Some say the fate of British Columbia’s old-growth forests rests in the balance

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Here's a new article featuring renowned forest ecologist Dr. Andy MacKinnon about the fate of BC's endangered old-growth forests. Take note that the forest industry and BC government are spinning the situation about old-growth forests to make it appear as if they are not endangered and that they are already well protected – this is completely false, and they do this by including vast areas of stunted marginal non-commercial stands (bog forests, high elevation and far northern old-growth forests on steep rock faces with small trees, etc.) with the productive old-growth stands with big trees that have been heavily logged, and by combining the southern rainforest (Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland) with its different ecosystems, higher levels of logging, and far lower protection levels, with the northern rainforests (Great Bear Rainforest) where 20 years of boycotts by environmental groups of logging companies in the area resulted in a far greater level of protection in a more intact region of the province, ie. they are two different regions.

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Saanich -— The Douglas fir Andy MacKinnon leans against is 40 metres tall. It’s likely more than 500 years old and its fire-scarred trunk is almost two metres in diameter.

In most other countries, the tree would be the largest in the land, says MacKinnon, a forest ecologist who spent three decades with British Columbia’s government researching old-growth forests.

At Francis/King Regional Park, minutes from Victoria, the park’s trees are protected from logging, but about 150 kilometres west of Victoria, old-growth forests with 1,000-year-old trees twice the size of those in the park are being cut down every day, said MacKinnon.

The world’s largest trees face dangers similar to elephants, whales and bison that have been hunted to the brink of extinction, he said.

Right now, MacKinnon said it’s open season on B.C.’s old-growth forests outside of parks or protected areas.

“You hear debates about how much old growth we’d like out on the landscape and some people will say ‘X’ and some people will say ‘Y,’ but I think most people will agree that when you are down to less than one per cent, that’s too little,” he said.

MacKinnon is behind a push by some communities, business groups and politicians to stop logging in old-growth forests. The B.C. Chamber of Commerce recently endorsed a resolution to increase protection of old-growth forests where they have a greater economic benefit if they are left standing.

Port Renfrew, northwest of Victoria, has reported an increase in tourism in Avatar Grove, a 50-hectare section of old-growth forest named after the Hollywood adventure movie.

The Port Renfrew area is also known for Canada’s largest living trees, including a 70-metre tall Douglas fir named “Big Lonely Doug” by environmentalists because it was the only tree left standing after a logging clear cut.

The B.C. government is taking steps to protect forests, including the Great Bear Rainforest protection agreement. It will protect 85 per cent of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest from logging in an area on the central and northern coast of the province.

There are 1,000-year-old western red cedars and 90-metre tall Sitka spruce trees in the rainforest, which is also home to the white kermode bear.

Environmentalists, forest companies and First Nations cheered the deal as a model of compromise after two decades of protests and difficult negotiations.

The environmental applause continued with a new provincial park east of Prince George that’s the world’s only inland temperate rainforest. Cedar and hemlock trees were slated for logging, but local citizens, First Nations and academics built a series of trails into the area known as the Ancient Forest where thousands now marvel at trees with trunks measuring 16 metres in circumference.

Rick Jeffery, president of Coast Forest Products Association, said 55 per cent of B.C.’s coastal forests are under some form of protection from logging.

The days of leaving one tree in a clear cut are gone, said Jeffery, whose organization represents major forest companies that employ 38,000 forest workers in the province.

“This isn’t a jobs versus environment thing,” he said. “We can have both if we do this smartly.”

Steve Thomson, B.C.’s forests, lands and natural resource operations minister, said the Great Bear and Ancient Forest agreements highlight the government’s commitment to protecting old-growth forests.

“It’s about protecting important values and making sure we have that balance that continues to provide jobs and employment in the forest sector.”

The Ancient Forest is considered a natural wonder, a temperate rainforest inland, hundreds of kilometres away from similar coastal rainforests. The province said it would work with the federal government to declare the forest a UNESCO world heritage site.

“Scientifically, the trees are pretty amazing,” said Darwyn Coxson, a plant ecologist at the University of Northern British Columbia. “They really shouldn’t be there.”

Coxson said because the trees take 1,000 years to grow, it’s prudent to focus on what is in the forests now.

“We have a finite supply and the ones that are out there are realistically all you are ever going to have.”

B.C.’s old-growth forests by the numbers

— British Columbia’s old-growth forests boast huge trees that are more than 1,000 years old, but many fear their days are numbered. Here are some numbers on the trees:

— The government says there are 55 million hectares of forests in B.C.

— Twenty-five million hectares are old-growth forests.

— Four million hectares of old-growth hectares are fully protected from logging.

— The Red Creek fir near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island is listed as the world’s largest Douglas fir tree at 73.8 metres tall and its trunk has a diameter of 4.2 metres.

— The Cheewaht Lake cedar in Pacific Rim National Park on the southwest edge of Vancouver Island has a circumference of 18.34 metres. It is estimated to be between 2,000 and 2,500 years old.

Read more: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/some-say-the-fate-of-british-columbias-old-growth-forests-rests-in-the-balance

Vancouver Island growing away from old growth logging?

