Category Archives: Forestry

Chris Alemany

It has been clear for decades that our forest industry is broken, particularly on the former Dunsmuir grant private lands on Vancouver Island. Many reforms have been advocated, but now … it is time for government to reverse an old wrong and buy out Mosaic Forest Management Corporation to gain back Crown control over these timberlands. One opaque and private company owned by equity firms and pension funds should not control the majority of forest on south and central Vancouver Island. The province should offer Mosaic a takeover and buyout package that would ensure compensation or re-employment for employees. With its lands returned to the public, government and First Nations can get to work managing the landscape on Vancouver Island in a new way for the betterment of all people who live here.

Warren Brown

VANCOUVER, COAST SALISH TERRITORY, BC – When wildfires threatened Lytton First Nation in 2021, Warren Brown was essential in protecting his community’s water supply by staying behind—as others evacuated to safety—to ensure the water treatment plants remained up and running. He wanted to do everything he could to ensure his community had safe and clean drinking water to come home to. Warren’s commitment to caring for his community’s clean water supply continues to play a significant role in protecting their health and safety. Today, Warren Brown of Lytton First Nation was announced as the 2023 recipient of the National First Nations Water Leadership Award at the 14th annual BC and Yukon Territory Water and Wastewater Operational Excellence Conference held in Vancouver, BC.

The B.C. government says it’s moving to eliminate single-use plastic wraps currently used to plant 45 million tree seedlings across the province every year. Traditionally, forestry companies have taken the equivalent of cellophane and wrapped the root bundles to hold them together for transportation into the field. But that old way of doing things has been recognized as unnecessary in recent years, says Randy Fournier, CEO of the B.C.-based seedling company PRT Growing Services Ltd. “The elimination of plastic wrap, quite frankly, is just an elimination of waste,” Fournier said. …Fournier says compacting peat around the seedlings provides enough density for the root system to hold together and keep seedling bundles of up to 20 trees alive before they are planted. The decision to do away with the plastic seedling wraps comes after BC Timber Sales (BCTS) carried out a successful trial using pine and spruce seedlings in the Cariboo region

Release by BC Government: Province tackles climate change by reducing single-use plastics in tree planting

The B.C. government introduced sweeping changes Tuesday to emergency management legislation meant to step up preparedness for climate-fuelled natural disasters and to provide an expanded leadership role for First Nations. The province also announced who will be appointed to a wildfire task force announced by Premier David Eby three weeks ago. The announcements were delivered on the same day the B.C. Ombudsperson’s office released a report that concluded financial support programs for people displaced by extreme weather emergencies are outdated and are not meeting people’s needs. The new emergency management legislation and the task force are meant by Eby’s NDP government to signal they are serious about helping B.C.’s communities build climate resiliency — to reduce the effects of wildfires and floods, droughts and extreme heat that have been hammering the province in the past decade.

Members of the group Last Stand West Kootenay cut down some trees on Hall Street in Nelson on Thursday.  The trees were people, who fell to the wet pavement after being cut down by chainsaws that were running but had the chains removed.  This piece of street theatre was performed to dramatize what the organizers say is continued logging of old growth forest three years after the publication of the province’s Old Growth Strategic Review.  Steve McGee was one of the “loggers.”  “The B.C. government has created a situation of duress,” he said, “where us ‘loggers’ feel like we have to cut these trees, but knowing full well that in this day and age it’s unethical and unsustainable, and as ‘loggers’ we need support to move away from this as soon as possible.”

What the climate will look like in the future concerns David Chaplin, and he says the feeling is shared by many.  It’s why he was out to show his support at a Victoria demonstration against the continued logging of old-growth forests in B.C. – joining 17 similar actions outside MLA offices province-wide on Thursday (Sept. 28).  “Three years have passed since the B.C. government promised to implement a paradigm-shift in forest stewardship laid out in its own Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR). Yet the government has made little progress on their promises,” event organizers said.  Intact old-growth forests are one of B.C.’s best allies amid the climate crisis, the demonstrators said, noting they help mitigate environmental disasters and support ecosystems.  Chaplin touted how the forests absorb carbon pollution and help to cool communities.

Between April 1 and August 17 of this year, 1,818 wildfires burned across British Columbia, destroying around 1.61 million hectares, according to the B.C. government. Several cities throughout the province also experienced record-breaking temperatures, including Lytton, B.C., which reached 49.6C on June 29, 2023. …In a statement to Black Press Media from West Fraser, they said:  “Sustainable forest management is one of the core values that we hold both as West Fraser employees and as individuals living and working in our communities and forests.  West Fraser aims to always look for ways to continuously evolve and improve our sustainable forestry practices.  …We work with Indigenous peoples, communities, scientists and governments to ensure that our forestry practices are inclusive, responsible, thoughtful and informed. This includes the relationship and partnership built with the Wells Barkerville Community Forest.

