Activists opposed to old-growth logging in British Columbia are planning to converge on the B.C. legislature grounds for a “super-rally” Saturday, prompting a warning from Victoria police to expect traffic disruptions in the downtown core. Police are planning to close Douglas Street to traffic from Centennial Square to the legislature grounds between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., when protesters plan to march to the government buildings. Additional police officers and surveillance cameras will be deployed downtown for the duration of the protest. …Dubbed the “United We Stand for Old Growth Forests! Declaration, March and Super-Rally,” the action is in response to the B.C. government’s failures to protect the province’s most at-risk old-growth forests from logging, according to a statement from the organizers.

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

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.

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.

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.”