Josie Osborne

Josie Osborne, Minister of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship, and Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, have released the following joint statement during Invasive Species Action Month: “As British Columbians, we all value the province’s rich, diverse wildlife and marine habitats, and recognize that invasive species are a major threat to our natural ecosystems and infrastructure. We rely on resilient land and water habitats, free from invasive species, for food, livelihoods, cultural purposes and much more. Our government works through the Inter-Ministry Invasive Species Working Group, which includes the ministries of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Agriculture and Food, to keep B.C.’s ecosystems and wildlife safe from the threats of invasive species. …during the eighth annual Invasive Species Action Month, we remind British Columbians to be vigilant in checking for and reporting invasive species when boating or exploring the outdoors.

The B.C. government will conduct aerial moth spray treatments in Lake Cowichan beginning in early May… to prevent lymantria moths, (formerly known as gypsy moths), from becoming established and to minimize the risk they pose to forests, farms, orchards and urban trees. About 402 hectares in Lake Cowichan will be sprayed along with 50 hectares in View Royal and 1,068 hectares in Nanoose/Lantzville/Nanaimo. The ministry said “trapping and monitoring results from 2021 show clear evidence that lymantria moth populations have increased dramatically in the areas slated for treatment this spring, likely as a result of outbreaks in Ontario and Quebec during the past three years. …As many as four applications of Foray 48B will be sprayed in early May and ending in early June. …The active ingredient, Bacillus thuringiensis var kurstaki (Btk)… only affects lymantria moth caterpillars after they have ingested it.”

In a forest west of Golden, B.C., Mirjam Barrueto follows a creek bed, heading uphill, her snowshoe-clad feet crunching on the hard crust of months worth of snow.  She’s in search of a booby trap of sorts, configured to snag furtive photos and videos of a mammal some might be afraid to encounter, but that Barrueto, a PhD candidate at the University of Calgary, is eager to discover: the wolverine. Once widespread across Canada, the range of wolverines has significantly decreased over the past two centuries. Considered regionally extinct in parts of Atlantic Canada, climate change is making things worse for many populations of the animal, both nationally and internationally. The species usually lives in places that have snow for many months of the year. Wolverines are now listed as “special concern” under Canada’s Species At Risk Act. But Barrueto’s work in southeastern B.C. could help safeguard a population of the species. 

The Westbank First Nation’s forestry company is preparing to salvage log the site of last summer’s Mount Law wildfire in Glenrosa. Consultation documents being shared with Peachland council show two planned cutblocks of a combined size of 104 hectares. Multiple other smaller non-wildfire-salvage harvests are planned for the Jack Creek and Lacoma Lake areas. All the planned harvest areas are within the Westbank First Nation community forest. “It should be noted that Ntityix (WFN’s forestry company) have recently shown themselves to be stewards of the watershed through selective logging blocks and reclamation of legacy logging roads; one of the primary sources of sedimentation into the creeks,” said a report to Peachland council from the municipality’s operations director Shawn Grundy. …Members of Peachland’s council have in the past been vocally opposed to logging in watershed. The municipality, however, has no ability to block the work even if it were to formally oppose it.

George Delisle

George Delisle’s …woodlot is a 15 minute drive west from Rock Creek in British Columbia’s Boundary region. The log home that he and Frauke recently moved into is within walking distance and sits on a property Delisle bought from his uncle in the 1980s. …Woodlots are restricted areas of woodland that are normally harvested as a source of fuel or lumber. The provincial program has been in operation for almost 75 years, but originally it was focused on giving farmers rights to forested Crown land. Then, in 1979, an amendment to the Forest Act enabled non-farmers to get woodlot tenures and the program grew dramatically. …Delisle also explains that he believes large-scale industrial forestry is too prescriptive. “Nature doesn’t work that way,” he says. …The Narwhal also reached out to the Forest Products Association of Canada, which declined to comment, and the BC Council of Forest Industries and Ministry of Forests, who did not respond. 

Zain Haq

A spokesperson for a group of activists who have shut down Vancouver intersections and bridges linking the North Shore is promising an escalation in actions in June with the purposeful intent to increase policing costs to a point that governments have to step in and respond to demands to address climate change.  Zain Haq, co-founder of Save Old Growth, said the organization’s fight is not with police, despite Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer saying publicly at two recent meetings that he is concerned about a ballooning cost to manage environment-related protests and concerns over safety of all involved.  “Our plan would be in June to escalate to a point where the cost is just too high for the police to see this as a public safety issue or as a protesting issue,” said Haq.

Ken Hoyle remembers checking the thermometer on the back deck of his home in Hedley, B.C., in late June last year, watching as the mercury rose to 46 degrees during the sweltering heat dome.   …”Obviously Lytton was a real wake-up in terms of the rapidity at which a fire could go through a community,” said Hoyle, who heads the Hedley/Upper Similkameen Indian Band FireSmart community board.  …But as communities like Hedley work with a sense of urgency to protect themselves from wildfires, they are, to some degree, at the mercy of the province, which is responsible for cleaning up combustible material on Crown land.   …The steep, treed slopes surrounding the unincorporated community are a significant contributor to its fire risk, according to Bruce Blackwell, the principal forestry consultant of B.A. Blackwell & Associates.  Blackwell’s company assessed Hedley’s fire risk in 2020 and determined that the village’s location supports “higher levels of extreme fire behaviour.”