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Here’s a very insightful article about the shift underway in the economy and attitudes among the business community and in rural communities (spearheaded by the efforts of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce and the Ancient Forest Alliance, with a growing chorus of voices gathering steam, including the BC Chamber of Commerce and the AVICC) towards favouring increased protection of old-growth forests – in part to support a more sustainable economy! This is worth sharing!
Again take note that the BC government and logging industry’s stats on how much old-growth remains and is protected are deliberately misleading by including stunted non-commercial bogs and subalpine stands on steep rocky mountainsides with the productive stands with big trees targeted by the logging industry, and by combining the northern rainforest (the Great Bear Rainforest) where huge progress in protection levels has occurred as a result of environmental boycotts of logging companies (followed by 15 years of negotiations) along with the southern rainforest (Vancouver Island and the southwest mainland) where protection levels are very minor, old-growth forests have been much more heavily logged, and the forests are different (ie. different biodiversity, ecosystems, and generally much larger, grander ancient trees), ie. the northern and southern coasts are two very different regions and should not be confused and mixed together, unless your goal is to mislead people…

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It stands at a little more than 70 metres high, 14 metres taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Experts believe it may have been around even longer than the world-famous Italian landmark, which began to take shape nearly 850 years ago.

Big Lonely Doug looms over a clearcut hillside in the Gordon River Valley, surrounded by stumps and scrub brush, maybe 15 kilometres northwest of Port Renfrew.

The second-biggest tree in Canada, this massive Douglas fir is, for some, a a stark reminder of the glory days of Vancouver Island logging, when massive old-growth timber fed myriad sawmills, sparking a booming industry that made towns like Port Alberni and Lake Cowichan rich.

But in the wake of a media blitz in 2014, Doug has found itself with something else in common with the Leaning Tower: it has become a destination.

And with that, it has also become a symbol of a dramatic shift in Island thinking.

Citing the power of old growth trees as a tourism resource, Vancouver Island communities voted in April to seek a total ban on old growth harvesting on the Island’s Crown land.

And they received support this week from a surprising source: the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, which voted to support the same principle across the province in instances where old growth trees “have or can likely have a greater net economic value for communities if they are left standing.”

The Renfrew Tall Trees Experience

Dan Hager runs a Port Renfrew cottage rental business called Handsome Dan’s Accommodations. He is the president of the community’s chamber of commerce and the one who successfully pitched the old growth resolution to the B.C. chamber.

While he lauds old growth for its environmental benefits, he said the main motivations for the chamber motion were dollars and sense.

“It just boils down to basic math. This is not a comment about logging. It’s about economics and marketing,” he said. “Port Renfrew now has a product people can’t get anywhere else.”

In 2012 the Victoria-based environmental watchdog group the Ancient Forest Alliance successfully lobbied to protect an extraordinary grouping of trees near Port Renfrew it dubbed Avatar Grove.

In the months that followed, increasing numbers of visitors began to pour into the community. Hager said the community didn’t do any scientific studies as to why, but conversations and guestbook entries made it obvious: prompted by media reports, they were there to see the majestic trees.

He told the B.C. chamber that since that summer, accommodation providers in Port Renfrew have reported demand for accommodations has increased 75% to 100% annually. And he said the visitor streams continue outside the summer fishing season — typically the only time visitors had previously been coming.

Entirely by accident, the environmental movement had given the 300-resident town an unexpected economic boom.

“Thanks to the trees, Port Renfrew is no longer a one-industry tourism town and has been able to successfully brand itself the Tall Tree Capital of Canada,” he said. “They created Avatar and we benefitted from it.”

Hager said he no trouble convincing the business community this is an opportunity other B.C. regions can and should be taking advantage of. He relayed his message through the following example.

“In 2012 a kayaking company in Discovery Islands did an illuminating economic analysis. It calculated the economic value of 60 hectares of timber scheduled to be logged above and around the kayaking base camp across from the world-famous Robson Bight.

“It was determined that the value of the 60 hectares of timber was worth about $3.6 million. Since the regeneration cycle meant the area could be cut only once every 60 years, the yearly economic value of the timber was $60,000.

“The economic value to the kayaking company, however, was $416,000 per year, or $24.96 million for the same 60-year period. In stark contrast to the approximately 300 person-days employment from logging the 60 hectares just once, the kayaking company provided 20,160 person-days of employment during the 60-year cycle.

“And this simple economic analysis didn’t include the employment and earnings for the 40 other ecotourism businesses using the same area.”

He said it is the government’s role to do what’s best for communities and increasingly that means letting trees stand.

“In Port Renfrew there are maybe a a half-dozen people that gain their living from forestry. A lot more than that get it from tourism.”

Concerned Industry Warns Of Crisis

Hager wants to make it clear: the B.C. chamber did not endorse an old-growth logging ban, what it endorsed was protection for those old growth stands that generate more economic benefits for communities if they are left standing.

But the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities went a step beyond that in April when members voted to ask the provincial government to amend the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan to protect all of Vancouver Island’s remaining old growth forest on provincial Crown land.

According to David Elstone, executive director of Truck Loggers Association, a ban on old growth logging would devastate the industry.

Elstone was caught off guard by both motions and unclear why there has been a shift in thinking from organizations that have traditionally been in the industry’s corner.

“In general, I am concerned about the tone and the concept. Don’t know if all the facts are being drawn forward,” Elstone said. “I don’t want to fall back on being alarmist, but if you suddenly turn that off there doesn’t take much imagination to see the impact.”

Rick Jeffery, president and CEO of Coast Forest Products Association, agreed and was concerned both the AVICC and the B.C. chamber may have made decisions in absence of all the facts.

“I have no idea on what basis they are making these claims. I just don’t,” he said. “I was surprised they didn’t ask us.

“Our take-home message is that we have to sit down and talk. We will bring facts and figures.”

One message Jeffery wants to get across is that forestry and conservation already co-exist in local forests. Another is that 55 per cent of the old growth on the B.C. coast is already protected, something he says will increase over time due to conservation practices in the unprotected areas.

“Old growth is going to be here forever,” he said. “People don’t understand that.”

