Ashland, OR —The Government of British Columbia must take urgent and immediate action to protect the globally unique ecological values of BC’s remaining primary and intact coastal and inland temperate rainforest, say 223 prominent scientists from around the world in a letter released today.
The scientists specifically call for action to protect temperate rainforests along BC’s south coast and Vancouver Island, and inland rainforests on the windward side of the Columbia and Rocky Mountains, all of which remain at risk with insufficient conservation.
The letter was organized by Dr. Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist at the Geos Institute in Ashland, Oregon and author of Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World: Ecology and Conservation (Island Press). According to DellaSala, “BC’s temperate rainforests are globally rare, they offer habitat for many imperiled species and globally the vast majority of these unique rainforests has already been logged. Protection of remaining intact tracts of these carbon-rich, climate saving forests is a global responsibility and can help Canada to contribute to the 2020 UN biodiversity targets and the Paris Climate Agreement.” Recently, the ninth largest Douglas-fir in Canada was cut down in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni. The tree, which was 66 metres tall and three metres in diameter, was in an old-growth cut block auctioned off by the BC government.
Temperate rainforests are rare, constituting just 2.5 per cent of the earth’s forests. British Columbia is home to one quarter of that total and BC’s inland rainforests are one of only two such areas worldwide.
“It is hard to overstate the cultural significance of these rainforests to the Indigenous peoples who have inhabited this part of the world for millennia,” said Dr. Barbara Zimmerman, Director of the International Conservation Fund Canada. “Their loss would be an enormous blow to all Canadians and all people of the world. Destruction of the last remnants of ancient old-growth forest with their magnificent trees and complex web of life is a rapidly unfolding tragedy and the vast majority of Canadians are unaware that it is even happening.”
According to recent estimates by Sierra Club BC, logging of old-growth temperate rainforest is currently destroying 10,000 hectares per year on Vancouver Island—the equivalent of two soccer fields per hour, 24 hours per day. Productive old-growth rainforests in lower elevations have been reduced to less than 10 per cent of their original extent. Plants and animals that depend on these rainforests are not just losing habitat, but also are suffering climate change impacts such as extended droughts, extreme rainfall and severe storms, threatening to push ecosystems to limits. Similar losses are occurring in the inland rainforest region where logging of old-growth rainforest has been extensive and is contributing to the demise of mountain caribou.
“BC has inspired the world with conservation solutions in Haida Gwaii and the Great Bear Rainforest. The province should take similar action to safeguard what remains of these globally outstanding ancient forests in other parts of the province,” said BC forest ecologist Andy MacKinnon. “The provincial government should follow through on its promise and take action for old-growth conservation using the same model and its multiple benefits for biodiversity, communities and the climate.”
Forests absorb atmospheric carbon through the process of photosynthesis and store it in long-lived plants and soils. In doing so, they help to cool down the planet. Cutting down forests releases most of their stored carbon as a global warming pollutant.
The experts are urging the provincial government to follow through on the promise to use the ecosystem-based management approach implemented in the Great Bear Rainforest to safeguard British Columbia’s endangered old-growth rainforest.
The signatories to the letter live and work in many countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, Norway, the United States and Scotland.
Read the original media release here. [Original article no longer available]
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Koksilah_Hike_Large.jpg501800TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2018-06-28 00:00:002024-08-12 10:55:42223 international scientists call for urgent action to protect British Columbia’s endangered temperate rainforests
The public discussion about old-growth forests on Vancouver Island is rife with crooked thinking and trickery, and that’s a big problem. If we hope to have a mature discussion about how much of these irreplaceable natural assets should be conserved, then we need to be on the same song sheet.
But it is very, very hard to get to that place when the custodian of much of those lands — the provincial government of British Columbia — fails to disclose the basic facts on which to have an informed debate and then uses bad arithmetic to assert that there is far more old-growth forest left than is actually the case.
“It is incumbent upon our provincial government to stop the arithmetic trickery and to bring intellectual honesty and scientific thinking to a resolution of the old-growth issue on Vancouver Island.”
It’s hard not to conclude that both our provincial government and the association representing professional foresters in our province are deliberately trying to ensure that the public doesn’t see the forest for the trees.
