Category Archives: Forestry

An area of Chehalis, B.C., north of Harrison Mills, was once part of the habitat for the critically endangered spotted owl. Now it has been logged. “It was only approved for logging in June of this year by the B.C. provincial government, and they approved it months after the federal minister of environment had declared that forests like this are critical to the recovery of this highly endangered species spotted owl,” Joe Foy, a protected areas campaigner for the Wilderness Committee told Global News. “So it’s a real shock to see it. It’s a real slap in the face for anyone who wants to see endangered species recover and I think most Canadians want that.” The spotted owl is considered the most endangered bird in Canada. …Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen told Global News Monday that the provincial government is dedicated to the spotted owl recovery in B.C.

Burns Lake, BC – In a continuous effort to mitigate risk to communities and essential infrastructure from the threat of wildfires, the Chinook Community Forest (CCF) has embarked on a vital wildfire risk reduction project with funding from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC). Due to the large amounts of dead trees in the community forest caused by the mountain pine beetle pandemic, the initiative will have a far-reaching and positive impact on communities. …As part of the project, the community forest will be working on three different wildfire risk reduction areas that are prescribed for treatment which will cover roughly 200 hectares next to private property in the community. CCF is also developing prescriptions for Wildfire Risk Reduction treatments on roughly 900 hectares. …As a community forest, CCF is diligently balancing various objectives, including addressing local needs, providing compensation, generating employment, enhancing the forest’s natural beauty, and mitigating the ever-present wildfire risk.

Liam Parfitt

In the fall of 2019, Freya Logging Inc. did work to reduce the wildfire threat in a forested area at the edge of the Quesnel airport in the B.C. Interior. The company removed about 40 per cent of the high risk timber… They left well-spaced younger trees and older trees… Provincial funding helped pay for the work. …While the cost may be justified around communities, it makes it impractical to carry out on the larger forested landscape. That’s a major concern in B.C. as scientists, the B.C. Forestry Practices Board and B.C.’s professional foresters have called for the B.C. government to urgently draft a wildfire resiliency plan for the province’s vast forests. According to a 2021 provincial threat analysis, high or extreme fire risk has spread to an area in B.C. greater than the size of Germany. Liam Parfitt, one of the owners of Freya Logging, believes there is a solution.

Halfway River First Nation has filed a B.C. Supreme Court petition to protect their treaty rights, following a provincial licence renewal for a forest tenure range located ten kilometres west of their reserve. The tenure is held by Crystal Springs Ranch Ltd., and covers an area within the boundaries of Treaty 8 and Halfway River’s traditional territory. The Halfway River watershed is nearly 80 percent covered by range tenures, noted the October 20 petition. The province disregarded Halfway River’s treaty rights by renewing the Crystal Springs licence “without incorporating reasonable mitigation measures identified by Halfway River”, the petition says. Due to a large number of tenures in their territory, band members have been forced to travel further away from the community to hunt, the petition says, with fencing erected around tenures keeping them out of traditional hunting grounds.

Jonathan Seinen has been honoured by the province at the 2023 Federation of British Columbia Woodlot Associations AGM that is taking place in Cranbrook. The Houston man will be returning home with a $10,000 grant as the recipient of a Minister’s Award for Innovation and Excellence in Woodlot Management. …Bruce Ralston, BC Minister of Forests said in a release, “Jon’s dedication to forest management, youth education programs and his commitment to his community will ensure sustainable forests for future generations.” Seinen is the Nadina Woodlot Association president and used to serve as the director of the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations. …“The Seinen family has been managing woodlot 126 since 1981,” said Mark Clark, president, Federation of BC Woodlot Associations. This year he contracted out his equipment to help build fire guards during the record-setting wildfire season.

Patrick Russell, Jon Seinen and Gord Chipman

Jon Seinen, W0126, of Houston, BC is the 2023 recipient of the Minister’s Award for Innovation and Excellence in Woodlot Management. Seinen was presented with a signed certificate and a $10,000 grant at the 2023 Woodlots Conference and AGM on October 28, 2023, in ʔaq̓am near Cranbrook. “The Seinen family has been managing woodlot 126 since 1981,” said Mark Clark, president, Federation of BC Woodlot Associations. “Jon’s story is an excellent example of the hands-on resilience that woodlotters use every day in managing their operations and it demonstrates that the forests are in good hands.” Seinen is president of the Nadina Woodlot Association and a former director of the Federation of British Columbia Woodlot Associations. Seinen has a strong sense of social license and education, often inviting school and youth groups to the woodlot to learn about forestry, and handing out tree seedlings at the end of each tree-planting season.

Mike Morris

More than a century of focusing on lumber value over supporting the environment is coming back to bite B.C., but there is still hope governments and the industry can apply sustainable practices. The Kettle Valley Wildlife Hall was packed with residents from the Boundary Region, dignitaries and guest speakers to talk about wildlife resources in critical danger after generations of what guest speaker BC Liberal Caucus MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie Mike Morris said is “not seeing the forest for the trees.” He was among other guest speakers talking about everything from recent wildfires, declining wildlife populations, atmospheric rivers, flooding and the solutions that could help at least mitigate extreme weather as climate change progresses. …Morris wrote an internal paper that was leaked, titled “You Can’t See the Forest for the Trees” looking at the century-long history of the forestry industry’s management of the province’s timber stands.

