Tree Canada partnered with the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation (SWF) once again to plant over 32,000 white spruce seedlings on three sites totaling approximately 20 hectares (50 acres) in the Canora area adjacent the Assiniboine River on July 6 and 7. The project is part of Tree Canada’s National Greening program, a mass seedling planting program which targets areas in need of reforestation or afforestation across Canada, said Kelvin Kelly, Saskatchewan community adviser, Tree Canada. Co-ordinated by a Tree Canada contractor, in consultation with Darren Newberry, the SWF Land Manager and a local branch representative, Doug Lapitsky of Canora, a member of the River Ridge Fish and Game branch of the SWF, the project, continued over two years, will see over 52,000 seedlings grow across 33 of hectares of land, according to Kelly.

The Clinton and District Community Forest (CDCF) is handing out over $250,000 to the Village of Clinton and community organizations. The Village will receive $169,832, with 11 organizations receiving $87,075 in grants. Every year the CDCF returns 60 per cent of its profits to the Village, with 40 per cent going towards community groups that have applied for funding. Steve Law, the general manager of the Clinton and District Community Forest, said that with everything the community of Clinton has gone through, this year’s funding is more important than ever. “The last couple of years have been really difficult for Clinton. We had the West Fraser’s Chasm Mill shut down, then we had COVID-19, and this is all after the 2017 fire,” he said.

VICTORIA, BC — While the long-awaited sun has finally hit the south coast, the warm weather is also increasing the risk of forest fires. Areas along Vancouver Island from Victoria up to Nanaimo are now in the high-danger zone — a sharp rise in the danger rating from just a week or two ago. “Whether it reaches extreme or not, we don’t know at this point. But we are looking at some unseasonably warm temperatures,” Marg Drysdale with the Coastal Fire Center says. …Environment Canada warns temperatures Sunday and Monday will be above 30 degrees in the Lower Mainland, Sea to Sky region and Vancouver Island. It’s even more intense in the Interior, with peaks in the mid- to upper-30s forecast into Tuesday or Wednesday.

In 2014, with just 16 caribou remaining in the Klinse-Za herd, Saulteau First Nations and West Moberly First Nations decided to take matters into their own hands, building a pen for pregnant cows atop a remote mountain. Six years later, the herd is up to 95 caribou, including eight calves born in the pen this year. Photographer Ryan Dickie visited the maternity enclosure for The Narwhal to meet the newest caribou calves.

Tragically, in 2018 both the South Purcell and South Selkirk mountain caribou herds were declared functionally extirpated. Next on the chopping block is the critically endangered Central Selkirk herd which ranges in an area between Argenta, Nakusp, Trout Lake, and the Duncan River. These herds are not simply disappearing on their own; our species is destroying their habitat. …Licensee Cooper Creek Cedar is looking after the mountain caribou by logging their habitat. The government seems confused. The mountain caribou are simply not co-operating with their plans. The area being utilized is not located within the very small and high elevation “core caribou habitat” as designated by government. …The one hope is that the federal government is insisting that the lackadaisical B.C. government finally make herd plans for mountain caribou recovery. 

Larry Pynn

More than six out of 10 trees harvested in North Cowichan’s municipal forest reserve last year were exported as raw logs, according to the 2019 Forestry Report.  Raw log exports totalled 63 per cent of the municipal harvest of 15,255 cubic metres in 2019, up from 58 per cent of 11,562 cubic metres in 2018.  That’s right, in the midst of a moratorium on new logging contracts pending a public consultation on the 5,000-hectare forest reserve, the municipality found a way to increase harvesting through blowdown timber and fulfillment of outstanding logging contracts.  The fact that most of North Cowichan’s logs are exported further erodes the argument that logging of the forest reserve is needed to support the local economy. Note that logging last year in the forest reserve created as few as an estimated 10 direct jobs — at least two of those municipal staffers.