Last week, Jimmy Pattison was in town to open the new Save-On Foods. …Yet if you criticize Jimmy and the failed economic model he represents, the air goes out of the room. I’m all for celebrating success in business… but in the meantime, I’m just wondering what product Jimmy Pattison ever brought to the world? …You become a billionaire when you dominate a regional economy, just like how Canfor dominates Prince George forestry. …What I do know is he plays a sophisticated political game. He pilfers the wealth of the provincial hinterland to butter up the metropolitan, big-city elite with board chair positions and big donations and status. …Even in a place like Prince George, where we feel the impacts of an economy rigged in Pattison’s favour with every mill shut down.

Protesters rallied outside nearly 20 MLA constituency offices across B.C. to speak out against old-growth logging… Premier David Eby maintains his government is taking the issue at hand seriously. “We put in place protections for more old-growth forest than any government in the history of British Columbia. The vast majority of our big trees across the province are protected from logging right now,” he said on Thursday. “Anywhere that there is logging taking place in old-growth areas, it is because the local First Nation wants that work to continue for their own economic development, and they are saying where and how that takes place. We respect the right of First Nations to be able to make those decisions…” …He says the forestry industry is “incredibly important” for B.C., adding, “one of our solutions to climate change is to use more wood products in our province.”

BRITISH COLUMBIA — The 2023 wildfire season is officially the most expensive and most destructive on record. According to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), a total of 2,217 fires have been detected this year, burning almost 25,000 square kilometres of trees, bush and grassland. That makes it B.C.’s worst season by land burned, easily surpassing the previous record of 13,540 square kilometres in 2018. The cost of fighting those fires is also significantly up, to approximately $770 million so far this year, more than the $649 million spent in 2017. On Thursday, the B.C. government said higher-than-projected costs to fight wildfires had contributed an additional $2.5 billion to the province’s projected deficit for this fiscal year. The government is projecting the total spend for the 2023/24 fiscal year to be $966 million. The majority of this year’s fires — approximately 71 per cent — have been sparked by lightning, while 23 per cent are human-caused, the fire service says.

Aside from the visual shock left by looking at the charred landscape, there are concerns about what the impact on drinking water could be after heavy rain or next spring’s snow melt. UBC Okanagan assistant professor of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences Mathieu Bourbonnais says the impacts could be significant. …Bourbonnais believes there will be both long-term and short-term impacts because of the wildfire. In the short-term, West Kelowna could see more sediment in the reservoir’s water. …Looking longer term, Bourbonnais said it is not clear forests will regrow in the watershed due to the high severity of the burn and climate change. If there is a bright spot, Bourbonnais says the wildfire will also help regenerate growth of grasslands that serve as protection against major wildfires.

The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) has passed a resolution calling on the B.C. government to take strong steps to stop the spread of the invasive plant species Scotch Broom. Resolution NR51, ‘Control of Scotch Broom’ was sponsored by the Town of Qualicum Beach, where Broombusters Invasive Plant Society started in 2006, according to a news release by Broombusters. …Scotch Broom has been recognized as the invasive species doing the greatest harm to species at risk — the “top offender of biodiversity in B.C.” Broom spreads so quickly and densely that native species and young forest seedlings cannot compete. But the officials’ greatest concern relates to climate change and wildfires. “Scotch broom’s high flammability and its ability to spread quickly and form dense stands increases the fuel load, impeding fire management efforts, making fires more difficult to fight,” wrote Terry Peters, recently retired fire chief of Powell River.

A downpour of rain did not stop members of the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance (PWPA) from rallying against the logging of old-growth forests in B.C. They gathered just off Highway 97 in front of the Peachland Mall on Thursday afteroon (Sep. 28). “It’s been three years since the provincial government launched the old growth strategy and nothing has been done,” said Alex Morrison, communications director of PWPA. “The deferral areas that they have are still being logged, so we’re just trying to keep this front and centre.” …“There are six areas of protected old-growth that the panel said you must protect and they’re right in the heart of the Glen Lake wildfire,” said Taryn Skalbania, PWPA co-founder. …Skalbania believes that the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), which governs activities on public lands during forest planning, road building, timber harvesting, and reforestation, is very one-sided.

Additional coverage in Global News, by Darrian Matassa-Fung: Old growth activists holding ‘day of action’ across B.C.

Kelowna Now, by Megan Trudeau: Flashmob pops up at Uptown Mall to advocate for old growth

Nanaimo Daily News, by Bailey Seymour: Protesters lament ‘soccer field’-size sections of forests being logged in B.C.