Anyone who cares about our forests knows that there are essentially two camps that are at odds with one another. On the one hand, we have the industry/government camp (B.C. government, corporations and the Association of B.C. Forest Professionals) advocating the logging of the few remaining unprotected giant, ancient forests. On the other hand, we have the public camp (the general public, conservationists, some unions and non-governmental organizations) advocating the protection of these forests.
The differences between these two camps begin with definition. The logging companies, government and the ABCFP define old-growth forests as being any forest over 250 years old. Engaged members of the public, on the other hand, tend to think of old-growth forests as the original, productive, forests found at lower elevations on gentle slopes and in valley bottoms — the places where large ancient trees and a rich diversity of animal and plant life are found (or at least used to be found) in abundance.
It is these incredibly productive and ecologically diverse forests about which the general public are most concerned — a fact well known by government, the logging industry and the ABCFP.
So, to get on the same song sheet, let’s pose the three essential questions in the public interest:
What was the area of original, productive, old-growth forest at low elevation (less than 300 metres) on gentle slopes (
What is the remaining area of unprotected original, productive, old-growth forest at low elevation on gentle slopes on Vancouver Island?
What is the remaining area of protected original, productive, old-growth forest at low elevation on gentle slopes on Vancouver Island?
These three questions are not easily answered because the “publicly available” data the government chooses to provide is deliberately and woefully incomplete, in particular for Vancouver Island.
Specifically, the data for most Tree Farm Licences (or TFLs), which constitute large areas of forestland where single corporations hold sway, are not available. Nor are good data on the extent of old-growth forests on private lands, which constitute a huge proportion of Vancouver Island. This lack of readily available data is a big problem, because only about 40 per cent of Vancouver Island is Crown land outside TFLs. Also, government information on the Crown land within TFLs is either missing or unavailable to the public.
So, on this score, the forests ministry has been woefully negligent in not providing the inventory facts for informed debate and straight thinking. Instead, it has supported the industry/government camp with crooked thinking and incomplete fact sheets.
For example, quoting a government fact sheet, the ABCFP recently stated in a November 2017 op-ed in the Times Colonist that Vancouver Island had massive amounts of old-growth forest remaining:
“Vancouver Island, which is 3.28 million hectares in size, has 2.4 million hectares of Crown land (of which) 860,000 hectares of that Crown land (46 per cent) is old growth forest and of that, about 520,000 hectares (62 per cent) is estimated to be protected,” the ABCFP boldly asserted.
If this is not a great example of crooked thinking, I don’t know what is. By the government and ABCFP’s logic, the more we log the remaining unprotected old growth, the more percentage of protected area we get!
So, using one of the most complete inventories for Vancouver Island, I asked a biologist, who specializes in analysis with geographic information systems, to answer the three questions of interest to the general public. And here are the answers that the forests ministry cannot, or will not, provide:
Original, Productive, Old Growth Forest at Low Elevation on Gentle Slopes on Vancouver Island = 459,000 ha (100%)
Remaining Unprotected Original, Productive, Old Growth Forest at Low Elevation on Gentle Slopes on Vancouver Island = 33,200 ha (7%)
Remaining Protected Original, Productive, Old Growth at Low Elevation on Low Slope on Vancouver Island = 26,600 ha (6% — Note that only 21,600 ha (5%) are truly protected within parks.)
It is incumbent upon our provincial government to stop the arithmetic trickery and to bring intellectual honesty and scientific thinking to a resolution of the old-growth issue on Vancouver Island.
To do that, the government should refer the question of what remains of our old-growth forests on Vancouver Island to an independent, scientific panel tasked to look at how much original old-growth forest is protected and how much remains for each type of major ecosystem, and where it is. There is plenty of expertise at the University of Victoria to do just that.
I suspect that such a panel would quickly conclude that the original, productive, old-growth forest below 300 metres elevation on slopes under 17 per cent (the most ecologically diverse and productive ecosystem for animals and plants) that is truly protected on Vancouver Island in parks (less than 5%) is scarce and woefully under-represented compared to the areas protected for other types of old-growth forest.
Premier Horgan and Ministers Donaldson and Heyman: let’s see action on your election promise “to modernize land-use planning to effectively and sustainably manage B.C.’s ecosystems … forests and old growth (and to) take an evidence-based scientific approach.”
