Category Archives: Forestry

This story is part of a series exploring the wide-ranging impacts of persistent drought conditions and climate change seen across the province in recent years. During severe storms, trees and branches often crash onto power lines, knocking out electricity for hours and sometimes days. That’s nothing new. But chronic drought is stressing some trees — such as water-loving cedars — to the point that they’re much more vulnerable during extreme weather. “Certainly with the changing climate, the drought conditions are severe,” said B.C. Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk. “On Vancouver Island, we are seeing this prolonged dry weather that’s not typical and the vegetation [that has] evolved isn’t designed for it.” …Adverse weather, particularly wind, and falling trees and branches, causes more than half of B.C.’s power outages, according to a 2023 report from B.C. Hydro on the worst storms in the province in recent years.

Last week I was provided with a link to The Fox Mountain and South Lakeside Wildfire Risk Reduction Tactical Plan (WRRTP) and asked for my input as an adjacent resident to one of the areas. The plan will look at fuel management to reduce wildfire risk to properties in those areas. Since the plan is of interest to many other private land owners, I decided to summarize the information in this article and note the public education section below. The WRRTP is intended to streamline fuel management treatment planning across large, complex areas and enable development of connected fuel management networks in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), which is where forested areas and communities meet and put communities more at risk from wildfire. …The development of the plan was completed by Forsite Consultants Ltd. (Forsite) and Ember Research Services Ltd (Ember) with the support of Williams Lake First Nation’s Natural Resource Department. 

Mathieu Bourbonnais

Mathieu Bourbonnais, a former wildland firefighter, helped create some technology that can predict wildfires. “I was checking all my sensors, and the McDougall Creek fire burned about 15 of them,” says Bourbonnais, now a researcher and assistant professor of earth, environmental and geographic sciences at UBC Okanagan. “Seeing that, it was pretty obvious that once the fire got going, it was going to jump the lake.” Those sensors, which Bourbonnais and his UBCO team are developing in partnership with Rogers, could be a game-changer in BC. Acting as an early warning system, they are essentially small, low-cost weather stations that can be deployed across remote locations where they can monitor conditions—like air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, soil moisture and soil temperature. Using cellular or satellite networks, the real-time data can be transmitted to anyone from local fire services to forestry companies, and from utilities to First Nations.

James Steidle

B.C. needs to end the use of herbicides that are killing broadleaf trees in Okanagan forests, according to members of several environmental groups at a meeting in Peachland last week. Yearly, the province sprays thousands of hectares of B.C. clear-cut land with the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide known as Roundup, and it’s causing more harm than good, James Steidle of Stop the Spray BC said. …Under B.C.’s Forest Planning and Practices Regulation, non-conifer trees must be kept to less than five per cent of re-planted cut block. Steidle said it’s a move, aimed at bolstering the supply of trees most desirable for logging and it’s putting adjacent communities at risk. …Steidle said he’d like to see communities to take control of public forests back from private interests. …“The use of herbicides, like glyphosate has declined by over 90 per cent since the 1900s,” the Ministry said.

VERNON, BC — Following a successful pilot project, Predator Ridge in Vernon, B.C., has announced the commercial installation of an AI-based wildfire detection system. Predator Ridge has commercially installed a Vancouver-based company’s SenseNet technology. The SenseNet is equipped with advanced sensors, AI algorithms and real-time data analysis to provide highly accurate and early alerts to wildfire. The installation follows the successful conclusion of a two-year pilot project with the City of Vernon, in partnership with Vernon Fire Rescue Services. Throughout the pilot, the SenseNet technology underwent extensive testing consistently demonstrating accuracy and speed in providing real-time data essential for deploying emergency response and protecting public safety. …One hundred sensors, five gateways and five cameras are installed around the entire perimeter of the resort providing early wildfire detection using gas sensing and thermal imaging. Vernon Fire Rescue will have 24/7 monitoring and management of the technology.