Elstone said 45 per cent of the coastal harvest comes from old growth trees. Forestry accounts for 38,000 direct jobs on the Island and the neighbouring coast, and 61,000 across the province.

Would a ban old growth harvesting mean a loss of 45% of the jobs?

“You’d probably lose a lot more than that,” he said.

Jeffery said certain mills are only set up to process old growth and the industry as a whole depends on economies of scale it would not be able to sustain, leading clients to look elsewhere.

“You would have an average allowable cut drop,” he said. “It would put a lot of mills out of business and put pulp mills in jeopardy.”

According to Elstone, the word “crisis” would not be an overstatement.

“It’s a vital part of our history and always will be an integral part of the success of our communities,” he said. “There are still a hell of a lot of communities that rely on forestry. We need to protect our working forests or else there will be significant impact.”

To help determine the degree of that impact, Black Press contacted Susan Mowbray, senior economist with MNP and author 2015’s State of the Island Economic Report.

Her answer is that it is impossible to tell when the economic benefits of an old growth logging halt would exceed those of continued harvesting without further study. One can’t simply subtract the loss of those logs without considering the spin-off effects.

“If, all of sudden, you can’t harvest the old growth (in a certain location), it may not make sense to harvest the low value timber there either,” she said.

She added the lack of consideration of such variables makes her very skeptical that the Discovery Islands kayaking case presented by Hager to the BC chamber painted a realistic picture. For example, every forestry job creates 1.5 other jobs. Tourism jobs don’t have the same impact.

“There are some jobs that get substituted. The difference is forestry jobs are higher-paying,” Mowbray said. “There needs to be a better understanding of what it means. In some communities forestry is all there is.

“More analysis has to be done before I can unequivocally say.”

A shifting community mindset?

A possible test case for such an analysis could be Tofino, the poster child for replacing a resource-based economy with eco-tourism. Mowbray said she has yet to crunch those numbers.

Anecdotally, Tofino Mayor Josie Osborne said embracing and protecting the rainforest certainly seems to working there.

A lifelong Island resident, she agreed the mindset of Island residents has definitely been shifting.

“Yes, I really think it is. Global tourism is on the rise, the role of primary resource extraction has changed.”

While councillors from communities like Port Hardy and Port Alberni spoke out against the AVICC motion — presented by Metchosin — as being too broad, or too damaging to the north Island, she said a majority embraced it as necessary in shaping the direction of the Island’s future.

“I think that 10 or 15 years ago it would have been more contentious,” she said. “When things become rare, we value them more. Frankly it’s something I’ve come to expect from Vancouver Island. There has been much more thinking like an Island, realizing that we are all in this together.”

Port Hardy councillor Fred Robertson believes part of that should also be a recognition that well-managed forests are crucial to a healthy north Island. While he respects the opinions expressed by his neighbours further south, he thinks they have to consider that old growth logging may still have a net benefit in some parts of the Island.

“In my mind it doesn’t have to be an either-or,” he said. “It’s important to understand all perspectives. There is an economic and social impact in communities like ours.”

”You can have working forests and still attract people to a pretty spectacular part of the world.”

Elstone said that as the industry has shrunk residents of some communities may have lost their perspective on its overall importance.

“There has probably been a migration from urban centres into our smaller communities,” he said.

James Byrne, regional managing partner with MNP and another lifelong Island resident, said some may have lost sight of how valuable logging is in communities like Campbell River, Port Hardy and Woss and how the harvest feeds businesses further south.

“Don’t estimate the importance of old growth. Logging is not what it used to be, but it still has a significant impact up and down the Island,” he said.

Sierra Club campaigner Jens Wieting doesn’t dispute that, only its relative significance.

“Logging no longer has the same economic importance,” he said. “We have two trends: there are fewer benefits from logging and increasing benefits of keeping trees standing.”

Wieting echoed Osborne in saying old growth preservation has worth beyond the economy: water conservation, clean air and the spiritual satisfaction of preserving an ecology found nowhere else in the world are values more Vancouver Islanders have embraced.

He said despite the fact 15 per cent of the Island’s forests are protected, only three per cent of its biggest, most iconic trees are safe from harvesting.

“People are still looking for places where they can find intact nature,” he said. “When are we going to make the transition? The time to make the shift on Vancouver Island is overdue.”

Wieting was instrumental in the push that led to protection of 85 per cent of the Great Bear Rainforest. The preservation of Vancouver Island’s remaining old growth forests is the environmental movement’s next big target.

Getting a majority of Island communities, as well as the provincial business community on side is a big step.

“This is indeed huge. It is a reflection of the shifting landscape,” he said. “I feel very privileged to live in this part of the world. It is really something you can’t find anymore anywhere.”

[Original BC Local News article no longer available]

 

Ancient Forest Alliance

The Economics of Protecting Old-Growth Forest: An Analysis of Spotted Owl Habitat in the Fraser Timber Supply Area of British Columbia

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A 2008 study from SFU showed that old-growth forests in the southwestern mainland of BC are more valuable if left standing than if logged, based on their value for tourism, recreation, carbon, and non-timber forest products. Vancouver Island has even more old-growth forest tourism and carbon rich forests than the Fraser Timber Supply Area on the mainland where the study focused, and it's likely that any such economic analysis would show even stronger results for the economic case to protect our old-growth forests on the Island. See the study: https://davidsuzuki.org/publications/reports/2008/the-economics-of-protecting-old-growth-forest-an-analysis-of-spotted-owl-habitat/ And see the full resolution of the BC Chamber of Commerce calling for expanded protection of old-growth forests here:
https://16.52.162.165/news-item.php?ID=1009

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This document is a detailed economic study of forests inhabited by the endangered spotted owl. The study, led by Duncan Knowler, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University's School of Resource and Environmental Management, looks at the economics of protecting old-growth forests inhabited or known to have been home to the spotted owl, one of the most endangered forest-dwelling bird species on the North American continent.

