News Coverage Archives

The scarred landscape of an Island Timberlands clearcut along the McLaughlin Ridge from Oct. 2011. Approximately 400 hectares of the original 500 HA of old-growth remains along the ridges' core.

Battle revealed over use of sensitive Island forest near Port Alberni

Sep 21 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

An old-growth forest near Port Alberni that had been protected as critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered goshawks is being logged by Island Timberlands – even though newly released documents show Environment Ministry staff strongly disagreed with the company’s harvesting plans.

The documents, obtained by Alberni-Pacific Rim NDP MLA Scott Fraser through a freedom-of-information request, reveal a pitched battle between government biologists and Island Timberlands over protections needed for McLaughlin Ridge, the headwaters for the main source of Port Alberni’s drinking water.

McLaughlin Ridge is privately managed forest land and was removed from a tree farm licence in 2004 by then-owners Weyerhaeuser. The province insisted that critical winter habitat should be protected for two years and a committee should then decide levels of protection.

But the province and Island Timberlands could not agree and meetings were “terminated” by the company in 2009, with government biologists saying harvesting plans were not science-based. Bed bath and beyond coupons

“It is now apparent that it will not be possible to achieve consensus within the committee on how much protected wildlife area is required,” says a letter from the company.

But a letter setting out provincial objections was never sent to Island Timberlands, which has since said its plans are based on ministry input.

That has Fraser questioning whether information was suppressed by the government.

“With all the concerns about the Harper government stifling scientists, it appears it has been happening in BC for years.”

The list of objections was relegated to a memo or “note to file” that says Island Timberlands wanted to log in deer winter ranges and wildlife habitat areas “and [the Environment Ministry] could not scientifically rationalize how the quality of these areas could be maintained.”

“This letter was never released, but does summarize many important opinions of MoE staff,” it says.

Ancient Forest Alliance founder Ken Wu said that indicates political interference.

“These are huge revelations that may be a game changer on how Island Timberlands and the BC Liberals have to deal with the public” regarding how old-growth forests are managed, he said.

Forests Minister Steve Thomson was not available, but ministry spokesman Vivian Thomas said staff were not overruled.

“The Minister of Environment of the time did not prevent the letter from being sent, nor did he direct staff not to send it,” Thomas said in an emailed response.

“The draft letter summa rizes differing points of view between ministry staff and Island Timberlands. However, sending it would not have served any purpose, since an agreement with Island Timberlands on managing critical wildlife habitat/ungulate winter range … could not be reached,” she said.

The company is bound by the Private Managed Forest Land Act, federal Species at Risk Act and Drinking Water Protection Act, Thomas said.

Island Timberlands spokeswoman Morgan Kennah said the company had not previously seen the memo, but it would not have affected logging plans.

“We know there were differing opinions on how the property should be managed. Ministry staff at the time thought the preservation model was the one to have and Island Timberland’s perspective was to look at opportunities for … harvest as well as habitat,” she said.

Logging in McLaughlin Ridge has been completed for this year, Kennah said.

“Next year and subsequent years we may be harvesting, but we haven’t finalized our long-term final strategy for habitat management in that area.”

[Times Colonist article no longer available]

On the big tree trail on Vancouver Island

Sep 10 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Fifteen minutes down a winding gravel logging road outside of Port Renfrew, we spot the telltale flagging tape marking a tree branch and pull over into a small pullout. Across the road, a laminated sign nailed to a tree says “Upper Avatar Grove,” with an arrow pointing up into the forest.

This is it – the reason we’ve driven two hours west of Victoria along Vancouver Island’s rugged west coast to the outskirts of this small former logging town. Stepping into the forest, we take hold of a rope to help us up a steep embankment and onto the makeshift trail, outlined by pink flagging tape.

As we make our way through the rainforest’s undergrowth, ancient red cedars appear almost immediately. The largest trees are 13 metres around and would have been upward of 250 years old when Captain James Cook first set foot on Vancouver Island in 1778. They are the remnants of an ancient forest that once covered much of southern Vancouver Island; it’s estimated only 10 per cent of this ancient forest still remains.

Continuing into the woods, we cross a creek and head up a hillside, passing five or six large cedars as we go. And then, about 20 minutes in, there it is: the piece de resistance, “Canada’s Gnarliest Tree” – a massive red cedar with a bulbous, three-metre burl and serpent-like roots. This is the tree most responsible for sparking a tourism rush in a town once better known for cutting down trees than marvelling at them.