On behalf of UBC Forestry, congratulations to the this year’s UBC Sustainability Fellows! From the Sustainability across first-year core curriculum: The Land One experience we congratulate Dr. Lindsay Cuff, Dr. Athena McKown, Dr. Fernanda Tomaselli, and Dr. Karen Taylor. From Accounting for Climate Change: Expanding civil engineering, wood science and accounting courses for climate relevancy by adding case-based carbon/sustainability accounting course modules congratulations go to Caren Lombard, Tamara Etmannski, and Qingshi Tu. Sustainability Fellowships are granted to full-time UBC Vancouver faculty members who are spearheading the development of innovative sustainability courses and programs, supported by a Sustainability Education Grant. 

The forests of Clayoquot Sound became world famous as the battlegrounds of the decades-long “war in the woods” — and now, a vast swath of the rich old-growth trees are permanently protected. In June, Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations and the B.C. government announced 760 square kilometres of old-growth forests in the ecologically rich region on Vancouver Island are now safeguarded in ten new conservancies. …The new conservancies, to be managed by Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, will nearly double how much old growth is protected in Clayoquot Sound …about 62 per cent of the area. New protections include parts of Meares Island near Tofino, where Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation declared a tribal park on part of the island in 1984. …Conservation charity Nature United provided $40 million to help Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht pay compensation to the forestry-tenure holder, Mamook Natural Resources, which they share ownership of, along with the other three central Nuu-chah-nulth nations. 

British Columbia recognized the Haida’s aboriginal title to their islands decades after the Indigenous group launched a battle on the ground and in the courts. …The Haida people have lived for thousands of years on Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago in the Pacific Ocean off Canada’s western coast, just south of Alaska. Nearly wiped out by smallpox after the arrival of Europeans, the Haida clung to their land — so rich in wildlife it is sometimes called Canada’s Galápagos, coveted by loggers for its old-growth forests of giant cedars and spruce. For decades, despite their geographic isolation, the Haida’s unwavering fight to regain control over their land drew outsize attention in Canada. …The Haida opposed clear-cut logging, building ties with environmentalists. They forged alliances with non-Haida communities at home and found common cause with other Indigenous groups across the world. [to access the full story, a NY Times subscription is required]

Following successful events in Oregon and the Okanagan, the “Deciduous Heroes” tour wrapped up in Prince George on Wednesday. Jen Côté of Moose, Mushrooms and Mud and local MLA and longtime trapper Mike Morris joined Stop the Spray B.C. founder James Steidle to talk about the value of deciduous trees sprayed with herbicides or suppressed with brush saws to grow conifer plantations. “The tour has been a real opportunity to connect with different communities throughout the Pacific Northwest who are facing similar issues,” says Steidle. “The common denominator is that the industrialization of our forests and discrimination against our broad-leaved deciduous species is having real impacts on communities and wildlife values.” Oregon and Washington State communities have seen heavy clearcutting and herbicide spraying of watersheds that provide communities with drinking water.

Drought, human-caused changes to land and groundwater, disease, insects and fast-moving wildfires are some of the factors putting B.C.’s forests at risk this summer. Wildfires are getting bigger, hotter and more frequent as a result of climate change, says ClimateReady B.C. …UBC professor Younes Alila, said snow plays an important role in replenishing groundwater. …Climate change isn’t the sole driver of drought, however; it can also be exacerbated by land use, forest-management decisions and urbanization, Alila said. For example, when areas that have been clearcut are replanted, new young trees consume far more groundwater than the old forest. Thomas Pypker, chair of the department of natural resource sciences at Thompson Rivers University, said it’s also important to look at the tree species being planted… Bill Beese, a retired VIU professor and forest ecologist, said, on the Island, moisture-loving cedars, hemlock and grand fir are suffering under drought. 

Trees in the B.C interior are being ground up into pellets and sent to the UK where they are burned to produce electricity. The plant owners claim they are “sustainable and legally harvested.” Burning trees is supposed to be carbon neutral but not when it takes minutes to burn and decades to grow. And they will probably never store the amount of carbon that the old trees did. …What could address this travesty are new federal laws to combat greenwashing — claims that do not stand up to scrutiny such as vague and misleading language like “clean energy solutions” or “low-carbon future.” The forestry sector is greenwashing in its claim that burning wood reduces carbon emissions. By the time the trees suck up the CO2 released in their burning, they will likely be consumed by wildfires.