Anthony Britneff worked for the B.C. Forest Service for 40 years, holding senior professional positions in inventory, silviculture and forest health.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Before-After-1-L.jpg597800TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2018-06-22 00:00:002023-04-06 19:07:31Veteran B.C. forester weighs in on the continued logging of ancient giants
VICTORIA, Unceded Lekwungen Territories – After visiting and documenting Schmidt Creek, the next valley slated for logging by government agency B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS), environmental organizations and Indigenous leaders are ramping up the call for the agency to discontinue logging permits in remaining endangered old-growth rainforests. The documentation of new BCTS logging roads in Schmidt Creek follows the recent discovery by the Ancient Forest Alliance of BCTS logging of endangered rainforest in the Nahmint Valley, near Port Alberni, including near record-sized ancient giants, wider than the biggest Douglas-fir in Cathedral Grove.
Schmidt Creek, located in Tlowitsis-Ma’amtagila territories on northeast Vancouver Island between Sayward and Telegraph Cove and adjacent to Johnstone Strait, contains several cutblocks slated for imminent logging. Last week, representatives from Sierra Club BC and the Wilderness Committee visited several of these cutblocks and new logging roads, which are located on steep slopes in the valley with a high risk of landslides and potential impact on globally unique orca rubbing beaches near the mouth of Schmidt Creek.
“For too long resource extraction companies have got away with taking from our shared territorial lands and waters,” said Rande Cook, Head Chief Makwala, Hamatam (Seagull) House, Ma’amtagila. “Non-Indigenous governments need to understand that this type of reckless logging is not sustainable or respectful to the land itself. Furthermore, this is not being done in the spirit of meaningful consultation with the proper Kwakwaka’wakw nations.”
“If this logging goes ahead it will destroy some of the last old-growth rainforest on Vancouver Island, which is outrageous and exactly what we need to be moving away from,” said Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island campaigner for the Wilderness Committee. “The fact that this has been signed off on by the provincial government is something everyone in the province should be ashamed of.”
BCTS is a stand-alone agency of the provincial forests ministry that manages around 20 per cent of the annual cut on provincial land. The agency is one of the operators that supported and implemented ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest but continues to log the most endangered ancient rainforests in B.C., such as old-growth Douglas-fir ecosystems on Vancouver Island.
Last year, Sierra Club BC, the Wilderness Committee and the Ancient Forest Alliance called on forests minister Doug Donaldson to protect endangered old-growth rainforest including interim protection for remaining intact areas. One of the groups’ most straightforward recommendations is to direct BCTS to start by discontinuing the issuance of cutblock permits in old-growth rainforests. The minister rejected this request, and his ministry has yet to commit to any significant changes to forest management to ensure the survival of old-growth ecosystems.
“Anyone in their right mind knows it’s wrong to blast a road through an old-growth forest, yet that’s exactly what the BC government is doing, right near a park boundary,” said Mark Worthing, Conservation and Climate Campaigner with Sierra Club BC. “There has already been huge damage done in the valley by LeMare Lake Logging, and when a major rain event occurs it could send sediment onto critical orca rubbing beaches.”
In its 2017 election platform, the BC NDP promised to “apply an evidence-based scientific approach to land-use planning, using the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model for managing old-growth forests.” The B.C. government has not yet made any progress toward implementing this election commitment.
“We are running out of time to protect B.C.’s most productive ancient forests, where some of the biggest, oldest trees on Earth are found,” stated Andrea Inness, campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “After a century of logging, less than 10 per cent of these forests now remain and yet B.C. Timber Sales is still issuing logging permits in rare and endangered ancient forest ecosystems. When is the government going to realize this is not okay and start living up to its promise to manage old-growth sustainably, based on the scientific evidence?”
Schmidt Creek is in Tlowitsis-Ma’amtagila territories and is adjacent to the world-renowned Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, famous for its orca rubbing beaches.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Schmidt-Creek-Cedar.jpg7751036TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2018-06-13 00:00:002024-07-30 16:59:47BC Government Targets Another Old-Growth Rainforest Forest For Clearcut Logging
Environmentalists have accused the B.C. government of lying about the amount of majestic, centuries-old trees left standing in the province.
The National Observer reported last month that the B.C. government, through B.C. Timber Sales, had approved permits for logging that saw some of the world’s biggest red cedar and Douglas fir trees cut down in the Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island.
