Earlier this month, the AFA’s own Andrea Inness was featured on Great.com‘s podcast Great.com Talks With… where she discussed the plight of BC’s rare and endangered old-growth forests, what must be done to protect them, and how concerned folks around the world can help get involved.
Learn more and listen to the podcast interview online or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Thanks to all of you, ancient forest protection has become a top election issue. Over the last few weeks, BC’s old-growth forests have been discussed in multiple political debates, news stories, online content, party platforms, and campaign speeches. Almost 1,400 messages have been sent and all three parties have made election promises that could profoundly impact the fate of BC’s endangered old-growth.
It’s now up to you to decide which party will put ancient forests first and to cast your vote.
If you need a last-minute refresher on where each party stands on old-growth logging and related forestry issues, check out our short election video and election report card.
And if you’re heading to the polls today, here’s a quick guide to help you ensure your vote gets counted!
• Voting places are open today from 8am to 8pm. Click here to find polling stations for your riding or use the Where to Vote App.
• You can also cast your ballot at any district electoral office from from 8am to 8pm. Find the district electoral office nearest you
• If you have a vote-by-mail package, it must be returned in person before 8pm at any district electoral office, voting place, or participating Service BC location. If you mail it, it won’t be received in time and won’t be counted. For more information, visit Election BC’s vote by mail page.
• Make sure to bring a valid ID with your name and address and don’t forget your mask!
• For more information, visit Elections BC.
Your vote could help create a better future for BC’s magnificent old-growth forests.
For the trees,
The AFA team,
This election, let’s vote for an end to the logging of BC’s endangered ancient forests and a rapid transition to a sustainable, second-growth forest industry.
Watch the video below to find out where each of BC’s major parties stand on old-growth and visit our website for more details on each party’s platform.
For information on how and where to vote on October 24th, visit https://elections.bc.ca
The BC government has called a snap election for October 24th, putting critical issues like the continued logging of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, reconciliation with Indigenous Nations, climate change, forestry practices, and the economy into the spotlight.
We’ve prepared a summary of where each of BC’s three major parties stand on old-growth and related issues and given each party a grade to help voters make informed decisions this election.
For information on how and where to vote visit Elections BC
Old-growth forest policies
GRADE: D
Over the last three and a half years, the BC NDP have continued to enable the massive, widespread destruction of BC’s old-growth forests at the same rate as the BC Liberals even as endangered species like mountain caribou and spotted owls continue to dramatically decline in numbers. They also failed to implement their 2017 election platform commitment to “take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model” to sustainably manage BC’s old-growth.
Instead, in 2019, the BC NDP announced they would protect 54 big trees on BC’s Big Tree Registry and convene an independent panel to review BC’s forest policies. The panel’s final report was released in September, at which time the NDP announced they would enact a regulation estimated to protect up to 1,500 more of BC’s biggest trees. They also announced two-year logging deferrals in 353,000 hectares (ha) in nine areas across BC. However, only 3,800 ha – just 1% – of the 353,000 ha contains productive old-growth forest with big trees – the type of forest the old-growth panel has recommended the BC government take immediate action to protect.
In their 2020 election platform, the BC NDP promised to work with First Nations governments, labour, industry, and environmental groups to implement the Old Growth Strategic Review panel’s recommendations to protect old-growth forests. The 14 recommendations outlined in the independent panel’s report are a blueprint for a complete paradigm shift in the way BC manages old-growth forests, putting ecosystem health and biodiversity above timber values. However, the NDP haven’t committed to implementing the recommendations on the panel’s three-year timeline and they have failed to protect the last remaining 3% of BC’s productive, big tree old-growth forests. They have also failed to commit critical funding to support the creation of new protected areas; help BC transition to sustainable, value-added, second-growth forestry; and support First Nations’ land-use plans and sustainable economies.
Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition
GRADE: D
Since coming to power, the NDP have failed to curb the export of raw, unprocessed logs from BC’s coast – something the NDP were strongly in support of doing while in opposition. Although the NDP claim to want to get more value out of BC logs, and despite continued job loss and mill closures across BC due to decades of unsustainable harvesting and a lack of long-term planning, they still haven’t devised a comprehensive economic strategy or committed sufficient funding to expand BC’s value-added wood manufacturing sector, help forest-based communities diversify their economies, or expedite the transition to a sustainable, second growth forest sector.
Instead, the NDP have allowed old-growth forests to be logged to make wood pellets for BC’s burgeoning biofuels industry (which releases massive amounts of CO2 emissions) and have promoted the use of mass timber in public buildings as a “sustainable” alternative to concrete, even though it could be manufactured using old-growth trees.