Those of us in rural British Columbia are bracing for the ravages of climate change that will bear down upon us with a vengeance this year (if the government and its experts are to be believed). We brace knowing that the Emperor Wears No Clothes. The premier and the ministers (Ralston of Forests, Ma of Emergency Management & Climate Readiness, Cullen of Land, Water Resource Stewardship, and Heyman, Environment) present publicly with compassion and concern. …Every single emperor in the tacit service of timber, with loyalty to timber, is refusing to audibly and publicly acknowledge that in private, at the cabinet table and in their own ministerial offices, each one knows that poor forestry practices, and “forest stewardship” (absent rigorous checks and balances and the absent any concern for conflicts of interests – fox guarding the henhouse stuff) has exacerbated every single risk that rural British Columbians face: fire, drought and flood.

A majority of B.C. residents support the province’s 30 X 30 conservation targets, suggests a new poll. The survey, conducted by Leger for Organizing for Change, a coalition of 12 B.C. environmental groups, found 85% of those polled support protecting 30% of land and water by 2030. …Protected areas now cover about 15.8% of the land base in B.C., which means the province would need to nearly double protected areas to meet its 2030 target. …This target aims to protect 30% of all land and water by 2030 in a bid to protect Earth’s biodiversity and mitigate climate change. The top areas that people support conservation in are habitats with species at risk such as old-growth forest (88%); areas of natural beauty and intact watersheds (86%); places where wildlife move between habitats (84%); outdoor recreation areas (81%); and culturally significant land to Indigenous people (67%).

VANCOUVER, BC — Light filters through a canopy of towering Douglas firs. Trunks stretch upwards toward a band of blue sky. Bird song slices through the silence. We are instructed to stand still, feet planted in the earth, feeling the breeze on our skin, inhaling the scent of dirt and pine, listening to creatures scuttling in the undergrowth. …Despite first appearances, this is not the initiation ceremony of a tree-worshipping cult. Rather, I am taking part in guided forest-bathing in Vancouver’s Lighthouse Park, an old-growth temperate rainforest hugging the shores of West Vancouver. …The idea of guided forest-bathing might seem a little absurd. Why not just take a walk in the forest? Why the yoga mats and tree-focused meditations, intentional walks and guidance cards? …The practice, known as shinrin-yoku, originated in Japan in the 1980s in response to karoshi — death by overwork. 

Quintin Sperling

As a logger and third-generation caretaker for his acreage near Castlegar, Quintin Sperling spent his life in the forests. “I’m a certified faller and in B.C. I’ve done practically everything related to timber harvesting, logging, road building, firefighting, and silviculture work,” Quintin says. …But recently, Quintin decided to stop working in the woods. It’s a profession he no longer feels proud to be a part of. …Quintin has documented the violations he’s seen in the forests near him and submitted evidence to local compliance officers. However, the timber license holders are allowed to continue their work with no repercussions that he’s aware of. …Quintin hopes a better way is possible. “I think if the government had the courage to rewrite and pass new legislation… saying ‘if you’re not operating ethically and sustainably, we will pull your timber license, you get no compensation for it, you have no legal recourse.’”

PORT ALBERNI, BC — BC old-growth activists have taken before and after photos of a large area of an ancient grove that was clear-cut on Vancouver Island near Port Alberni in the Nahmint Valley. The Ancient Forest Alliance says that many of the massive trees that were cut down were over 500 years old, some being up to nine feet across. Now that the grove has been cut, they are urging the BC government to immediately correct misidentified at-risk old-growth forests that could be eligible for logging deferrals. The Nahmint Valley clear-cut spans 17.4 hectares. …The old-growth advocates added that BC Timber Sales (BCTS), the BC government’s own logging agency, owned and auctioned off this forest to the highest bidder. …The BC government has significantly ramped up their efforts to protect these at-risk areas over the past year. 

