Last month Trudeau announced an oil industry subsidy, hoping public-funded bailouts with public shaming would nudge clean up of environmental messes and abandoned wells. This government/industry/environment triumvirate maybe what we need for post COVID recovery. Then Horgan’s NDP/Greens announced BC’s COVID Economic Recovery Task Force. Conspicuously absent were any environmental and first nation organizations knowledgeable in biodiversity and climate change. …April 30, Ministry of Forests announced; “COVID-19 just added to challenges facing our forest sector. The B.C. government is deferring stumpage fees (rent) it charges to help industrial forest companies navigate through the crisis.” …The last time the forestry industry told us they were in crisis, the 2003 outbreak of the mountain pine beetle, federal and BC taxpayers provided $1.3 billion in emergency funds to the BC forest industry. The outcome of these funds in central BC is a ‘blown out’ landscape, a failed forest economy, accompanied by large negative cumulative effects.

It’s my first Alberta Forest Week as president of the Alberta Forest Products Association. Somehow, I sense this year isn’t quite like any other. …There’s something about the solitude of this year’s Forest Week that lends itself to reflection. The thing I’m reflecting on this year is what it really is that makes Alberta’s forests so unique. …As we celebrate Alberta’s forest week, I encourage you to think about what makes our forests unique. If you can do it safely, by all means, get out and enjoy our natural spaces. And if you can’t get out there, maybe take the time to thank a forestry worker in your community — at an appropriate social distance, of course. Their work ensures sustainable forests for future generations of Albertans and helps deliver products the world needs.

The arrival of spring brought a surge of warm weather to Williams Lake, in the Cariboo region of B.C., and with it a rush of meltwater from the region’s snowpack. The resulting floods caused a local state of emergency, the contamination of water with sewage and the evacuation of 86 residences — a significant hardship for families given the COVID-19 pandemic. …The combination of warm weather and a higher-than-average snowpack in the nearby mountains serves as partial explanation for the region’s biggest flood in approximately 200 years. But experts say the role of wildfire, industrial logging and human development in flood-plains needs to be considered when trying to understand the cause of floods like the one in Williams Lake. “Wildfires, forestry, urbanization — all these land uses … tend to increase flood risk,” said Sean Fleming at the University of British Columbia.

The controversial decision to let tree planters from across Canada to set up camp in Marchand Community Park has been rescinded. According to Treasurer Lisa Dirks, The Marchand Community Club initially agreed to allow a group of 65 tree planters to use the green space, without realizing the issue’s contention. The reforestation crew consisted of 2 members from Nova Scotia, 4 from Quebec, 25 from Manitoba, and 38 from Ontario. Tree planting teams have camped in Marchand for several years now and, during an ordinary summer, those numbers would be largely meaningless. In the middle of a pandemic, however, nearby homeowners were strongly opposed to the idea of potential COVID-19 carriers living within their local park. …the tree planting crew will still be working in and around the area, they have just decided to set up their base camp at nearby provincial parks instead.

The Nadleh Whut’en First Nation, 143 kilometres west of Prince George, B.C., is banning tree planting within its territory in an effort to keep COVID-19 out of its community.  …Chief Larry Nooski said the ban will remain in effect until they are completely satisfied the virus no longer poses a threat to the general public.  “In protecting our people, we need to take every plausible action we can,” Nooski said.  The Nadleh Whut’en has been actively working to minimize the spread of the virus within its community since the pandemic began.  On March 13, it signed an emergency order to deal with the virus. …B.C.’s Forestry Safety Advocate, Jordan Tesluk, is confident that all tree planting companies in the province will follow the new guidelines, and ensure their staff follow them. …Nooski said that at this point, he can’t foresee any modifications to tree planting operations changing his mind about the ban. 

The official BC Wildfire Service mobile app is now available, providing real-time wildfire information and an interactive map that users can customize to display a variety of fire-related data. The new app is one of many proactive initiatives undertaken by the BC Wildfire Service to give members of the public, media and stakeholders access to consistent, accurate and timely wildfire information throughout the province. This app complements the BC Wildfire Service’s website and social media channels. Featuring an interactive map, news and advisories, statistics and a fire reporting tool, the BC Wildfire Service mobile app is available for Apple (iOS) and Android devices and is free to download in the App Store and Google Play.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell describes a dystopian society in which language is used to control people. In Orwell’s fictional world, vocabulary is constrained and new words are created in order to simplify and manipulate people’s understanding of the world around them. …it was only three years ago that I started hearing the word fibre used instead of forest with confusing frequency. This word appears on industry and government websites and it is used regularly by timber company representatives. Last week, Minister Doug Donaldson described the lands he is in charge of as feedstock in my community newspaper. One could be forgiven for thinking that the timber industry, with the province’s help, is attempting to replace the notion of a forest—and everything that word means —with vague abstractions. …The founding belief of modern forest management – that natural forests are a commodity – is among the root causes of declining ecosystem health in B.C.

Many First Nation Woodland Licences (FNWL) and other small First Nation tenure holders are feeling abandoned by the provincial government’s recently announced support for the BC forest sector. In a press release, the BC government announced a three-month deferral on stumpage rates in an effort to support the forestry industry, as we deal with the …COVID-19 pandemic. The BC First Nations Forestry Council supports actions that maintain jobs for families and rural communities who have been hit hardest by economic downturn in the sector. Unfortunately, this industry cost savings measure does not address the viability of small First Nation tenure holders. Many First Nations have not been harvesting on their FNWL because of provincial policies that have added costs, high stumpage, and tough market conditions even before the COVID-19 pandemic. “The forest industry is an integral part of many First Nations’ economies,” explained Chief Harley Chingee of McLeod Lake Indian Band.

VICTORIA –  Cooper Creek Cedar is generally meeting the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act on Forest Licence A30171 near Kaslo, according to a new report. The audit looked at timber harvesting, road and bridge construction, maintenance and deactivation, reforestation, wildfire protection and associated planning carried out between Sept. 1, 2017, and Sept. 26, 2019. “This is a very challenging operating area for engineering, harvesting and silviculture, with many sensitive environmental values and local public interest,”said Kevin Kriese, chair, Forest Practices Board. “In addition, a previous owner of the forest licence left a legacy of poor practices that was inherited by Cooper Creek when it took over. We were pleased to find that Cooper Creek carried out sound forest practices. Auditors specifically looked at old-growth management and caribou-habitat protection, and found Cooper Creek fully complied with legal requirements for both.