In their platform, the BC NDP promise to allocate a specific portion the annual allowable cut to value-added producers and say they will continue “revitalizing” BC’s forests through greater investments in tree planting and wildfire prevention. As part of their post-COVID Economic Recovery Plan, they also promise to support resource communities facing job loss, help retrain impacted workers, and develop higher value goods.
Old-growth forest policies
GRADE: A+
The Greens have been outspoken about the need to protect endangered old-growth throughout their time in government. For example, in the spring of 2019, they called on the BC NDP to enact immediate moratoria on old-growth logging in hotspots on Vancouver Island and to invest in mill retrofits to aid the transition to a sustainable second-growth industry.
In their election platform, the BC Greens promise to put an immediate end to the logging of old growth forests in high risk ecosystems and partner with First Nations to fully implement all of the old-growth review panel’s recommendations. They also commit to enacting legislation that establishes forest ecosystem health and biodiversity as an overarching priority and establishing funding mechanisms to support old-growth protection and communities.
Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition
GRADE: A+
The Greens have promised to ensure small producers in BC have better access to fibre and to incentivize value-added wood manufacturing, including non-traditional uses of BC wood.
They have committed to ending raw log exports, reducing emissions from forestry, and ensuring that First Nations, municipalities, and regional districts reap more benefits from BC’s forest sector.
Finally, the BC Greens promise to support forestry workers and communities in the transition away from old-growth logging by investing in retraining and by supporting more sustainable use of BC’s forests, for example, through investments in tourism and carbon economies.
Old-growth forest policies
GRADE: F
During their time in power, the BC Liberals significantly increased the rate of old-growth logging in BC’s interior and allowed Old-Growth Management Area boundaries in many parts of BC to be adjusted to allow for more logging. Using stumpage fees and taxpayers’ dollars, they aggressively marketed BC old-growth wood abroad and reduced old-growth forest retention targets in the Central Interior to prop-up ailing mills. They also deregulated vast areas of private, corporate forest lands that were once publicly regulated, opening up major tracts of protected old-growth forests for liquidation. The Liberals’ key area of progress in reducing the rate of cut was in the Great Bear Rainforest, where the AAC was reduced by 40%, and in Haida Gwaii, where the AAC was reduced by 50%.
The BC Liberals’ current forestry platform [Original article no longer available] is the unsustainable status quo: maintain business-as-usual logging (which includes clearcutting old-growth forests), support mass timber construction projects made from BC wood, and plant more trees. They also promise to “modernize” management practices and provide more public subsidies to make it easier and cheaper for companies to log. Their platform makes no mention of the need to protect old-growth forests. In fact, they promise to introduce legislation to protect the “working forest” – an approach that would see the vast majority of BC’s remaining endangered old-growth logged.
Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition
GRADE: F
The BC Liberals dramatically increased the rate of raw log exports during their 16 years in power, quadrupling average annual log exports to over 6 million cubic meters each year, resulting in the loss of thousands of potential forestry jobs in BC. They removed the local milling requirement, granted scores of log export permits from Crown lands, issued general exemptions against log export restrictions for the entire North Coast, and removed Tree Farm Licences on corporate private lands, opening the floodgates to log exports.
They have not made any commitments in their 2020 platform to curb raw log exports, invest in value-added wood manufacturing, or help forest-based communities diversify their economies or transition to second-growth logging.
Exciting news! The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) has passed a resolution calling on the BC Government to work with First Nations to protect old-growth forests while engaging and supporting Indigenous communities.
The resolution, passed last month at the UBCIC AGM, follows the BC government’s Sept 11 release of a report by an independent panel tasked with reviewing BC’s forest policies. The panel’s report contains 14 recommendations that form a blueprint for a new BC forest regime that is centred on Indigenous involvement and puts ecosystem health ahead of timber values.
In the resolution, the UBCIC Chiefs-in-Assembly call on the province to implement all 14 of the panel’s recommendations and to expand logging deferrals to encompass “all threatened old-growth forests” in consultation with First Nations.
They also call for funding to support First Nations-led land-use plans, Indigenous Protected Area management, private land purchase, and conservation economies.
Read the full resolution here:
We’re extremely grateful and inspired by those who use their passions to help build the ancient forest movement! During September, big tree enthusiast and bicyclist, Michael, embarked on a cross-province cycling trip from BC to Jasper to raise awareness for the AFA and BC’s ancient forests. Michael also cycled in Mexico recently where he followed migrating animals like gray whales, vultures, and monarch butterflies. In his latest venture, he showed his support for BC’s old-growth forests and the many species and communities that depend on them.
Thank you, Michael! To learn more and to support the journey, check out his website: https://michaelrsuds.wixsite.com/mikebikesacrossbc
Note: Last week we welcomed the release of the Old Growth Strategic Review panel’s long-anticipated report, which includes strong recommendations to protect old-growth forests & overhaul BC’s forest management regime.
