Region Archives: Canada

It may seem like fires are increasing, but for mule deer populations it’s not enough to create the habitat they need. According to the BC Wildlife Federation, the reason why mule deer are moving into urban environments is the lack of wildfire in the past several decades, said director Jesse Zeman, of the fish and wildlife restoration program with the BC Wildlife Federation. Mule deer are used to adapting to the natural wildfire patterns that occur every 10 to 40 years, said Zeman. With the regrowth in Okanagan Mountain Park since the 2003 fire, the deer are in search of a new food source and have moved into town. “Generally speaking habitat quality is going down, especially in Kelowna,” he said.

…This year, B.C. saw a staggering amount — as much as a thousand pounds per day — of huckleberries commercially picked from the forests of the Kootenays, particularly the East Kootenays. This amount may not be a sustainable rate of harvest when thinking about the forest as an ecosystem that feeds itself. Arguably, berries in the forest are more valuable to the wildlife that live there than to us. Bears play an important role in the ecosystem and are intricately intertwined with many life processes. Though they are large, 85 per cent of a black bear’s diet is plant-based. Food is important to all animals but for bears, one season is critical to their survival.

To Ross Muirhead of Elphinstone Logging Focus (“A rational response,” Letters, Nov. 10): It seems to me self evident that the reason our Forest District has not established Ungulate Winter Ranges for elk on the Sunshine Coast is that we do not have the “severe winter conditions” in which “a population can die off.” Our climate is considerably milder than the Kootenays or North Central Vancouver Island where such ranges have been established. The 2004 Provincial Order you have referenced only says winter ranges may be required, so it is not unreasonable that forestry and wildlife officials have not prioritized the studies you referenced for this more temperate area. … if you have concerns about the elk, please take them up with the relevant provincial authorities. 

VICTORIA – The new allowable annual cut (AAC) for the Arrow Timber Supply Area (TSA) in the southeastern part of British Columbia is being slightly reduced to 500,000 cubic metres, chief forester Diane Nicholls announced today. “After consulting with First Nations and looking at all available information on timber and non-timber resources in the TSA, I am satisfied the harvest level will accommodate objectives for all forest resources over the next 10 years and, at the same time, support social and economic goals in the area,” said Nicholls. The chief forester’s determination takes into consideration winter range for ungulates, including mule deer, white tailed deer, rocky mountain elk and moose. Grizzly bear populations are protected through wildlife habitat areas.

An audit of B.C.’s Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy has found poor co-operation and communication between the provincial ministries of the Environment and Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, as well as a lack of follow-through from the government. In a report issued last week, the Office of the Auditor General said it expected “that these two ministries would be managing B.C.’s grizzly bear populations co-operatively and effectively. In establishing and defining the roles of these two ministries, however, government created an unclear organizational structure for wildlife management. This makes it difficult for MoE to deliver on its mandate to provide leadership in pursuit of healthy grizzly bear populations.” The report continued, “While government has undertaken activities to conserve grizzly bears, some of their commitments have gone unfulfilled.

Sally Aitken

British Columbia’s forestry industry has historically been a male-dominated field but the gender balance has recently started to tip as more women occupy leadership positions and complete post-secondary studies in one of the province’s key industries.

Peter Trower

Peter Trower spent much of his youth working in logging camps. When he saved enough money, he’d come to Vancouver, blow it, then go back. It’s a standard tale of the B.C. woods from the 1950s and ‘60s. But Trower wasn’t a regular logger — he was a writer and artist. When he started publishing poetry and prose in the late ‘60s, he turned his experiences in the bush into subject matter for his work. He drew acclaim as an authentic voice from the woods, a true B.C. original — the logger poet. Trower died Nov. 10 at Lion’s Gate Hospital in North Vancouver after suffering from Alzheimer’s for a couple of years. He was 87, which is nothing short of remarkable, given his dissolute lifestyle. …“He got the (George) Woodcock Award (in 2002), and the Chalmers Award for his final collection of poetry.