When Ancient Forest Alliance photographer T.J. Watt discovered this stand of ancient cedars in 2009, many of the largest ones were tagged for logging. In a clever marketing move, the alliance dubbed the trees “Avatar Grove,” after the blockbuster James Cameron movie, drawing massive public attention to the trees and ultimately leading to their protection.

These days, visitors to Port Renfrew can pick up a map to the area’s largest trees and set out to explore what’s been coined the Big Tree Capital of Canada. While some of Canada’s largest trees are out of reach of a typical rental car, there are still plenty of accessible giants – aided by the recent paving of the Pacific Marine Circle Route, which allows travellers to drive across the interior of the island and pop out on the east coast near Duncan, rather than doubling back along the same route to Victoria.

After visiting both upper and lower Avatar Grove, which has become such a popular destination that work on a boardwalk is set to begin any day now, we continued on the circle route. About 15 kilometres outside of Port Renfrew, we turn right down a logging road for a few kilometres before reaching the San Juan Spruce, Canada’s largest Sitka spruce tree, standing taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa at 62.5 metres, with a circumference of 11.6 metres. This tree is so big that if it fell prey to a chainsaw, it could provide enough wood for 333 telephone poles. Thankfully, these days, it’s seeing more camera lenses than chainsaws.

A little further along the circle route, the Harris Creek spruce is the most easily accessible big tree in the area and towers above the forest. As we drive, it’s impossible not to notice the clear cuts that border right on the highway. It is, after all, an old logging road, so the band of trees normally left to hide clear cuts from view wasn’t originally deemed necessary. While not the prettiest sight, it serves to bring the juxtaposition of the area’s past and future into clear view.

“TimberWest owned all the houses in Port Renfrew at one time. It was a logging town,” says Jon Cash, original creator of the “Tall Tree Tour” map and owner of Soule Creek Lodge.

Indeed, most of the forest around Port Renfrew has been logged two or three times – which is precisely why ancient trees that have avoided disease, fire and logging companies for up to 1,000 years have attracted so much attention.

“Last year there was a dramatic increase in tourism. It was my best year ever,” says Cash, who was a chef in Toronto before moving to Port Renfrew 11 years ago. “I don’t think anyone ever expected this amount of people to go through Avatar Grove.”

The discovery of Avatar Grove, combined with the paving of the Pacific Marine Circle Route, has also boosted business at Coastal Kitchen Café, a hip Port Renfrew eatery.

“It’s bringing a different type of clientele. We always attracted a fishing community. But now we’re attracting more Europeans and families,” says cafe owner Jessica Hicks.

It’s the type of crowd that jumps at the opportunity to stay in one of Soule Creek Lodge’s luxury yurts perched high on the San Juan Ridge overlooking the area’s ocean and mountains. The lodge is a homey place where guests take their shoes off at the door and checkout happens at the kitchen counter.

The night before our big tree adventure, we checked into a yurt before heading out to check out the tide pools at Botanical Beach just a few kilometres outside of Port Renfrew. Botanical used to be the town’s main tourist attraction and it’s easy to see why with the sandstone outcroppings, rocky cliffs and colourful tide pool inhabitants, including starfish, sea anemones and urchins.

After hiking the three-kilometre loop trail and exploring the tide pools, we’d worked up an appetite and, luckily, had a three-course gourmet dinner in store back at the lodge – featuring local salmon and crab bought right off the town’s dock. Not only is it one of the best meals we’ve had in years, but it’s also a chance to meet other guests – half of whom Cash estimates come to Port Renfrew specifically to see big trees. “This will have dividends for years to come,” Cash says, while inching his way back to the kitchen.

Down at Coastal Kitchen Café, Hicks also sees the preservation of the area’s big trees as a long-term boon. “In the first two years there were at least 10 people a day asking for Avatar Grove whereas before there was nobody,” she says. “I can see that it’s the future of the community.”

In a town of 200 people, 10 new visitors a day is a big deal. And if you’re one of those 10, you get the thrill of visiting somewhere long before the crowds discover it – but half a millennium after some of Canada’s largest trees laid down roots here.

