Large scale clearcutting of second-growth forests near Shirley in 2011.

Letter to the Editor: Governments failing forest industry

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As you may be well aware, our successive B.C. governments have had no interest in delaying or stopping logging of old growth trees. Their record is abysmal plus disgraceful in this regard.

The exporting of B.C timber in the round, is tantamount to cutting one’s nose off to spite one’s face.

Our once-vibrant forestry industry is so emasculated it is now a ghost of its former self. Yet we still export raw logs!

This misguided conduct by foresters, abetted by our government, yea, even encouraged by them, has all the indication of a policy that is out of touch with reality.

Plywood, furniture, pre-assembled units, these are non-existent today.

Sawmills have gone the way of the dodo, because of the lack of upgrading or the offer of financial backing at reasonable rates.

To see the province’s infrastructure go down the tube is not my idea of a sustainable economy.

Mr. Premier, please take your head out of the sand soon.

G. Manners

Cowichan Bay

Scientists Urge Canada to Protect Its Northern Rainforests as Climate Change Insurance

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Vancouver – A new book released this week highlights the urgent need to protect Canada’s more than 20 million hectares of pristine temperate and boreal rainforests. Found in British Columbia, Newfoundland, Quebec, and New Brunswick, these globally important rainforests absorb and store vast amounts of carbon. Scientists argue that protecting these rainforests is a critical insurance against climate change and are calling on the Canadian government to take this message to the upcoming global conference on climate change.  

The announcement comes as the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), of which Canada is a member, prepare for the sixteenth conference on climate change in Cancun, Mexico (https://unfccc.int/2860.php),  following up on last year’s global summit in Copenhagen. Deforestation contributes more than the entire global transportation system in release of dangerous greenhouse pollutants.[1] Though governments are working on ways to reduce these emissions through a United Nations collaborative program[2] (called REDD plus), the program is aimed only at deforestation in developing countries and does not include temperate and boreal rainforests that are the world’s forgotten rainforests due to ongoing logging. The United Nations also has declared 2011 “International Year of Forests,” calling on nations to celebrate forests and open dialogue on how to sustainably manage them[3].

The appeal to government representatives at the climate change summit is part of a new book edited and co-authored by Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist of the U.S. based Geos Institute (www.geosinstitute.org) titled “Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World: Ecology and Conservation”(for press access to the book: https://bit.ly/cU5mY9).  According to DellaSala, “Canada’s rainforests cleanse the air, purify drinking water, provide unparalleled hunting and fishing opportunities, and store vast amounts of carbon in giant trees, dense foliage, and productive soils. When these rainforests are cut down, much of their carbon is released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide where it contributes to dangerous global warming. We have to stop treating these rainforests as if they stop at international boundaries and begin working together on our shared conservation interest.”

Canada’s rainforests include such notable places as the Great Bear, Haida Gwaii, and Clayoquot Sound as well as less well known rainforests along the windward slopes of the Columbia and Canadian Rockies and in Eastern Canada. DellaSala was part of a team of scientists that put together the rainforest book including two chapters on Canada’s rainforests. The book includes a global appeal to decision makers from rainforest scientists to conserve rainforests throughout the world as part of global discussions underway to limit deforestation.

Paul Paquet, Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s Senior Scientist, and one of the book co-authors, stated “”British  Columbia contains approximately 25 per cent of the planet’s remaining primary temperate rainforest. Given the diminished and impoverished state of temperate rainforest globally, the importance of protecting what remains in BC must be elevated. Only limited protection now exists for BC’s coastal rainforest, with most of the irreplaceable highly productive and biodiverse old growth already having been liquidated.  Consequently, from an ecological perspective a substantial portion of what remains needs full protection to compensate for what has been permanently damaged.”

Canada’s majestic rainforests have always been a core part of our history and culture, protecting them may also be one of our best bets for the ensuring a safe and healthy future,” said Faisal Moola, co-author of the book and Director of Science at the David Suzuki Foundation. “Keeping the carbon in the rainforest is better for the climate, better for nature, and ultimately better for our own wellbeing.”

