VICTORIA — As the warm, dry weather of summer approaches, firefighters are preparing for the start of wildfire season. Though the current fire danger rating in Greater Victoria is low to moderate, fire services in the region want people to know that as forest floors dry out, it only takes seconds for a spark to become a blaze. …Langford Fire Department assistant chief of fire protection, Lance Caven says dry grass, twigs and needles on the forest floor are things that will fuel a wildfire. He says once a wildfire takes hold the risk of it spreading to other areas is high. …”The majority of wildfires are human caused because we don’t get a lot of lightning out here and that’s always something we check on when we have a wildfire, if there was any lightning activity,” said Caven. “It’s usually carelessness in some way, shape or form that has caused that wildfire.”

Clare Ogilvie

I feel like I have stepped back in time reading headlines this week about the arrest of Tzeporah Berman, with Stand.Earth. …I suspect that there are members of our community that would be over there with the protesters except for the travel restrictions. …It is heartbreaking to know that here we are, more than a quarter of a century later, and people still need to blockade forests to protect them. I don’t think I am alone as I say that I demand as a resident of B.C., a voter, and a citizen of the Earth that the NDP government stop the logging of old-growth trees now—not later. …B.C. Premier Horgan made an election promise to protect old growth, and it’s time he kept his word.

British Columbia is blessed with the richest biodiversity in Canada but also has the greatest number of species at risk. …the province must take immediate action to protect nature, uphold strong conservation values, and respect Indigenous self-determination over their territories. Logging is wiping out entire stands of trees hundreds or thousands of years old, leaving species without homes. Monumental mega-dams sever animal migration corridors, and mining disasters of epic proportions flood entire regions with toxic waste. …The province is outright failing to protect and recover species at risk and ecosystems. …Besides creating new laws [to protect ecosystems and reduce habitat loss], B.C. must fix existing ones, …ensuring the same level of protection from all types of industry. …We are running out of time … yet there is still a small window of opportunity. It’s up to the premier and this provincial government to choose one of two paths. 

The Canadian Association of Journalists, along with a group of news organizations and press freedom groups, says it plans to take the RCMP to court over its decision to restrict media coverage at the Fairy Creek blockades. …The CAJ says it has documented reports from numerous journalists who have been refused entry through the broad use of exclusion zones to the area where enforcement is taking place. “Over the past week, we’ve repeatedly seen the RCMP shift the goalposts on how it plans to allow journalists access in order to cover this important public interest story,” said CAJ president Brent Jolly. …The RCMP wouldn’t comment directly on the CAJ complaint but spokesperson Cpl. Chris Mansea said he doesn’t agree with the allegations. “There have been no restrictions for the media, he said. I like to think we’ve been very forthcoming with inviting the media every day.

VICTORIA — The quaint town of Lake Cowichan seems to be caught at the intersection of industry and activism. …The town has seen a boom in vehicle traffic passing through to head to the blockades, and is also dealing with loud nighttime protests outside the local RCMP detachment. They are just not the people who live here. They aren’t getting a lot of credibility and especially because they are breaking the law,” said Lake Cowichan Mayor Bob Day. “They are not getting a lot of mileage in the hearts and minds of the people of Lake Cowichan,” he said. …Lake Cowichan’s mayor is calling on the provincial government to take action to stop the ongoing blockades and arrests. …”I’m concerned that this is going to escalate, that community members are going to take matters into their own hands and it isn’t going to be pretty. We don’t deserve that,” he said.

Police say 58 people were arrested Tuesday as they enforced a British Columbia court injunction ordering the removal of blockades aimed at preventing old-growth logging on southwestern Vancouver Island. …The Mounties say more than 100 people have been arrested since enforcement of the court injunction began last week to allow workers with the Teal-Jones Group to resume logging in that area and in the Fairy Creek watershed to the south, near Port Renfrew. Sgt. Chris Manseau says police enforcement was initially planned for just one location Tuesday at a camp near Port Renfrew, but some officers were redeployed as protesters gathered along the McClure forest service road. He says in a statement that arrests were expected to continue there Wednesday.

