Category Archives: Forestry

There is a gratifying proposal by Bob Brash of the Truck Loggers Association of BC in a recent issue of the Lake Cowichan Gazette. He requests that the B.C. government organize a meeting between all stakeholders – I assume including reserves, logging-related businesses, government, Grand Chief Stewart Philip and the Union of Indian Chiefs of BC, involved advocacy organizations and forest defenders. …Let’s encourage the government to organize a meeting, keeping in mind that [Trudeau’s] pledge of $50 million [to protect old-growth forests] could go a long way towards paying off Teal Jones’ Fairy Creek area logging contract, and help with conservation financing. The loggers themselves are acknowledging shifting to second-growth harvesting, of trees planted for that purpose over the decades, and that mill owners will need to retool accordingly.

John Horgan pushed back this week against a celebrity-led call for him to curb old-growth logging, never mind that one of the leaders was a legend for Star Trek fans like the premier. …“Horgan should listen to one of his apparent heroes and go where no premier has gone before,” said Torrance Coste, for the Wilderness Committee. …Horgan proceeded to set the record straight, as he sees it, regarding last year’s strategic review. …Then came the shot at Shatner and the other signatories. …“It’s pretty easy to say yeah, put my name in the paper. …I’m hopeful that some of the more well-financed people …will put some money on the table.” …One of the authors of the strategic review, professional forester Garry Merkel, has warned about the high costs associated with a total ban on old growth logging in B.C. …the cost of buying timber cutting rights, compensating First Nations, and absorbing a major hit to jobs and the forest economy.

The issue that most clearly shows a fundamental difference between the current version of an NDP government and the 1990s version of an NDP government comes to the front of the legislature every Wednesday afternoon. …When the legislature resumed sitting last week, a crowd of about 125 people protesting the same logging blocked all but one of the entrances to the legislature itself. It was essentially a non-event. …This is all in stark contrast to the environmentalists protesting logging practices under the NDP government of the 1990s. The so-called “war of the woods” in Clayoquot Sound. …The NDP government back then was constantly on the defensive when it came to fighting with the environmental movement. This is simply not happening today. …Unlike its 1990s predecessor, the NDP government has put First Nations’ rights at the top of its priority list, well above any well-funded environmental protest campaign.

Sakaw Askiy Management is seeking feedback on the Forest Operating Plan being developed for the Prince Albert Timber Supply Area. The Operating Plan focuses in detail on proposed harvesting and road construction activities for 2022. Many more years’ worth of harvesting are also shown as future areas, for informational purposes and to initiate discussion. …General Manager Diane Roddy said public engagement at this point in the plan developmental stage is crucial. …“This long-term plan drives what happens on the ground in the Operating Plans”, Roddy stated. It is available from the home page of Sakaw’s website by clicking on the ‘Forest Management Plan” link. Annual performance reports can also be found there. These reports allow Sakâw, the provincial government and the public to assess how the big picture plan for this forest area is being implemented and whether expected outcomes for the forest are being achieved. 

A ceremony held at the Townsite mill site on October 1, attended by Tla’amin Nation representatives, mill staff and community leaders, was an important exercise in relationship building. “The ceremony that took place was very emotional, leading up to the burning ceremony,” said Tla’amin hegus John Hackett. “I did some research. What I found made my heart drop. Tis’kwat [pronounced Tees-kwat], in translation, is big river. Tis’kwat is the original village site of Tla’amin. It is very clear why Tla’amin picked Tis’kwat.” Hackett said the river holds rich spawning ground for pacific salmon that feeds healthy, diverse wildlife. …Krista Cuddy, general manager of the local mill …said the burning ceremony was definitely in the spirit of reconciliation. “It was a great honour that we were actually able to facilitate access for the Tla’amin Nation and give the ability to honour their ancestors,” said Cuddy. “It was very special.”

Jonathan Smyth

Maple Ridge is home to an award-winning woodlot. The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) Forest Society, led by instructor Jonathan Smyth, is being recognized by the province with the 2020 Minister’s Award for Innovation and Excellence in Woodlot Management for the Coast area. Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, said, “the dedication and enthusiasm for embracing new sustainable forestry practices demonstrated by lead instructor Jonathan Smyth will ensure our province’s forests will benefit future generations.” …The BCIT Forest Society holds a woodlot licence in the 28000 block of Dewdney Trunk Road, which it operates as a non-profit society. It is 275 hectares of Crown land. All proceeds are used for bursaries and scholarships to educate forestry students, including the Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations. …Smyth is dedicated to continuously researching new approaches to forest management to educate the province’s future forest workers. 

