Category Archives: Forestry

James Steidle is the co-founder of Stop The Spray BC, a group dedicated to reducing the industrialized use of herbicides to kill the forest’s underbrush, a tool used by major forestry companies to eradicate growth competition for the softwood species they prefer for lumber production. The group also champions the development of hardwood markets, as the herbicides and silviculture practices of forest companies are often at the expense of the deciduous species. It is the hardwood component mixed with the softwood trees that make for a healthy ecosystem and reduce the ferocity of wildfires, according to the group.“The stocking standard is a major factor in our regional moose declines,” said Steidle. “Government biologists won’t admit that, but here is a basic fact.

Adapting B.C.’s forests to climate change is the goal behind trial sites planted in the North Okanagan-Shuswap and throughout the province. In January, the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board received a presentation from Scott King, a registered professional forester with Pacific Woodtech in Golden, about climate-based seed transfer (CBST). In short, King explained this is a climate change adaptation strategy that involves the movement of tree species’ seeds/seedlings to sites that will be most suited to them in predicted future climates.

PRINCE GEORGE — A forum to discuss the future of the forestry industry was held at UNBC on Feb 28. The event was well attended, with over 100 people watching online, to the 350 seat theatre being quite full. Mayor Simon Yu, Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris, Mayor of Mackenzie Joan Atkinson, Chuck LeBlanc from the PPWC, Ben Parfitt, a policy analyst with the CCPA and others all spoke at the event discussing what the future of forestry looks like in British Columbia, but in particular Northern BC, with recent announcements that PG Pulp will be closing in March, to the sawmill in Houston slated to be shut down as well. Ben Parfitt from the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives said that out of all the recent mill closures, the closure in Houston may be the most consequential. At the time when it opened in 2004, the mill in Houston was the world’s largest sawmill.

Panorama Mountain Resort in British Columbia is home to western Canada’s first and only endangered tree: the Whitebark pine. And this resort is at the helm of a new partnership with the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada to save it. Whitebark pine is a hardy, long-lived species of tree that can flourish for centuries. But during the past decade, a non-native fungal disease known as white pine blister rust has been killing the trees at an alarming rate. …In 2021, Panorama permitted the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada to plant 5,000 Whitebark pines within its resort boundaries. And for the past several years, Andrew Nelson, the resort’s Avalanche Risk Manager, has been facilitating access to the resort for scientists and technicians from the Foundation who want to study Whitebark pines, in hopes of identifying individuals naturally resistant to the white pine blister rust, and collecting cones for planting new trees. 

Congratulations to Dan Macmaster, Manager of the West Boundary Community Forest  for being named Forester of the Year by his colleagues in the Association of BC Forest Professionals. We are lucky to have you on the BCCFA board!

• BC Community Forest Association Conference: Kamloops, BC, June 7-9, 2023
• Ministry announces actions to accelerate implementation of Old Growth Strategic Review 
• Congratulations to the Speĺkúmtn Community Forest
• 2023 Indicators Survey – Deadline April 14th  
• The Eniyud Community Forest has a new website

JASPER NATIONAL PARK, AB – Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced plans to move forward on a new caribou conservation breeding program to support southern mountain caribou recovery in Jasper National Park. The program’s goal is to rebuild dwindling caribou populations in Jasper National Park that are too small to recover on their own. As a result of today’s announcement, Parks Canada is taking the first steps toward implementing this first-of-its-kind caribou conservation breeding program. …Efforts to protect caribou and critical habitat for caribou in Jasper National Park are part of a broader effort by federal and provincial governments and Indigenous partners, peoples and communities to support the recovery of caribou across Canada.

