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Mother Nature is the expert on growing forests, but sometimes she needs a helping hand. This hand is especially helpful when something disrupts her well-honed process in the first place. Such is the case with the forestry plantations in qax mot and the effort to restore these areas by the Comox Valley Land Trust (CVLT). Located at the Morrison Creek headwaters up Lake Trail Rd., the qax mot Conservation Area consists of 22 hectares of riparian forests and forestry plantations. …About 9 per cent of qax mot consists of forestry plantations. While it might seem like planting trees is always a good idea, the way the Douglas fir plantations were installed prohibit the natural regenerative cycle essential to a healthy forest. The trees were planted too closely, making it nearly impossible for light to break through the canopy, leaving the forest floor virtually barren of the undergrowth species we associate with a thriving West Coast forest.

In this second in a series of stories, Jim Stirling looks at the issues that have brought the B.C. forest industry to a crisis point, where many community-supporting sawmills have been forced to shut down, and thousands of well-paying jobs in towns and cities across B.C. have vanished. Jim looks at how the province’s associations have recently banded together, to better communicate with a seemingly deaf-to-the-forest industry NDP government. …Today, forestry associations [are] speaking out as one. And when that happens, it sounds a different set of political alarm bells for elected representatives. They start paying attention. … The timing is right for the launch of “Forestry is a Solution”. …The initiative provides an opportunity for members of the public to voice their opinion on the forest industry’s contributions to B.C. and the economy. …The campaign encourages the public to show their support for the forest sector by signing a petition to be forwarded to provincial decision makers.

A motion to contact the province and urge it to review and strengthen its forestry policies, including those governing raw-log exports, failed in a 4-3 vote at North Cowichan’s council meeting on April 15. The motion by Coun. Christopher Justice, if it passed, was intended to help improve fibre availability for domestic processing, support value-added wood manufacturing, and sustain forestry employment on Vancouver Island. A number of delegations spoke to council on the issue at the meeting. Arnold Bercov, a former president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada, spoke in favour of council supporting Justice’s motion. …Brian Bull, a long-time worker at the WFP’s curtailed Chemainus sawmill, said if the motion passes, it would create a conversation about the issue at a time when many forest companies and the province don’t want to have that conversation. …Mosaic Forest Management’s Karen Brandt and Nick Broekhuizen also spoke on the issue.

On a flat stretch of burned ground southwest of Port Alberni … close to 100 volunteers help to re-establish a thriving forest. Nearly 3,600 hectares burned during an aggressive wildfire that started on Aug. 11, 2025 and reached within nine kilometres of city limits. A community planting event held on April 16 brought together Mosaic Forest Management staff volunteers, students from the Alberni Valley Land Based Learning class, members of the Port Alberni Scouts, and their teachers, leaders and caregivers to plant seedlings in the footprint of the 2025 Mount Underwood wildfire — a human-caused fire that burned second growth and old growth forests within an area nearly nine times the size of Stanley Park. The seeds for the seedlings were sourced from Mosaic’s Mount Newton seed orchard in Saanich, a Mosaic spokesperson said, and selected for their climate resilience and ability to thrive in the sun-exposed conditions left behind by the fire.

Randall Van Wagner

Wildfire season is upon us, and Manitobans are hoping for a reprieve from 2025, which was deemed the one most devastating in the province’s history. As the severity of wildfires increases, so too does the importance of reforestation and tree planting. “Wildfires are more prevalent, and they’re more powerful, and part of the reason is the buildup of fuel. Diseases, shorter and milder winters, less snowpack and less moisture in the spring, are contributing factors making for a difficult situation,” said Randall Van Wagner, the head of national greening program, Tree Canada. Van Wagner says while many areas regenerate on their own, more intense fires like what we saw last year cause more depth of burn in the soil, making it difficult for trees to regenerate. The organization estimates they’ve planted between 500,000 and one million trees in the past five years in Manitoba.

Two men were arrested Friday after a protest blocked access to a Forest Service road near Nelway, preventing a contractor from reaching a worksite. Salmo RCMP responded on April 24 to a demonstration where a small group of people had obstructed the road in opposition to logging activity in the area. The protest is connected to ongoing efforts by the Rosebud Community Watershed Protection Group, which has been advocating for stronger protections in the Rosebud and Lomond Creek watersheds. …Police said officers attempted to negotiate with the group, but the demonstrators refused to leave. Two men were arrested as a result. During the arrest, an officer was allegedly struck in the face by one of the men. A 75-year-old Nelway man was subsequently arrested for assaulting a police officer with a weapon and obstruction, while a 37-year-old man, also from Nelway, was arrested for mischief and obstruction.

Haida Gwaii, BC – As the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) marks its 10th anniversary, the Society is reflecting on the investments it has made to support climate change mitigation across the province. Notably, with support from FESBC, communities like Haida Gwaii continue to enhance the resilience of their forests in the face of a changing climate. This work often includes supporting transportation costs so that uneconomic, low-value fibre is transported to local secondary manufacturing facilities rather than burned on site in slash piles following harvesting operations or post-wildfire salvage. …“As we mark ten years of FESBC, what stands out the most is the tangible impact these projects are having on the ground, the people behind the work, and the role they play in addressing climate change,” said Jason Fisher, RPF, Executive Director, FESBC.

The Island has some of B.C.’s most well-known karst features — such as caves, sinkholes and underground rivers — but they’re threatened by logging. Around five years ago, Mark Worthing — heard a company was planning to log a huge drainage of ­old-growth forest and watershed 350 kilometres north of Victoria, with the only access point being a single road believed to have a karst cave underneath. Worthing, an old-growth forest campaigner [intended to] prove the cave stretched beneath the road, the destructive heavy logging machinery would not be allowed to pass through, and the old growth and watershed would be saved. …While researcher Jenica Ng-Cornish says B.C. has a comprehensively better karst plan than other jurisdictions, it falls short when put into practice. The forestry guidelines are based on aging documents: the 2002 Forest and Range Practices Act and 2003 Karst Management Handbook. There are also six Government Actions Regulation orders on karst protections.

Harrison Hot Springs leaders may be taking their forestry-related concerns right to the provincial government. During Monday’s council meeting, Harrison Hot Springs council voted 1-4 to defeat a motion from Coun. Mark Schweinbenz to direct village staff to speak with a number of entities concerning large-scale, clear-cut forestry and its effects on the community. Schweinbenz was the sole assenting vote. “Every year, we get a letter from (B.C. Timber Sales), and it’s confusing and obfuscates what is really going on,” Schweinbenz said. “I don’t think we have any real input and I think the citizens of Harrison Hot Springs are frustrated by that. I think that should change.” …Instead of engaging with multiple agencies such as the B.C. Timber Sales Chilliwack Forest District, local First Nations leaders and neighbouring communities, council will consider requesting a meeting with the Minister of Forests at the 2026 UBCM Conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre in September.