How to get there

Instead of heading back to Victoria after cutting across Vancouver Island on the Pacific Marine Circle Route, you might want to continue on to Tofino. Here are two more great places to check out big trees:

– On Highway 4, between Parksville and Port Alberni, you’ll find Cathedral Grove, which became a provincial park in 1947 after being donated by well-known forester H.R. MacMillan. Home to ancient red cedar and Douglas-fir trees, some more than 800 years old, Cathedral Grove is one of the most accessible stands of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island, attracting more than one million visitors per year.

– From Tofino, you can take a 15-minute water taxi across to Meares Island and walk the Big Tree Trail, which features spectacular red cedars along a boardwalk, including one known as the “Hanging Garden” tree. In the late ’80s, Meares Islands was the site of Canada’s first logging blockade in what would become known as the “War of the Woods.” In the summer of 1993, 12,000 protesters blocked logging in Clayoquot Sound – the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.

If you go:

– WestJet and Air Canada both fly direct to Victoria several times a day. From Victoria airport, leave yourself at least 2.5 hours to drive to Port Renfrew.

– Plan to go between May and October because many Port Renfrew establishments close between November and April.

– Port Renfrew receives twice as much rainfall as Vancouver, so even in the dry season be prepared for muddy conditions.

– Big trees love the rain, but so do mosquitoes. Pack bug spray!

– Pick up the “Tall Tree Tour” map at Soule Creek Lodge or Coastal Kitchen Café.

– Rates at Soule Creek Lodge include breakfast and range from $110 a night for a room in the lodge in the low season to $215 a night for a 450 square foot yurt in the high season.

– Check out ancientforestguide.com for more information on Avatar Grove and the San Juan Spruce.

– Get off the tall tree trail with a trip to Botanical Beach, just five minutes from Port Renfrew. Go at low tide for the best view of Botanical’s spectacular tide pools.

Letter to the Editor – Pine beetle claims refuted

Sep 4 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Re: Kieran Report, Aug. 23-29

In his attempt to blame the NDP government of the 1990s for the pine beetle epidemic in B.C.’s forests, Brian Kieran claims that the “infestation was first detected in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park and could have been contained there if forest companies had been permitted to go into the park and selectively log infested areas” — an argument that has been roundly refuted by everyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of the issue. Even the Liberal government acknowledges that while there was a beetle infestation at Tweedsmuir, there were concurrent infestations throughout the Interior, from the Kootenays and the Chilcotin to the Central Interior. Teaching Grants For College Students

The same government scientists point out that the biggest culprit in the spread of the beetle was lack of cold winters. In other words, even clear-cutting the park — which was being advocated by some — would have had no actual impact on the overall pine beetle outbreak.

Unfortunately, the ultimate response in the face of the unstoppable outbreak was to allow the forests to degrade. Rather than be up front about the state of the forests, the B.C. Liberals stopped doing forest inventories and drastically reduced the amount of treeplanting and silviculture work necessary for long-term forest sustainability.

Only by investing in the natural infrastructure can we ensure the stability of the industry. Doing so will require us to start from a factual, scientific basis — not disproved arguments placing blame where none exists

Survey tape sparks logging concerns in Vancouver Island old-growth forest

Aug 29 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

The Vancouver Island old-growth forest that, over the decades, has sparked bitter confrontations over logging is again in the spotlight after survey tape was found near a grove of massive western red cedars.

Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance found the tape in the Upper Walbran Valley, near Castle Grove, which contains the Castle Giant: a western red cedar measuring five metres in diameter. The tree is listed in the provincial big tree registry as one of the widest in Canada.

“Castle Grove is ground zero for the ancient forest movement on southern Vancouver Island, both historically and today,” said Ken Wu, AFA executive director.

“To try and log it is insanity — it will only escalate the war in the woods to a whole new level,” he said.

The logging tape, marked “falling boundary,” is less than 50 metres from the Castle Giant, said AFA campaigner TJ Watt, who discovered the tape.

In an email response to questions, however, the Forests Ministry said no activity is planned in Castle Grove, although some logging is planned in the area farther south.

Teal Jones Group of Surrey holds the licence for the area, but spokesman John Pichugin said he could not say whether the company has applied for a cutting licence in the area until he has seen a map.

Wu said it’s time the province came up with its promised “legal tool” to protect B.C.’s largest trees and monumental groves.

