James Steidle

So apparently taxpayers are going to spend $1.5 million researching the damage glyphosate is doing to our forests. We will have to wait five years for the results. It’s kind of a neat trick our federal funding authorities pulled. $1.5 million is a cheap hall pass to hold the critics at bay while we keep doing more studies amidst ongoing clouds of glyphosate in our forests. Shouldn’t the pesticide companies have footed the bill for this research before telling us spraying forests with a chelating, patented antimicrobial agent that kills 50 percent of select boreal fungi species at standard field application rates was A-OK? Ultimately, the research is a waste of taxpayer money.  …Another question: instead of paying for studies on glyphosate, why don’t we pay for studies on how much carbon tax we should charge the softwood industry for all the surplus carbon sequestration we lose out on because of their war on aspen?

Anthony Britneff

With many forestry communities upset with the poor stewardship of their local forests and with contamination of their drinking water from clearcut logging, one wonders why appeasing initiatives like the Old Growth Strategy (1991), the Protected Areas Strategy (1993) and the Old Growth Deferral Initiative (2021) have not delivered. The only substantive changes to how forests are stewarded, or not, have resulted from new legislation. Politicians eager to appease public concerns about forestry without conviction (i.e., without changing the law), do so by offering up these flavour-of-the-month initiatives, which are bound to fail because their requirement is not rooted in law. …Astonishingly, in 2024, the forest ministry has no stewardship purpose for the conservation of biodiversity, soil and water, for the maintenance of ecosystem health and for the sustainable use of forest resources. We need to rewrite the purposes of the forest ministry to include a stewardship purpose in a new Ministry of Forests Act.

There’s a big logging operation underway just west of Lake Louise. Parks Canada is a little past halfway through creating a safety barrier meant to stop wildfires from going too far and to give fire crews a place to stand and fight. A large strip of trees is being removed from the boundary of Banff and Yoho. “This area is prone to lightning strikes, so we’re creating a break in the fuels on the landscape to protect the communities of Field and Lake Louise in the event of a wildfire,” said Shelley Tamelin, Parks Canada wildfire risk reduction manager. The tightly packed lodgepole pine hasn’t burned in nearly a century.  The cut block is just over a kilometre long and about 500 metres across, stretching from Ross Lake to the Trans-Canada Highway. …marketable timber is being sent to lumber and pulp mills – standing dead wood will be sold for campfires.

The federal government, the last chance for species at risk, has told the province to produce and deliver on a plan to ensure caribou don’t go the way of the passenger pigeon. A recently released report, years late, shows little or no progress. Caribou task forces were formed of concerned conservation groups and Indigenous peoples plus the usual foot-draggers of industry. In particular, the timber and energy industries are the ultimate gatekeepers, trying to run out the clock for caribou, as they maximize economic opportunity. They are abetted by timorous provincial politicians, who hide in plain sight, behind the smokescreen of these committees. Caribou are running out of time. This species depends on mature to old growth forests. …Doing nothing is not a course of action. Instead, it is a flight from responsibility and accountability. It may be high time for the federal government to step in. 

Anyone reading about proposed amendments to B.C.’s Land Act might believe there are major changes afoot. Private property is at risk. Outdoor recreation is threatened. Water access, mining, forestry and agriculture all now hang in the balance as the BC NDP threatens to quietly take away every land-use right that British Columbians currently enjoy. The government, the analysis goes, is about to quietly pass control over the vast majority of its land base to the First Nations who stewarded it for millennia….Except the changes wouldn’t do that — they are less radical, and more creeping bureaucracy. …They would “allow the government to enter into agreements with First Nations on what is likely very specific, large-scale projects,” Lands Minister Nathan Cullen said. …What the changes also wouldn’t do is affect the province’s 40,000 existing land tenures or the 2,500 renewals it issues on an annual basis, Cullen added.

Nathan Cullen

The B.C. New Democrats face an uphill selling job with the public judging from an opinion poll on their plan to allow co-management of Crown Land with First Nations. Almost half of those polled said they had “heard nothing” about the government’s plan. …Only 13% considered themselves “familiar” with the proposed changes… [and] once informed of the basic outline of the NDP plan, 94% considered it a major change. The pollster found support for “reconciliation” with First Nations, but heard concerns that the changes could “hurt the economy.” Almost 75% of those surveyed supported a provincial referendum on the issue. The New Democrats say they will stay the course and pass the legislation this spring. …The government further insists that “the changes will have no effect on tenures, renewals, private properties, or access to Crown land.” …First Nations and some legal experts do maintain that the proposed changes are no big deal. Others disagree.

Three Manitoba First Nations are calling on the provincial government to reject a forest management plan for the Duck Mountain and Kettle Hills area. On Wednesday, Minegoziibe Anishinabe, Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation (WSFN), and Sapotaweyak Cree Nation (SCN) released a statement, saying that the government needs to take action to protect their land and Treaty rights. According to the statement, the province has allowed a U.S.-based logging company to harvest timber in First Nation territories without an approved forest management plan for nearly two decades. This commercial logging is taking place in Duck Mountain Provincial Park, as well as the Kettle Kills Area. Now, the province is set to approve a 20-year forest management plan. However, the First Nations are saying that studies show there are deficiencies in this plan. 

The Province is taking action to prepare for the upcoming wildfire season by upgrading and expanding B.C.’s firefighting aviation and ground fleet, as well as equipment for ground crews. …Drawing on feedback from the Premier’s expert task force on emergencies, the Province is strengthening its response to wildfire emergencies by expanding the amount of firefighting tools available to crews to provide broader response capabilities and keep people and communities as safe as possible. Upgrades are being made to firefighting equipment and fire camp infrastructure, which are critical to the safety and well-being of wildland firefighters. Nearly $16 million has been invested ahead of April 2024 to expand BC Wildfire Service’s on-the-ground firefighting equipment, including pumps, fire camp equipment, safety gear, and medical and hygiene equipment.

As many as 150 British Columbia lumber industry companies and their workers are getting a massive shock as they begin to sell their companies, retire, and start collecting pension benefits they have been paying into for decades. Some who are already collecting benefits from the Interior Lumberman’s Pension Plan have had their payments reduced by as much as 40 per cent due to a solvency deficit within the fund that the pensioners and their lawyer allege is a result of mismanagement. …The ILPP was started back in 1978 and covered independent, non-unionized forestry sector companies and their employees working in the B.C. Interior. According to David Wotherspoon of Wotherspoon Law, the plan was designed to provide independent contractors with medical and pension benefits. …A letter sent to the Minister of Finance by the Interior Logging Association’s Todd Chamberlain in January 2023 called on the province to step in and take some action on the issue. 

SLOCAN VALLEY, BC — A full environmental impact assessment of the proposed Zincton all-season resort is being called for by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Sinixt Confederacy. Currently before the Mountain Resorts Branch of the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, the back country ski development proposed for the Selkirk Mountains in the Slocan Valley needs a deeper view, said Jarred-Michael Erickson, chairman of the Confederated Tribes. “This proposed project is going to be built on high quality wildlife habitat within a critical wildlife corridor between two major parks,” he said in a Feb. 8 letter to the Province. “Our preliminary internal review has raised a number of concerns, including potential impacts to blue-listed species such as wolverine and grizzly bear.” …His view was supported by the West Kootenay EcoSociety website, arguing that the entire proposed development would disrupt a wildlife corridor between two provincial parks.

Additional coverage in the Langley Advance Times, by Bill Metcalfe: U.S. group wants formal assessment of massive B.C. back country ski resort