The goal of this study was to take a first step towards a rigorous examination of the main land use options for coastal old growth forest with the intent of determining which one is optimal for society. Its authors do not estimate the value of all costs and benefits associated with the different land use options; instead, they focus on estimating the forest values related to timber, non-timber forest products, recreation and carbon sequestration/storage. They do not attempt to estimate other ecosystem services such as watersheds, nutrient cycling, and control of soil erosion. The report assesses the opportunity costs of preservation of old growth forests with adjustment for these selected potential benefits from preservation. As such, the study is concerned with spotted owl conservation but not exclusively so. The study considers a specific forest area, the Fraser Timber Supply Area (TSA), which is located in southwestern British Columbia to the east and northeast of Vancouver.

The results suggest that under a broad range of parameter assumptions there would be a net benefit rather than an opportunity cost associated with increased preservation of old growth forests. In other words, the benefits of preservation in terms of increased recreational opportunities, non-timber forest products, and carbon sequestration and storage outweigh the costs in terms of lost producer surplus from timber harvesting.

A short summary of this report, Dollars and Sense: The Economic Rationale to Protect Spotted Owl Habitat in BC, is also available.

See here to download PDF of report

Ancient Forest Alliance

Editorial: Good ecology is good economics

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What’s good for the environment is good for the economy. That’s a concept most British Columbians embrace and it’s what the B.C. Chamber of Commerce appears to have decided in seeking protection for some old-growth forests.

The chamber voted this week to ask the province to expand protection of old-growth forests in areas where they have, or likely would have, greater economic value if left standing.

The resolution also called on the province to enact new regulations — incorporating such strategies as an old-growth management area, wildlife-habitat area or land-use order — with an eye on eventually legislating permanent protection through provincial-park or conservancy status.

The doesn’t mean the chamber of commerce has suddenly become an environmental-advocacy group — it still has its eye firmly on the economy. The proposal applies only to old-growth forests in areas accessible for tourism — the chamber still supports loggers’ rights to harvest timber for more remote forest stands, even if they have ecological value.

Still, it’s an acknowledgment that forests can have value beyond the amount of timber than can be taken out of them.

Natural resources have always been important to B.C. — logging, mining and fishing have long been mainstays of the province’s economy. But B.C. is also known for its incredible natural environment, and the province’s two aspects often collide.

The conflict between the economy and the environment reached a peak in the mid-1990s, when protests and blockades were set up to prevent the clear-cutting of old-growth forest in Clayoquot Sound. It was a tipping point that brought about a major shift in policies and attitudes.

The timber industry was no longer “king” in B.C., and non-aboriginals began increasingly to see through the eyes of peoples for whom the forest has been home for millennia. It moved us closer to a balance between protecting the environment and sustainably harvesting its resources.

It’s an uneasy balance and, sadly, is often not achieved, but at least “sustainability” and “environmentally friendly” are widely accepted as worthwhile goals. It’s becoming more widely accepted that a healthy environment and a healthy economy are not mutually exclusive.

In fact, as the B.C. Chamber of Commerce indicates in its motion, protecting the environment can be good for business.

Old-growth forests and other pristine areas of B.C. attract an increasing number of visitors, and will continue to generate jobs forever. When an area is logged off, the jobs are gone until the forest regenerates, and that takes a long, long time. We should remember, too, that forests are about more than esthetics or recreation — they are vital to the health of our watersheds and even the air we breathe.

Businesses are increasingly recognizing that environmental sustainability is not only good business, it is essential. More and more investors are demanding that corporations be environmentally responsible as well as fiscally responsible.

They have recognized what we must all recognize — that if we don’t look after the environment, we won’t have an economy.

Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-good-ecology-is-good-economics-1.2268661

B.C. Chamber of Commerce hugs old-growth trees

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The largest business-advocacy organization in B.C. has voted to protect old-growth forests while still also supporting loggers’ access to valuable resources.

In a move environmentalists are calling a “historic shift,” the B.C. Chamber of Commerce voted this week in favour of a motion calling on the province to expand protection of old-growth forests in areas where they have, or likely would have, greater economic value if left standing.

“It’s a huge, huge tectonic shift in the politics of land use in B.C.,” said Ken Wu, executive director for the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“It changes the narrative for a lot of the province, especially rural B.C., where the traditional belief has been that if you protect old-growth forests, you undermine the economy. But the opposite is being shown to be true now.”

The resolution also called on the province to enact new regulations — incorporating such strategies as an old-growth management area, wildlife-habitat area or land-use order — with an eye on eventually legislating permanent protection through provincial park or conservancy status.

The proposal would apply only to accessible old-growth forests and not to isolated forest stands, even if they have ecological value.

Dan Baxter, spokesman for the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, said the members took a balanced approach, recognizing that natural resources, forestry and mining remain the foundation of the economy.

“I think our membership took a holistic look at the issue and recognized that there are certain situations and communities where old-growth forests are a viable, long-term economic generator,” Baxter said.

“At the same time, our membership does recognize that we need to have certainty and predictability accessing land, so we have a resolution that also passed that looked at ways to ensure that we don’t unduly impact access to timber harvest lands, either.”

Dan Hager, president of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, said his community’s economy has shifted from logging to tourism — first sport fishing, but more recently as a big-tree destination with draws like Big Lonely Doug and the Red Creek Fir.

Since Avatar Grove was protected in 2012, area accommodation providers report increased demand of about 75 to 100 per cent each year, Hager said. And while tourism used to drop significantly in winter months — off-season for sport fishing — activity has steadily increased even when fishing charters are not operating.

