Domenico Iannidinardo

West Coast environmental organizations are cautiously optimistic after a large forestry company announced deferrals of old-growth logging in some prized conservation areas in its private land holdings on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. Mosaic Forest Management, the largest private land-holder in B.C., is pausing logging on 400 square kilometres of forest for a minimum of 25 years, opting instead to rely on carbon credits to generate revenue. Areas that conservationists have for decades struggled to preserve, particularly on Vancouver Island, are included, said Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance.“It’s a big deal,” said Wu. “It was a complete surprise, and I was skeptical at first but … I recognized its significance. “It includes almost all the key areas and more, because it includes older second-growth, too.” …Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC senior forest and climate campaigner, said Mosaic’s announcement was bittersweet.

An anti-old growth logging group says it plans to mount multiple blockades of the Trans-Canada Highway in Revelstoke starting on April 4, saying that it expects the blockades will lead to arrest of protesters here. The Save Old Growth group is a relatively new protest-based organization in B.C. that emphasizes blockades of the Trans-Canada Highway as a means to pressure the provincial government to end logging of old-growth forests. …The group says its “demand” is legislation that ends all old-growth logging in B.C. and that it wants to engage in dialogue with the provincial government. In an April 1 media release, the group said the provincial government hadn’t been responsive enough to its demands: “So now we are left with no other option than to resume blockades at a significantly escalated intensity on the 4th of April,” they wrote.

An old-growth forest preservation activist launching a 25-day hunger strike and is hoping to find support for his cause in the Central Okanagan. Howard Breen, joined by fellow protester Brent Eichler, began a hunger strike April 1 as the start to the ‘Save Old Growth’ Spring Rebellion launches next week with highway shutdowns. …Taryn Skalbania, a member of the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance, echoed Breen’s sentiments that “deforestation is at the root of the climate change emergency in British Columbia.” Skalbania said she hopes the Breen’s hunger strike will draw public attention to the NDP’s 2017 provincial election campaign promise to curb raw log exports. …In an email to Black Press Media, Breen said one desired outcome of his protest is to have a meeting with Forests Minister Katrine Conroy, as well as to seek her resignation and further Premier John Horgan’s if the raw log policy continues.

Of the 188 First Nations who responded so far to the B.C. government’s request for a response to its plans to protect at-risk old growth forests from logging, 75 have agreed with the deferral plan, according to the Ministry of Forests. Seven have said no to the plan, and more than 60 said they want more time before responding… Originally, in November 2021, when the B.C. government announced its plans for a moratorium on old growth logging, it announced 2.6 million hectares of old growth forest would be “deferred.” …The Ministry of Forests has since clarified that 780,000 hectares of that old growth is not within the timber harvest land base, as it is deemed uneconomic. …Forestry consultant Jim Girvan has estimated removing more than 1 million hectares from the timber land base will [cause] as many as 10 sawmills may permanently close — five on the coast and five in the interior.

In January of this year, B.C announced the extension of its controversial wolf reduction program for another five years and is set to target the Kootenay, Cariboo, Omineca, Skeena and Peace regions of the province. The “aerial wolf reduction program” was created in 2015 to combat the decline of caribou herds in the province …In September 2021, the province was said to have sought input from B.C. residents on the program and found that, after more than 15,000 surveys, 59 per cent were against predator reduction… …One in six participants in the survey also believed B.C.’s resource development was the main cause of the caribou decline. The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs believes so too; in February they passed a resolution calling for an end to the wolf reduction program and to allow the First Nations in the province to handle the territory’s wildlife.

A handful of ranchers in BC’s Interior are getting ready to graze their cattle in concentrated areas near homes and community infrastructure, where they’ll eat the grasses that dry over the summer and heighten the wildfire risk. As part of a pilot program led by the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association, ranchers will corral their cattle in targeted areas for two to three weeks, explained general manager Kevin Boon. The cattle eat grasses that could serve as potential fuel for fires, which promotes new, green growth that doesn’t burn with the speed and intensity of grasses left to grow taller, he said. …Amanda Miller said “We’ve found time and time again, as a fire comes through, that often it will meet a fence line to a pasture that had just been grazed and the fire will stop.”