The Wild Sheep Society of BC has released a survey regarding the province’s proposal for a Limited Entry Hunt (LEH) bighorn sheep season in the Kootenay Boundary Region (Region 4). The Ministry of Forest (FLNRORD) recently developed a regional bighorn sheep management plan for Region 4. According to the Wild Sheep Society of BC, the management plan evaluated population status, assessed threats and identified strategies to conserve and enhance populations. One of the outcomes of this management plan was a region-wide Limited Entry Hunting (LEH) on bighorn sheep, determined to be the most likely to meet the harvest management objectives in the plan. Limited Entry Hunting gives wildlife managers the ability to more closely control the number of hunters that can hunt a species in a specific area, during a specific time. LEH draws are random and there’s no guarantee of success.

Kathy Lewis

A University of Northern British Columbia professor has been recognized by the Canadian Institute of Forestry. The CIF granted Dr. Kathy Lewis its Canadian Forestry Scientific Achievement Award last week. The award recognizes those who have made “innovative and outstanding achievements in forestry research in Canada.” In a statement issued by UNBC, Lewis said she not only felt honoured to be recognized by the CIF but to have been nominated for the award by her colleagues. Ed Morrice, who recently retired from a career as an instructor and chair in the natural resources and forestry technology program at the College of New Caledonia, nominated Lewis. UNBC subsequently supported Morrice’s nomination. Morrice, who first worked with her when she taught a forest pathology course at the college, said he nominated Lewis for various reasons, including her quiet contributions to forestry in Prince George as a member of the Association of BC Forest Professionals.

I recently read a well-illustrated book entitled The Working Forests of B.C. – Project.  The book, initiated by Gerry Birch, contains over 200 photos mostly of reforested areas compared to photos of the areas logged decades in the past.   The book also contains graphs and explanations of the state of B.C.’s forests in seven regions of province the 1990s. While there have been some significant changes in our forests since the publication of the book, in particular the wildfires since 2010 it does make the point that B.C. has some very productive working forest land that supports a vibrant timber industry.  While some of our denuded forest lands have been difficult to reestablish, it is small in comparison to many areas around the world as described in a new video from our local library The Age of Nature narrated by Uma Thurman. 

VICTORIA – During the week of Oct. 18, 2021, the Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of Canfor on forest licence A15384 in the Mackenzie Natural Resource District. This audit, originally planned to start on July 19, 2021, was postponed due to the forest fire situation in the area. Auditors will examine whether harvesting, roads, silviculture, fire protection and associated planning carried out between July 1, 2020, and Oct. 22, 2021, met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. The audit area is located in the Mackenzie Timber Supply Area (TSA), which includes the town of Mackenzie. The terrain in the TSA is mainly mountainous, except for the flat to gently sloping Rocky Mountain Trench, which runs north to south through the centre of the TSA.

Our Crofton mill is periodically on the frontlines of managing challenging conditions that climate change threatens to make increasingly common. The mill draws its water supply from the Cowichan River, which is also the source of drinking water for the local community, and of vital fish habitat with particular importance to the Cowichan Tribes. The mill liaises closely with First Nations and community stakeholders to inform its operation, under provincial licence, of a weir that controls water flow into the river. That task has to be a very precisely calibrated in drought years, of which 2019 was the worst yet experienced. The lake dropped below the level of the weir, and for a 21-day period water therefore had to be pumped from the lake to maintain minimum river flows. The mill had made a significant investment in installing, trialing and licensing pumping equipment a few years prior, in anticipation of a year like 2019.

MERRITT, BC — The summer of 2021 brought an intense and highly destructive wildfire season, leaving hundreds of thousands of hectares of charred landscape, destroyed homes and heavily damaged infrastructure in its wake.  For Merritt, an economy that relies heavily on the forest industry, the impact of timber loss could be both extreme and long lasting according to Bruce Rose, Executive VP of the AP Group of Companies which owns and operates Aspen Planers. Although the extent of the damage has yet to be fully assessed, estimates place the number of hectares burned at 900,000 hectares or 9,000 square kilometres. “The best we can assess right at the moment, out of those 900,000 hectares this year, 500,000 hectares has been in the Kamloops Fire District… that is the area around Aspen and that affects us in our Lillooet operations, our Merritt operations, and others,” said Rose. 