More coverage: Protesters vow to fight on as BC RCMP continue enforcement (CBC News)

When Lorna Beecroft posted a photograph of a giant cedar tree being trucked on a Vancouver Island highway Monday, she thought she was just showing a few Facebook friends something that stunned her. Instead, her post has been shared more than 15,000 times and drawn responses from around the world. While some reacted with disbelief, even accusing her of fraud, for many it became a symbol of the ongoing battle over old-growth logging in BC. But according to the provincial government, and the driver who hauled the log, the cedar’s story is more complicated. ……A spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Forests…”It’s illegal to cut down exceptionally large trees”… “Judging from the photo, however, the tree does not appear to have been freshly cut, they said. “The tree appears to be salvaged from deadfall or cut quite some time ago.”

Katrine Conroy

Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, has released the following statement regarding the deployment of BC Wildfire Service personnel to Manitoba: “British Columbia has a long history of offering a helping hand to other provinces and countries when they need assistance fighting wildfires. We are pleased to do that again now. “On May 26, 2021, the BC Wildfire Service will send 41 firefighters and two support staff to Manitoba to help with firefighting efforts in that province. “COVID-19 precautions will be taken to protect the health of everyone participating, both during their time in Manitoba and on their return to this province. Firefighters will remain within their own ‘bubble’ and conduct operations separately from Manitoba’s firefighters.

Fourteen people were arrested on Saturday at Caycuse Camp, police say, in one of eight blockades in Pacheedaht and Ditidaht territories. Those present say the day’s arrests amplified concern about the legality of methods used by RCMP officers who are enforcing a court-ordered injunction meant to restrict opposition to logging. …“There were families, Elders, youth, and everyone in between there,” reports xʷ is xʷ čaa, also known as Katie George-Jim… …Asiyah Robinson says that night, feeling frustrated and terrified, she gathered with a group of supporters outside the Lake Cowichan police detachment to wait for the arrestees to be released. Aya Clappis, a Nuu-chah-nulth and Somali land defender, posted a live update on Instagram which shows people greeting and embracing people as they’re released from custody. …As documented in the Instagram live video, Indigenous and racialized youth were some of the last to be released.

More than seventy concern citizens from Extinction Rebellion West Kootenay staged a rally outside the office of Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy Tuesday in Castlegar to show solidarity with the blockade at Fairy Creek on southern Vancouver Island. Protestors are upset with the decisions by the Minister of Forests to harvest old growth forests in the Fairy Creek watershed. “Minister Conroy’s constituents are not going to stand by and let her office and the NDP government put this majestic stand of old-growth forest on the chopping block,” a Facebook post by DonaPaul Grace-Campbell said. Tuesday’s rally was held in conjunction rallies in Vancouver calling for an end to colonial violence, the logging of biodiverse old-growth, and the RCMP’s exclusion zone on Pacheedaht territory. …This group, consisting of high school students, grandparents, mums and babies, youth, health care workers, forestry workers and many other concerned citizens, gathered outside the Castlegar office

Old-growth logging opponents demonstrated in front of the Nanaimo RCMP detachment today, asking Mounties to stand down from enforcing an injunction against protesters on the south Island. More than 50 people have been arrested near Lake Cowichan and Port Renfrew over the past seven days as RCMP have enforced a B.C. Supreme Court civil injunction prohibiting protesters from interfering with Teal-Cedar Products’ forestry operations in the Fairy Creek watershed. …“We would like to see the police treating everybody equally…” said Leah Morgan, a coordinator with Extinction Rebellion. “My goal is to get the RCMP to treat us as peaceful protesters, not criminals.” Laura Jesson added that protesters do want people to be arrested at the blockades. “Because then the numbers build and build. This is how Clayoquot Sound was won in ’93 and ’94, because 900 people were arrested over the two summers. That’s part of the movement,” Jesson said.