April 30 will mark one year since the B.C. government received the Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR) panel’s report… One that, if fully implemented, would protect remaining endangered old-growth forests, advance reconciliation with First Nations and chart the transition to a value-added, predominantly second-growth forest sector in B.C. The new forests minister is adamant forestry workers and communities be supported while any changes in the sector take place. …But the minister must first acknowledge that continued reliance on B.C.’s dwindling old-growth resources is neither sustainable nor responsible… She must also acknowledge that status quo forestry is already undermining community resilience and failing to safeguard forestry jobs. …The major forestry companies aren’t the job creators they tell us they are. Instead of planning for the future, they’re managing for decline. …Yes, more analysis and consultation is needed to steer the forest sector in a new direction… 

Stewart Muir

If all your information is from high-volume advertising campaigns, the following might come as a surprise: the Fairy Creek watershed near British Columbia’s Port Renfrew is not at risk because of forestry. …The claim that the watershed is about to be reduced to a massive clearcut is simply not true. All of the currently permitted harvesting that Teal-Jones wants to perform lies outside of the Fairy Creek watershed itself. …The reality is that Fairy Creek represents all that is successful and good about modern forestry as practiced in British Columbia. Here, over 80 per cent of the area is sustainable forest-management certified. …In fact, its lovely appearance today is a direct consequence of many decades of successful forest management practices including reforestation. No matter what happens in Fairy Creek in future, with today’s strict regulations remain in place we can know that its special values will not be diminished.

The relationships between Indigenous nations and British Columbia’s mining sector are set to change as the province works to match its laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Mining Minister Bruce Ralston says… “Investors are looking for signs that things are being done right, things are being done fairly”. However, details of when and how B.C.’s mining laws may change because of the declaration aren’t yet known. …In the meantime, companies must chart their own path to comply with the declaration or risk legal uncertainty, said Merle Alexander, a Vancouver-based lawyer. …Designed to facilitate consent-based agreements between the province and Indigenous nations whenever their rights are affected, B.C.’s act… should create a path to greater certainty — one that’s outside the courts — for industries, such as mining, forestry, and natural gas, he said. But it’s not in complete compliance, he said, because the 2018 Environmental Assessment Act.

The B.C. Supreme Court has reserved its decision until Thursday on an injunction application by logging company Teal Jones Group to remove protesters and blockades from its logging operations near Port Renfrew. The court heard arguments from both sides on Thursday and Friday. In its application, Teal Jones asked for the removal of an eight-month blockade and authorization to arrest anyone impeding workers and equipment. Protesters say they are protecting one of the last pristine watersheds on southern Vancouver Island from the chainsaws. …Teal Jones Group wants access to the area to log about 200 hectares of a ridge line above a protected valley, but protesters claim logging will trigger erosion and a ripple effect that will destroy the watershed and trees estimated to be up to 1,000 years old. Rainforest Flying Squad, the group behind the blockades, argued in court the public interest is best served by the preservation of old-growth forests.

The B.C. government has used $12 million of its $10 billion COVID-19 relief fund to expand a forest job program that was first set up to retain people in communities where their sawmill closed down after the pine beetle epidemic.  Forests Minister Katrine Conroy says the renewed program can expand to the coastal region, with a total of 180 land-based projects such as caribou habitat restoration, firebreaks around communities, recreational trail and bridge repairs.  There is no shortage of repair work after two record-breaking forest fire seasons, as well as the flooding, landslides and falling trees that occur every year across the province.  …The coastal expansion covers removal and cleanup of seven landslides on a Haida Gwaii forest road, as well as danger tree and forest health work at recreation sites near Port Alberni, Youbou, Lake Cowichan, Port Renfrew, Powell River and Sechelt.

Activists fighting against the logging of Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth forests will have to continue to hold their breath after a B.C. Supreme Court decision on the future of their blockades was postponed Friday.  Earlier this month in Vancouver, the court heard an injunction application from logging company Teal Jones, requesting to remove the protester’s blockades from two sites in the Port Renfrew area until Sept. 4. It also asked the court to allow RCMP to arrest and remove anyone in violation.  …Teal Jones is concerned about the cost of delays, though. In court documents, the company estimates the inaccessible lumber is worth about $10 million.  …The decision is now expected to be made April 1 at 10 a.m., according to activists.

About 70 people took to the streets Friday at noon in downtown Prince George, B.C., calling on the province to do more to protect old-growth forests in northern B.C.  The rally — launched by local environmental concern group Conservation North — is part of a four-day global Scientist Rebellion campaign against climate change from March 25 to 28.  Art Fredeen, professor of ecosystem science at University of Northern British Columbia and a speaker in the rally, says continued logging of old-growth forests is affecting not only biodiversity but also the climate.   “Our old-growth forests sit at this nexus of holding carbon from the atmosphere,” Fredeen said Friday to Andrew Kurjata, the guest host of CBC’s Daybreak North. “The habitat that they create for wildlife and other types of life is just astounding.” 

Additional coverage in Prince George Matters: ‘Last chance’ rally calls B.C. to protect Prince George and interior old-growth forests

VANCOUVER — Protesters in Vancouver, who are demanding an end to old-growth logging in B.C., brought traffic to a halt on the Cambie Street Bridge on Saturday.  The demonstration was in solidarity with those blockading access to an old growth forest on Vancouver Island near Port Renfrew.  “We’re in solidarity with the peaceful demonstrators that are blockading at Fairy Creek to stop the logging of the old growth forests that are there,” said Karly Pinch a demonstrator with Extinction Rebellion.  …Protests also took place in Victoria where hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the grounds of the legislature. That protest was a rally against Teal Jones Group, the logging company seeking a B.C. Supreme Court injunction to remove activists and members of the Pacheedaht First Nation from a the blockade at Fairy Creek.

Additional coverage in the Georgia Straight: Police end Cambie Bridge blockade by arresting six Extinction Rebellion activists.