, Chuck LeBlanc, president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada Len Shankel Local 9, tried to imbue his speech with optimism about the forestry industry, especially after railing against the closure of Canfor’s pulp mill in Prince George. …The crowd and the speakers, including MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie Mike Morris, policy analyst Ben Parfitt and Mackenzie Mayor Joan Atkinson, had gathered to discuss solutions to the decline of the forestry industry, a sector that once drove economic growth and prosperity in several communities. One by one, speakers took the stage at the event organized by the environmental group Stop at the Spray B.C. to speak about specific areas of the industry that are failing and how they could be fixed.

Additional coverage in MyPGNow, by Darin Bain: Future of Forestry forum organizers hoping to hold more discussions

James Steidle is the co-founder of Stop The Spray BC, a group dedicated to reducing the industrialized use of herbicides to kill the forest’s underbrush, a tool used by major forestry companies to eradicate growth competition for the softwood species they prefer for lumber production. The group also champions the development of hardwood markets, as the herbicides and silviculture practices of forest companies are often at the expense of the deciduous species. It is the hardwood component mixed with the softwood trees that make for a healthy ecosystem and reduce the ferocity of wildfires, according to the group.“The stocking standard is a major factor in our regional moose declines,” said Steidle. “Government biologists won’t admit that, but here is a basic fact.

Adapting B.C.’s forests to climate change is the goal behind trial sites planted in the North Okanagan-Shuswap and throughout the province. In January, the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board received a presentation from Scott King, a registered professional forester with Pacific Woodtech in Golden, about climate-based seed transfer (CBST). In short, King explained this is a climate change adaptation strategy that involves the movement of tree species’ seeds/seedlings to sites that will be most suited to them in predicted future climates.

PRINCE GEORGE — A forum to discuss the future of the forestry industry was held at UNBC on Feb 28. The event was well attended, with over 100 people watching online, to the 350 seat theatre being quite full. Mayor Simon Yu, Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris, Mayor of Mackenzie Joan Atkinson, Chuck LeBlanc from the PPWC, Ben Parfitt, a policy analyst with the CCPA and others all spoke at the event discussing what the future of forestry looks like in British Columbia, but in particular Northern BC, with recent announcements that PG Pulp will be closing in March, to the sawmill in Houston slated to be shut down as well. Ben Parfitt from the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives said that out of all the recent mill closures, the closure in Houston may be the most consequential. At the time when it opened in 2004, the mill in Houston was the world’s largest sawmill.

Panorama Mountain Resort in British Columbia is home to western Canada’s first and only endangered tree: the Whitebark pine. And this resort is at the helm of a new partnership with the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada to save it. Whitebark pine is a hardy, long-lived species of tree that can flourish for centuries. But during the past decade, a non-native fungal disease known as white pine blister rust has been killing the trees at an alarming rate. …In 2021, Panorama permitted the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada to plant 5,000 Whitebark pines within its resort boundaries. And for the past several years, Andrew Nelson, the resort’s Avalanche Risk Manager, has been facilitating access to the resort for scientists and technicians from the Foundation who want to study Whitebark pines, in hopes of identifying individuals naturally resistant to the white pine blister rust, and collecting cones for planting new trees. 

Congratulations to Dan Macmaster, Manager of the West Boundary Community Forest  for being named Forester of the Year by his colleagues in the Association of BC Forest Professionals. We are lucky to have you on the BCCFA board!

• BC Community Forest Association Conference: Kamloops, BC, June 7-9, 2023
• Ministry announces actions to accelerate implementation of Old Growth Strategic Review 
• Congratulations to the Speĺkúmtn Community Forest
• 2023 Indicators Survey – Deadline April 14th  
• The Eniyud Community Forest has a new website

JASPER NATIONAL PARK, AB – Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced plans to move forward on a new caribou conservation breeding program to support southern mountain caribou recovery in Jasper National Park. The program’s goal is to rebuild dwindling caribou populations in Jasper National Park that are too small to recover on their own. As a result of today’s announcement, Parks Canada is taking the first steps toward implementing this first-of-its-kind caribou conservation breeding program. …Efforts to protect caribou and critical habitat for caribou in Jasper National Park are part of a broader effort by federal and provincial governments and Indigenous partners, peoples and communities to support the recovery of caribou across Canada.

Biologist Les Gyug was working for B.C.’s environment ministry when a logging permit application caught his eye. A forestry company planned to clearcut rare old-growth larch stands in the province’s southern interior, set aside decades earlier as seed trees to allow for natural regeneration. “Rather than log them, let’s go look, and see what’s in them,” Gyug recalls saying. He expected to find a suite of forest birds in the scattered 400-year-old western larch stands… Walking through the trees after dawn, binoculars in hand, he heard a mysterious bird drumming in staccato rhythm. “I had never heard this before. And I realized only afterwards, ‘Jeez, that was a Williamson’s sapsucker and it was in an old larch stand!’ ” …“Critical habitat is still being logged,” Gyug tells The Narwhal. “If we keep losing it, [the sapsucker] will never get off the endangered list … And right now, we’re just not doing enough.”