Biologist Les Gyug was working for B.C.’s environment ministry when a logging permit application caught his eye. A forestry company planned to clearcut rare old-growth larch stands in the province’s southern interior, set aside decades earlier as seed trees to allow for natural regeneration. “Rather than log them, let’s go look, and see what’s in them,” Gyug recalls saying. He expected to find a suite of forest birds in the scattered 400-year-old western larch stands… Walking through the trees after dawn, binoculars in hand, he heard a mysterious bird drumming in staccato rhythm. “I had never heard this before. And I realized only afterwards, ‘Jeez, that was a Williamson’s sapsucker and it was in an old larch stand!’ ” …“Critical habitat is still being logged,” Gyug tells The Narwhal. “If we keep losing it, [the sapsucker] will never get off the endangered list … And right now, we’re just not doing enough.”

EDMONTON – Alberta’s United Conservative Party government has moved on a proposal to split wildlife management responsibilities in the province, creating a new department of hunting and fishing in the Forestry, Parks and Tourism Ministry. The new branch, according to an internal memo obtained and confirmed by The Canadian Press, will “increase focus and capacity on supporting hunting and fishing as an activity on Crown lands.” The memo says the branch will now govern allocation of fish and wildlife, including sport fishing regulations, hunting tags, trapping licences and human-wildlife conflicts. It leaves population counts, habitat and land use policy, species at risk management and wildlife disease management within Alberta Environment and Protected Areas — splitting work that should be interconnected and taking the province back decades, critics say. Lorne Fitch said the move will make it harder to track and manage the overall health of Alberta’s wilderness.

You’ve probably heard the stories: that through an intricate network of underground fungi, trees send nutrients and warning signals back and forth to one another. In Pulitzer Prize-wining novels, New York Times feature articles, PBS documentaries, and TED talks, there have been ample mentions about the “woodwide web,” or the fungus-mediated connections that supposedly help forests thrive. But that concept may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Every so often in science, a revision is in order. A prevailing idea inflates to inaccurate proportions. A set of experiments is taken out of context. Uncertainty gets ignored in favor of the most interesting explanation. …Through these multiple avenues of misinterpretation, existing research might not actually support the importance of fungal connections between trees for forest health, according to a new analysis. … A sweeping review study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, presents a counter-narrative … of underground fungi in forests. 

Wildland firefighters, supported airtankers and other specialized equipment are ready for the wildfire season ahead, says the Government of Alberta. In a news release issued Monday, the provincial government declared it is prepared for the wildfire season, which runs from March 1 to Oct. 31 in Alberta. “As folks look forward to enjoying Alberta’s wonderful outdoor spaces over the months ahead, we’re focussed on keeping communities safe,” said Todd Loewen, minister of Forestry, Parks and Tourism. “Alberta Wildfire has leading-edge firefighting resources positioned across the province, ready to respond to new wildfires as they arise, and continues to test and implement emerging tools and innovation designed to increase our wildfire management capabilities. It’s important that everyone plays an active role preventing wildfires from starting.”

I read with bemusement the Feb. 16 guest column by a group of largely former, past and ex foresters and politicians parading as “Friends of the Municipal Forest.”  My first reaction: with friends like these, who needs enemies?  Their column represents a desperate last gasp by the old guard to defend logging of our coastal Douglas-fir forest — the rarest forest type in B.C., according to the BC Forests Ministry. A consultant’s report for North Cowican has estimated 141 species at risk.  Today, the signatories to the guest column exceed the number of known old-growth trees in the Municipal Forest Reserve.  Eric Jeklin is among those whose names are attached to the column. …By unanimous vote — including Jeklin — the committee recommended that UBC’s Draft Forest Management Scenario Summary be referred to Council “as presented.”  Will the real Jeklin please stand up?

Canadian music legend Neil Young made a surprise appearance Saturday at an old-growth logging protest rally at the British Columbia legislature. Young played acoustic guitar and harmonica, and sang two songs: “Comes A Time,” which has a chorus about tall trees, and his hit “Heart of Gold.” Young, billed as a “special guest,” was not listed as appearing at the event, where astonished protesters, many dressed as trees and wild animals, cheered wildly and sang along to “Heart of Gold.” …“That’s something I hope our Canadian government and business section will recognize that this has to do with Canada,” he said. “It has to do with the ages, if we are lucky enough to have ages. These trees have lasted so long they deserve Canada’s respect.” Earlier this month, the B.C. government introduced new approaches to protect more old-growth trees from logging. 