The government responded, by saying that more than 55 per cent of Crown old growth forests on B.C.’s coast is protected, and that on Vancouver Island more than 40 per cent of Crown forests are considered old growth, including 520,000 hectares that will never be logged.
But those numbers are “deliberately misleading,” said Vicky Husband, a B.C. environmental activist for decades who has been awarded both the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for her work.
“The forests ministry really plays with numbers, and they talk about how much old growth we’ve got left and actually, they really lie,” Husband said in an interview
“They’re trying to claim that of the coastal forest we’ve protected 55 per cent. We haven’t. That’s not true at all.”
Original ancient forest shown in green. Map by Vicky Husband/Commons BC, 2018
Ken Wu, executive director with the Ancient Forest Alliance, which documented the May cutting of the massive trees in the Nahmint Valley, says it makes no sense to include the forests that will never be logged — those with small, stunted trees growing in bogs or on rocky, steep slopes — when discussing the percentage of forest that has been logged.
“It’s like including your Monopoly money with your real money and then saying you’re a millionaire,” Wu said. “It’s a disingenuous approach and it’s total spin. It’s so much spin that the marbled murrelet and the deer are dizzy.”
The marbled murrelet is a small, endangered seabird that lives in the north Pacific region and that needs coastal old-growth trees for nesting, a B.C. Ministry of Environment document shows.
Remaining ancient forests shown in green, logged areas in magenta. Map by Vicky Husband/Commons BC, 2018
Wu also takes exception with the government taking private lands out of the equation, even though the government regulates what can be logged on those lands. Also, so called low-productivity forests, those that would never be logged, should not be counted in the total, he said.
“Otherwise it’s just complete spin, precisely designed to make people think there is no problem, that there is a lot there and a lot that is protected, which is total f***ing bull****,” Wu said.
“If the NDP government doesn’t want to continue the war in the woods, they have to stop the spin.”
B.C. government is masking an ‘ecological emergency’
Jens Wieting, a forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club BC, made similar arguments about how the government misrepresents the numbers.
“They are masking the problem, the ecological emergency,” Wieting said. “By allowing continuing logging in these small, intact areas, that’s like burning down libraries, because we know, based on science, that we are losing a web of life that depends on these old growth forests and that’s the responsibility of the current government.”
Most ancient forest is not protected, shown here in red. Green indicates old growth under protection. Map by Vicky Husband/Commons BC, 2018
Ministry of Forests responds
The B.C. Ministry of Forests says there are about 55 million hectares of forests around the province, of which 25 million hectares are considered old-growth and four million hectares are protected.
When asked specifically about what definition of old growth the province uses and whether low productivity lands are included, the ministry said “old growth is consistently defined as productive forest, or forest management land base, so swamp, scrub, bog, alpine forest, etc., are all excluded from the province’s calculations.”
Even low productivity sites have larger trees, the ministry said in a written statement, adding that one such site in the Sproat Lake area has a 252-year-old, 22-metre-tall tree.
“By law, a specified amount of the forests that reflect the definition of old growth must be retained to meet biodiversity needs,” the ministry said in its statement. “Generally, the approximate age at which old growth characteristics and structure are apparent in coastal ecosystems is 250 years, whereas Interior ecosystems are 140 years.”
The Forest and Range Practices Act and its regulations are the main set of laws governing forest practices, the ministry said.
Private land covers about one-quarter of Vancouver Island and the province doesn’t include it because it says it has “very limited jurisdiction over private land harvesting.”
When asked specifically how much of the province is protected, the ministry said 15.8 per cent of the Crown land in the province is protected, including legal old growth management areas, which make up about two per cent of Crown land.
“Old growth management areas, wildlife habitat areas, ungulate winter ranges, and ecological reserves are additional areas that contain old growth protection measures in addition to parks,” the ministry said.
B.C. government may lose social license over logging, forestry dean says
It’s not just the government and the environmentalists who disagree on how to classify forests. The problem of defining exactly types of forests should be considered old growth is complicated, said John Innes, professor and dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia.
“This is actually quite a big debate that is going on internationally right now,” Innes said. “People are struggling with this and trying to work out how to talk about this and how to define these different types of forests.”
When Innes hears the term old-growth, he envisions large, old trees – like those found in Cathedral Grove, a provincial park on Vancouver Island that contains an ancient Douglas fir ecosystem. However, technically, he says, the government’s use of the term is not wrong.