We also welcomed logging deferrals in 9 areas across BC, but closer inspection reveals that some of those areas were already deferred or have little at-risk, productive old-growth.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of BC’s most endangered ancient forests are still at risk. The NDP government must act quickly to protect the most at-risk stands (as the panel recommends) and commit to fully implementing their recommendations.
Read the Narwhal’s explainer piece below:
The Narwhal
September 16, 2020
When governments make announcements on a Friday afternoon, it’s usually because they don’t want much scrutiny.
That was clearly the case on Sept. 11 when the B.C. government released a consequential old-growth strategic review report, barely giving reporters a chance to glance at the fine print and recommendations prior to a press conference with Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
Donaldson’s ministry simultaneously sent out a news release announcing the “protection” of nine areas in B.C., totalling almost 353,000 hectares, to kickstart the NDP government’s “new approach to old forests.”
Sounds good, right?
But wait. As the adage goes, the devil is in the details.
“If you look at the facts … it still essentially preserves the core of the old-growth logging industry,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance.
“Left as it is, it will liquidate most of the remaining endangered old-growth.”
So what did the government commit to? And what did the old-growth strategic review report say?
Read on. Get The Narwhal in your inbox!
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In a word, no.
Donaldson announced that development will be temporarily deferred in nine old-growth areas while consultations about future designations are held. “The areas that are announced today are already areas where harvesting is not taking place, and therefore the economic impact in the immediate term is going to be insignificant,” he told reporters.
“Deferrals aren’t protection,” said Wilderness Committee national campaign director Torrance Coste. “They’re two-year deferrals, hopefully to buy time for those forests to be protected.”
Eight of the areas are in southern B.C. — omitting the northern boreal forest and rare and endangered interior temperate rainforest from logging reprieves.
It’s business as usual everywhere else in the province, including in the central Walbran and Fairy Creek on southern Vancouver Island, in endangered caribou habitat in the Anzac Valley northeast of Prince George and on the Sunshine Coast, where residents have stapled felt hearts on old-growth trees as part of an effort to protect the Clack Creek forest from clear-cutting.
“It’s largely talk and log in a lot of cases, with loopholes big enough to drive thousands of logging trucks through,” observed Wu, the founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
Retired B.C. government forester Judy Thomas surveys a clear cut near the Anzac Valley, just north of Prince George, B.C. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
Clayoquot Sound, with more than 260,000 hectares deferred from development, represents almost three-quarters of the deferrals in size.
But when GIS mapper Dave Leversee crunched the numbers, he found that about 137,000 hectares of the land newly “deferred” from development in Clayoquot Sound is already under some form of protection, including parks, Wildlife Habitat Areas and Clayoquot management reserves.
Less than nine per cent of the total area announced for a development deferral consists of old-growth forests of medium to good productivity, meaning there are optimal conditions for supporting the biggest trees, Leversee discovered.
“There’s a lot of non-forested areas in that number: rocks, mountain peaks, swamps, things like that,” he said of the 260,000-hectare Clayoquot Sound “old growth development deferral” area on the government’s map.
An aerial view of old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, part of a temporary deferral that will prohibit logging in this area for two years. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
It’s much the same story in the Kootenays, where Stockdale Creek and Crystalline Creek in the Purcells are on the list of development deferrals.
Wildsight conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen pointed out that only 0.1 hectare of the 9,600 hectares deferred in Crystalline Creek area, a tributary of the south fork of the Spillimacheen River, was slated for logging.
In Stockdale Creek, just 223 hectares out of 11,500 hectares that received a development deferral were on the chopping block, Petryshen said, noting that both areas provide important grizzly bear and wolverine habitat and connectivity.
“It’s a far cry from the numbers they’re talking about,” Petryshen told The Narwhal.
“While both these watersheds are intact, have very high biodiversity values and need to be protected, most of the old growth in these drainages is not believed to be under immediate threat from logging.”
After Clayoquot Sound, the largest temporary deferral from development consists of 40,000 hectares in the Incomappleux Valley east of Revelstoke, an inland rainforest with trees up to 1,500 years old.
“The deferral areas appear to cover a lot of inoperable forest, or forest that’s already been clear cut,” said Valhalla Wilderness Society director Craig Pettitt.
The society is suggesting that 32,000 hectares of the Incomappleux deferral unit be allocated “to actual endangered forest elsewhere, instead of protecting inoperable or clear cut areas outside of the ancient forest.”
Pettitt said he is happy the Incomappleux has been acknowledged. But he said the inland temperate rainforest — hosting some of B.C.’s rarest ancient forests — is “severely underrepresented” in the government’s announcement. 