Lake Cowichan: A fatal logging truck accident occurred on Wednesday morning involving an employee of a contractor working for TimberWest near the Honeymoon Bay operations adjacent Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island. “We express our deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues affected by this tragic accident. A fatality within our forest community deeply impacts all of us,” said Jeff Zweig president and CEO of TimberWest. “We are working closely with the RCMP, WorkSafe and our contractor on the investigation.” TimberWest has lent its full support to authorities in the ongoing investigation.

BC coastal communities dependent on wood fibre are stepping up their advocacy for changes to provincial forestry practices that will help keep region’s mills operating, according to City of Powell River mayor Dave Formosa. Formosa addressed city council during its November 2 meeting and referred to a meeting of mayors and senior officials from BC Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations that was held in Victoria on October 30. “It was quite a meeting,” said Formosa. “Basically, we talked about the urgency for fibre in the industry.” Five mayors from Vancouver Island and Sunshine Coast communities, along representatives from first nations and industry, met with the government officials to talk about changes that could implemented to improve the amount of wood fibre that is available for sawmills and pulp and paper operations.

A driver of a logging truck that veered off a road west of Lake Cowichan and plunged into water has died, an employer confirms. TimberWest said the fatal accident involved an employee of a contractor working for the company near its Honeymoon Bay operation. …The Ministry of Environment confirmed that the single logging truck was two kilometres past the Nixon River Bridge when it veered off the road into standing water. The truck was reportedly submerged, according to the ministry. …The ministry said the truck belongs to a sub-contractor for Caatza Logging. 

Les Leyne

There’s a brief window ahead for loggers to go into forests ravaged by fire last summer and extract what they can. The opportunity lasts only until scorched timber starts to rot, a few short years, at best. More than a million hectares of forest were burned this year — almost 10 times the average for wildfire seasons — so it’s a huge area of opportunity, but it will be economically viable only for a relatively brief time.  Forests Minister Doug Donaldson has been pushed in the legislature by B.C. Liberal critics to do what he can to expedite the salvage job….After touring B.C. to get input on what should be in next February’s budget, the finance committee released a report that takes special note of the wildfires’ impact. … It highlighted two recommendations — increase funding for forest management generally, and “incentivize the remediation and salvage of burnt timber.”

Carla Qualtrough

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) will receive close to $1.5 million in federal funding to support the standardization of first response teams, Minister of Public Services and Procurement Carla Qualtrough announced Tuesday afternoon. “This project will provide the tools and training our search and rescue agencies need to better work together when they respond to fires anywhere in Canada,” Qualtrough said, speaking on behalf of Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale. The CIFFC is responsible for coordinating wildland fire-control services for all of the provinces, territories and the federal fire management agencies. It also often coordinates the sharing of resources with the United States and other countries.

Lori Daniels

The Province of British Columbia apparently knew what to do to lessen the intensity of wildfires by 2017. The reports they’d commissioned in 2003, after the catastrophic Kelowna wildfires, were explicit, but the recommendations were costly….The government followed the suggestions, but only on about a tenth of the area in B.C. which the report had recommended should receive fire-prevention treatment. Now, B.C.’s forests minister Doug Donaldson is determined to do better, he told National Observer in an interview last week. But with a budget of $140 million to spend over the next three years on fire prevention in the province, some say the money won’t be enough to protect B.C’s communities from the next big burn. Lori Daniels, a forest ecology professor at the University of British Columbia, is one of those who is skeptical the money will be close to enough.

A change-up in the bait and spacing of trees used to capture mountain pine beetle could help to reduce the pest’s destructive path across forests in Western Canada. Researchers at the University of Alberta (UofA) discovered they could catch more of the beetles by tweaking existing bait and altering the spacing of trees baited to catch them.  …While there are two types of chemicals that can be used in bait to attract beetles to a tree, only one type is typically used in bait. But Klutsch’s research doubled up, including both types of chemical in the bait.But Klutsch’s research doubled up, including both types of chemical in the bait. “We added both (chemicals) along with the mountain pine beetle pheromone, and that led to greater catches of mountain pine beetle,” Klutsch said.