Category Archives: Forestry

Beware of false information spread by a few pro-logging advocates. …It’s coming from a loud few who believe in continued logging of North Cowichan’s Municipal Forest Reserve… the most imperilled forest landscape in B.C. …Among the more exaggerated statements is the suggestion that outside environmental organizations and their money are flowing in to help stop clearcutting of the reserve. …Both conservation scenarios are estimated to bring in millions of dollars more than logging revenue over 30 years thanks to carbon credits for leaving the forest standing. …the social media claims by the pro-logging camp seem to get stranger by the day. …The effort to end logging in the forest reserve is also not part of a greater campaign against logging in general. It is simply based on the need to protect the at-risk forest in our backyard, and the potential to receive revenue from an alternative source.

A University of Victoria instructor has been sentenced to 70 hours of community service for his role in protesting old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek watershed on southwestern Vancouver Island. Keith Cherry, 34, admitted to violating a 2021 court injunction that was imposed to prevent protesters from blockading logging operations in the watershed, according to a B.C. Supreme Court decision issued last month but only published online Thursday. In his reasons for the sentencing, Justice Douglas Thompson gave consideration to evidence that Cherry lost more than $1,600 in camping gear that was destroyed during his arrest. According to the court, Cherry had chained his arm inside a large log that was laid across a logging road on Sept. 13, 2021. …The judge credited the destruction of Cherry’s personal property as a “collateral consequence” that warranted reducing his initial sentencing consideration from 100 hours of community service to 70 hours.

Nanaimo, BC — Mosaic Forest Management announced today that it has renewed its access agreement with Mount Washington Alpine Resort, extending the partnership that began in 2016 between the two organizations. The agreement offers Mount Washington access to roads, Nordic trails, and outback areas on Mosaic’s private forest lands. “Our relationship with Mount Washington is an exemplary collaboration on access to Mosaic’s forest lands,” said Molly Hudson, Director of Sustainability at Mosaic. “Mount Washington consistently demonstrates a track record of responsible use and shares Mosaic’s focus on public safety and protecting the environmental values associated with our working forest.”

Joe Gilchrist

When Skeetchestn fire keeper Joe Gilchrist was young… he spent hours in front of the flickering flames, learning how they grew and moved as the fire slowly turned logs to ash. …Decades later, Gilchrist is on a mission to make the regenerative burning practices his grandfather taught him commonplace. At stake is an important practice for culture, food security and the future of the province’s forests. Forest fires have slammed B.C. in recent years, burning on average 348,000 hectares each year. …The problem is set to get worse as the climate crisis deepens, with experts predicting Western Canada will see up to 50 per cent more days with the dry, windy conditions that drive wildfires. …”In the (B.C.) Interior, it’s a fire-inclusive landscape,” Gilchrist explained. “It needs fire … and if fire isn’t put there, you start seeing the catastrophic fires like you’re seeing now.” 

Jason Fisher

Kaizen is an approach to continuous improvement that is based on the seemingly simple processes of setting standards, committing to those standards, and then improving on them. …The default approach to forest management, even integrated resource management, has been to manage land for certain attributes within a defined area. …But what if there was a better way? …The traditional ecological knowledge held by Indigenous communities, more accurately known as Indigenous Science, can be very beneficial to forestry businesses… Indigenous Science comes from studying the land and making informed decisions based on a body of knowledge accumulated through experimentation and observation. It is a living process. …To meet current challenges and expectations those entrusted with forest management are uniquely positioned to improve the resilience of ecosystem services over time through active management. The tools, knowledge, and practices are out there. Let’s celebrate and learn from those who bring them together to continuously improve forest practices and ecosystems.

In the early 1990s, the pine forests of British Columbia faced a disastrous beetle infestation. The pests, proliferating because of the higher temperatures brought by climate change, were boring through rough outer bark and burrowing through the trees’ living cambium layer. Within weeks the infested trees’ sapwood was stained blue by an associated fungal infection; soon the tree was dead, and the forest turned the scabbed, dull red of drying blood.  While the forests died, rural logging and mill towns began to suffer, too. Cambium Blue, B.C. author Maureen Brownlee’s second novel, is set in one of those towns, the fictional Beauty Creek. Brownlee, whose well-received first book, 2013’s Loggers’ Daughters, was also set in rural B.C., has worked as a journalist in a small B.C. town not unlike the hard-scrabble towns that provide the settings for her stories.

Cliff Manning

Burns Lake professional forester Cliff Manning has been applying his lifetime’s worth of accrued industry knowledge to his own personal woodlot, and that especially applies to his deep understanding of wildfire.  After decades of forestry management for others (he was instrumental in starting the Burns Lake Community Forest, now a model for the province), plus silviculture and wildfire endeavours, he now focuses on his own 572-hectare Guyishton Woodlot.  …He paid special attention to mitigating forest fires. His neighbours appreciate this and his peers applaud it, to the point Manning was just named the northern BC winner of this year’s Minister’s Award for Innovation and Excellence in Woodlot Management. …“Diversity in our forest licenses, and woodlots are just small-scale licenses, is a good thing,” Manning said. “The point of these awards is to encourage licensees to plant crops that will be sustainable.” 

North Cowichan will extend the deadline for people to fill out its forest engagement survey from Dec. 31 to Jan. 31, council decided at its meeting on Dec. 21.  The unanimous decision was made after council received a letter stating that a lot people were not focused on the future of North Cowichan’s 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve during the Christmas season.  Coun. Tek Manhas made the motion to extend the deadline, saying that the letter writer is absolutely correct.  He said North Cowichan rushed through the development of its official community plan that was adopted earlier in 2022 during the summer months.  …The public is being asked to consider four options for the management of North Cowichan’s municipal forest reserve which were developed with input received last year in round one of the public engagement process to help determine the future management of the forest reserve, as part of the ongoing review of the MFR.  

Additional coverage in the Cowichan Valley Citizen, letter by Larry Pynn: North Cowichan won’t identify citizen who successfully sought forest consult extension

An investigation report released looks at how well government is investigating, deciding compliance and recovering costs from those responsible for causing wildfires in B.C.  The investigation found government has a well-defined and consistent process. Most decisions are appropriate, but there are some opportunities for improvement.  Approximately half of all wildfires in B.C. are caused by people, and in the past decade, government has spent approximately $2.7 billion on wildfire suppression.  Government has the ability to recover costs related to human-caused wildfires. If government suspects that a person or company has caused a wildfire or contravened the Wildfire Act, it conducts an investigation, offers a hearing and determines whether they were responsible. …“We are pleased to see that enforcement in these cases is generally appropriate,” said Rick Monchak a Forest Practices Board member. “We also note that government has already addressed a couple of the issues that came up in our review.”

Cattle producers in foothill country in southwestern Alberta are being asked to look out for — and help protect — the iconic but endangered limber pine. “The rugged, twisted trees usually grow on dry, rocky ridges and are thought to be some of the oldest trees in Canada,” the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada said in a release. “They grow very slowly, taking about 50 years to begin reproducing. Sadly, we are at risk of losing two-thirds of all limber pine trees in the next 100 years, including nearly 90 per cent of healthy limber pines here in Alberta.” The organization says white pine blister rust is the greatest threat, which is caused by a fungus, and is “fatal to all except rare naturally resistant trees.” Mountain pine beetles have also taken their toll, as have fire suppression measures that have caused fuel loads to build up and produce more intense wildfires that kill trees “that might have survived light surface fires.”