Clear-cut logging of spruce in B.C.’s interior. Less than one-third of the world’s primary forests are still intact yet in B.C.’s interior a temperate rainforest that holds vast stores of carbon and is home to endangered caribou is being clear-cut as fast as the Amazon. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
And then there’s the deferral of about 5,700 hectares in the Skagit-Silver Daisy area, on the edge of Manning Park, where the B.C. government had already announced that logging permits in the Skagit River headwaters would no longer be permitted, but mining exploration has been causing friction with Americans downstream.
Also on Vancouver Island, more than 2,200 hectares were deferred from logging around McKelvie Creek — the last unprotected, intact watershed in the Tahsis region, in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territory. And just over 1,000 hectares, an area roughly the size of two and a half Stanley Parks, were deferred in H’Kusam, near Sayward.
The remaining deferrals consist of just over 4,500 hectares in an area known as the Seven Sisters, northwest of Smithers, and more than 17,000 hectares around the Upper Southgate River in Bute Inlet on B.C.’s mid-coast.
Coste said the Wilderness Committee is waiting on shapefiles and more information from the government so it can determine what portion of the nine deferrals lie in the 415,000 hectares of old forest left in B.C., home to trees expected to grow more than 20 metres tall in 50 years.
“That will be the real test,” he said.
The report, commissioned by the B.C. government, was written by foresters Garry Merkel and Al Gorley.
The 216-page report calls for a paradigm shift in the way B.C. manages old-growth forests. It lays out a blueprint for change with 14 recommendations.
The report says old forests have intrinsic value for all living things and should be managed for ecosystem health, not for timber. It also says many old forests are not renewable, which counters the prevailing notion that trees, no matter how old, will grow back.
The report was widely praised by conservation groups, which welcomed the temporary development deferrals and called on the B.C. government to commit to implementing Merkel and Gorley’s recommendations.
“The report itself is fantastic,” Wu said. “It covers most of what we’ve actually been calling for for decades. What’s needed is to commit to those recommendations.” 
Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt surveys recent old-growth clearcutting by Teal-Jones in the Caycuse watershed in Ditidaht Territory on southern Vancouver Island. Areas of highly productive, endangered ancient forest like this still remain at risk in many regions. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
Top of the list is to engage “the full involvement” of Indigenous leaders and organizations in an old-growth strategy.
Immediately deferring development in old forests “where ecosystems are at very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss” and “prioritizing ecosystem health and resilience” are among the other recommendations.
In an interview with The Narwhal, Merkel said people from all sectors, including forestry, recognize “that the path we’re going down needs to change” and that B.C. forest-dependent communities — which have suffered from recent mill closures and job losses — need sustainable economies.
As such, the report recommends the government support forest sector workers and communities as they adapt to changes resulting from a new forest management system.
“If the government does that, we can minimize the pain through this transition,” said Merkel, the former chair of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation and the Columbia Basin Trust.
“But there is a transition coming in many areas … There are many, many areas that are going to have to do this regardless whether they implement our ideas or not. This is not a surprise.”
No. The government has not followed the panel’s recommendation to immediately defer all logging in old-growth forests that are home to ecosystems at risk of irreversible biodiversity loss.
Under Section 13 of B.C.’s Forests Act, Donaldson can defer harvesting activities for up to four years without compensating tenure holders.
Conservation North director Michelle Connolly said areas at risk of ecological collapse include the Anzac River Valley north of Prince George, which provides critical habitat for endangered southern mountain caribou and a myriad other species, including at-risk migratory songbirds.
“The Anzac is an area of great ecological risk up here and it’s really odd that no protections have been announced for it,” Connolly said in an interview.
Cutting permits have been issued all the way up the Anzac Valley “and they’re going after the highest productivity old-growth spruce, the areas with the biggest trees,” she said.
Forestry giant Canfor and Coastal Gaslink, which is constructing a pipeline for the LNG Canada export project, recently teamed up to build a new road into the Anzac Valley wilderness, Connolly noted.
“The Hart [Ranges] caribou use that whole area. The road, the cut blocks, are in their core habitat.” 
Scientist Michelle Connolly said the Anzac River Valley north of Prince George is at risk of ecological collapse and has not received any protection under the NDP government’s recent announcement. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
Petryshen said development deferrals omit “an incredible” drainage in the North Columbia mountains that BC Timber Sales plans to road and log.
The Argonaut Creek drainage provides critical habitat for the endangered Columbia North caribou herd, which, at 150 animals, is the largest remaining caribou herd in the area.
“It’s spectacular old-growth at lower elevations and then Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir and spectacular summer and winter caribou habitat, and it’s federal critical caribou habitat.”
He said it is hypocritical to move forward with piecemeal deferrals while, on the other hand, “we’re seeing that critical caribou habitat move down the road on logging trucks on Highway 23.”
Coste said the B.C. government is limiting its future ability to ensure the survival of ecosystems by failing to follow the panel’s recommendation.
