A new series of photos has been released by the Ancient Forest Alliance to call for conservation of old-growth forests that are being affected by logging. The series was captured between 2020 and 2022 by photographer TJ Watt near Lake Cowichan and on the Ditidaht First Nation’s land on southern Vancouver Island. Watt’s work was funded by a grant partnership awarded by the National Geographic Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in order to provide Canadian explorers, scientists, photographers, geographers and educators with funding on a preservation storytelling basis. “Capturing these before and after images is quite a difficult process–both technically and emotionally–but I’m committed to exposing the ongoing threats ancient forests face until legislated protection can be achieved for them,” said Watt. “Only when seeing a side-by-side comparison can one truly grasp the scale of loss and devastation from old-growth logging.”

Bob Simpson

Former Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson will be part of a new provincial advisory council on forestry. …Simpson said, “it’s not predicated on my position as Mayor, but my background in the forest sector and some of the innovative thinking that was demonstrated in the forest sector … when I was the opposition critic for forestry”. “I think it’s the right framework of looking at resiliency of communities and then going to the land base forest practices … and it’s an interesting eclectic group of people to dig into that topic.” … “Quite frankly I think the BC Forest Sector is stuck in yesterday’s debates, so my hope is we’re looking at the land base issues through the lens of climate change and adaptivity … so that it continues to provide resources that drive the sector, and then more innovative practices with the limited fibre that we can extract from that land base now.”

It was more of a reminder than a rebuke. That said, the message from the British Columbia Forest Practices Board (FPB) comes through loud and clear: forest companies and government agencies working on public forest and rangelands in B.C. must adhere to the rules and spirit of provincial regulations rather than their own self interests. The FPB plans on keeping closer tabs in the future on companies harvesting forest stands impacted by the spruce bark beetle. …The board investigates any complaints it receives concerning forest practices on publicly owned lands. …The complainants voiced concerns about some of the harvesting activity on forest stands infected by the spruce bark beetle in sections of the Prince George, Mackenzie and Stuart Nechako natural resource districts. …It was suggested that logging the less severely infected elements of a stand was detrimental to future timber supplies. 

The Tahltan Central Government and the Province of B.C. have agreed to work together toward the development and implementation of a world-class wildlife stewardship regime. Called the Tahltan Central Government – British Columbia Accord on Wildlife Management, it will be led by Thaltan knowledge and expertise that will protect and preserve Thaltan wildlife culture and way of being. The accord highlights the Tahltan Central Government’s ongoing efforts to address the wildlife concerns of Tahltan people by protecting wildlife populations in Tahltan Territory with a focus on caribou restoration and predator management. Tahtan Territory is about  95,933 sq km in northern B.C. or the equivalent of 11 per cent of BC. …Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, said “this accord creates opportunities for expanded collaboration on wildlife stewardship that respects Tahltan needs and offers clear opportunities for resident hunters, guide outfitters and shared benefits.”

PEACHLAND, BC — Residents of the Central and South Okanagan are being warned about a large controlled burn that has started near Peachland. The BC Wildfire Service, Penticton Indian Band and Okanagan Nation Alliance are conducting a 170-hectare burn with support from Gorman Brothers in West Kelowna and the Okanagan Shuswap Resource District. …”We’re already getting calls about the work we’re doing so please let people know this is a prescribed burn. There’s no risk of fire and, and the main operations not happening yet we are just doing some preparation, and there’s a lot of smoke,” says Colman. …Smoke may be visible through until the end of November but the controlled burn is dependent on weather conditions, “we will only burn if the weather co-operates,” Colman says.

Two news organizations have aired recent investigative documentaries showing how trees in B.C.’s primary forests are chopped down, only to be turned into wood pellets that are burned by the millions of tonnes to make electricity in the UK. First, the BBC, then a few days later, CBC’s The Fifth Estate. Both investigations demonstrated that massive numbers of logs are being trucked to mills in B.C. owned by Drax, [which] turns those trees into pellets that leave B.C. in ocean tankers and burned at Drax’s North Yorkshire thermal electric plant. …Even the Wood Pellet Association of Canada acknowledges they use logs. They just argue that so-called “biologs” can’t be used for anything else because they are of such low quality. In a report commissioned by the association, the authors estimate that 19% of the feedstock for B.C. pellet mills is, in fact, logs. …The absurd practice of cutting down forests just to burn them must end.