Additional coverage in CHEK News: Thousands rally for old growth forests

With forestry, I think we can have our cake and eat it, too. I think we can have thriving wildlife populations, functional forests, and we can have jobs. In other words, we can have a truly sustainable forest industry that supports our communities now and into the future. I’m optimistic this can happen because that’s what we had. Before the supermills and modern chemical plantation forestry, we had a thriving industry that employed thousands more people and consumed a fraction of the timber while leaving cutblocks full of moose. …Not all forestry investment has been beneficial. Much of the investment in the past 20 years has been aimed at eliminating jobs and maximizing corporate profits. The smaller mills have been shut down but it’s worth remembering a lot of them were profitable. Just not profitable enough. 

The current challenges facing BC’s forest industry was the focus of this year’s Truck Loggers Association convention and trade show, which saw more than 1,000 delegates at Vancouver’s Westin Bayshore Hotel from Jan. 18-20. “Firmly planted. Standing strong” was the theme for the 78th annual convention, which TLA executive director Bob Brash said was fitting given the current climate of the industry. …Keynote speaker Nikolas Badminton said this was the trickiest keynote he had to write so far, since the industry, and the world in general, have some of the biggest challenges right now. …“I don’t make predictions. I speculate,” he said. …When asked a question by event moderator Vaughn Palmer, Badminton said the industry needs to work hard to change that perception. “Machines do not put humans out of work,” he said. “Instead, we should think about what we can invest in to improve our businesses.”

University of British Columbia forest ecologist Suzanne Simard is defending her research on how trees communicate after a citation review claims there is insufficient evidence to support her work. …Through mycorrhizal networks, Simard says, trees are able to exchange resources, sharing nutrients with younger saplings and releasing chemicals to warn each other of distress. But authors of a citation review published in Nature Ecology and Evolution says this research might not be applicable to every forest. Review co-author Justine Karst, who studies mycorrhizal ecology of forests at the University of Alberta, says she is questioning the claim that mycorrhizal networks are widespread in forests. …Karst and her co-authors’ analysis also questions the study’s claims that fungal connections benefit seedlings and trees can recognize their kin through mycorrhizal networks. Simard told CBC the article misses a major point about the research, maintaining that studying interactions between trees is crucial for protecting forests.

Two environmental groups and a British Columbia First Nation say the federal government is recommending an order to protect the critically at-risk northern spotted owl. Just three of the tiny owls are known to be in the wild in B.C., with a fourth recovering at a rehabilitation centre after it was suspected to have been hit by a train. A statement from the Wilderness Committee, Ecojustice and Spuzzum Nation says they have learned federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault is recommending an emergency order to protect the spotted owl from imminent threats to its survival and recovery. The statement says the minister has determined that logging must be prevented in two watersheds within Spuzzum Nation territory along the lower Fraser River canyon, about 180 kilometres east of Vancouver.

The finished product of sewage treatment produced in the capital region will soon be on its way to the Nanaimo area to fertilize trees and jump-start other vegetation. Biosolids, the granular remains of sewage treatment, will be spread in the mid-Island region to pump up new vegetation in logging and reforestation sites and for the reclamation of gravel pits and other mine sites. Land application of the biosolids is something the Capital Regional District vowed it would never do since the early stages of the $775-million wastewater treatment plant. In a narrow vote after a two-hour debate, CRD directors decided shipping biosolids to the Regional District of Nanaimo — which had offered to take them — was the only short-term plan on the table. …“I find it very hypocritical of us to allow biosolids to be land-applied outside of our region when we are against land application in our own area,” said Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins