Region Archives: Canada

Diane Nicholls

BC’s Chief Forester, Diane Nicholls, has released new Annual Allowable Cut levels for the Prince George Timber Supply area (TSA) and, not surprisingly, the limits will decrease. …In recent years, the AAC was increased to accommodate salvage of wood destroyed by the Mountain Pine Beetle. That has now come to an end. The reductions represent a 33% reduction in the Prince George TSA and that should not be surprising to anyone. “Now we’ve got a situation where the AAC’s have to drop to a recovery level so it gives our forests a chance to recover. And that drop is going to last for a full 50 to 70 years, says Marleen Morris of the Community Development Institute at UNBC.

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will examine the activities of Lakeside Pacific Forest Products Ltd. (Lakeside) on forest licence A19207, near Harrison Lake, during the week of Oct. 16, 2017. Auditors will examine whether harvesting, roads, silviculture, fire protection and associated planning, carried out between October 2015 and October 2017, met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. Lakeside’s forestry operations are located on the east and west sides of Harrison Lake, about 25 kilometres north of Harrison Hot Springs, in the Chilliwack Resource District.

The Whitecourt region experienced a largely uneventful fire season this year thanks to wet weather, strong enforcement and vigilant residents, according to Alberta Wildfire. Shannon Stambaugh, a wildfire information officer with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, said the area had 28 wildfires that burned 11.43 hectares with the largest singular fire being eight hectares in size. This was below the five-year average of 58 wildfires burning 184.06 hectares. “It was a quieter year for the Whitecourt Forest Area,” Stambaugh said. “No communities were threatened by any of these wildfires. Our firefighters were always busy, helping out around the province or staying in the Forest Area to carry out normal duties.” This year was wetter in the spring compared to previous years, Stambaugh said, adding that the region typically sees many wildfires between March and May.

Doug Donaldson

VANCOUVER – BC’s new Forests Minister says the province has nearly paid back everyone who gave goods and services during this unprecedented fire season. More than 800 contractors along with businesses gave everything from food to hungry families and equipment to help fight the fires, but many waited months to be paid back. Doug Donaldson says 50 extra staff were brought in and have nearly caught up on the backlog. “In one weekend, we managed to process 1,100 invoices, so some of the invoices are still coming in and we’re dealing with those, but our primary focus is to get people who worked on the fires paid.” Donaldson says it was necessary to spend more than $548 million in total this fire season. “An unprecedented figure,” he adds. “The resources will be there to protect public safety and people’s structures and that’s the way that professionals and the BC Wildfire Service do their job.” That’s nearly nine times the budget of $63 million.

It’s all go for the BC Forest Discovery Centre’s $1.5 million Forests Forever project. The Centre invited its backers and board members to be there Thursday, Oct. 5 to launch the fundraising to get all the work done by next spring. The plan, according to Centre manager Chris Gale is to build a state-of-the-art exhibit designed to educate the public about modern innovation in forestry on the B.C. coast. Western Forest Products (WFP), TimberWest and the Truck Loggers Association (TLA) are the project’s first major sponsors. Western announced Thursday that it is donating $250,000 to the project. TimberWest has put in $150,000 and the TLA has contributed $75,000.

Christine Gelowitz, RPF

The recent announcement from Environment Minister George Heyman setting the terms of reference for the government’s review of professional reliance in the natural resource sector brings some much-needed clarity to an item that was promised by both the NDP and Green Party during the election. As a professional regulator in the forest sector, the Association of B.C. Forest Professionals is supportive of ensuring professional reliance serves the needs of British Columbians and we look forward to working with Minister Heyman to achieve that end. Our 5,400 registered foresters live and work in communities across the province and they know both personally and professionally the importance of having an effective management regime safeguarding our forest ecosystem resources and the values they provide for British Columbians.

Re: “The changing face of B.C. forest fires,” Oct. 8. Nick Raeside provided a good article on the challenges the B.C. Forest Service deals with each fire season. However, he gives the impression that anyone can join the Forest Service provided they know how to chop wood, and use a shovel or a garden hose. As a retired senior procurement officer who oversaw the fire-crew services contracts for the B.C. Forest Service, I can tell you that skill-set requirements today are much more stringent than those in the past. Successful contractors are required to ensure that all personnel meet strict safety requirements, including specialized training such as Level One Incident Command System training. He also failed to mention the long hours and harsh conditions under which fire crews work. This is no nine-to-five job. It’s typically 12- to 14-hour days in hot, dry, smoky conditions that would make most of us wither in a few hours.