“Thanks to the trees, Port Renfrew is no longer a one-industry tourism town and has been able to successfully brand itself the ‘Tall Tree Capital of Canada,’ ” said Hager, who co-owns Handsome Dan’s cottage rentals. Hager sponsored the old-growth protection resolution.

Both Wu and Hager expressed hope that the resolution might push the province to give regulatory protection to 3.2 hectares of Crown land in the Central Walbran Valley, where forest products company Teal Jones Group has a cutblock permit.

The old-growth forest already draws hikers and visitors. But B.C. Supreme Court granted the logging company an injunction extension to keep environmental activists from impeding its work.

Forests Minister Steve Thomson was not available for comment and a ministry spokesman did not say whether the province would consider the chamber’s resolution.

“While some communities on Vancouver Island have successfully diversified their local economies more into tourism, many are still heavily dependent on forestry,” a ministry spokesman said.

“Given that old-growth forests make up 45 per cent of public coastal forests, it is not possible to fully stop logging in old-growth forests without having a severe negative impact on local employment.”

Seventy-five per cent of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged on B.C.’s southern coast, according to the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-chamber-of-commerce-hugs-old-growth-trees-1.2267701

Port Renfrew is home to some of the finest ancient forests and largest trees in Canada

Historic Leap for Old-Growth Forests – BC Chamber of Commerce Passes Resolution for Expanded Protection

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Media Release: Historic Leap Forward for Old-Growth Forest Conservation – BC Chamber of Commerce Passes Resolution Calling on the Province to Expand Old-Growth Forest Protections
 
The BC Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution at its annual general meeting in Kelowna yesterday calling on the provincial government to increase protection for the province’s old-growth forests. The resolution calls on the province to: “Support the increased protection of old-growth forests in areas of the province where they have or can likely have a greater net economic value for communities if they are left standing for the next generation and beyond.”
 
 
The resolution, passed almost unanimously, is a historic shift in the politics of old-growth forests in the province, where in years past the protection of old-growth forests was often thought to be detrimental to the economy and rural communities by much of the business community. The BC Chamber of Commerce’s resolution is part of a growing momentum among various Chambers of Commerce, including the Port Renfrew, Sooke, and WestShore Chambers of Commerce, and various town councils including the Victoria, Metchosin, and Tofino councils and the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC), representing 51 coastal cities, towns, and regional districts, all calling for the protection of old-growth forests in recent months. See: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1001
 
This shift in the business community in favour of protecting old-growth forests – inconceivable a decade ago in the province –  may be fostered by several factors:  A growth in old-growth forest tourism in the province; the rapid expansion of the “green business” sector (eco-tourism, clean tech, organic agriculture, etc.); the increasing economic dominance of second-growth forests for the logging industry while old-growth forests have become scarce; closer cooperation between the environmental movement and tourism businesses; and a general growth in environmental awareness among consumers and business owners alike.
 
The BC Chamber of Commerce is the largest and most broadly-based business organization in British Columbia. Representing more than 125 Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade, and 36,000 businesses of every size, sector and region of the province, the BC Chamber of Commerce considers itself as the primary voice of business in BC.
 
“The publicity about old-growth forests near Port Renfrew in recent years has brought in a flood of visitors from Europe, the USA, Canada, and diverse countries. This has especially been true since the protection of the Avatar Grove in 2012. Big tree tourism has increased the total flow of dollars spent in Port Renfrew, in our rental accommodations, restaurants, grocery stores, and businesses in general. It has also greatly increased the property values in town. Along with sport fishing, old-growth forest tourism has become a staple of our local economy,” states Dan Hager, president of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce which sponsored the resolution. “Visitors from around the world are also coming to see old-growth forests throughout much of the province. Given that the monumental stands of old-growth trees are a scarce commodity today for tourism, it makes business sense to protect them across the province in areas where they will benefit local communities.”
 
 “The BC Chamber of Commerce’s resolution calling on the province to increase protection of old-growth forests is a tectonic shift in the province’s land use politics – it would’ve been inconceivable a decade ago. Times are changing, and so is the economy. Thanks to communities like Port Renfrew and Tofino, the narrative is quickly shifting from the belief that protecting old-growth forests is detrimental to rural communities, to the realization that protecting nearby old-growth forests greatly enhances and secures the economic future of communities”, stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
 
“Tourists are coming to see old-growth forests in BC, not clearcuts or tree plantations. Next only to the redwoods of California, the old-growth forests of British Columbia are the grandest forests on planet Earth, with trees as wide as living rooms and as tall as downtown skyscrapers. But time is running out and we need the province to break from their status quo policy of old-growth forest liquidation and to instead develop a new plan to protect our remaining old-growth forests to support tourism, endangered species, clean water, wild salmon, climate stability, and First Nations cultures, while ensuring a sustainable second-growth forest industsry”, stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and campaigner.
 
MORE BACKGROUND INFO:
 
• See photos of some of BC’s largest old-growth trees at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=1
 
• See spectacular photos of the Walbran Valley at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=7
 
 
 
• See a recent Youtube clip using drone footage over the Central Walbran at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyMPXHOjlK0
 
• See “before and after” maps and stats of the southern coast’s old-growth forests at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php  
 
(*** Note: News media are free to reprint and repost all photos, maps, and videos. Photo credit to “TJ Watt” if possible)
 
Port Renfrew, formerly a logging town, has been transformed in recent years into a big tree tourism destination as hundreds of thousands of tourists have come from around the world to visit some of Canada’s largest trees in the nearby Avatar Grove, the Red Creek Fir (the world’s largest Douglas-fir tree), Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir tree), San Juan Spruce (until recently Canada’s largest Sitka spruce tree – its top broke off in a recent storm unfortunately), the Harris Creek spruce (one of the largest Sitka spruce trees in Canada), and the endangered Central Walbran Valley.
 