“Of all places, Castle Grove is the place where such a legal designation would make most sense. Otherwise, the B.C. Liberals’ rhetoric has been as empty as a clearcut,” Wu said.

The ministry statement said there are legal mechanisms to provide protection to unique or special trees and all British Columbians who find special trees are encouraged to register them on the Big Trees Registry.

“The ministry continues to look at other ways that may provide stronger proactive protection,” it said.

Markers stir fears of Walbran logging

Aug 29 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

The Vancouver Island old-growth forest that, over the decades, has sparked bitter confrontations over logging is again in the spotlight after survey tape was found near a grove of massive western red cedars.

Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance found the tape in the Upper Walbran Valley, near Castle Grove, which contains the Castle Giant, a western red cedar with a five-metre diameter. The tree is listed in the provincial big tree registry as one of the widest in Canada.

“Castle Grove is ground zero for the ancient forest movement on southern Vancouver Island, both historically and today,” said Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “To try and log it is insanity — it will only escalate the war in the woods to a whole new level,” he said.

The logging tape, marked “falling boundary,” is less than 50 metres from the Castle Giant, said Alliance campaigner TJ Watt who discovered the tape.

However, the Forests Ministry said in an emailed response to questions that no activity is planned in Castle Grove, although some logging is planned in the area further south.

“The area in question could be partly protected by the park, an old-growth management area and ungulate winter range,” the email said. “Ministry staff were not able to confirm without better mapping information from AFA.”

Teal Jones Group of Surrey holds the licence for the area, but spokesman John Pichugin said that he could not say whether the company has applied for a cutting licence in the area until he has seen a map.

Wu, who took part in the 1991 protests that resulted in the lower half of the Walbran Valley and the Upper Carmanah Valley being added to Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park in 1995, said it is time the province came up with its promised “legal tool” to protect B.C.’s largest trees and monumental groves.

“Of all places, Castle Grove is the place where such a legal designation would make most sense. Otherwise the B.C. Liberals’ rhetoric has been as empty as a clearcut,” Wu said.

The e-mailed response from the ministry said there are legal mechanisms to provide protection to unique or special trees and all British Columbians finding special trees are encouraged to register them on the Big Trees Registry.

“The ministry continues to look at other ways that may provide stronger pro-active protection,” it said.

After the lower half of the Walbran, consisting of about 5,500 hectares, was included in the park, environmentalist continued to push for protection of the valley’s remaining 7,500 hectares.

In 2003 more protests erupted over logging in the area that resulted in the arrest of elderly environmental activist Betty Krawczyk.

Ben Parfitt and Anthony Britneff: B.C. MLAs take wrong approach to timber supply crisis

Aug 27 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Ever since mid May, when a special committee of the provincial legislature was appointed to address a looming “timber supply” crisis, questions have arisen about what the committee would say about one community in particular.

That community is Burns Lake where, in January, a violent explosion and fire leveled the local sawmill—the village’s major employer—killing two mill workers and doing another 250 out of their jobs.

Well the wait is over, and if the unanimous recommendations of the committee’s Liberal and NDP MLAs are an indication, our forests and many rural communities are headed for even harder times than previously thought.

Here’s why. Rather than focusing on the core issue (how many trees are left, and what the future holds for our forests) committee members allowed themselves to be swayed by dramatic yet unrelated events.

The evidence is overwhelmingly clear. We are on the cusp of a monumental shift in our interior forests. After a decade-plus attack by mountain pine beetles and other pests, a spate of intense wildfires and years of unsustainable logging, our forests are largely depleted of commercially desirable trees.

To their credit, members of the Special Committee on Timber Supply acknowledge this. They conclude that the projected drop in logging rates places eight sawmills in danger. This is probably an underestimate. Either way, when mill capacity outstrips what our forests can provide, mills must close. There are only so many trees to go around.

Yet having acknowledged that existing sawmills have an appetite for wood that grossly exceeds what our forests can provide, committee members then turn around and suggest that we should build another mill first and find the timber later.

To entice the owner of the destroyed Burns Lake mill to do so, the committee chooses to go down the same tired road that gave rise to the present timber supply crisis: push the boundaries of what can be harvested to the extreme. This is essentially the approach applied in the East Coast cod fishery and we all know how that worked out.

The committee astonishingly suggested that there are actually twice as many trees to log in the forests around Burns Lake than what senior forest professionals in government estimated just last year (one million instead of 500,000 cubic metres of wood a year).