“In boggy areas, the trees are so widely spaced and so thin and spindly that they’ve got no commercial value, so they’re not going to be harvested anyway, but that doesn’t mean to say they’re not old growth,” Innes said.
At the same time, he says B.C. Timber Sales should stop issuing licenses to cut down massive, old trees on Vancouver Island except in exceptional situations.
“As a general principle, on Vancouver Island, where there is now a limited supply, … we need to be careful and steward what’s left,” he said.
Innes has also heard that First Nations people now have difficulty finding trees big enough to make canoes.
Innes first learned about the big trees being cut down in the Nahmint Valley from the National Observer story and said he was surprised.
“The B.C. government is at risk of losing social license over this,” Innes said. “I do not consider it to have been a very clever move on the part of B.C. Timber Sales, but I don’t know the full situation.”
Even though the logging was legal, Innes said the move was bound to be controversial.
“I don’t think we should be cutting that size of tree down if there are alternatives,” Innes said.
The largest Douglas fir in the world, the Red Creek fir near Port Renfrew. Photo July 2016 by Ancient Forest Alliance
Besides the fact that tourists and locals alike love to visit the majestic old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, there are also scientific reasons for saving these grand old trees, Innes said.
“Every time there is some sort of a severe stress in a population, some of that population will be killed and if you’ve got trees that are 1,400 or 1,500 years old, they have survived an awful lot of those stresses, which means they must be pretty good at it,” Innes said.
“If we’re worried about the future and the future stresses on trees, those very old trees may hold the gene reservoir that we need for future forests.”
Technology is advancing so fast that soon, environmental groups may be able to count the exact numbers of large trees left in the province using drones, and track them when they are logged, Innes said.
Legislative and regulatory changes are needed now, campaigner says
The relatively new NDP government needs to make changes now, Wieting said.
“The current B.C. government is not responsible for forest management over the previous 16 years on Vancouver Island, but we have an emergency now as a result of that,” Wieting said.
“They are responsible for the losses that will happen now, because there is now so little left that species like the marbled murrelet are disappearing … and mosses, lichen and fungi that depend on old growth ecosystems. This is now getting worse as a result of climate change.
Jens Wieting, a forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club BC, says the government’s numbers mask an ‘ecological emergency.’ Handout photo
The longer the government denies a problem on Vancouver Island, the worse the ecological and cultural damage will be, Wieting says.
“This new government continues to use the same rhetoric and the same superficial information like the previous government and that’s no longer acceptable because it’s not based on science and we are now in an ecological emergency and it’s getting worse every day,” Wieting said.
Wieting would like to see interim steps put in place, based on precaution.
“The government should stop issuing permits for old growth logging in some of these areas that I refer to as precautionary areas – relatively intact areas with significant potential for ecosystems, for species habitat for cultural value, for tourism and carbon value. We have record high carbon storage in these areas,” Wieting said.
He would also like to see legislation to protect endangered rainforest by ecosystem.
“It’s not okay to have logging continuing in some of the last relatively intact old growth areas because that means that we will have foregone conclusions, we will have a situation after the fact where there are no intact old growth forests left to consider,” Wieting said.
All that’s left is a tree museum, activist says
Husband says now is the time to stop logging the ancient forests of Vancouver Island.
“This is the last flailing gasp of the dinosaur swinging his tail,” Husband said. “If you drive through Tofino and Cathedral Grove, that’s what we have to show what those Douglas fir forests used to look like. That’s all we have – it’s a tree museum.”
Wu would like to see a land acquisitions fund so that the government can buy land from private owners to protect it from logging.
“For example, the mountain side above Cathedral Grove – the most famous old-growth forest in Canada – is privately owned and slated for logging,” Wu said. “People don’t realize that the mountainside above that stand of trees that millions come to see, can actually get logged and already has a logging road punched through it.
“The company has been sitting on it for several years because of our campaign to see where this is going to go. The government could buy that old-growth forest and add it to the park with a land acquisition fund.”
In the meantime, Wu would like to see an immediate end to the B.C. government issuing permits through B.C. Timber Sales for logging of old growth forests.