Orange Shirt Society and Tolko Industries Ltd. are pleased to announce the Society’s annual Orange Shirt Day art contest. The Orange Shirt Society holds a contest each year, open to all K to 12 students across Canada in which the winning entry becomes the official Orange Shirt Day design for that year. The winner will receive $200 and an in-person visit with Phyllis Webstad… “Kukstemcw, thank you, Tolko for sponsoring our annual orange shirt art contest”, said Phyllis Webstad, Orange Shirt Society Ambassador and Founder. “Because of our partnership with Tolko, I am excited that I can now meet the winner on Orange Shirt Day every year!” Jerome Beauchamp, Orange Shirt Society President said, “Tolko’s contribution to the t-shirt contest is outstanding and telling of their commitment to Indigenous communities, supporting education about residential school impacts, and the belief that ‘Every Child Matters’.” ……entries must be received by 9 pm November 10, 2021. Visit www.orangeshirtday.org.

In our fourth episode of the ForestWorks we delve below the rhetoric to get to the real facts of this important industry through conversation with people who really know their stuff. In this week’s episode of ForestWorks, host Stewart Muir speaks with Carl Sweet, director of the BC Forestry Alliance and a forestry equipment salesperson in Campbell River. They discuss the swelling voice of grassroots forestry workers, including those in supporting indirect jobs like his. Join us every Friday morning for a new episode of ForestWorks. Or tune in to Radio NL 610AM Kamloops, Saturdays at 7 AM Pacific as we focus on the people, places, and stories of this important and often complicated industry that drives the BC economy.

VICTORIA – The RCMP are reviewing the department’s resources following the temporary reinstatement of an injunction against old-growth logging protests by the British Columbia Court of Appeal. A B.C. Supreme Court judge refused to renew an injunction last month, but Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein granted a stay on Friday until forestry firm Teal Cedar Products Ltd. can argue at a full appeal of the lower-court ruling next month. A statement from the RCMP’s E Division says the force is examining the decision and assessing its resources when it comes to possible enforcement actions. The RCMP say they have maintained a presence in the Fairy Creek area in support of nearby detachments. …Luke Wallace, a spokesman for protest group Rainforest Flying Squad, says people are preparing to spend a second winter in the forest.

Though Justice Thompson’s judgment may be overturned, it raises some fundamental questions about a disturbing pattern where police generally require injunctions before intervening with respect to blockades and protests. His decision came from concerns that the public interest was not served by the way the RCMP was enforcing the injunction. He noted that the RCMP continued to engage in “unjustified, substantial and serious” infringement of civil liberties. …Injunctions against protests represent an undesirable privatization of the criminal law. …As we await the outcome of the appeal, we should also remember to give the Pacheedaht First Nation the time it needs to consult with its elders, citizens, partners and experts to develop a sustainable plan that hopefully will lessen the need for such expensive and divisive conflicts in the future and leave a livable world for our children.

Chris Tollefson

The B.C. Supreme Court’s recent decision not to renew the injunction against blockades at Fairy Creek was undoubtedly a win for the blockaders. In legal terms, however, it wasn’t an environmental victory, but a straightforward repudiation of dirty police tactics. As Justice Douglas Thompson made clear in his decision, old-growth logging remains legal in B.C. with or without an injunction, and obstructing it remains a crime. In mid-September, while Judge Thompson was hearing the Rainforest Flying Squad’s final arguments in a Nanaimo court room, I was speaking with veteran environmental lawyer Chris Tollefson about the “symbiotic relationship” between civil disobedience and public interest litigation, his lifelong appreciation for the underdog and the elusive legal precedent he’s been trying to establish for years — the one that Fairy Creek failed to secure, but which Tollefson feels is only a matter of time.

VANCOUVER – More than 200 people including scientists, Indigenous leaders, politicians, actors and artists, have signed a letter calling on British Columbia Premier John Horgan to halt old-growth logging, a Vancouver-based environmental group says.  Canopy said in a news release Friday that those signing the open letter and sending messages to Horgan range from Union of BC Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip to former NASA scientist James Hansen and actors William Shatner and Dame Judi Dench.  Shatner has visited old-growth forests in British Columbia, saying in his message that there are some wonders that can’t be replaced, and the premier should let the forests “live long and prosper.”  The statement from Canopy said only fragments of old-growth forests remain in B.C., and logging continues, despite recent deferrals announced by the province covering “relatively small areas.”