How did the committee magically double timber supply? With three key recommendations. First, that more “marginally economic” forests be logged. Second, that the government underwrite a massive fertilization program to boost tree growth. And third—here committee members use weasel words to mask the true intent of what they propose—to increase the logging of remnant old-growth forests that were previously ruled off-limits to logging.

It is far from clear that this will produce enough wood to supply a rebuilt mill.

First, “marginal” forests are marginal for a reason. They are generally of inferior quality, further from mills, and more costly to log. And they are often found in places where trees grow less vigorously, for example at higher elevations. Hence, they are risky to log, both economically and environmentally.

Second, with government having drastically curtailed its investments in growing trees, no one should assume there is appetite for big spending increases on fertilization. Never mind the ecological impacts of repeated applications of tree fertilizers on shallow soils and on our waterways, fish populations and other plant life in our forests.

And third, perceived increases in old-growth logging could prove a nightmare in international markets where the B.C. government and forest companies alike have worked judiciously to have forestry operations independently certified as sustainably managed.

But if the government embraces the committee’s recommendations for Burns Lake, expect the same unsustainable logging practices to be applied provincewide, and with devastating consequences.

The real tragedy in the committee members’ recommendations is that they are well aware of where the real challenges lie. The committee acknowledges the essential importance of improved forest inventories—looking at how many healthy trees we have. Why isn’t this the first order of business? B.C. needs an expedited, thorough assessment now, before we have committed to even more unsustainable logging rates.

To proceed with logging increases before such work is done is irresponsible and an insult to forest-dependent communities across the province.

Anthony Britneff recently retired from a 40-year career as a professional forester with the B.C. Forest Service where he held senior positions in inventory, silviculture and forest health. Ben Parfitt is a resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Environmentalist bristles over report urging more logging

Aug 16 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

A government report looking at the pine beetle’s impact in B.C.’s central interior has taken the wrong approach in urging more logging, says the executive director of Ancient Forest Alliance.

Ken Wu says the report’s recommendation to increase the timber supply and value of pine-beetle wood could allow for logging in protected forests.

“There’s different ways to do more with less, to be more efficient. Instead they’re looking at opening up our last protected areas and that’s totally the wrong approach. Rewarding unsustainable behaviour with more unsustainable behaviour is what has pushed this whole planet to the ecological brink.”

Wu says these protected areas include old growth forest, wildlife habitats, scenery, and recreational spots. Grants For College

Link to article: https://www.cknw.com/news/vancouver/story.aspx/Story.aspx?ID=1757152

Lift on logging restraints would be ill-advised

Aug 7 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

As members of a hastily convened committee of the provincial legislature meet to consider a controversial government proposal to escalate logging activities in British Columbia’s already hard-hit Interior forests, questions arise about whether the commit-tee is in any position at all to make an informed decision.

Thanks to the bravery of an unnamed public servant who decided in April to leak a provincial cabinet briefing document that outlined the contentious plan, the provincial government was forced to appoint the committee, consisting of both Liberal and NDP MLAs, and to hold public hearings.

A whirlwind tour of 16 communities in less than a month followed, with the committee, wrapping up its public consultations with back-to-back meetings in Merritt and Kamloops on July 12. As a result, members of the “special committee on timber supply” are now wading through the transcripts of nearly 200 people to appear before them as well as nearly 500 written submissions, before making their recommendations, which are expected in mid-August.

A consistent theme running through many of those submissions is that it would be highly unwise for commit-tee members to side with the government’s proposal to lift limited constraints on logging remnant patches of old-growth forests among others, in an effort to buy a few more years worth of logging for an industry that simply has too much milling horse-power given what forest remains.

The reason why is simple. For more than a decade, the provincial Forest Service – guardian of the public’s forests – has been hammered with deep funding and staff cuts. That, coupled with the ravages visited upon our forests by the climate-change-fuelled mountain pine beetle attack and all of the escalated logging activities in response to it, means that no one in government can credibly claim to know what, exactly, is going on in our forests.

In Kamloops, committee members heard such from Sean Curry, a veteran forest professional. Curry noted that most of us have at least an idea of what’s in our bank accounts. Checking our forest bank account is even more critical given withdrawals in the form of logging, insect attacks and fires, and because interest rates in the form of growing trees are so highly variable. Trees may be healthy one year, dead the next.