“The BC NDP can end the war in the woods, that can be their legacy,” Wu said. “They just have to do what the rest of the western world has moved to now, which is moving towards a second growth forest industry. We want them to do it sustainably, and let’s keep the remnants of the old growth for endangered species, for tourism, for the climate, for clean water and wild salmon.”
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nahmint-Valley-May-2018-420_L.jpg533800TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2018-06-12 00:00:002024-07-30 17:03:00Environmentalists accuse B.C. government of fudging the numbers to log some of the world’s biggest trees
B.C. Timber Sales is reviewing its best management practices for legacy trees with the intent of strengthening a policy brought into question by old-growth logging near Port Alberni.
The Crown agency (BCTS) and the B.C. government have been roundly criticized in recent weeks by conservationists and local First Nations for continuing to allow logging of ancient fir and cedar in the Nahmint Valley.
Researchers aligned with the lobby group Ancient Forest Alliance pinpointed the logging last month of what was the ninth largest Douglas fir. They maintain that it’s one of many old-growth giants still being levelled in Vancouver Island forests.
“Although it should be a no-brainer to protect B.C.’s biggest trees, what we ultimately need is protection for endangered forest ecosystems, which are under siege by commercial logging. Almost 11,000 hectares of old-growth forests were cut on Vancouver Island in 2016,” said Andrea Inness, an alliance campaigner. “And where better to start protecting old-growth than at the government’s own logging agency, B.C. Timber Sales?”
Immediately west of Port Alberni, the valley contains some of the most extensive stands of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island left standing outside of Clayoquot Sound. The area lies in the territory of Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations.
The Crown agency is overseen by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which confirmed that the old-growth Douglas fir cited by Ancient Forest Alliance was part of Crown lands auctioned off before new policy was in place.
“With regard to the specific tree mentioned in the (Ancient Forest Alliance) news release, BCTS’ best management practices on legacy trees came into effect after that specific timber sale was laid out,” the ministry stated. “BCTS is also reviewing this policy to make it stronger.”
In its current form, policy requires any Douglas fir wider than 2.1 metres and any cedar wider than three metres to be left standing. The felled Nahmint fir was three metres in diameter.
Since August 2016, BCTS has awarded five timber sales totalling 319 hectares in the valley. The ministry noted, however, that there are 2,760 hectares of old growth protected in the “Nahmint landscape unit.”
BCTS has identified 250 old-growth cedar trees to be spared from logging in the Nahmint, the ministry said. As well, the ministry maintains that old growth forest is not far from a rare commodity on the Island, representing 43 percent of 1.9 million hectares of Crown forest on the Island. A large proportion of that old growth — 520,000 hectares — is protected.
Despite reassurances, conservation groups insist that government is exaggerating the extent of highly productive old growth, specifically trees ranging from 500 to 1,000 years old. Cut blocks in the Nahmint Valley auctioned by BCTS extend into areas where those oldest trees are found and don’t provide enough buffer to retain old-growth ecosystems, the alliance says.
Mike Stini of the Port Alberni Watershed Alliance was among those who identified the fir when it was still standing this spring.
“To see it lying on the ground two weeks later was devastating, especially since these big, old Douglas firs are now endangered after a century of commercial logging,” Stini said. “There are less than one percent of the old-growth Douglas-firs on the coast remaining. It’s like finding a huge black rhino or Siberian tiger that’s been shot. There are simply too few today and logging the last of these giants shouldn’t be allowed to happen anymore in B.C.”
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Vic-News-Stump.jpg533800TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2018-06-08 00:00:002024-07-30 16:59:49B.C. “legacy tree” policy under review after ancient fir logged
“These are some of the biggest, oldest living creatures that have ever existed in Earth’s history. It’s ethically wrong, it’s ecologically destructive”, Ken Wu, executive director, Ancient Forest Alliance
After decades of campaigning to save old growth forest giants on the west coast, activists are shocked that it’s still happening.
Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance and other environmental groups discovered several giant trees felled this month in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island.
The provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) government is being blamed for the action through its agency B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS). The agency auctioned off a 300 hectare section (cutblock) which includes some of the biggest old-growth Douglas Fir and western red cedar trees in the province.