Across the province, tourists are coming to see old-growth forests such as Clayoquot Sound by Tofino (including Meares Island, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, Flores Island), Cathedral Grove near Port Alberni, Avatar Grove by Port Renfrew, the Koksilah Ancient Forest near Duncan, the Carmanah and Walbran Valleys near Lake Cowichan, Cape Scott and the North Coast Trail near Port Hardy, the Nootka Trail near Gold River, the Elaho Valley near Squamish, Cheakamus Lake near Whistler, Sumallo Grove near Hope, the Giant Cedar Trail near Revelstoke, the Ancient Forest Trail near Prince George, the south end of Chilliwack Lake, Capilano Canyon in North Vancouver, and Stanley Park in Vancouver. Numerous other old-growth forests are on the chopping block but have tremendous economic potential if they were left standing
 
While over 60% of the province is forested, most of the province’s forests are considered to be of low to no commercial value due to the small, stunted trees growing at high elevations, on steep rocky slopes with minimal soil, in vast coastal bogs and muskeg, and in far northern cold landscapes. The productive forests with the larger trees and where most conservation battles have occurred constitute a minority fraction of the province in the warmer valleys and lower elevations – while productive old-growth forests constitute an even smaller subset of these forests after a century of high-grade harvesting.
 
On BC’s southern coast (Vancouver Island and the southwest mainland), 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. 3.3 million hectares of productive old-growth forests once stood on the southern coast (with an additional 2.2 million hectares of bog, subalpine forests, and other low productivity old-growth forests of low to no commercial value with stunted trees), and today only 860,000 hectares remain, while only 260,000 hectares are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Second-growth forests now dominate 75% of the southern coast’s productive forest lands, including 90% of southern Vancouver Island, and can be sustainably logged to support the forest industry.  See “before and after” maps and stats of the southern coast’s old-growth forests at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php   
 
Much of the recent momentum for protecting old-growth forests has been driven by concern over the fate of the Central Walbran Valley near Port Renfrew. The Central Walbran Valley’s old-growth temperate rainforest has long been an area of public interest since hiking trails were built in the valley in 1990. In 1994, the BC government protected the Lower Walbran Valley, about 5500 hectares, as part of the larger Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park, but left out the Central Walbran Valley (500 hectares) and the Upper Walbran Valley (7,000 hectares) from the park. Since then, most of the Upper Walbran has been heavily tattered by logging, but the Central Walbran remains largely intact. However, eight new cutblocks are planned in the Central Walbran, of which one (cutblock 4424) has been approved by the province. The Central Walbran Valley lies on Crown (public) land in the territory of the Pacheedaht band in Tree Farm Licence 46 held by licensee Teal-Jones.
Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce President Dan Hager stands before the Emerald Giant in the Central Walbran Valley.

Protecting Old-Growth Rainforests to the Economic Benefit of Tourism-Based Communities

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Today, May 30, 2016, the BC Chamber of Commerce membership at their Annual General Meeting almost unanimously passed the following resolution calling on the provincial government to expand the protection of old-growth forests across the province where they have or would likely have greater economic value if left standing (this is true throughout most of the southern half of the province…):
 
PROTECTING OLD GROWTH RAINFORESTS TO THE ECONOMIC BENEFIT OF TOURISM-BASED COMMUNITIES 
 
Opening Statement 
 
Old-growth forests in many parts of the province are important for supporting tourism, recreation, scenery, wildlife, clean water, and wild fisheries, and enhancing nearby property values. Large numbers of tourists from around the world visit the province’s old-growth forests every year. 
 
Perhaps the grandest stand of unprotected old-growth forest in the province is the 500 hectare Central Walbran Valley near Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island. Port Renfrew has recently been dubbed as the “Tall Trees Capital of Canada”, and the tourism industry and numerous businesses in Port Renfrew and beyond stand to benefit significantly if the Central Walbran Valley was protected by the province as one of the world’s finest old-growth forest showcases. In many areas of the province, the local economies stand to receive a greater net economic benefit over the foreseeable future by keeping their nearby old-growth forests standing. 
 
Background 
 
Old-growth forests have significant economic, social, and environmental value as tourism resources, wildlife habitat, carbon sinks, clean water sources for fisheries, and are important parts of many First Nations cultures. Old-growth forests today are in scarce supply in much of BC, such as on southern Vancouver Island, where about 90% of the productive old-growth forests have been logged south of Port Alberni. Demand by the tourism industry is high for many remaining old-growth stands. 
 
Port Renfrew has been transformed in recent years into an old-growth forest tourism destination as thousands of visitors are coming from around the world to visit some of the world’s largest trees and grandest groves in places like the Avatar Grove, Central Walbran Valley, Red Creek Fir, Big Lonely Doug, San Juan Spruce, and Harris Creek Spruce. Visitor expenditures by tourists coming to visit old-growth forests near Port Renfrew also generate revenues in other BC communities, including Vancouver, Victoria, Sooke, Lake Cowichan, Duncan, Ladysmith, and Nanaimo. Many tourists fly, boat, or drive into BC from international destinations to see the old-growth forests. The appeal of the tall trees is attracting significant investment into Port Renfrew, including generating a boom in the real estate market as new residents and real estate investors focus their attention on the town with its surrounding natural beauty and enhanced tourism appeal.
 