While much international attention has been focused on BC, Canada also has lesser known rainforests in the east. “New Brunswick’s rainforests have been a prime target for conversion to tree plantations because of their productive soils and the high volume of wood they can yield, said David Coon, Executive Director of Conseil de Conservation. “We need to transform our relationship with the forest and embrace an ecological consciousness. Our future depends on it.”

See a summary of the book at:

https://www.geosinstitute.org/images/stories/pdfs/RainforestSummaryfinal11-17-10.pdf

SAVE OUR CLIMATE AND ANCIENT FORESTS!

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The ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE’s Special INFO NIGHT, CELEBRATION, and FUNDRAISER!

Please support the new organization in its crucial, formative first year! See great speakers, have a drink, meet other supporters, and make a donation if you can!

Elizabeth May, John Horgan, Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Adriane Carr, Jens Wieting, and other speakers…

TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 2010
Ambrosia Centre,
638 Fisgard St.,
VICTORIA, BC
7:00- 8:00 pm  Presentations and Slideshows! (FREE)
8:00-9:00 pm  Fundraiser, Drink, and Socialize! (Donations during the pledge auction…)

Confirm and invite others on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143700762345115&index=1

BC’s old-growth forests are vital for mitigating climate change by storing far more carbon per hectare than the second-growth tree plantations that replace them.

Conversely, climate change is destroying our old-growth forests by killing more trees through intensified winter storms, droughts, and disease.

With Stephen Harper recently killing Canada’s only climate change legislation through the unelected Conservative Senate just before the UN Climate Summit begins in Mexico (the follow-up to last year’s Copenhagen summit) and with the BC Liberal government still contending with a straight face that “we have more old-growth forests today than we did historically” (Forest Minister Pat Bell on the “Voice of BC” in September), we SERIOUSLY must expand the movement for our forests and climate!

The Ancient Forest Alliance, a new organization launched in January of this year, has grown by leaps and bounds with thousands of supporters. We‘re almost 1 year old and if we are to sustain and expand our campaign into a more powerful provincial force, we need YOUR support!

We’ve organized numerous hikes, expeditions (including finding the Avatar Grove), slideshows, rallies, and petition drives, brought on board many new allies, and garnered a huge amount of provincial and national media coverage on our campaigns. See some of what we’ve done at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news.php

But we need YOUR help to keep going and growing!

PLEASE COME OUT and INVITE FRIENDS and FAMILY to JOIN US!

So…

In the 1st Hour:   Hear some of Canada’s MOST ACCOMPLISHED long-time forest activists and see a truly SPECTACULAR SLIDESHOW

In the 2nd Hour:   We hope you stay for this, to donate during the PLEDGE AUCTION, along with having a drink or two (if you stay you get a FREE drink ticket for the bar if you’re 19 or older) and SOCIALIZING with the other supporters and AFA activists from Victoria and Vancouver.

Here is a list of the evening’s presentations. Each will be quite brief:

“Ecology and Politics of BC’s Ancient Forests, the spectacular Avatar Grove, and the First Year of the Ancient Forest Alliance,” spectacular slideshow by TJ Watt and Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance

“The UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Stephen Harper’s sabotage of Canada’s Climate Bill, and Prospects for Climate Progress,” by Elizabeth May, Author of “At the Cutting Edge: The Crisis in Canada’s Forests” and co-author of “Climate Change for Dummies”, former executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, and current national leader of the Green Party of Canada

“BC’s Climate and Forests Campaign:  The push for forest protection and climate conservation areas in BC”, by Jens Wieting, Sierra Club of BC coastal forest coordinator.

NDP MLA John Horgan with also speak on his support for saving the ancient forests of the Avatar Grove!