Among them was the ninth widest tree in all of British Columbia (3 m/10ft), and one of the tallest(66m/216ft) according to the “B.C. Big Tree Registry”
“There are fewer than 1% of the old-growth Douglas-firs on the coast remaining. It’s like finding a huge black rhino or Siberian tiger that’s been shot. There are simply too few today and logging the last of these giants shouldn’t be allowed to happen anymore in BC” – Mike Stini of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance
Environmentalist Mike Stini said he spoke to the mill owner responsible for the cut block as was told the contractor was advised to leave that specific tree alone.
There is a provincial policy to protect such ancient trees, but activists say it’s not being enforced. In a statement by the Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner T.J. Watt said, “According to BCTS’ policy, Douglas-fir trees over 2.1 meters (7 feet) wide and western red cedars over 3 metres (10 feet) wide located within BCTS-issued cutblocks should be left standing, In spite of this policy, they still cut down Canada’s 9th widest Douglas-fir tree that was 3 meters (10 feet) wide – far larger than their minimum protection size – and we saw several fresh cedar stumps wider than 3 metres. In addition to it being a weak policy to begin with, with plenty of loopholes and lacking buffer zones for the biggest trees, they aren’t even implementing it in the Nahmint Valley. BCTS’ ‘best practices’ didn’t even save the ninth-widest Douglas-fir in Canada”.
Environmentalists are also upset because as they say there is plenty of second growth trees available for logging and therefore no need to cut down the ancient trees.
People are angry with the NDP government which had made election promises to protect old growth forests. Forestry Minister Doug Donaldson says there are 3,000 hectares of protected old growth forest in the valley, “so it’s a balancing act…and we’re working on addressing those concerns”.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nahmint-Valley-May-2018-442-L.jpg533800TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2018-06-06 00:00:002024-07-30 16:59:51The fall of giants: irreplaceable trees logged
Environmentalists on Vancouver Island are calling on the NDP government to deliver on an election promise to protect old-growth forests.
The demand follows the recent felling of huge, ancient trees in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni.
The Ancient Forest Alliance says in late May trees up to 70 metres tall and as wide as three metres in diameter were cut down as part of logging on Crown land made possible by the government agency B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS).
“These are some of the biggest, oldest living creatures that have ever existed in Earth’s history,” said Ken Wu, executive director for the alliance. “It’s ethically wrong, it’s ecologically destructive.”
The organization says the Nahmint Valley, which lies in the territory of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations, has extensive stands of old-growth forests similar to those in Clayoquot Sound.
Hupacasath member Brenda Sayers says she was dismayed upon learning that trees that big were being logged.
“I was horrified,” said Sayers, a former federal Green Party candidate.
She often visits the area and describes it as magnificent and magical. She also says it has cultural significance as a sacred site for her nation.
“We are caretakers of the land,” she said. “It’s our responsibility to safeguard what is there for future generations.”
Sparing legacy trees
In January, the BCTS implemented a best practices management plan for coastal legacy trees, which it describes as exceptionally large and old trees.
The document says the specimens are a unique feature of B.C.’s coastal forests that help with habitat conservation and support ecotourism.
It sets guidelines for loggers to spare yellow cedar, coastal Douglas fir, sitka spruce and western red cedar. For example, a Douglas fir with a diameter of at least 2.1 metres must be preserved.
The alliance says a Douglas fir felled in the Nahmint Valley was larger than this and is surprised it wasn’t saved — but the BCTS document also includes operational factors, such as safety hazards, that allow legacy trees to be felled.
“Right now it’s generally legal to log these old-growth forests. It doesn’t make it right,” said Wu.
Focus on second-growth
Environmentalists on Vancouver Island have for years campaigned to have B.C. stop the practice of logging old-growth forests and focus solely on second-growth instead.
As part of its 2017 election platform, the NDP promised to partner with First Nations to modernize land-use planning.
That included using the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.
In 2016 an agreement was struck to protect 85 per cent of the forest — 3.1 million hectares — from industrial logging.
Wu says that, so far, the NDP has not committed to its election promise.
“I think they’re trying to figure out their position as we continue to push and as there’s a massive old-growth logging industry lobby that is also pushing them,” he said.
Old growth protections
A statement from the Ministry of Forests said BCTS has awarded five timber sales worth 319 hectares since August 2016 in the Nahmint Valley, and that logging continues to support jobs in places like Port Alberni.
The ministry says there are 2,760 hectares of old growth protected in the valley and that there are 520,000 hectares of old-growth forests that will never be logged on Vancouver Island.