Conservationists and the B.C. government are at odds over the strength of provincial old-growth protection measures, with the Ancient Forest Alliance pointing out what it calls a “significant conservation loophole” this month. The group claims thousands of hectares of at-risk, old-growth forest were likely missed during B.C.’s 2021 logging deferral process, which allows incorrectly identified forest to be substracted from established deferral areas, but not added to them. “The misclassification of some forests as being younger than they are (is) causing them to fall through the cracks,” said TJ Watt, a campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “In this case, a forest on northern Vancouver Island was missed for logging deferral due to B.C. government data errors, and trees upwards of 10 feet or three metres wide are being cut down.”

Jim Hilton

Most Canadians know that you can remove ice faster from sidewalks and driveways if you add any dark substances (sand, kitty litter or wood ashes) and let the sunshine help soften the ice for easier removal. Unfortunately scientists are finding the same principles apply when it comes to the accelerated rate our snowpacks and glaciers are melting at all over the world. The increasing temperatures are also causing the increased melting but it appears in the case of ice, the addition of small dark particles may lead to faster melting than increasing temperatures. While natural and industrial pollution have been around for many years it is the recent record wildfires that are being blamed for some of the rapid increases in the melting. There are a number of studies taking place around the world. Research at the University of Northern British Columbia suggests most western Canadian glaciers will disappear within 80 years.

The B.C. government is moving to protect more old-growth forests and critical habitat with a type of crowd-sourced funding. Premier David Eby says the government will work with the independent B.C. Parks Foundation and First Nations to introduce the funding tool that backs efforts to protect valuable ecosystems. Eby says the province will contribute $150 million to a conservation funding mechanism that will be matched by a B.C. Parks Foundation commitment. The government says the $150 million provided by the province will leverage further donations in a crowd-sourcing approach, encouraging other organizations and people to contribute to ecosystem protection. Environmental groups… say the fund has the power to create new protected areas by working with First Nations, government and private donors. The B.C. Council of Forest Industries… the conservation funding tool is an innovative method for planning future approaches to land use and maintaining ecosystems.

Our increasingly urban and sedentary lifestyles have led to children and youth spending less time outside. Yet, studies show that children who spend more time outdoors get along better with their peers and tend to be more active. At Wild & Immersive, we believe that every child deserves the chance to connect with nature and experience its wonder and benefits firsthand. Children and youth who have opportunities to connect with and learn about nature gain knowledge that can lead them to intuitively engage and care about the environment. Our educational programs for children and youth are rooted in nature and help remind participants that we are all part of the natural world. By playing, learning and exploring in the outdoors, Wild & Immersive helps build participants’ physical, mental and social wellbeing, and encourages self-awareness and recognition of the role we can all play in helping to create a healthy and resilient planet. Your gift will make a real difference in the life of a child. Please give today!

B.C. has announced a new $300-million fund to protect threatened ecosystems in the province. …The funds will be managed by the foundation and will be overseen independently from government by a special committee made up of experts, half of whom will be from First Nations. …”Conservation financing is a core tool that can help us to preserve options for the future and to advance our ability to properly manage, maintain and conserve ecosystem health, biodiversity and our oldest and rarest trees,” said Garry Merkel, co-author of the Old Growth Strategic Review. …Conservationists said Thursday they were pleased to see funding materialize. …Ralston also announced new forest landscape planning that replaces existing stewardship plans, devised under the Old Growth Strategic Review and in partnership with local First Nations. They establish objectives for the long-term management of old growth, biodiversity, climate change and wildfire risk, the government said.

In related coverage:

• Province of BC: Made-in-BC tool takes further action on old-growth forest
• Council of Forest Industries: Financing mechanism represents a new and innovative approach
• Sierra Club: This is the beginning of a huge shift toward conserving forests
• The Narwhal: Old-growth fund poised to grow with federal, philanthropic donations

It is becoming increasingly common knowledge that if you do not address a fire near a community early on, it can grow beyond our control and put lives and properties at risk. …If B.C. really wants to get serious about involving rural communities in fire management, it should dedicate funding to a First Nations and rural fire corps. Science cannot always pick up on all the subtleties of the land; this is where traditional and local knowledge becomes invaluable. …Before wildfires got this extreme, it arguably made economic sense — from a timber production standpoint — to transform the landscape into fully stocked conifer tree farms. …Broadleaved trees provide natural fire breaks that are much needed around communities and across the commercial forest. Since deciduous and mixed forests are of little interest to the forest industry, serious government incentives are needed for commercial forest practices to become climate-smart.