“Grassroots movements and environmental activism: Some lessons from the 1980’s and ‘90’s”, by Adriane Carr, former Wilderness Committee executive team member and Clayoquot Sound campaigner and deputy Green leader of Canada

Adriane will also be the Pledge Auctioneer to help us raise funds that night! (she’ll explain how a Pledge Auction works)

For more info contact the Ancient Forest Alliance at info@16.52.162.165

Avatar Grove: Don’t Miss It

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Many of you will have seen James Cameron’s movie, Avatar. It’s set in the distant world of Pandora, where industrialization threatens both the indigenous people and the planet’s environment.

Some of you may have heard that we have our own ‘Avatar Grove’ on southern Vancouver Island. Located just 15 minutes from Port Renfrew, the Grove is a magnificent place populated with oldgrowth red cedars including ‘Canada’s Gnarliest Tree,’ a giant tree with a 12 foot wide, contorted burl.

I recently took a trip to Port Renfrew to see the trees for myself. Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance gave myself, Mike Hicks, the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area director, and Jon Cash of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce a tour of Avatar Grove and a nearby clearcut littered with giant stumps. The contrast was striking.

I believe there is more value in oldgrowth forests standing up than there is lying on the ground. They sustain species at risk, assist in our attempt to fight climate change, and encourage opportunities for education and eco-tourism. Rather than logging this area, providing a few months of short-term employment, I would rather we develop a plan to get more value from our oldgrowth forests.

Forest-dependent communities, First Nations and local government need to know the province’s land base can still provide jobs. But what is missing is the provincial government’s plan to make it happen.

Long-term, stable jobs can be created on the land base. Let’s focus on better managing our second growth forests. Developing value added industry by providing log owners opportunities for sales here on Vancouver Island.

Much of our productive lands on Vancouver Island have already been logged so it’s obvious that the future of forestry is in sustainable second-growth harvesting. Sawmills need to be re-tooled to deal with second-growth timber. Updating the mills will keep workers in the forest and support our local economies.

Our second growth forests can and should provide local employment not just in the woods but through remanufacturing wood locally. Our region was built on forestry and I believe we can be sustained by local value added manufacturing.

Eco-tourism is crucial to this plan. Encouraging travelers from across the globe to visit our region, stay in hotels, eat in local restaurants, shop at local stores – the economic benefits are obvious. And we get to share with the world what we already know, that the beauty and the majesty of Vancouver Island is unmatched and that we will do all we can to preserve it.

I’d encourage you to visit Avatar Grove. To take it all in before, sadly, it may be too late.

Log exports a thorn in the side of communities

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While some business owners argue that raw log exports keep lumber companies solvent while they wait for the industry to turn around, others point out that tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the lumber industry and raw log exports discourage creating new ones.

I have long opposed raw log exports. I’ve heard from too many people who lost their jobs and have seen strong companies like Madill shut down because our local lumber industry was in decline.

Now that the industry seems to be on an uptick with the Western Forest Products mill in Ladysmith starting up again, we still need a national forest strategy to keep the industry healthy and sustainable.

New Democrats have some solid ideas on what a strategy should include. We know that offering one-off programs like the green transformation fund can help immediate problems but we need other cost effective and efficient policies working together to support a long-term revitalization of the forestry sector.

A value-added tax credit program that escalates along with the level of local production would encourage job creation in forestry towns. Companies that ship raw logs would not qualify for this credit but others that use raw logs locally to produce paper, or veneer or other lumber products would.

Loan guarantees for large and small operations with significant business in the forestry sector is another important strategy to improve the industry. Guarantees give banks assurances that they will be paid back and helps release credit into the marketplace.

It is a strange situation that while consumers can access record-low mortgage rates right now, small and medium-sized businesses have had trouble getting credit.

With loan guarantees, lumber companies can re-tool and modernize their operations while maintaining their payroll.

None of these will work without concerted effort to reduce or eliminate the effect of unfair US subsidies for American mills. Providing a similar level of subsidy to Canadian mills could cost between $2 and $5 billion — but that isn’t what stakeholders here want. They want to compete on a level playing field.

So it is up to the federal government to negotiate with the Americans to ensure unfair subsidies are not propping up mills there.

That includes companies here deciding to export raw logs to their American operations to keep them profitable while Canadian mills close for lack of fibre.