“Government is continuously reviewing practices to ensure healthy ecosystems and that logging is sustainable,” said Forests Minister Doug Donaldson in the statement.
The NDP committed $16 million over three years in its latest budget to modernize land-use planning. It says there will be an update on progress in the fall.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nahmint-Valley-May-Large.jpg533800TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2018-06-05 00:00:002024-07-30 16:59:53NDP blamed for failing to save Vancouver Island old-growth giants from logging
Logging underway in the Nahmint Valley threatens one of the last prime spots of B.C. old-growth habitat and points to the NDP government’s failure to honour its election promise, says an Island-based conservation group.
Ancient Forest Alliance led a media tour on Wednesday, May 23 to examine a freshly felled Douglas fir estimated to be 800 years old.
“This is a monumental screwup,” said Ken Wu, alliance executive director. “They’ve just cut down the ninth largest Douglas fir.”
Group researchers identified the living tree earlier this month as chainsaws buzzed with logging activity on surrounding mountainsides. They assumed the big fir was protected and were astonished to find it felled a couple of weeks later.
Wu said their concerns relate not only to the felled fir but to the area as a whole. Nahmint Valley, 40 km west of Port Alberni, is known as an all-too-rare “hot spot” of old-growth in the province.
He holds the NDP government directly responsible because the logging is administered by its own agency, B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS). BCTS has auctioned cut blocks that overlap areas of ancient old growth, the group contends. Extensive logging in the area began this spring.
Mike Stini, a Port Alberni conservationist, said he spoke with the mill owner responsible for the cut block and was told the contractor was specifically told not to fall the big Douglas fir in question.
“There are so few of the giant first left,” Stini said. “We’ve got to do something.”
Giant fir and cedar are the crux of Nahmint habitat critical to species such as Roosevelt elk, marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. The picturesque valley is also a popular destination for recreationalists. Wu compared the felling of the fir to the slaughter of endangered elephants or the last of a species.
“It really is like blowing away the last remaining black rhinos,” he said. “The crazy thing is, most of the region is second growth.”
The Nahmint Valley is largely virgin forest yet there is plenty of second- and even third-generation forest available for harvest, he noted. In comparison, highly productive old-growth represents less than 10 percent of Island forests.
Not far from the site of the downed fir stands another that has been labelled the “Alberni Giant,” an even larger Douglas fir believed to be 800-900 years old. That tree remains protected in a zone designated for ungulate winter range. Other old growth is not similarly protected.
“This is not isolated,” said TJ Watt, a photographer who uses satellite imagery and provincial mapping to identify surviving old-growth trees. His work led him to the Douglas fir and others in the Nahmint.
“It’s happening all over the Island all of the time,” Watt said. “Old-growth logging is not a thing of the past.”
Trees several hundred years old, larger than those in Cathedral Grove, are still coming down in the face of the B.C. government’s new “big tree policy” established in January, the group said. They were told by regional staff of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations that the Nahmint cut blocks were laid out five years ago.
Forest Alliance posted photos of the felled tree on Facebook last week, triggering widespread condemnation unlike any the decade-old lobby group has seen.
“What has changed is not government policy,” Wu said. “The NDP government has exactly the same policy as the Liberal government. The change is in the moment because there are so many log exports and because there are second-growth alternatives. Businesses and people in general realize that we shouldn’t be logging the last of the remaining old growth forest. We can have all the jobs and keep all the old growth, too.”
They’ve met with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson on the issue and want to take the old-growth issue straight to Premier John Horgan since cutting contradicts the NDP pledge to adhere to an ancient growth model.
“We have raised the issue that the Nahmint really is a hot spot area and that they have to instruct B.C. Timber to stop auctioning old-growth cut blocks,” Wu said. “Certainly don’t place cut blocks in old-growth stands where logging is allowed. They don’t mandate a buffer zone and as a result they’re still logging 12-foot cedars.
“Hopefully there is some movement on the government’s part to change from the status quo,” he added. “They can’t take for granted the support of the environmental movement.”
A call to MLA Scott Fraser’s office was referred to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which hadn’t responded by press time.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Ken-Alberni-Giant-Large.jpg571800TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2018-06-01 00:00:002024-07-30 16:58:42Blame for felled Nahmint giant placed on NDP