Curry’s choice of the banking analogy was obvious. If you don’t check, you risk over-drawing. In other words, we’re relying on younger trees that were planted or that naturally re-seeded following logging to be there in future years. The trouble is we’re not checking up on them nearly enough, despite compelling evidence that that is precisely what we need to do.

The recent work of two Forest Ser-vice scientists tells us why. In 2008, Alex Woods and Wendy Bergerud reported on field studies they did in the Lakes Timber Supply Area. The team found trouble in nearly one out of every five previously declared healthy or “free-growing” plots of trees that they looked at. Significantly, their report was based on fieldwork done in 2005 – before the mountain pine beetle completely overran the region near the community of Burns Lake, where a sawmill burned to the ground at the beginning of this year and that has become a focal point for commit-tee members as they weigh the merits of lifting logging constraints.

By 2007, Woods and Bergerud noted, many of the sample plots they had looked at had subsequently been attacked by the beetle – proof, they said, of the need to do even more assessments, particularly in light of climate change.

This July, a report by Tom Ethier, assistant deputy minister in the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, noted that the problems identified by Woods and Bergerud are more widespread. Of 266 allegedly “free-growing” forest patches in five timber supply areas, “the majority” had experienced tree losses in the decade after they were declared healthy.

The good news, Curry says, is that for modest increases in Forest Service funding and a bit of patience – waiting a couple of years while the field-work is done – we could have a far better idea of what’s in our forests.

This, then, is not the time for the committee to endorse logging increases, a decision that in the absence of good data would be at best irresponsible and at worst highly dangerous.

Ben Parfitt is resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of many forestry reports, including Making the Case for a Carbon Focus and Green Jobs in B.C.’s Forest Industry.

The stump of a 14ft diameter old-growth redcedar freshly cut in 2010 found along the Gordon River near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

More logging won’t cure forestry trade’s ills

Aug 1 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

The B.C. Liberal government stirred up controversy recently by proposing to remove scenic forest protections in the Harrison, Chehalis and Stave Lakes regions near Vancouver. Their “quick-fix” attempt to provide more timber for logging fails to recognize that the coastal forest industry’s 20-year decline has fundamentally been driven by their own resource depletion policies.

The overcutting of the biggest and best old-growth stands in the lowlands that historically built the industry has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, lower in value, and harder to reach. Today, more than 90 per cent of the most productive old-growth forests in the valley bottoms on B.C.’s southern coast are gone, according to satellite photos.

This practice of high-grade resource depletion and the accompanying job losses in B.C.’s forests has its parallels throughout the history of unsustainable resource extraction. As always, those responsible for the crisis deny all evidence that the resource is being over-exploited — until the very end.

Unless the B.C. government reorients the coastal forest industry toward sustainable, value-added second-growth forestry — rather than old-growth liquidation, overcutting and raw log exports — the crisis will only continue.

In a report for the B.C. Ministry of Forests (Ready for Change, 2001), Dr. Peter Pearse described this history of high-grade overcutting: “The general pattern was to take the nearest, most accessible, and most valuable timber first, gradually expand up coastal valleys and mountainsides into more remote and lower quality timber, less valuable, and costlier to harvest. Today, loggers are approaching the end of the merchantable old-growth in many areas … Caught in the vise of rising costs and declining harvest value, the primary sector of the industry no longer earns an adequate return …”

The virtual elimination of old-growth Douglas firs — 99 per cent of them — and Sitka spruce on B.C.’s southern coast has been followed by the current high-grading of cedars, previously a lower-value species. Next in line are the smaller hemlocks and Amabilis firs, sought by new Chinese markets.

However, the B.C. government’s PR spin still aims to convince all that our monumental ancient forests are not endangered. They do this by statistically lumping in vast tracts of old-growth “bonsai” trees in bogs and stunted, slow-growing “snow forests” at high elevations, together with the productive stands with moderate to fast growth rates, i.e. the areas with large trees where almost all logging takes place.

It’s like combining your Monopoly money with your real money and then claiming to be a millionaire, so why curtail spending?

As our old-growth forests are eliminated, so too are the human and natural communities that depend on them.