“There are hundreds of hectares of old-growth being cut down today and removed from the pool of old-growth that we could potentially protect six months, a year, two years, three years from now.”
B.C. First Nations Forestry Council CEO Charlene Higgins said the council is disappointed the government has chosen to engage with First Nations “after the fact” and not as partners in the process, especially given the cultural significance of many old-growth areas.
“Public consultation and engagement stakeholder processes, and asking for submissions, really doesn’t recognize First Nations as governments and as rights holders,” Higgins told The Narwhal.
“There’s been no meaningful input and engagement with First Nations.”
Higgins said the process doesn’t reflect commitments made in B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and the government’s commitment to work in cooperation and collaboration with Indigenous peoples on forest policy changes, legislation and practices.
She said the council supports the nine development deferrals provided they were decided in full consultation with First Nations in whose territories the deferrals lie. (Donaldson underscored that the deferrals all have the support of local First Nations.)
“Many First Nations have their own policies around old growth and they have their own old growth areas that they recognize, and the province needs to ensure that these areas line up,” Higgins said. 
An aerial view highlighting extensive clearcut logging of productive old-growth forests in the Klanawa Valley on southern Vancouver Island, B.C. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
Donaldson’s ministry also announced that work is underway to protect up to 1,500 “exceptionally large, individual trees” under the special tree protection regulation, introduced last year by the government to protect monumental trees.
Coste called the big tree protections a “drop in the bucket.” They represent, at most, the preservation of 1,500 hectares of old-growth across the province — an area smaller than four Stanley Parks — because each monumental tree gets a one-kilometre buffer zone around it, he pointed out.
“Big trees are important but there’s so much more to old-growth forests than just those big trees.”
Connolly, from Conservation North, called the protection of individual trees “a joke,” saying her science-based group sees more than 1,500 trees from the interior wet belt going down Highway 97 in a single day.
“They don’t understand what is a minimum expectation for conservation,” she said.
Higgins, from the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council, said there has been no First Nations input into the protection of individual trees.
“Without nations having any input into what is considered a large tree species, there’s a potential for a disconnect.”
“Many First Nations have developed their own strategy for what they deem as culturally significant areas,” she said. “It’s been a really flawed process that really doesn’t reflect First Nations input.
But Wu said big tree protections are an important part of protecting what little remains of B.C.’s high productivity old growth.
“The goal is, and has always been, protection of old growth ecosystems. That’s got to happen on the trees and groves level, and on the level of watersheds, landscapes and ecosystems.” 
Tahsis Mayor Martin Davis stands beside a giant old-growth Douglas-fir tree in the McKelvie Valley, part of a temporary deferral that will prohibit logging in this area for two years. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance
No — at least not yet.
Merkel said the panel is recommending deep structural changes that go far further than saving a few key areas, although he said that is also important.
“If that’s all we do, we won’t change the way we’re doing things.”
“We’re talking about changing a system that started almost a century ago. We’re fundamentally turning a corner here in how that whole thing works. That’s going to take a little bit of time.”
For example, it will take several years to figure out the pieces that need to change to align with the panel’s recommendation to make ecosystem health a priority as an overarching directive for managing old-growth, he said.
If the government acts on the panel’s recommendations immediately, Merkel said there will be substantial changes in the short-term “and we will get incrementally better over time.”
Conservation groups want the government to implement the report’s 14 recommendations within the timeline laid out in the report, with immediate, mid-term and long-term actions taken over the next three years.
So far, the government hasn’t committed to any of the recommendations, or to the timeline.
Donaldson told reporters that managing old-growth forests while supporting workers and communities “has been a challenge in the making for more than 30 years and it won’t be solved immediately.”
“But we know that the status quo is not sustainable,” the minister said. “Obviously, it’s not good for the industry to cut it all down, there’s no plan for transition. And we know that unchecked logging in old-growth threatens crucial biodiversity values. But at the same time, putting an abrupt halt to old-growth logging would have devastating impacts on communities and workers across B.C., especially on the coast.”
As rumours swirl of a snap provincial election this fall, Donaldson said the government will provide a progress report on a “renewed old-growth strategy” in the spring of 2021. (Shortly after announcing the deferral areas, Donaldson announced he will not be seeking re-election.)
Merkel said he and Gorley have agreed not to judge the government at this point. “They haven’t outright said they aren’t going to do it,” he said regarding the recommendations.
“Our job was to think about what needed to happen,” he said. “We needed to put it out there. Now, the world has to think: ‘Are we ready, and can we do it?’ ”
Read the original article
The Tyee
September 15, 2020
[Editor’s note: This is the first of a series about the cedars of British Columbia, their vital role in this place’s ecologies, their endangered future, and people working on ways to save them from impending extinction.]