Carrier Lumber president Bill Kordyban is among a growing chorus of dissent getting louder in protest over how B.C. forests are being managed by the provincial government. He’s convinced there’s a better way to support an ailing forest industry left reeling from the impacts of mill closures and job losses. To do that, Kordyban says the province’s forestry ministry has no choice but to give up a large chunk of its fiefdom. …“My takeaway from that meeting is more deference has to be given from Victoria to those who want to manage the forest for the greater good, rather than just simply consuming it and leaving it to chance what happens in the forest,” said Kordyban. …Fifteen or 20 years ago, B.C. was one of the lowest producers of forest products in North America. Now, the cost of doing business is among the highest anywhere, and Kordyban blames that squarely on the province.

Six captive-bred Vancouver Island marmots looked out of their boxes on Mount Washington and took their first steps to a life in the wild last week. …Big hopes ride on the tiny backs of young marmots as researchers try to rebuild the fragile population of one of the world’s most endangered mammals. …The timid rodents face an uphill battle for survival amid food shortages, the swings of climate change and predators. …The yearlings are the first of what will be a near record release of about 60 marmots from now until mid-July, said Taylor. …The recovery effort was initiated in 1997 by a group of partners including the Marmot Recovery Foundation, the province of B.C., the Toronto Zoo, Calgary Zoo, Mount Washington Alpine Resort and timber companies like Mosaic Forest Management.

If your company or organization is undertaking activities that may affect forest and/or forest lands or forest resources, including urban forests, you should ensure a registered forest professional is part of your team. In BC, professional forestry is a regulated profession, similar to engineering, chartered accounting, law, dentistry, and architecture. Like those professions, provincial legislation grants forest professionals specific practice rights. Under the authority of the PGA, only individuals registered and licensed by Forest Professionals British Columbia (FPBC) are allowed to practise professional forestry. This is to ensure protection of the environment and the public.

The province says it’s protecting more than 300 hectares of wildlife and critical old growth in eight sites with federal funding. B.C.’s Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Ministry announced Friday that through the Old Growth Nature Fund, Environment and Climate Change Canada is providing $50 million to B.C. over three years to protect old-growth forest areas. A release says about $7.9 million from the Old Growth Nature Fund and $8.2 million from private donors and organizations were used to purchase privately owned lands. The provincial government, the federal government and seven land trust conservancy organizations worked together to secure critical old-growth and habitat for species at the eight sites. …The ministry says the province has allocated about $31 million from the Old Growth Nature fund to “help protect old growth areas from harvesting or development, directly supporting the implementation of the Old Growth Strategic Review.”

Government press release: More than 300 hectares of land secured to conserve old growth

Bob Gray

On a screen, wildfire ecologist Bob Gray showed his audience a pair of before-and-after photos. One was taken from a fire lookout tower in Washington in 1938. It showed a varied forest landscape, with recent burns, older burns, logged areas, and different stages of regeneration, along with some old-growth forest and areas of deciduous trees. “When fires occurred in that landscape, they were small,” Gray said during a presentation June 26 in Taghum. “They didn’t get big because there wasn’t contiguous fuels. There was vegetation there that acted as speed bumps for the fire.They basically impeded fire flow.” …The later photo, taken of the same area more than 80 years later, shows a mass of coniferous green. “That will burn very differently,” Gray said. “That will burn wall-to-wall as a continuous crown fire and a very vigorous surface fire. Fire is a contagion.”

George Lamprey & Lheidli T’enneh

PRINCE GEORGE, BC — Two B.C. First Nation chiefs are blaming the provincial government’s slow process for granting timber harvesting permits, which is causing unnecessary delays that they say are killing the province’s forest industry. Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dollen Logan and George Lampreau, chief of the Simpcw First Nation near Barriere gathered in Lheidli T’enneh’s downtown Prince George boardroom to chastise the government for delaying forestry permit approvals, which they see as a contributing factor forcing companies to close the mills that are the lifeblood of the province’s economy. …The chiefs want the province to give first nations more of a say in determining when, where and how much they can cut down trees and make that happen quickly. “We should be the ones doing the permitting,” Logan said. …“Mills are shutting down and we need to find an economy, which is forestry, to keep the North going,” she said.

Additional coverage in My Prince George Now, by Brendan Pawliw: Lheidli, Simpcw Chiefs says forestry cutting permits approvals need to be accelerated