The Province and First Nations throughout B.C. are working in partnership to defer logging of old growth, while developing a new approach to sustainable forest management. Deferrals have been implemented on nearly 1.7 million hectares of old growth, including approximately 1.05 million hectares of B.C.’s forests most at risk of irreversible loss. “Our government’s new vision for forestry is one where we better care for our most ancient and rarest forests, First Nations are full partners in forest management, and communities and workers benefit from secure, innovative jobs for generations to come,” said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests. “By deferring harvest of nearly 1.7 million hectares of old growth – an area equal to more than 4,100 Stanley Parks – we are providing the time and space we need to work together to develop a new, more sustainable way to manage B.C.’s forests.”

LYTTON, BC — Nearly nine months after the devastating fire, Tricia Thorpe and her husband are rebuilding their house and other structures on their property — but this time she says they’re taking steps to fireproof the buildings. Fireproofing involves taking steps to make your home as fire-resistant as possible, according to Fire Smart B.C. …But fireproofing isn’t just needed in Lytton. Bruce Blackwell has been working on fire resiliency plans for governments for over two decades, but says most of them have sat on shelves. He adds that there have been plenty of warning signs in the past. “Fort McMurray was a wake up call. Slave Lake was a wake up call. Kelowna was a wake up call,” Blackwell said. …There are other steps that can be taken to make sure wildfires aren’t as destructive. Brendan Mercer says Indigenous people used to use cultural burning.

The B.C. government is well on the way to reach a target of temporarily deferring logging plans and operations on 2.6 million hectares of old-growth, according to a Friday update.  …To date the deferrals have been implemented on 1.7 million hectares, including a million ­hectares of old-growth forest most at risk of irreversible loss.  Although there were complaints about the short consultation timeframe, the Forests Ministry got responses from nearly all the 204 First Nations in B.C. and 75 of them so far have agreed to the deferral areas specified in the old-growth plan laid out last November.  Just over 60 asked for more time. …The budget projects a $700 million drop in forest revenues this year, blamed partly on the reduced harvesting of old growth, which contributes to a 12 per cent drop in the annual timber harvest. That’s a 40 per cent drop — from $1.8 billion to $1.1 billion — with more reductions expected in subsequent years.

Dave Rondeau fears a big eraser will be dragged across a vital part of Treaty 6 territory’s archaeological history.  The Métis researcher uncovers pieces of pre-contact Indigenous history, dusting off lithic tools and historical sites to find hints of the past hidden in the forests near Prince Albert.  He says logging plans are putting those sites in jeopardy, risking evidence of the history of Indigenous communities and early European settlement in the area.  “It either spreads the artifacts or destroys these sites,” he said.  Rondeau is also the consultation coordinator for Métis Local 66 while it engages with the provincial government on the Island Forests management plan.  …“(Consultation on the plan) was problematic and exceedingly onerous on the Métis communities who participated, and exclusionary to those who were not invited or were unable to attend,” according to a report by Aboriginal Law Group Inc.

Carl Archie

The B.C. government’s plan to preserve ancient and at-risk forest ecosystems has reached two thirds of its goal, gaining approval of Indigenous communities for proposed protected areas and logging plans.  The 1.7 million hectares now negotiated for protection exceeds the protected areas within the coastal region now known as the Great Bear Rainforest, Forests Minister Katrine Conroy said at an event to update progress on Friday. Among those signing on is the Canim Lake Indian Band in the Central Interior, whose representative described his people’s perspective on a century of industrial logging and ranching.  Canim Lake Councillor Carl Archie said it’s “ironic that the region is named after caribou” that were his people’s traditional main food source. …Archie endorsed Conroy’s move toward Indigenous-led land use planning that considers cumulative impacts of roads and logging. “Our caribou rely on old-growth forests for their very existence, and it’s our responsibility to bring them back,” he said.

Additional coverage in the Globe and Mail by Canadian Press, Brenna Owen: B.C. defers logging across an additional 1.7 million hectares of at-risk old growth

The B.C. government announced additional temporary measures on Friday to protect the province’s iconic old-growth trees that can live for hundreds of years and support rich ecological areas.  Approximately 1.05 million hectares of forests that are most at risk of irreversible loss will now be off limits to logging for at least two years, nearly half of what was determined to be at high risk by a scientific panel in November of 2021.  “We have made real progress,” said Katrine Conroy, minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development at a news conference on Friday.  …On Friday the province said deferrals have now been implemented for a total 1.7 million hectares of old growth, which includes 1.05 million hectares in the most at-risk areas. … “I’m really happy right now,” Garry Merkel said. “I think this is a monumental task and we are making incredible progress compared to what I was worried we would do.”