VICTORIA – An audit of the district managers’ obligations to maintain forest service roads (FSRs) in the Okanagan Shuswap Natural Resource District has found the FSRs and crossing structures were built and maintained appropriately as required by the Forest and Range Practices Act. The government, through the district manager, must maintain FSRs that are not being maintained by forest companies or BC Timber Sales. In the Okanagan Shuswap district, this consists of 1,203 kilometres of road, all of which are classified as “wilderness road.” Wilderness roads are roads not being used for industrial purposes. On these wilderness FSRs, the district manager is responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of the roads and ensuring the roads’ drainage systems are functional.

Seeing news lately of the Fairy Creek and area blockades, protesting the cutting down of old growth forests, reminds me of the film documentary I worked on, Battle For The Trees, in 1993. The politics hasn’t changed considerably, and what you see is a new generation and community continuing the cause as it was in 1993. …Two years after the film’s release, the neighbouring area of upper Carmanah and Walbran became a provincial park largely because the community of protesters and the film brought the issue to world wide public attention. …The film is not a protest against logging. It examines the battle on both sides, corporate interests and public process. It offers some practical solutions that balance economical needs with preservation of ancient forests. …That brings me to my thoughts of how old growth can be of great economic value for B.C. tourism.

Endangered whitebark pine, pathways for pollinators, wetlands and habitats for swallows and bats will all benefit from new environmental restoration initiatives as part of Columbia Basin Trust’s Ecosystem Enhancement Program. …Giving Whitebark Pine a Growing Chance – $611,000—Whitebark pine is an endangered high-elevation species that moderates snowmelt and stabilizes soil. …This project, led by the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada, will restore and enhance 300 hectares of habitat in the North and Upper Columbia sub-regions of the Basin. The project will increase the number of trees with resistance to white pine blister rust and minimize losses of trees and genetic diversity to mountain pine beetle….”This five-year project is the largest and most ambitious recovery project to-date outside of the National Parks,” said Randy Moody, President of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada.

A group of activists maintaining blockades aimed at preventing old-growth trees from being logged have filed a notice to appeal a BC Supreme Court decision that granted an injunction against them. The Rainforest Flying Squad argues the court erred when it granted Teal-Jones Group an injunction against the blockades. …A notice filed this week with the B.C. Court of Appeal requests a hearing to argue the decision by Justice Frits Verhoeven should be set aside. …It asserts Verhoeven erred in determining that the province’s decision to approve a cutting permit… was a policy consideration that outweighs the public interest in preserving remaining old-growth forests in B.C. Verhoeven had said in his April 1 written decision that the preservation of old-growth forests is a matter of public policy to be decided by government, while the public interest at stake was upholding the rule of law.

Additional Coverage in:

Victoria Times Colonist: Old-growth forest activists appeal injunction against blockades, by Andrew Duffy

BC Local News: Fairy Creek logging blockade group files appeal against injunction, by Zoe Ducklow

Focus on Victoria: Rainforest Flying Squad files appeal of injunction granted to Teal Cedar, by David Broadland

Gerald Cordeiro

Kalesnikoff Lumber Ltd. says the location of a road proposed for a forested area above the Nelson cemetery is still up for discussion. Since the company recently began marking out the road, a petition … has gathered 670 signatures as of April 29 in opposition to road-building in a hiking trail network. “Much time and effort has been put into building this trail network and it is used by hundreds of local people daily, and many more since the pandemic,” the petition reads. … Kalesnikoff’s forest development manager Gerald Cordeiro stated that the road is part of plans for wildfire mitigation work and for the proposed Selous in Bloom ecoforestry project. The wildfire mitigation work is being conducted in collaboration with provincial government and the Regional District of Central Kootenay, and will include some logging by Kalesnikoff, which holds the timber licence for the area.

An audit of the district managers’ obligations to maintain forest service roads (FSRs) in the Okanagan Shuswap Natural Resource District has found the FSRs and crossing structures were built and maintained appropriately as required by the Forest and Range Practices Act. The government, through the district manager, must maintain FSRs that are not being maintained by forest companies or BC Timber Sales. In the Okanagan Shuswap district, this consists of 1,203 kilometres of road, all of which are classified as “wilderness road.” … “While these roads are not currently being used by industry, they are open to the public and may be used for recreation access,” said Kevin Kriese, chairperson of the Forest Practices Board. “The board is pleased to find the district is doing a good job of looking after them.”

On May 1, 2016, a forest wildfire in the outskirts of Fort McMurray, Alta., caught the attention of an airborne forestry crew flying over the Athabasca oilsands. Bone-dry forests and arid May weather soon acted as kindling for this wildfire to spiral out of control. … and by May 3, it had engulfed about 2,400 homes in the area and 590,000 hectares of land. … The Fort McMurray wildfires resulted in the largest mass evacuation in Alberta’s history, and launched one of Canada’s most exhaustive first response efforts. … Just last week, the 2021 federal budget highlighted the urgency of creating community resilience through funding to Infrastructure Canada to support disaster mitigation projects such as wildfire mitigation … The budget also included funding for Public Safety Canada to support provincial and territorial disaster response and recovery efforts.

Threatened caribou herds in Alberta and British Columbia have lost twice as much habitat as they’ve gained over the last twenty years and the pace of loss is picking up, new research says. It concludes caribou protection measures such as shooting wolves that prey on them or penning pregnant cows for their protection won’t be enough to save the species. … Co-author Robert Serrouya of the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute said he and his colleagues used years of satellite data to determine how the forest on caribou habitat in B.C. and Alberta changed between 2000 and 2018. … The rate of habitat loss nearly doubled between the first and second decade of the study.

Salmon Arm council will soon be hearing about plans to log a portion of Mount Ida. On Monday, May 3, a representative of BC Timber Sales (BCTS) is scheduled to speak to the city’s 8 a.m. development and planning services committee meeting about its logging plans. The letter accompanying the agenda item is from the Okanagan Columbia Timber Sales Office. It is regarding proposed BCTS cut blocks and roads within the Okanagan Columbia Business Area. Received by the city on March 17, the letter states that as an identified stakeholder organization in BC Timber Sales operating areas, the city is invited to provide comments on the development that “may overlap your areas of interest.”