Ross Muirhead

When Ross Muirhead and Hans Penner made their first trek of the season to the Dakota Bowl, slogging through cutblocks and then up into the ancient forest of giant yellow cedar and hemlock on the hills north of Gibsons, B.C., the hike turned into a spontaneous celebration that eight years of confrontation was finally behind them.  “It was a totally different experience going up there, knowing that this forest was now protected. We didn’t have that dark cloud hanging over us with the possibility of seeing road-building and contractors and trees falling and all that despicable destruction that we’ve seen in other areas,” said Muirhead, forest campaigner and founder of Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF), a small Sunshine Coast-based environmental group that, for a decade, has been a thorn in the side of logging contractors and the government agency BC Timber Sales.

Amidst the prevailing forestry sector business uncertainties for next year, a few things seem assured: COVID is not going away for the 2022 forestry field season and unvaccinated workers pose a health hazard to camps and crews. As stated at last month’s WFCA Annual Business and Market Summit, COVID may continue infecting the unvaccinated provincial population to the point where infections might start to plateau this winter. But that will depend on no notable variants emerging before then. Meanwhile, so far, on the West Coast the last of this year’s planting is winding down with no infections reported. Nevertheless, in industrial camps and resource processing plants across BC, unvaccinated workers remain the main source of infections. in some cases, health authorities have mandated vaccinating workers in order for operations to resume. In others, owners have mandated vaccinations for contract crews to avoid project disruptions due to illness and quarantines. 

Jonathan Smyth

The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) Forest Society, led by instructor Jonathan Smyth, is being recognized by the Province with the 2020 Minister’s Award for Innovation and Excellence in Woodlot Management for the Coast area. “I am pleased to announce BCIT is a woodlot award recipient for its commitment to developing future forestry industry leaders,” said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests. “The dedication and enthusiasm for embracing new sustainable forestry practices demonstrated by lead instructor Jonathan Smyth will ensure our province’s forests will benefit future generations.” …As an instructor at BCIT and president of the BCIT Forest Society, Smyth is forging the way for future sustainable approaches to forestry involving the entire community. Smyth has created synergies with local mills, operators, adjacent tenure holders and non-forest interest groups to create a community-based integrated plan for Blue Mountain while employing students and First Nations peoples.

Robert (Bob) and Greg Sahlstrom are being recognized by the Province with a 2020 Minister’s Award for Innovation and Excellence in Woodlot Management for the South area. They are also the recipients of the overall provincial award. “I am pleased to announce Bob and Greg Sahlstrom as the top overall provincial woodlot licence award recipients for 2020, which is well deserved after the Sahlstrom family’s 70 years of managing their woodlot licence area,” said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests. “They are dedicated to maintaining a productive and diverse woodlot operation and generously share access to the property for their local community to enjoy.” …Woodlot licence W0403 is in the Selkirk Natural Resource District. This woodlot has been managed by the Sahlstrom family since 1952. The woodlot business has been a part of this family for decades, as they homesteaded the area in the late 1920s.

Ben Wilson

Benjamin (Ben) Wilson is being recognized by the Province with the 2020 Minister’s Award for Innovation and Excellence in Woodlot Management for British Columbia’s North. “I am pleased to announce Ben Wilson is a woodlot award recipient for his commitment to his community and First Nations capacity building,” said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests. “Ben is a great example of what the woodlot program can be for small, innovative rural operators who use every ounce of fibre harvested to maximize the efficiency of the woodlot.” …Wilson holds woodlot licences W0117 and W0950 in British Columbia’s northern Interior and was selected because he has an innovative approach to optimizing timber use and silviculture reforestation. He has successfully partnered with a local nursery to improve transport and planting efficiencies, as well as rehabilitate severely fire-damaged stands. 

With no provincial endangered species legislation to rely on, the race is on to find the nests of stads k’un, a genetically unique subspecies of the northern goshawk, before logging and habitat loss causes the brave little bird to vanish forever. …Jonas Prevost has been working with a team to monitor the breeding activity of a unique subspecies of goshawk endemic to the islands off B.C.’s north coast. In 2018, researchers published a genetics study showing the Haida Gwaii birds are a distinct subspecies that have been isolated from their mainland cousins for about 20,000 years. There are only about 50 left, making stads k’un, Haida Gwaii’s national bird, one of the world’s rarest and most threatened species. The biggest threat to stads k’un is industrial logging.