Category Archives: Forestry

The extremes between the hot summers and bone-chilling winters can have an affect on the Okanagan and its ecosystems. Over the last several years, B.C. filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper have explored and created a documentary titled Incandescence, which is an inside look at how wildfires impact the ecosystem and how communities that have both forest and civilization can protect themselves. One of the factors related in the documentary is the extreme differences between dry and wet conditions. This is called hydroclimate whiplash. Ami and Ripper talk with Indigenous elders, first responders, and local residents, getting their reaction to the ever-changing ecosystem.

Kelowna, B.C. – A new documentary, B.C. is Burning, is tackling British Columbia’s wildfire crisis by exploring forest management solutions. The project was sparked in 2024 when Kelowna entrepreneur Rick Maddison, who lost his home in the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park wildfire, came across an article by retired forester Murray Wilson about wildfire prevention. The two teamed up to create a film focused on solutions rather than devastation. …The team is hoping to raise $45,000 to finish production and distribution of their film. “Help bring B.C. is Burning to life! We need your support to finish the journey. With $35,000 remaining to complete editing and launch a marketing plan, your sponsorship or partnership can make the difference in ensuring this film reaches audiences far and wide. Join us in sharing a story that has the power to inspire change and protect the future of our forests and communities,” says Murray Wilson.

The province’s review of B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) is based on a false contention the industry is running out of wood because of allowable annual cut reductions, says the Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS). VWS said the Ministry’s review of BCTS to ensure the province’s forestry sector “is continually evolving to overcome challenges and create a guideline for a stronger, more resilient future” is barking up the wrong tree. VWS’ Anne Sherrod said the province’s intention to protect more old-growth and reform forestry in a more environmentally beneficial manner lasted only until the forest industry applied enough pressure. …Logging companies were already moving their mills and jobs out of B.C. long before U.S. President Donald Trump was elected, said Sherrod, and claims the province continues to reduce the allowable annual cut, or isn’t signing permits fast enough and environmentalists are depriving them of wood, are just excuses.

Early in the pandemic, as protests at Fairy Creek were beginning to brew, B.C. made a bold promise [to] prioritize healthy ecosystems over harvesting trees. The province then offered up a round of stopgap measures, called old-growth deferrals, designed to tide forests over while it worked out a new forest management system. By fall 2021, B.C. was finally ready to launch a major plank of its new planning regime. Called forest landscape planning, the new system inserts a level of First Nations and B.C. government oversight where there was none, creating regional tables to inform how logging happens on the ground. It’s also the first provincewide land planning process crafted in the wake of B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Former minister of forests, lands and natural resource operations Katrine Conroy called the approach “quite transformational” during a 2021 press conference unveiling the news. Does Conroy’s assessment hold up?