Erika Dort

Global trade, tourism and other forms of human movement are accelerating the spread of tree and plant pathogens between continents. …Climate change compounds this problem … trees have less resistance to disease—particularly infections from foreign regions to which they have no natural immunity. What if we could detect emerging diseases at ports and borders before they have a chance to spread? By using genomics and machine learning, UBC researchers have developed a method that can identify known tree pathogens, as well as assess the potential harm of a new, as-yet-unnamed fungus based solely on its genetic traits. This process can be completed in as little as a few hours, in contrast to other sample-analysis techniques that can take days. …With this predictive tool, we can help prevent potentially invasive plant pathogens from causing severe disease outbreaks,” says study author Erika Dort, a PhD candidate at UBC’s faculty of forestry.

James Steidle

This is part two of my firesmart musings. One thing we as a society have to watch out for is how bureaucracies will use a crisis like wildfire and its mitigation to spend more tax dollars on bloated government programs doing something that could be done for free. A great example is Forests for Tomorrow, a $50 million a year program ostensibly tasked with rebuilding our forests in the wake of wildfires and the mountain pine beetle infestation. But it is actively making the problem worse by brushing out the aspen and broadleaf on their “rehabilitated” plantations around town, including in the Bobtail Burn west of Prince George, a place where the aspen stood up to the blaze. …Maybe it’s not about forests or safety. Maybe it’s about spending $90 million on firesmart programs around communities, which according to the Union of BC Municipalities, could cost up to $11,225 a hectare.

Drax today announced a three-year partnership with Science World, which will bring STEAM education programs to rural British Columbia (BC) elementary schools, in alignment with Drax’s community funding to improve equitable access to STEM education and skills development in and around the communities where we operate. Science World is the leading science centre in British Columbia that engages learners across the province in STEAM education. Through the interactive hands-on exhibits as well as the organizations’ outreach programs, students, teachers and families across BC are inspired to be the next generation of problem solvers and world changers. …Drax’s partnership with Science World will focus on On The Road – the in-school community program that Science World develops and implements province wide. Through the On The Road program, students across the province have their curiosity of science piqued. The program also boosts science literacy and inspires future science and technology leaders.  

The BC Community Forest Association (BCCFA) and the Ministry of Forests have deepened their partnership to support the efforts of community forests in long-term wildfire resiliency activities and expansion of cultural and prescribed fire. New funding in the amount of $300,000 will leverage the work of the BCCFA and the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) accomplished in the 2021 BCCFA Economic Recovery Initiative. Through the initiative, 15 community forests received funding for various wildfire risk reduction focused projects and activities throughout the province.  “Over the past several years we have seen the disastrous effects wildfires had in our province,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. “Now with this new partnership with the BCCFA, we are strengthening the defences of our communities against future wildfires.” The new funding will be directed at activities focused on the community forests’ engagement in wildfire mitigation and climate change adaptation. 

Woodlot licensees and forestry stakeholders from across the province will be meeting in ʔaq̓am this weekend, October 26-28, at St. Eugene Golf Resort and Casino for the annual joint conference of the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations and the Woodlot Product Development Council. This conference comes on the heels of the worst fire season on record in B.C., at a time when the forest industry is at a crossroads, and when learning about engagement with First Nations is more important than ever. This year’s theme is ‘Engaging for Success, Striving for Resilience.’ Keynote speaker Paul Hessburg, a renowned forest ecologist from Washington and TED-talk speaker, opens the conference sessions on Thursday night, with a welcome by Nasuʔkin (Chief) Joe Pierre Jr. of ʔaq̓am, a member community of the Ktunaxa Nation.

The Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia is entering a new phase in forestry education, thanks to the dedicated commitment of Mosaic Forest Management. A generous, multi-year commitment – marks an extraordinary step towards nurturing the future of forestry and underscores the pivotal role local industry plays in ensuring the vitality of British Columbia’s forests. In recognition of Mosaic’s commitment to forestry education and its profound impact on the future of the profession, the University of British Columbia honoured this partnership by renaming the main lecture theatre in the Forest Sciences Centre the Mosaic Forest Management Lecture Theatre (formerly the Fletcher Challenge Theatre). Mosaic’s contribution is a testament to their unwavering commitment to fostering the future stewards of our forests. These funds will provide hands-on learning opportunities for students, increasing public access, and engaging youth and kids in the natural environment.

An investigation by the Forest Practices Board into public complaints about livestock grazing in protected areas in the South Okanagan has found non-compliance issues and damage to the environment.  In January and July 2021, the board said it received two public complaints about grazing practices in the South Okanagan and White Lake Grasslands Protected Areas.  The complainants were concerned that legal requirements for range use and the construction of range developments were not followed, resulting in damage to the environment. The complainant also listed concerns about the government not enforcing legal requirements.  …For the grazing tenure area held by 69 Ranch Partnership, investigators found livestock caused damage to riparian areas around Blue Lake. However, the livestock causing the damage were in trespass and did not belong to the range holder. …n the South Okanagan Grasslands Protected Area, the board found the Ministry of Forests did not obtain the required authorization to construct 19 kilometres of barbed-wire fence and two water diversions.