Jean Crowder is the NDP Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Cowichan.

Much of Vancouver Island's second-growth forest is being logged quickly and shipped out of BC as raw logs instead of being processed and manufactured at local mills.

Minister says more log shipping capacity needed in B.C.

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The future of exporting logs from both Prince Rupert and Vancouver looks bright as Forest Minister Pat Bell announced on November 2 that Canada has surpassed Russia to become China’s largest trading partner when it comes to softwood lumber, but notes that now is not the time for B.C. to rest on its laurels.

“The number one thing we hear from CEOs here in China is about freight capacity for shipping to China. They are very concerned and say that we need to step up to ensure that the capacity is there,” said Minister Bell during a November 2 media call, noting that moving into the top position “is a reach benchmark”.

“Vancouver is almost at capacity and Prince Rupert has only incremental capacity available…It is one of the things we have already turned our attention to and Shirley Bond, the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, is already doing work in that area.”

Currently Prince Rupert ships both raw logs, with 264,389 tonnes shipped as of the end of September – an increase of 73 per cent compared to the same time period – and in containers through Fairview Terminal, and those numbers could see significant growth based on this recent trade mission to China. As well as attending the groundbreaking of a new four story housing complex that will have three stories built from lumber in a development area that is expected to house 100,000 people, Bell said there are three more mid-level and two low-level housing developments on the way and a new Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with a subsidiary of the largest importer of softwood lumber in the country.

“[The housing] is a first, a new entry into the Chinese market that will hold great benefits for B.C.,” said Bell, noting that Cedar is the most dominant lumber requested for high end housing in the county.

“We’ve moved away from having to build demonstration houses to attract developers and we are now at the point where they are approaching us.”

But Skeena – Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen lashed out

at the Minister for his comments on the future of log exporting to Asia.

“Our capacity for shipping value-added products should be the question. It is great that we are interacting and trading with China, but to ship raw logs and resources when our mills are suffering is ridiculous,” he said during a November 3 media call.

“To hear the Minister of Forests talk about exporting raw logs is very frustrating…It is unconscionable for a forest minister to be talking about shipping raw logs, period. We should be scratching and fighting for all value-added product that we can get.”

B.C. minister denies selling out lumber industry in China

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Selling lumber, not logs, is the focus of a B.C. sales blitz in China, provincial Forests Minister Pat Bell said Monday.

Bell, speaking from China, lashed out at criticism of his government’s sales efforts and emphasized a just-completed deal for Vernon-based Tolko Industries Ltd. to sell about 364 million board feet of lumber to Chinese companies, including studs made of wood damaged by pine beetles.

“To suggest we should not try and build a brand new market is completely irresponsible,” Bell said.

Ken Wu, founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, said last week that the government should bar the export of raw logs and old-growth wood to China.

Wu said stricter export regulations should be put in place to ensure Canadian manufacturing jobs do not move to China. Raw logs are increasingly attractive to China, where labour costs are cheaper than in Canada and factories can be built quickly, he said.

“It’s a set-up for a huge ramp-up for raw log exports because there’s no restrictions beyond saying they’re surplus to domestic needs.”

However, Bell said increasing sales of lumber, not raw log exports, is at the top of his agenda.

Currently, he said, lumber makes up 93 per cent of wood products going to China — the remaining seven per cent consists of raw logs.

“And the vast majority of that (raw logs) is from Coast Tsimshian Resources in the Terrace region where no mills are up and running, although we are working very hard to change that,” Bell said.

There is a detailed process to determine that export logs are surplus to B.C.’s needs before a permit is issued, Bell said.

The province regulates raw log exports from Crown lands and the federal government regulates exports from private land.

This summer it was estimated that during the first six months of the year, B.C had exported 387,000 cubic metres of low-grade logs to China, the world’s largest importer of logs.

“I don’t worry about it because we have a very clearly defined export process and only surplus logs are sold,” Bell said. “Also, it is far more efficient to ship kiln-dried lumber long distances than it is to ship logs.”