Western red cedar takes hold of the senses. The Big Tree Trail boardwalk in protected Wah-Nah-Jus Hilth-hoo-is (Meares Island Tribal Park), a short boat ride from Tofino in Tla-o-qui-aht territory, is built of hand-split cedar planks redolent of the tree’s sweet oil. All around is shaggy cedar bark. Branches of feathering leaves dance in the breeze like a fringe skirt, curving upward at the ends as if giving thanks to the sun.
The trail leads to a sign marking “Hanging Garden.” From the decaying trunk of a 1,500-year-old, five-and-a-half-metre-wide red cedar — one of the largest and oldest life forms on Earth — lichens cling, hemlock and alder trees sprout, sword ferns unfurl, and bats and bears make their roosts. It may be slowly dying, but this tree is full of life.
Elsewhere in British Columbia, the red cedar is not so lucky. It’s having trouble adapting to capitalism and climate change, and living out its long life in a shifting forest.
Red cedar, proclaimed the official tree of B.C. in 1988, naturally grows in cool, moist climates from Northern California to Alaska and just west of the Rocky Mountains in one of the world’s only inland temperate rainforests. The tree is known to scientists as thuja plicata, but it goes by many names: Pacific red cedar, giant cedar, canoe cedar, giant arborvitae. Not a true cedar but a woody member of the cypress family, the Latin arbor-vitae may be most accurate; it translates to “tree of life.” Indigenous terms of affection include “mother” or “grandmother cedar,” “maker of rich women,” and “long life maker.” The Nuu-chah-nulth name is huu-mis, huu signifying something long-lasting, perhaps across space and time.
While plant fossils show that a tree like red cedar has been growing around the northwest for as long as 50 million years, the species has only become widespread in the past 4,000 to 5,000 years — long after humans arrived in the region, says Richard Hebda, a paleontologist and adjunct associate professor at the University of Victoria.
Coast Salish oral history tells that before there was red cedar, there was a generous man. Whenever his people were in need, the man gave food and clothing. Recognizing the man’s good work, the Creator declared that when he died, a red cedar would grow where he was buried and continue to provide for the people. Red cedar did just that, co-evolving with First Nations and helping them build sophisticated societies of unparalleled wealth, abundance and ingenuity.
Prior to cedar, canoes and homes on the coast were often built of Sitka spruce. But once abundant, mother cedar became the tree of choice at least 3,000 years ago. “Without the environment we live in, we are not who we are,” Hebda says.
There are several likely reasons for the shift. The wood is lightweight and straight-grained, making it easy to split without a saw. Perhaps more important, mature cedars produce a natural fungicide, thujaplicin, which prevents rot in moldy northwest climates.
The largest cedar trees offered their wood for homes, totem poles and canoes. These vessels were packed with cedar tools, from paddles and nets to hooks, lures and fishing floats. Cedar’s soft inner bark supplied clothing and comfort; it was woven into tunics, mats, and blankets or shredded to make fluffy towels, diapers and sanitary pads. (Yellow cedar is also prized for its strong, dense wood and silky inner bark; see sidebar for more about B.C.’s other sacred cedar).
Red cedar withes — vine-like appendages that swoop down from branches — were twisted into ropes so strong they could haul in 40-tonne whales. Roots were coiled into baskets tight enough to boil water. And the flat green leaves, which look like scaly braids, offered spiritual protection or calcium-rich medicine.
Babies were delivered into woven cedar cradles. Placenta was sometimes buried at the base of an old cedar to ensure long life. At the end of that life, people were laid to rest in cedar canoes and coffins, the tree embracing its people for eternity.
But industrial logging and climate change threaten to cut the tree’s future short, severing ancestral connections that spread wide and strong like roots. A central question may define red cedar’s fate: Can we learn to respect and protect the great giving tree before it’s too late?
The ‘tree of life’ and its people
Despite the forced separation from their native lands and cultures by white colonizers, many Indigenous people have maintained an intimate bond with red cedar. Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks guardian and educator Gisele Maria Martin grew up with the sound of crackling cedar kindling and the smell of cedar sawdust on her father, Tla-o-qui-aht master canoe carver Joe Martin.
“I remember learning to make feathers to start fires with cedar and the tuck tuck tuck of a big log being carved with a hand adze,” Martin says.
But she’s wary of the focus on cedars’ many “uses,” which she says is a colonial frame that ignores the deep and spiritual relationship, built on care and reciprocity. “We did use cedar, of course,” Martin says. “But we also have a huge responsibility to cedar.”
Some Nations cut down whole trees for canoes and poles, but wood has been more often sourced from windfalls, or from standing trees without killing them. People were taught not to cut trees in the summer when eagles are nesting, and to avoid taking too much wood or risk being cursed by other cedars.
Before women collect bark from a young cedar, only in spring when the sap is running, prayers are offered and songs are sung. Removing bark triggers scars to heal over, but signs of historic and modern harvests are etched in the trunks — living archaeology.
