Category Archives: Forestry

Nathan Cullen

VICTORIA — While the New Democrats launched their consultation on changes to the Land Act without letting the public in on the secret, they did alert some corporations, industry associations and other interest groups. The government released a list. The names included some of the biggest corporations in the province: Telus, Rogers, Bell, Fortis and B.C. Hydro…[and] many of the industry associations: B.C. Business Council, Council of Forest Industries, Clean Energy B.C. …Adventure Tourism Coalition, Guide Outfitters. However, the provincial government provoked suspicions when it did not announce its intentions by news release or any other broadly public process. …This week the minister has been promoting the consultations, albeit mostly with the same groups that were invited to join in the first place. …For members of the public who did not get an invitation, the main option for feedback remains the Engage B.C. website.

The persistent lack of snow across much of B.C. is setting the stage for a possible repeat of the record-breaking provincewide drought experienced last summer, watershed experts worry. Despite a short blast of arctic weather in January, unseasonably warm temperatures coupled with rain have been melting already stressed snowpacks, particularly in parts of southern B.C. and Vancouver Island, said Coree Tull, of the BC Watershed Security Coalition. …This year, drought concerns are surfacing even earlier than last, Tull said… “But the unprecedented unpredictable weather we’ve seen continues to contribute to really this persistent risk of severe drought.” And the northeast region of the province is still caught up in the serious drought from last summer. …Prioritizing the preservation of natural solutions like mature forests, wetlands and beaver dams that store or retain water on the landscape and reduce the risk of wildfires, drought and floods is also key, Aaron Hill said.

Working the forests of the future will need machinery of the future. Quesnel is a city unequivocally centred in the B.C. forest and centred on the B.C. forest industry. One of the effects of the biennial Future of Forestry Think Tank held in Quesnel is a set of companies, agencies, and government departments conversing about how Quesnel might well be positioned as a training hub for the latest in sustainable forestry practices. That dialogue took a step forward this past week when a high-tech piece of forestry equipment was set up right inside City Hall. This industrial machine is not a diesel-spewing roaring dinosaur of the bush, though. It is more like a video game console that only plays titles like Forwarder and Single-Grip Harvester – two of the logging machines emerging as international favourites for careful and nimble 21st century lumberjacking.

Port McNeill: The World’s Largest Burl is on the move, with the Town of Port McNeill creating a new public space closer to the main business and tourist areas to showcase its iconic attraction. The town and local volunteers aim to complete the project prior to the 2024 summer tourism season through an investment with Island Coastal Trust. “We feel that salmon and the burl are what put Port McNeill on the map,” says Lorraine Landry, a 30-year local resident and volunteer “Moving it to a new location will bring life back into this piece of Port McNeill’s history.” The burl has always been a source of great community pride, connecting the community with its deep roots in the forestry industry. …When a recent fire caused damage to this site, the Town Council voted to move the burl to a new permanent space at the gateway of downtown.

Additional coverage in the Victoria Times Colonist: Port McNeill moving beloved burl to new, more visible location

An Alberta government document suggests the province has made little progress in protecting its 15 threatened caribou herds, despite having signed an agreement with Ottawa that promised it would. That document, released three years late on Jan. 19, is the first report into the so-called Section 11 agreement between the province and Environment Canada. The 2020 agreement was made under threat of the federal government stepping in to protect critical habitat for the herds, which are in many cases almost entirely disturbed by resource development. The report considers the deal’s first two years. But even that limited time frame suggests a long list of problems, from the slow cleanup of seismic lines to the ongoing growth of industrial footprint to the lack of range planning that would let the species survive in some of Canada’s busiest landscapes.

B.C.’s NDP government says new legislation aims to address the housing crisis. Critics say the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach removes local autonomy and threatens urban forests, including Greater Victoria’s endangered Garry oak ecosystem. …Bill 44 aims to address the province’s deepening housing crisis. In a nutshell, the new legislation takes aim at single family zoning. It overrides the ability of municipalities to decide what type of housing is built on the majority of residential land in the province, upending years of community planning informed by public consultations. …Haddon and others are deeply concerned about the bill’s potential environmental impacts. …At a time when many cities around the world are planting trees and creating green corridors for people and wildlife, they say the legislation will make it far more difficult for B.C. municipalities to protect the province’s urban forest canopy.

The Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) and pulp and paper mill Mercer Celgar (Celgar) are collaborating to rethink conventional practices around what has traditionally been considered uneconomical wood fibre. This wood fibre typically wouldn’t make its way to sawmills and was not economically feasible for non-sawlog products. These logs have a lower value and generally are only used to create pulp for various products, including paper, tissue, and food packaging.  The project participants say the primary goal is to promote “diversification and innovation within the supply chain” to recover and utilize greater amounts of wood fibre that was typically wasted. …With funding from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC, the project is helping recover as much of this residual fibre as possible from the OIB’s traditional territory. Dan Macmaster, Forest Manager at the OIB, highlighted the fact that higher fibre utilization has both environmental and economic benefits. 

A Vancouver software developer has launched a campaign to halt tree-cutting in Stanley Park and force the park board to disclose the reports behind the $7-million operation to take down 160,000 trees. The board says a quarter of the trees were killed by the hemlock looper moth infestation and are a wildfire hazard. Michael Robert Caditz said he is seeking legal advice aimed at applying for a court injunction and will attend Monday’s park board meeting. He formed the Save Stanley Park group after he became alarmed about the number of trees removed. Last year, the city awarded two emergency contracts to North Vancouver forestry consultant B.A. Blackwell and Associates totalling $3.85 million. …Norm Oberson, owner of Arbutus Tree Service fears that the risk of wildfire is being overstated in order to expedite bulk tree removal.

VANCOUVER, BC – A Federal Court Justice has ruled in favour of conservation groups that challenged the federal Environment Minister for failing to take action to protect the critical habitats of at-risk migratory birds. This includes the Marbled Murrelet, which relies on coastal old-growth forests. Ecojustice lawyers were in court on behalf of Sierra Club BC and Wilderness Committee, to advocate for the protection of migratory birds.  …The groups’ main contention was that a “protection statement” issued by Minister Guilbeault in 2022 too narrowly interpreted the Species at Risk Act. …Last week, Chief Justice Crampton concluded that only ensuring the protection of migratory birds’ nests, but not the rest of their critical habitat, was not justified under the law or key facts before the Minister. The Chief Justice concluded that the Minister should have considered that habitat loss and degradation is a key driver in the decline of most at-risk bird populations.