A fundraiser for people who have been arrested for protesting old-growth logging over the last week has topped $18,000 since it was started on Sunday. The organizer, Alex Hughes, said she has not been at the Fairy Creek area blockades located on forest services roads between Cowichan and Port Renfrew, but has followed closely on social media. When protesters called for financial support for people who were arrested, she started a GoFundMe campaign. Hughes says the money will be sent to the Indigenous land defenders to be used for legal aid and “costs associated with healing from RCMP violence.” Within two days more than 350 people had donation $18,000.

A historic agreement is bringing new funding to the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation (KHFN). The Hith’alis Agreement, a partnership between the B.C. government, KHFN and Coast Funds, provides $721,000 to enhance stewardship and management activities in KHFN territory in the Broughton Archipelago. “Partnerships such as this are so important to moving forward with First Nations communities,” said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. “Working together with the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, stewardship efforts in the region will receive the support they need to protect and sustain the territory.” …The endowed funds are managed by Coast Funds as part of an $89-million endowment supporting First Nations’ stewardship across the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii.

Barb Thomas

As one of Alberta’s leading sectors, forestry relies on healthy trees, but faced with challenges including climate change and environmental sustainability, there’s a need for constant improvement. Creating ways to develop fast-growing, well-adapted trees in the province is a task that researcher Barb Thomas and her team of scientists in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences (ALES) are taking on in various ways. Supported by funding from a Forest Sector Industrial Research Chair in Tree Improvement established by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Thomas and her team are filling a research niche for tree improvement programs run by industry and government. …“Our research is trying to maximize the growing potential on a given piece of land, so that enough wood is being grown on a shrinking landbase to sustain forest company operations and their local communities,” said Thomas.

I am writing to express my wholehearted support for those protesting against the logging of our last remaining old-growth forests. …We are now witnessing a growing alliance of Islanders from all walks (including nurses, teachers, professionals and seniors), who know there is something wrong in the woods, and who are standing up to protect what’s left before it’s gone – even if it means being arrested. …And researchers are clear in reporting that shockingly only about three per cent of old-growth remains in BC. Due to over-harvesting, the rest of our productive old-growth is gone forever. …nobody wants to see loggers lose employment, and it should be our provincial government’s duty to train resource workers in these dwindling industries to help them transition to good-paying jobs in more sustainable industries – jobs that don’t revolve around private plundering of rapidly diminishing resources.

The environmental group Wildisght has put out a call to action for reform of the Private Managed Forest Lands Act.  This is not the first time Wildsight has brought attention to the need for changes to the act. Private land logging under the act has different rules than those for Crown land logging, and clear cuts are not uncommon.  The lack of regulations for private land logging has shifted the burden to communities, forcing British Columbians to pay the price for lax provincial rules that let big companies claim tax breaks while clearcutting vast areas, Wildsight says.  ”Water, wildlife, and community recreation suffer in community after community when private land logging destroys forests. The Union of BC Municipalities has passed 15 resolutions dating back to 1991 asking the province to fix private land logging regulations, yet no real action has been taken.”

First nations will be playing a much bigger role within the Prince George Timber Supply Area (TSA).  Following a recent appointment by the province, the percentage of the Annual Allowable Cut for Indigenous communities within the TSA goes from the 3.6% mark established in 2012 to a whopping 14.9%.  “Over the past six months, the ministry has engaged with forest companies, local governments, and stakeholders regarding this apportionment,” said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development in a news release.  “I have considered the interests expressed by those groups as well as the input of First Nations in making this apportionment decision.”  The new allotment intends to give increased access to tenure agreements for more businesses and First Nations.

Additional coverage in the Prince George Citizen, by Hanna Petersen: First Nations get greater piece of Prince George Timber Supply Area

Garry Merkel

Last fall, during the B.C. election campaign, NDP leader John Horgan promised to implement the recommendations of an old-growth strategic review panel led by foresters Garry Merkel and Al Gorley.   After hearing from thousands of people all over the province, Merkel and Gorley called for a paradigm shift in the way B.C. manages its old-growth forests, saying old forests have intrinsic value for all living things and should be managed for ecosystem health, not for timber.  …Merkel, a member of the Tahltan Nation, is watching the Fairy Creek events closely. He’s also waiting to see how the B.C. government implements landmark provincial legislation that embraces the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  …”B.C. did an old-growth strategy 25 years ago. There were a huge number of really good recommendations. If we had implemented them, we would not be in the situation we’re in right now. We implemented almost nothing out of that report.”

About 75 Greater Victoria seniors travelled to the Fairy Creek watershed Tuesday to show their support for environmentalists who have been blockading logging roads since last August. The group, which said it was travelling at the invitation of Pacheedaht elder Bill Jones. …The group walked right by two police officers who were manning the blockade, Glover said after returning to Lake Cowichan at about 6 p.m. Environmentalists at the camp were jumping up and down with excitement when they saw the older activists, she said. …By mid-morning five people had been arrested at the Braden Camp in the Port Renfrew area. And at least 10 protesters had been arrested at a northern checkpoint at the McClure forest service road where the RCMP are restricting access.

RCMP arrested nearly 30 old-growth logging protesters on Tuesday, the most since Mounties began enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court injunction granted to Teal-Jones. It happened at around 8:30 a.m. when police came across a group blocking the Caycuse Main logging road. Even though the protesters were outside the injunction area, officers say they were breaking the law. …The protesters said they believed they were outside the injunction area and the group includes some who weren’t planning or willing to be arrested today but that’s what’s happening. …Meanwhile, Teal Jones Group started harvesting in the Caycuse region again on Friday and a company spokesperson says since then there’s no indication the protestors have slowed their harvesting plans.