Management for more than 6,000 acres of private forest land on Texada Island involved in a recent $19.4-million land deal will not change due to the sale. Texada Island Forest Reserve owned the land near Gillies Bay for several decades and hired Monticola Forestry in 1990 to manage and implement a long-term, forest-management plan for the property, said Monticola co-owner Maureen Muenter. …Kootenay-based Selkirk Mountain Forest purchased the 6,327 acres, just under one per cent of Texada’s total land mass, for $19,379,000 on September 15. . …Powell River Regional District Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said she felt the purchase was “good news” for the island, particularly if Selkirk Mountain Forest is willing to follow the same forestry practices as the previous owner. “Texada Island Forest Reserve set a high standard for logging practices on Texada in stewarding the land for the long term,” said McCormick.

The following is a quote from the 1957 B.C. Forest Service Handbook on Forest Fire Suppression: “Small fires of up to 200 or 300 acres may be controlled on what is termed a one work-period attempt.” … ideally, it meant one day. These words were written at a time when the B.C. Forest Service was a well-staffed, efficient organization, working without many of the resources available today. Sixty years later … there have been many technological advances. …But other changes have been less positive. Global warming has led to the spread of forest pests such as the mountain pine beetle due to winters being too mild to hold them in check. Large areas of insect-killed standing timber can pose a high wildfire risk to communities in the B.C. Interior. …In the future, it’s likely the fire season will start earlier and end later. 

About this time last year, the Royals were flying over the Salish Sea to Victoria …to endorse the Great Bear Rainforest and announce the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy — uniting 53 Commonwealth members in conserving forests for future generations. They recognized the importance of protecting 85 per cent of the forest and 70 per cent of the old growth. And they acted to protect cultural and natural heritage, freshwater, ecosystems and wildlife habitat. …But what about the nine million Canadians and Americans who will be living in and around the Salish Sea by 2025? …Maybe this fall, when the Oceans Protection Act, Fisheries Act and Canada’s heritage are deliberated and debated in the House of Commons, we should ask our elected representatives about their priorities. Why not the Salish Sea?

Holding a spoon heaped with rich black Haida Gwaii soil, Dr. Sue Grayston asked the Ḵay Centre crowd: about how many things live inside? …A UBC professor who holds a Canada Research Chair in microbial soil ecology, Sue Grayston is leading a study of Haida Gwaii soils that is the flip-side, underground version of a 20-year project by Dr. Jean-Louis Martin. The key question for both is, what are invasive deer doing to Haida Gwaii forests? Aboveground, Martin’s team used plant enclosures and sweep-net surveys to track what most islanders can see from walking Haida Gwaii’s many open, moss-carpeted woods. Uncontrolled deer will eventually mow down most western red cedar, shrubs, and wildflowers. For many creatures, that causes a cascade of problems.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — With growing momentum and urgency behind calls for forest conservation, the diverse membership of the Forest Stewardship Council meets this week in its General Assembly. Founded in 1994 by forward-thinking NGOs and companies, the Forest Stewardship Council uses markets to stop deforestation and forest degradation. Today it is the world’s most trusted forest certification system, safeguarding nearly 500 million acres of forestland, with 32,000 companies in 120 countries marketing FSC-certified products. “We are seeing companies step up to help protect forests, even as we all use forest products every day,” said Corey Brinkema, president of the Forest Stewardship Council US. “This momentum comes not a moment too soon, as climate change puts the need for forest conservation front and center,” he added.

While many people and communities suffered dearly from the wildfires that ripped through B.C. this summer, on Thanksgiving, there was also a sense of gratitude for some. On a holiday edition of Daybreak South, voices from B.C.’s Interior said the adversity gave affected communities a stronger bond than they had before. …Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb said the damage from the 2017 wildfire season will be long term. The entire city was evacuated. Some residents found jobs elsewhere and won’t come back. Thousands of hectares of forest the logging community relies on was engulfed and won’t grow back for generations. But, Cobb said, the fires gave the community a new perspective. …”Unfortunately, it takes a disaster to do that.”