Near Port Renfrew on Crown land, the Walbran Valley is 13,000 hectares in extent, of which 5500 hectares lie within the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park and the other 7500 hectares lie outside the park. A 500-hectare area, known as the Central Walbran Ancient Forest, is the most intact and recreationally significant portion of the valley and lies outside the park. Thousands of people have visited the Walbran Valley for recreation. The valley lies on Crown land in the traditional territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation band and is currently within existing forestry plans. The most heavily visited areas in the Walbran Valley lie outside of the park in the Central Walbran. This includes the Upper and Lower Castle Grove, Emerald Pool, Fletcher Falls, Summer Crossing, Bridge Camp, Tolkien Giant, Karst Giant, and much more. 
 
Significantly greater numbers of visitors can be expected to visit the region if the area is protected. Across British Columbia, many local communities economically would stand to receive a greater net benefit in revenues and jobs over the ensuing decades from the protection of key old-growth forests in their region. 
 
Perhaps a most vital example of the economic value of protecting the old growth forest can be demonstrated in an anecdote from our Community. Port Renfrew has for many years been known as the location on the south coast of Vancouver Island for excellent sport fishing. Fishermen come from all over North America to fish out of San Juan Bay and out to Swiftsure Banks. However, because of its exposure to the open ocean and limited marina facilities the fishing in Port Renfrew is seasonal and until recently the Community was busy only from May long weekend until mid-September. October to April in Port Renfrew was quiet. The restaurants closed or kept limited hours and people moved away for the winter to find work and other opportunities. 
 
In February of 2012, the Ancient Forest Alliance was successful in rallying the BC government to protect a spectacular ancient forest only a few kilometers from Port Renfrew called Avatar Grove. The designation by the Province gathered much media attention and by summer, visitors were flooding to Port Renfrew to see the massive trees and to hike in the pristine old-growth forest. Since that summer, local accommodation providers in Port Renfrew have reported that demand for accommodations has increased 75% to 100% year over year. What is especially noteworthy is that the off-season activity has steadily increased when sport fishing charters are not operating or operating on a limited schedule. Thanks to the trees, Port Renfrew is no longer a one-industry tourism town and has been able to successfully brand itself the “Tall Tree Capital of Canada”. 
 
In 2012 a kayaking company in Discovery Islands did an illuminating economic analysis. It calculated the economic value of 60 hectares of timber scheduled to be logged above and around the kayaking base camp across from the world-famous Robson Bight. It was determined that the value of the 60 hectares of timber was worth about $3,600,000.00. Since the regeneration cycle meant the area could be cut only once every 60 years, the yearly economic value of the timber was $60,000. The economic value to the kayaking company, however, was $416,000 per year, or $24,960,000 for the same 60-year period. In stark contrast to the approximately 300 person-days employment from logging the 60 hectares just once, the kayaking company provided 20,160 person-days of employment during the 60-year cycle. And this simple economic analysis didn’t include the employment and earnings for the 40 other ecotourism businesses using the same area. 
 
THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS That the Provincial Government: 
 
1. Support the increased protection of old-growth forests in areas of the province where they have or can likely have a greater net economic value for communities if they are left standing for the next generation and beyond. 
 
2. Protect endangered old-growth forests by enacting new regulations such as an Old-Growth Management Area, Wildlife Habitat Area, or Land Use Order, with the intent to eventually legislate permanent protection for areas through provincial park or conservancies. 
 
Submitted by the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce 

‘Insane Damage’: Activist Accuses Logger of Breaking Disclosure Law

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An environmental activist says that for six months Lemare Lake Logging Ltd. has failed to meet the legal requirement to show him the company's plans for logging on publicly owned land in the East Creek valley on northern Vancouver Island.

British Columbia's Forest and Range Practices Act says that companies must make their site plans “publicly available on request at any reasonable time” at their offices.

“I've been asking for that for six months,” said Mark Worthing, a biodiversity and forestry campaigner with the Sierra Club of B.C. “They're barring access to us, obviously because they don't like us.”

A company official took a message from The Tyee on Wednesday, but the call was not returned by publication time.

A forest ministry spokesperson said the province is keeping an eye on the logging in East Creek and that it's being done properly.

Worthing wants to see for himself. He said he's had a representative visit Lemare's office in Port McNeill unannounced and he's tried setting up meetings ahead of time, but so far has not been shown a site plan. “We were given the run around for half a year,” he said. “In that time they've managed to log like it's 1920.”

Scrutiny needed, says activist

East Creek borders Mquqᵂin / Brooks Peninsula Provincial Park on the west side of northern Vancouver Island. Logging in the area has been controversial since at least 2003, when the Wilderness Committee campaigned to protect it.

Worthing said the area is ecologically rich, with one of the last unprotected old growth forests on Vancouver Island. It is home to northern goshawks, marbled murrelets, five species of Pacific salmon and many other plants and animals, he said.

“This is untouched rainforest,” Worthing said. “Generally speaking, logging it at all is heinous.”

But when he and others visited East Creek in October, the logging they observed wasn't up to modern standards, he said. Roads were poorly built, streams were damaged and culturally modified trees may have been logged.

“As soon as we saw it, it was pretty insane,” he said. “Everything [there] is grand in scale and so is the damage.”

Worthing tried to look further into the plans for the area, but those attempts were frustrated by the company's refusal to share the site plans, he said. “Civil society or the public can't even do their job to scrutinize what's happening on Crown land,” he said. “Without public access, there can't be public scrutiny.”

He said he complained to the government, but that they never reported back to him on what they did. A couple weeks ago he also complained to the Forest Practices Board, he said.

Ongoing inspections, says gov't

Steve Thomson, the minister for Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, was unavailable for an interview.

