Citing public safety concerns, the B.C. government is starting to permanently close off a forest service road (FSR) near Trout Lake that accesses homes and runs up the Incomappleux River toward Glacier National Park. Property owners, backcountry users, industry and environmentalists have voiced outrage over the province’s plans, describing lack of meaningful consultation and a strong rationale for the road to remain accessible. …The province has taken issue with the Incomappleux FSR due to hazardous events such as a rockfall in 2006 that damaged the structural integrity of a crevice bridge, prompting Ministry of Forests engineers to recommend closure. It’s said funds aren’t available to maintain the road, which has officially closed off since 2005, gated since 2017, and slated for deactivation since 2021. …If the province proceeds with deactivation, no alternative access exists for some 140 parcels and 28 landowners along a 13-kilometre stretch between the closure and farther up the Incomappleux Valley.

PORT RENFREW — The five-car caravan crept down a gravel logging road as the day’s last beams of golden light filtered through the trees. About 20 forest defenders were making a stand in southwest Vancouver Island, at a spot where a logging company was expected to cut old-growth trees the following morning. …It was a small, inconclusive victory in a fight that has spanned generations. But for those gathered in the forest, it mattered. “There is no dispute about what happened to our land,” said Bill Jones, a First Nations Pacheedaht elder who sat in the road as daylight crept in. …“There’s nothing left — it’s practically naked, bare,” he said. “There’s [a] few remnants here and there, and so we have to save what we can.” …Although the province says more than 11 million hectares of old growth remain, scientists say there is only about 415,000 hectares of productive old growth capable of growing the largest trees.