“It’s impossible to not see cedar in a very particular way when you’re Indigenous to the west coast,” says Rande Cook, an artist and carver who’s a hereditary chief of the ’Na̱mg̱is and Ma’amtagila (Kwakwaka’wakw) First Nations.
Cook grew up with his grandparents in ’Na̱mg̱is territory (Alert Bay). He remembers cedar baskets full of berries, cedar bowls of eulachon oil, and teachings about red cedar trees holding the spirits of his ancestors.
“The trees are alive, they talk to each other, they create oxygen, they protect us,” Cook says. “They are serving a great purpose for all of us on this planet.”
Red cedar in the forest
Red cedar’s home — the northwest temperate rainforest — is a globally rare ecosystem that’s critical for purifying air and water, protecting biodiversity, defending salmon, and cooling the Earth. Old-growth temperate rainforest gulps and stores more carbon in its biomass than any other terrestrial environment and is less vulnerable to fires, floods, and other natural disturbances, making it one of our best defences in the fight against global climate change. Intact ancient rainforests with large trees are our greatest shield.
You can’t separate trees from the forest, but if you could, red cedar would play an outsized role. Commonly growing alongside western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and Douglas fir, red cedar is the largest tree in Canada. Record holders reach more than 20 stories tall, 20 metres around, and 450 cubic metres in volume. If you stacked five city buses vertically, you’d have something nearing the size of the Cheewhat Giant, the king of the B.C. forest. It’s not the biggest tree in the world — that’s red cedar’s cousin, the giant sequoia — but it’s up there.
Adding to its biomass, red cedar can reproduce asexually in a process known as layering. Branches or foliage that touch damp earth can sprout roots and become new saplings. Cedars are sometimes found in clusters of three to five, like a family or close circle of friends. Red cedar growing in isolation might just develop a mutant limb or a second head. But the finest cedars, those born under an old-growth canopy with feet deep in wet soil, rise straight and tall, slowly, toward the light.
“Red cedar shows its age and beauty but never looks old,” Hebda says. “It’s like an Ent in The Lord of the Rings, just this incredible, venerable being.”
Cedar is one of the best natural carbon banks on the planet thanks to its burly biomass and slow rate of decay. It can live for more than 1,000 years and, because of its anti-rot properties, dead trees or “snags” take hundreds more years to decompose. That can mean several metric tonnes of carbon stored by a single tree.
In fact, a dead cedar left in place is arguably even more important than a live one. Downed cedar trees become “nurse logs,” their spongy bark welcoming mosses, lichens, seedlings and insects to move in. Ancient cedars often hollow out like upside-down ice-cream cones, becoming favoured hibernation dens for black bears.
From talking trees to Timber Kings
Once considered a nuisance for the logging industry to cut down, red cedar became profitable starting in the late 1960s, as primary stands in Oregon and Washington were depleted. Before that, cedar was sometimes dumped into lakes where it floated until values increased enough for companies to come salvaging. But by 1988, the tree’s commercial reputation had turned around; red cedar was declared B.C.’s provincial tree due to its increasing worth and profound significance to First Nations.
Today, old-growth red cedar, defined by the province as being 250 years or older, is the most valuable log type, currently selling for two to five times the price of other conifers. Red cedar is made into a diverse range of products from acoustic guitars to utility poles, but it’s mostly cut into lumber, shingles, and shakes — more than 80 per cent of which is exported to the U.S.
Its long fibres are good for paper and pulp production, too. The Harmac Pacific pulp mill in Nanaimo has been churning out red cedar pulp to make the disposable blue masks and hospital gowns fighting COVID-19. The “tree of life” is literally saving lives.
Western red cedar has much in common with its sister in the cypress family: the yellow cedar, or yellow cypress. Both trees are long-lived, rot-resistant, revered members of the temperate rainforest, but yellow cedar is more rugged, rare, and lean. The heartwood is strong and dense, making it good for First Nations’ totem poles, house posts, and support beams. Yet, the inner bark is more pliable, absorbent, and anti-inflammatory than red cedar bark, so women often preferred it for baby diapers, sanitary napkins, wound dressings and fleecy nests to catch newborn infants.
In Hesquiaht oral history, three women were drying salmon on a beach when trickster raven scared them by pretending to be an owl. The women ran up the mountain in fright. Out of breath, they were transformed into the beautiful yellow cedars we often see on hillsides.
Like red cedar, yellow cedar can survive in diverse terrain. But it’s being hit hard by climate change, particularly receding snowpack that leaves its roots exposed to winter frost. Yellow cedar is, counterintuitively, freezing to death in a warming climate. Ancient yellow cedar is also being targeted by timber companies, notably on the Sunshine Coast and near the Fairy Creek watershed on southern Vancouver Island, where logging blockades broke out in August.