EDMONTON – Alberta’s United Conservative Party government has moved on a proposal to split wildlife management responsibilities in the province, creating a new department of hunting and fishing in the Forestry, Parks and Tourism Ministry. The new branch, according to an internal memo obtained and confirmed by The Canadian Press, will “increase focus and capacity on supporting hunting and fishing as an activity on Crown lands.” The memo says the branch will now govern allocation of fish and wildlife, including sport fishing regulations, hunting tags, trapping licences and human-wildlife conflicts. It leaves population counts, habitat and land use policy, species at risk management and wildlife disease management within Alberta Environment and Protected Areas — splitting work that should be interconnected and taking the province back decades, critics say. Lorne Fitch said the move will make it harder to track and manage the overall health of Alberta’s wilderness.

You’ve probably heard the stories: that through an intricate network of underground fungi, trees send nutrients and warning signals back and forth to one another. In Pulitzer Prize-wining novels, New York Times feature articles, PBS documentaries, and TED talks, there have been ample mentions about the “woodwide web,” or the fungus-mediated connections that supposedly help forests thrive. But that concept may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Every so often in science, a revision is in order. A prevailing idea inflates to inaccurate proportions. A set of experiments is taken out of context. Uncertainty gets ignored in favor of the most interesting explanation. …Through these multiple avenues of misinterpretation, existing research might not actually support the importance of fungal connections between trees for forest health, according to a new analysis. … A sweeping review study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, presents a counter-narrative … of underground fungi in forests. 

Wildland firefighters, supported airtankers and other specialized equipment are ready for the wildfire season ahead, says the Government of Alberta. In a news release issued Monday, the provincial government declared it is prepared for the wildfire season, which runs from March 1 to Oct. 31 in Alberta. “As folks look forward to enjoying Alberta’s wonderful outdoor spaces over the months ahead, we’re focussed on keeping communities safe,” said Todd Loewen, minister of Forestry, Parks and Tourism. “Alberta Wildfire has leading-edge firefighting resources positioned across the province, ready to respond to new wildfires as they arise, and continues to test and implement emerging tools and innovation designed to increase our wildfire management capabilities. It’s important that everyone plays an active role preventing wildfires from starting.”

I read with bemusement the Feb. 16 guest column by a group of largely former, past and ex foresters and politicians parading as “Friends of the Municipal Forest.”  My first reaction: with friends like these, who needs enemies?  Their column represents a desperate last gasp by the old guard to defend logging of our coastal Douglas-fir forest — the rarest forest type in B.C., according to the BC Forests Ministry. A consultant’s report for North Cowican has estimated 141 species at risk.  Today, the signatories to the guest column exceed the number of known old-growth trees in the Municipal Forest Reserve.  Eric Jeklin is among those whose names are attached to the column. …By unanimous vote — including Jeklin — the committee recommended that UBC’s Draft Forest Management Scenario Summary be referred to Council “as presented.”  Will the real Jeklin please stand up?

Canadian music legend Neil Young made a surprise appearance Saturday at an old-growth logging protest rally at the British Columbia legislature. Young played acoustic guitar and harmonica, and sang two songs: “Comes A Time,” which has a chorus about tall trees, and his hit “Heart of Gold.” Young, billed as a “special guest,” was not listed as appearing at the event, where astonished protesters, many dressed as trees and wild animals, cheered wildly and sang along to “Heart of Gold.” …“That’s something I hope our Canadian government and business section will recognize that this has to do with Canada,” he said. “It has to do with the ages, if we are lucky enough to have ages. These trees have lasted so long they deserve Canada’s respect.” Earlier this month, the B.C. government introduced new approaches to protect more old-growth trees from logging. 

Additional coverage in CHEK News: Thousands rally for old growth forests

With forestry, I think we can have our cake and eat it, too. I think we can have thriving wildlife populations, functional forests, and we can have jobs. In other words, we can have a truly sustainable forest industry that supports our communities now and into the future. I’m optimistic this can happen because that’s what we had. Before the supermills and modern chemical plantation forestry, we had a thriving industry that employed thousands more people and consumed a fraction of the timber while leaving cutblocks full of moose. …Not all forestry investment has been beneficial. Much of the investment in the past 20 years has been aimed at eliminating jobs and maximizing corporate profits. The smaller mills have been shut down but it’s worth remembering a lot of them were profitable. Just not profitable enough.