PRINCE GEORGE – Log hauling is sometimes known as the most dangerous job in Canada. After a successful factual show series The Highway Thru Hell. The production crew focused their attention on the logging hauling industry in British Columbia. The series of shows are based around a logging family and the challenges the haulers face. Driving a logging truck on paved roads can have its challenges but once the roads turn into mud and tight turns it can become dangerous. In July last year, a camera crew followed a third-generation family of loggers throughout the interior of BC. The series Mud Mountain Haulers was produced with the backdrop of the Caribou Mountains in the Kamloops area, where hauling in the mud is common practice. The original series Mud Mountain Haulers is scheduled to premiere Monday 25 on Discovery.

The management of a contentious forestry area that includes Ymir’s watershed has changed hands. Fruitvale-based ATCO Wood Products became the licensee for Quartz Creek in December after the area was offered by B.C. Timber Sales during a reallocation of the Arrow Timber Supply Area. ATCO CEO Scott Weatherford said his company has yet to send any foresters into the area, nor have they reviewed any studies BCTS made while they were managing Quartz Creek. …In 2017, BCTS announced it would develop three cut-blocks in an area that included the community’s only watershed. The plan was met with local backlash as well as opposition from Regional District of Central Kootenay’s Area G director Hans Cunningham… The Lower Kootenay Band has also offered its support to the community. The Ymir Community Watershed Society …sent a letter to Premier John Horgan and the Ministry of Forests alleging BCTS had failed to address local concerns.

Gary Foster

FORT NElSON, B.C. – Northern Rockies Regional Municipality has received the region’s first cut and harvest in 12 years. A partnership between the Fort Nelson First Nation and the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality led to the acquisition of the largest community forest in the province of British Columbia. Over 200,000 cubic metres can be harvested each year. According to Mayor Gary Foster, this gives them control over their forests and gives them a way to attract business to the community. “We’ve been without a forest industry here for over a decade, and it’s had a devastating impact on our community, businesses, and homeowners.” …Foster says the energy around the community is one of a renewed sense of optimism. “We’re very excited about this, it will be bringing about 300 jobs to our community.”

The Forest Enhancement Society of BC provided close to $625,000 toward two projects in the Cariboo region, both of which are nearing completion and are focused on reducing wildfire risk in forested areas near Big Bar Lake, which is located approximately 40 kilometres west of Clinton, B.C. The areas were identified as priorities for wildfire risk mitigation by the 100 Mile House Resource District. The width of the fuel breaks ranges from 100 to 300 metres in strategic areas around Big Bar Lake, and they total more than three kilometres in length.

Gerald Cordeiro

A project proposed by a local timber company for a forest near Nelson would combine food-growing, wildfire prevention, and timber harvesting.  The Selous in Bloom project envisions an agroforestry initiative on two hectares of Kalesnikoff Lumber Ltd.’s timber tenure on forested land just south of Nelson. Agroforestry is the practice of growing trees in conjunction with food crops.  …The Selous in Bloom idea was originated by Gerald Cordeiro, a forest development manager at Kalesnikoff Lumber.  He says this experiment could improve on conventional methods of mitigating wildfire danger, which mostly involve thinning the forest and cleaning up the forest floor.  …Agroforesty, he said, would create a multi-level, diverse, fire resistant forest and garden that would also improve local food security and provide employment.

Re: “North Cowichan to dip into reserve funds to cover forestry costs”, (Citizen, Jan. 21, 2021). This article causes me concern and gives me hope. My concern is with the use of the forest reserve funds, built up since the early 1980s. …this reserve needs to be replenished soon. Whether this is by the sale of carbon credits, timber, recreational fees, or a combination of the three, I suggest that this continues to be a key component of fiscal and operational planning. Previous Forest Advisory Committees deserve credit for setting up this fund and stewarding it over the years. The immediate past municipal forester deserves credit for growing it. My hope relates to the submission of a grant application to the Firesmart Community Funding and Supports Program. I suggest that the fire hazard within the municipal forest reserve has not been given the consideration that it needs in the forest review. 

In the last election, Premier John Horgan promised to save old-growth forests. This was a popular pledge in an election he went on to win in a landslide.  The time to move forward on this promise is right now. Far from being too big a challenge to tackle in the midst of COVID-19 recovery, protecting old-growth and shifting to a sustainable forest industry is perfectly suited to this moment.  In its first term the NDP government created an independent panel to review forest management, released that panel’s report calling for a full paradigm shift and then promised to fully implement its recommendation and save old-growth — that’s significant. …But acknowledging a crisis and acting on it are two different things.   Whether driving down the backroads, wandering through sprawling clearcuts or standing on the stump of a freshly logged thousand-year-old tree, there’s no evidence that we’ve got a government committed to protecting ancient forests.

A giant has fallen in North Vancouver.  Capilano River Regional Park has said goodbye to one of its last standing sentinel trees.  The Douglas fir tree, estimated to be around 500 years old, two metres in diameter, and 58 metres tall, fell on Dec. 8, 2020 due to natural causes.  “It was felled by laminated root rot, a natural process that affects many Douglas fir trees as well as other conifers,” said a Metro Vancouver Regional Parks spokesperson.  Laminated root rot is caused by a fungal pathogen, Phellinus weirii, which spreads when healthy roots of a tree come into contact with diseased roots. It’s one of the most damaging root diseases in British Columbia for Douglas fir and grand fir trees, according to the province’s Field Guide to Forest Damage in B.C. report.  “The disease causes root decay, which can lead to significant growth reduction, and makes trees susceptible to toppling,” the report states.