Bryan Reid Sr., a co-owner of Harmac Pacific, founded Pioneer Log Homes of B.C. in 1973. The company, now run by his son Bryan Reid Jr., builds and sells log homes almost entirely made of red cedar. Reid, who starred in the HGTV show Timber Kings and lives in a red cedar log home in Williams Lake, chose to base his business on the tree because of its durability against weather and termites. The wood also shrinks 30 per cent less than white woods such as spruce, fir, and pine, Reid says, making it less likely to crack.
“[Other wooden shakes would] rot or just split and blow off the roof,” Reid says, adding that red cedar wood has low density, making it a great insulator from heat, cold, and sound. “Cedar shines as being probably the most desirable fibre in the world for log homes.”
Pioneer Log Homes works with timber companies to select red cedar logs that have unique flutes, bark seams, and character for “Family Trees,” named by the Mormon family that first ordered one. These distinctive cedars, harvested down to their roots, often star as the centrepiece of a multi-million-dollar home.
“It’s like building a castle,” Reid says. “And you build it out of cedar, so you know it’s going to be there.”
The canary in the cutblock
But concern is mounting that red cedar, along with the old-growth forests that shelter them, may not always be with us. Once a prominent member of the coastal rainforest, red cedar made up 15 per cent of coastal vegetation by 2011, according to the B.C. Vegetation Resources Inventory. A recent scientific report found that less than one per cent of provincial forests contain the largest trees today.
Since becoming a high-value species in the mid-1990s, the forest industry has targeted old-growth red cedar to boost timber sales. And this may be getting worse. Representing about 20 per cent of the coastal wood supply, red cedar has comprised nearly 40 per cent of recent cuts.
Cedar struggles to reestablish after logging and is often browsed by deer, making it much less abundant in post-harvest stands than in mature and naturally regenerated forests. There’s a growing movement among First Nations, environmentalists, communities and ecologists to protect the ancient cedars and old-growth ecosystems that remain.
Adding to the assault on red cedar is climate change. It’s believed that drought stress causes leaves to turn reddish-brown and branches to drop off the crown, creating the characteristic “candelabra” or “cake fork” spikes (which also result from wind and other types of disturbance).
“They will essentially prune the less efficient parts distant to the supply of water,” Hebda says. “So the top of the tree will die, but the core of the tree lives, and can sprout and grow again.”
Climate models run by Hebda and others project that much of red cedar’s current range will be too warm and dry in the not-so-distant future. An extreme scenario shows the tree only surviving on about five per cent of Vancouver Island by 2080, as favourable climatic conditions migrate upslope, northward, and to parts of the interior predicted to get wetter.
Climate models aren’t perfect, Hebda admits, but the warnings for red cedar are clear: “It gets warm, it gets dry, you lose cedars,” he says. “It plays the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change.”
The same tree performs a vital function in reducing atmospheric carbon that causes climate change. It’s a paradox that Hebda muses may be understood, in some primal way, by the cedars themselves. “Some of these trees have experienced multiple cycles of climate variation in the last 1,000 years, and their connections to the past stretch back 50 million years, so they genetically know about this,” he says. “And the trees are going to be taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, saving us from ourselves.”
“Old-growth has to be saved everywhere, whether it be cedar or otherwise,” Hebda adds. “And, of course, that means respecting and preserving the deep, multi-millennial relationship between the people and these ecosystems.”
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My Campbell River Now
September 12, 2020
The province is taking a new, holistic approach as a first step for the benefit of its old-growth forests.
This will include the protection of nine areas throughout the province, totalling almost 353,000 hectares.
In a break from the divisive practices of the past, the government plans to engage the full involvement of Indigenous leaders and organizations, labour, industry and environmental groups to work together in conserving biodiversity while supporting jobs and communities, especially on the coast and Vancouver Island.
The actions government is taking are informed by the independent panel report, A New Future for Old Forests.
“For many years, there has been a patchwork approach to how old-growth forests are managed in our province, and this has caused a loss of biodiversity. We need to do better and find a path forward that preserves old-growth forests, while supporting forest workers,” said Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
“Those who are calling for the status quo to remain are risking crucial biodiversity loss, while those who are calling for immediate moratoriums on logging are ignoring the needs of tens of thousands of workers. Our government believes in supporting workers, while addressing the needs of old-growth forests, and these values will guide our new approach.”
Initial actions government is taking in formulating an old-growth strategy include:
The province says further work is also underway to protect up to 1,500 exceptionally large, individual trees under the Special Tree Protection Regulation.
This builds on the government’s announcement in 2019 that it would develop a permanent approach to protecting big, iconic trees.
To learn more about British Columbia’s commitment to forest stewardship is available at https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/forestry/managing-our-forest-resources
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