Old-growth logging was ‘goal’ of Interfor: BC Forest Appeals Commission decision

By Brenna Owen
The Canadian Press in the Financial Post
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

BC-based Interfor reaped an estimated $1.8 million in net profit from logging in old-growth areas that were meant to be preserved, a decision by the province’s Forest Appeals Commission says. The commission upheld the finding that Interfor committed eight contraventions of the Forest and Range Practices Act with the logging between 2012 and 2016 in the Arrow Lakes area of southeastern BC. …Interfor’s forest stewardship plan for the area stipulated that logging should not take place in old-growth management areas except in certain circumstances. It said Interfor’s site plans didn’t meet those requirements. Instead, it said the configuration of the cut blocks “indicates that the harvesting of (old-growth management areas) was a goal for Interfor, rather than confining such harvesting to exceptional circumstances,” as required by the stewardship plan. …Interfor acknowledged that its operations had involved logging old-growth management areas. But the company claimed it had complied with its forest stewardship plan.

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