Category Archives: Forestry

Logging of cutblock EW24, behind Sechelt Airport in ts’ukw’um, is on hold until the fire risk posed by dry conditions in the area abates. At a Sept. 13 meeting, the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) board of directors approved awarding a logging and road building contract for the cutblock to Triple Tree Logging. “We are in extreme fire risk conditions so there won’t be anything happening with our planned fall road deactivation [in harvested cutblocks in the Halfmoon Bay area], or EW24 harvesting, until that changes,” SCCF administrator Sara Zieleman stated in an email to Coast Reporter. The wait for significant rainfall also provides additional time for SCCF to secure further direction from the shíshálh Nation Land Management Division on review and acceptance of harvesting plans by the Nation’s technical team, as well as hiwus and council.

VANCOUVER, BC — A provincial policy session at the [Union of BC Municipalities] Convention received an update on old growth deferral areas. Representatives from the Ministry of Forests and the Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship emphasized that calls from local government for greater consultation have been heard. Eamon O’Donoghue, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Forests, advised delegates that “most of the heavy lifting on old growth is to come,” as local governments and First Nations can anticipate much deeper engagement from the Province on the recommendations in the Review. The Ministry of Forests confirmed it will be reaching out to UBCM for guidance on the best process to engage with communities to conduct comprehensive consultation and has hired a consultant to assist with the development of a consultation strategy.

The BC Wildfire Service will be supporting the Alkali Management Ltd, in doing a prescribe burn. The burn will cover 57 hectares in the Esk’etemc Community Forest, in an effort to reduce any wildfire threats. “The burn is forecasted to start as early as tomorrow, Wednesday September 14th.” says Morgan Blois, Fire Information Officer for the Cariboo Fire Centre. “Depending on conditions, it will potentially be taking place over the next few days.” As for the smoke, it may be visible from Williams Lake and surrounding communities, as well as for motorists on Dog Creek Road and Highway 20. The goals for the prescribed burn include reducing the number of shrubs, enhance grassland habitat for wildlife and livestock, and more.

A recent letter from Maple Bay resident Rob Fullerton has raised the “pause” in North Cowichan forests as an election issue. He wants voters to elect a council which will permit the committee to finish its work. He is a member of the committee. He was a member of the group who convinced the present council that the municipal forest was a disaster (guided by five foresters with a “commercial” interest) and required alteration and the always popular “transparency.” This was over three years ago. The result was this review committee who reports irregularly. Their report is always “no progress”. They got into some “partnership” with some forestry people from UBC with no “commercial interest”. They hired a company… to determine what people want. The survey of North Cowichan citizens says we want the long standing forest program back. …All the while the municipal treasury has been depleted by more then $2 million.

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of Yucwmenlúcwu (Caretakers of the Land) on non-replaceable forest licence A89359 in the Okanagan Shuswap Natural Resource District, during the week of Sept. 19, 2022. Auditors will examine whether timber harvesting, roads, silviculture, fire protection and associated planning done between Sept. 1, 2020, and Sept. 23, 2022, met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. The audit area is located near the communities of Salmon Arm, Enderby and Sicamous. The area provides an abundance of outdoor recreation with several provincial parks, such as Enderby Cliffs, Silver Star, and Monashee, as well as the Kingfisher Ecological Reserve. Once the audit work is complete, a report will be prepared, and any party that may be adversely affected by the audit findings will have a chance to respond. The board’s final report and recommendations will then be released to the public and government.

Chetanveer Singh Dhillon

Growing up Sikh in Terrace, Chetanveer Singh Dhillon noticed a gap in the mainstream telling of the city’s history, that he says leaves out his community. He’s looking to fix that with a documentary video called the Sikh History Project. …“Our stories have never been told, it’s been a little bit washed away.” He said there’s an attitude among some in Terrace that Sikhs are new to the community, when that’s not the case, adding that many Sikhs moved to the area around 50 years ago to work in the lumber mills. Dhillon’s project examines Sikh and Punjabi demographics in Terrace through interviews with people from each generation of Terrace Sikhs. “We had a much larger community back in the day before the lumber mill was closed down,” he said. …Dhillon said there was concern the Sikh community would disappear with the closure of Skeena Cellulose in the early 2000s.

BANFF – Fire plays an important role in many ecosystems. However, because of fire suppression throughout most of the 20th century, many forests have changed and become more vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires, insects like the mountain pine beetle, and disease. Parks Canada fire experts say returning fire to the landscape makes for more diverse forests and a greater range of habitat for wildlife like elk, moose, sheep, deer, wolves and bears, and also increases an ecosystem’s resilience to climate change. …In the new management plans for Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks, Parks Canada has a long-term goal of restoring 50 per cent of the historic fire cycle by 2030 through prescribed fires and managing certain wildfires that are low-risk to communities. Based on long-term fire cycles, that means at least 1,400 hectares per year in Banff National Park.

Two years into a three-year process to defer the logging of some of B.C.’s grandest trees in its most ecologically diverse wilderness so that forestry stewardship could undergo a vast transformation, First Nations and conservationists are decrying a lack of progress and transparency. “Clearcutting of irreplaceable, endangered old growth continues, even in the most-at-risk stands,” said Jens Wieting with Sierra Club B.C. as part of a report card issued by four conservation groups on Thursday. It gave failing grades to the province, especially over meeting timelines and issuing public updates. …CBC News contacted three logging companies named in the Stand.earth report for logging activities in proposed deferred areas. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. said its logging operation “are conducted in accordance with government permitting and First Nations consultation and approvals.” Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd. directed inquiries to the province, while Canfor Corporation did not reply in time for publication.

Two years after pledging to take a new approach to the management of old-growth forests, the BC government is failing to make the grade, environmental groups say. The province promised to act on 14 recommendations in an independent old-growth strategic review to protect the most at-risk big tree ecosystems while transforming forestry over a three-year period. But the NDP government continues to lag on its most urgent and important commitments, and hasn’t completed any recommendations most of the way, a report card issued by the Wilderness Committee, Sierra Club BC, Stand.earth and Ancient Forest Alliance suggests. …“There are huge questions that old-growth nerds like us don’t have the answers to, much less the general public,” said Torrance Coste for the Wilderness Committee. “And one of the key recommendations of the strategic review was to improve public information and transparency.”