Regional environmental and conservation watchdog Wildsight is sounding the alarm on a pitch by Canfor to log in the Columbia Wetlands Wildlife Management Area (WMA). “Canfor is proposing to log in the fragile WMA. Pitched as a beetle salvage logging operation, the company’s efforts will do little to stop the spread of Fir Bark Beetle but will do significant harm to the sensitive ecosystem here,” Wildsight stated in a media release. …As of publication of this article (Friday, April 30), Canfor has not replied to e-KNOW’s request for comment made on April 23. “Logging in the WMA will not control the beetle infestation. The infestation is already advanced and the beetles will likely be elsewhere by the time any logging occurs,” stated Robyn Duncan, Wildsight’s Executive Director. “The proposed logging will further fragment mature forest adjacent to the wetlands and result in further losses to habitat and connectivity for species like grizzly bears and migratory birds.”

It’s clear that saving B.C.’s woodland caribou from becoming extinct is not as simple as protecting their habitat, according to the director of the provincial caribou recovery program. A report published earlier this week said the province’s approach of preserving caribou habitat has been failing and the caribou population will become extinct if changes aren’t made soon. It showed that caribou have lost twice as much habitat as they’ve gained over the past 12 years, with logging, road-building, wildfires and climate change mostly to blame. Darcy Peel, director of the B.C. Caribou Recovery Program, says … the solution isn’t as simple as restoring lost habitats because the province has been doing that alongside other management measures, including predator management, for more than a decade. …”The logging industry, the mining industry, the recreational industry and the government, both federal, provincial, municipal and Indigenous, all have to be part of the solution,” Peel said.

The possibility of constructing a forestry road through beloved piece of forest has galvanized several community members to petition the forestry company to reconsider. Several Nelsonites and people living outside of the city have been asking the Thrums-based Kalesnikoff Lumber to reconsider the construction of a “lower road” in the vicinity of the cemetery trails since it was announced earlier this year selective logging would begin in the area. …But the road access is not a done deal. Gerald Cordeiro, Kalesnikoff forest development manager, said. …“It has been proposed as a temporary additional access route that would benefit the wildfire risk reduction work being undertaken in the following ways. According to Kalesnikoff the upper slopes of the forest are too steep so an overhead cable harvest system would be used to harvest trees.

Gerry Warner

John Horgan’s NDP government won’t say it officially, but a recent article circulating in the media makes it obvious he’s given the forest industry the green light to liquidate the remaining old growth timber in B.C. and cash in on current high lumber prices. The article entitled “A Strategy for Forests that Benefits All British Columbians,” claims less than one per cent of the timber left in the province is logged annually and only one-quarter of that is considered old growth. And who are the authors of this hard to believe claim? Why it’s Jeff Bromley, long-time member of the IWA, once the biggest logging union in the province, and Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries. Gee, I wonder if this pair might be biased?

Nanaimo, BC — Mosaic Forest Management is preparing for the upcoming wildfire season by ensuring personnel are trained, and equipment is certified for wildfire prevention and suppression on Mosaic lands. Every summer, wildfire impacts forests across the province and represents a hazard to neighbouring communities and infrastructure. In 2018, the worst wildfire season in BC since 1950, 13,500 square kilometres burned by wildfire – the equivalent of almost a third of Vancouver Island! Mosaic’s annual preparation for wildfire season includes readying firefighting equipment, over 100 water trucks and tenders, reviewing key protocols and practices to minimize fire risk, and readiness training. In addition, we have deployed 38 satellite-linked real-time weather stations across Vancouver Island to measure temperature, humidity, and wind as inputs to our in-house modelling expertise to assess fire risk on a continuous basis at a local level.

Monumental western red cedar (Thuja plicata) and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) cloak the coastal rainforests along glacier-carved fjords from California to Alaska. … The tendrils of the tree roots reach through the soils, capturing precipitation as it seeps into the ground. Tree roots closest to the streams have access to nutrients from salmon through belowground flows as they return from the ocean for spawning. From tree to tree, the salmon nutrients are transported deep into the forest through an interactive network of mycorrhizal fungal symbionts that connect the roots. …The belowground connections of two sister species of the Rhizopogon mycorrhizal fungus in Douglas fir forests have been mapped using DNA sequencing, showing that the size and age of the trees is positively correlated with their connectivity to other trees. Thus, the biggest, oldest trees are connected to almost all of the other trees through their mycorrhizal linkages.

Protesters hoping to save old-growth forests want to get the right message out. In the Comox Valley, they have been gathering to hoist signs with messages for Premier John Horgan about the need to save the remaining old-growth in places like Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island. “John Horgan has said they’re doing something. He’s had four years now, and he’s still twiddling his thumbs,” said Jay Van Oostdam. …In the speech from the throne in April, the provincial government talked about reforming forestry legislation for the 21st century and taking action on recommendations to protect old-growth stands. …There were reports of a recent counter-demonstration nearby in support of logging. However, Joanne McKechnie, one of the old-growth protesters, shows off her sign, “Yes to Jobs, Yes to Saving Old Growth,” to point out they are not opposed to logging and forestry jobs but only what is proposed for remaining old-growth stands.

North Cowichan has stepped up patrols in the municipality’s forest reserve in response to an increase in tree poaching in recent months.  Shaun Mason, North Cowichan’s municipal ­forester, said it’s not uncommon to find a felled tree on occasion in the 5,000-hectare municipal ­forest reserve, but the illegal activity ramped up this year. In February, they found at least 50 trees had been cut down in the Mount Sicker area. “It was a hard-hit area, which is why it was a particular concern to us. We’d never seen something like that,” Mason said.  The more the foresters looked for stolen trees, the more they found, he said. “They were extremely crafty in hiding it in that area.”  The municipality is considering increasing the $200 fine for removing forest products, Mason said, and anyone caught stealing trees could be hit with fines for other violations, such as trespassing