The minister can levy up to a $10,000 fine for a failure to provide access to a site plan under the Forest and Range Practices Act, a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. In this case, however, the ministry believed the matter had been resolved, he said.

“In January, the ministry's Compliance and Enforcement branch had discussions with the Sierra Club,” the statement said. “At that time, Sierra Club indicated that while they had initial problems getting access to the site plans, arrangements had been made with the licensee to visit with them in their office and view the plans.”

Worthing said there was a meeting arranged, but the company cancelled it and rescheduled, then cancelled again and rescheduled. “I proceeded to get the run around,” he said.

The ministry spokesperson also said that the government has been actively monitoring logging in the area. “So far in 2016, the ministry's Compliance and Enforcement branch has conducted over 10 inspections in the East Creek area including road maintenance and construction, streams and riparian reserves, culturally modified trees, timber transport and scale site inspections,” he said.

While inspectors found a few “non-compliances” with regulations for timber marking and roads, the licensee has addressed the issues, he said, adding that ministry staff will continue inspections in areas where there is active logging.

There are targets for the amount of old growth to be protected throughout the 5,012 hectare watershed, and sections of the valley are protected as marbled murrelet habitat (896 hectares, plus another 151 hectares proposed) and ungulate winter range (93 hectares), he said. There's also a 744 hectare wildlife habitat area that includes the creek itself.

Sierra Club wants science-based plan

Jens Wieting, a forest campaigner with the Sierra Club, said that for Vancouver Island there is no science-based plan for forestry like the one that was recently agreed to for the Great Bear rainforest on B.C.'s mid-coast.

“It's like night and day,” he said, noting the land use plan covering East Creek is from 1993 and outdated. “We have almost no conservation based on science on Vancouver Island.”

He said logging in East Creek, which he estimates is at about 100 hectares a year, is an “extreme example” of what's wrong with forestry on Vancouver Island. “[We are] asking the B.C. government to take action to put logging on hold in the area because it's clear there's no due diligence whatsoever.”

The Sierra Club's Worthing said that at the current rate of logging there will be no old growth forests left on Vancouver Island in another 20 years, so it would make sense for the government to act now to save what's left.

“They have no plan for the end of old growth logging,” he said. “They're literally just going to log it until it's gone.”

Read more: https://thetyee.ca/News/2016/05/27/East-Creek-Valley-Cuts/

Save the Walbran Tour Victoria

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Have fun while supporting the protection of the endangered Walbran Valley this Friday, May 27th at the White Eagle Hall in James Bay as part of the Save the Walbran Tour! There will be great local musicians as well as information booths to learn more about how you can help out! Tickets $20 at Lyle's Place. The tour is being hosted by local organizers in conjunction with several non-profits and community initiatives.  For more info see: https://www.facebook.com/events/1102443283130908/

The Save the Walbran Tour is also happening on SALTSPRING, May 28 (Featuring Kinnie Starr, Downtown Mischief, Joy District, Barefoot Theives) – see: https://www.facebook.com/events/599599783539460/

And CUMBERLAND June 3 (Featuring Mat The Alien, Downtown Mischief, Bousada) – see: https://www.facebook.com/events/1071161182925308/

Ancient Forest Alliance

ELF sets up new protest camp, wins backing from Sierra Club

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The Elphinstone Logging Focus is working to stop a BC Timber Sales (a BC government-directed logging cutblock) cutblock in the biologically rich mature forests on the slopes of Mount Elphinstone near Gibsons. You can see their website here: www.loggingfocus.org

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Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) is making another effort to stop, or at least delay, the auctioning of a BC Timber Sales (BCTS) cutblock on the slopes of Mount Elphinstone.

Block A87125 is in the area ELF calls “Twist and Shout Forest.” It’s also within the boundaries of what the group is hoping will someday become an expanded Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park.

ELF’s Ross Muirhead told Coast Reporter a 24/7 camp was set up last weekend on an old spur road that accesses the cutblock. He said the group plans to hold events at what they’ve dubbed “Elphinstone Forest Protection Camp” throughout the summer.

The group has backing from Sierra Club BC, which issued a statement Wednesday calling for the province to “rescind the auctioning of this cutblock and commence a comprehensive park expansion/connectivity implementation process through engagement with the Squamish and shíshálh nations and local communities.”

ELF was instrumental in getting BCTS to delay the auction of the cutblock last year.

In a Factsheet published May 18, the Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) said, “A87125 comprises second-growth forest on Mount Elphinstone, and specific measures incorporated into the design of A87125 that go above and beyond legal requirements include: buffering a popular mountain bike trail from harvest; placing additional setbacks on streams; and retaining veteran Douglas-fir trees that survived historical fire and logging.”

FLNRO also notes that “the province has no plans to expand the existing park,” and it’s been talking with First Nations, local governments and community groups since it added A87125 to its harvesting plan.

ELF released a statement just before setting up the protest camp, quoting a 2015 study it commissioned from biologist Wayne McCrory that concluded the area is worth preserving.

“If this cutblock is allowed to proceed it will take out approximately 30 hectares [74 acres] of prime older forests that’s already in between two former cutblocks,” ELF’s Hans Penner said in the statement. “We encouraged BCTS to look to the north outside the 2,000 hectare [4,942 acre proposed park expansion] across the Sechelt-Dakota Forest Service Road where harvesting can take place in actual tree farms. This reasonable request has been met with silence.”

The public comment period on the cutblock auction ended April 18, and the bidding is scheduled to end June 3. According to FLNRO, the successful bidder will have 11 months to start logging before the licence expires.

Read more: https://www.coastreporter.net/news/local-news/elf-sets-up-new-protest-camp-wins-backing-from-sierra-club-1.2263907