B.C.’s coastal forest industry, once Canada’s mightiest, is now a mere remnant of its past. Over the past decade, more than 70 B.C. mills have closed and over 30,000 forestry jobs lost. As old-growth stands are depleted and harvesting shifts to the second-growth, B.C.’s forestry jobs are being exported as raw logs to foreign mills due to a failure to retool our old-growth mills to handle the smaller second-growth logs and invest in related manufacturing facilities.

In his 2001 report, Pearse also stated: “Over the next decade, the second-growth component of timber harvest can be expected to increase sharply, to around 10 million cubic metres … To efficiently manufacture the second-growth component of the harvest, 11 to 14 large mills will be needed.” Today, more than a decade later, there is only one large and a handful of smaller second-growth mills on the coast.

Similarly, B.C.’s wildlife are being pushed to the brink by old-growth depletion. More than a thousand spotted owls once inhabited the Lower Mainland’s old-growth forests. Today, half a dozen individuals survive in B.C.’s wilds. The unique Vancouver Island wolverine — a 27-kilogram, wilderness-dependent mustelid that can fight off a bear — hasn’t been seen since 1992. Only 1,700 mountain caribou remain as logging has fragmented B.C.’s inland rainforest. Coastal rivers and streams, once overflowing with spawning salmon, are now sad remnants of their former glory, degraded by logging debris and silt.

It’s not like we haven’t had chances to learn. The pattern of resource depletion, ecosystem collapse, and ensuing unemployment has long been paralleled in our oceans where “fishing down the food chain” from larger to smaller species has caused successive stocks to collapse. Thousands of jobs have been shed along the way.

The most prominent example of this was the loss of 40,000 Canadian fishing jobs with the collapse of the North Atlantic cod stocks, once the world’s richest fishery. In B.C., giant Chinook salmon or “tyees” were once common, and smaller species like pink salmon were heavily targeted only when the preferred species declined. Since the commercial salmon industry’s peak in the 1980s, thousands of fishing jobs have been lost, and the effects of habitat destruction, climate change and fish farm parasites on wild salmon now compound the problem.

The B.C. Liberal government’s myopic response to their own resource depletion policies is to try to open up protected forest reserves. It’s like burning up parts of your house for firewood after you’ve used up all your other wood sources. It won’t last long, and in the end you’re a lot worse off.

To try to defer the consequences of unsustainable actions with more unsustainable actions is precisely what has brought this planet to the ecological brink.

The B.C. government has a responsibility to learn from — rather than to repeat — history’s mistakes. They must forge a new path based on old-growth protection, value-added second-growth forestry, and a diversified green economy.

Ken Wu is the executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Opening protected areas not ideal: Bercov

Jul 31 2012/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Opening protected areas and parks in B.C. to logging wouldn’t be in the best interests of forestry workers, or the industry itself, according to Arnold Bercov.

Bercov is the president of Pulp and Paper Workers of Canada, Local 8, which represents workers at the Harmac pulp mill at Duke Point and Western Forest Products’ sawmill in Ladysmith. His concerns come at the same time that a special committee, struck by the government in May, is travelling across the province seeking public input into ways to add to the province’s wood inventory, particularly in areas in the Interior that have been ravaged by the ongoing mountain pine beetle infestation.

The committee, headed by Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad, is to submit a report with recommendations to the government on Aug. 15.

To access more timber, the Clark government is floating a plan that includes logging in areas that were previously off limits for environmental or visual quality reasons and changing the boundaries of forest districts to add more timber to the supply. Bercov said that while the focus of the committee is currently on the Interior, he fears that any changes to policy that would allow more logging in protected areas would inevitably apply to the Island.

“It’s just a loser of an idea that doesn’t serve anyone well,” Bercov said. “I predict it would restart the environmental wars over forestry practices in the province and I believe that it would be a huge mistake. While there are no jobs if all the trees are protected, there will also be no jobs after everything is logged. We need to find a balance.”

The Association of B.C. Professional Foresters, environmentalists and even the University of B.C.’s dean of forestry have expressed concerns, specifically over the second look at forest lands that are set aside for ecological reasons.

“The message we want out there is: ‘We are not going to damage our environmental standards,'” said John Allan, president of the Council of Forest Industries, which intends to submit a brief to the committee. “I am struggling with how you would free up anything more than a few scraps of timber without doing environmental damage.”

Bercov suggested better planning and management practices on behalf of the forest companies and the government to ensure a future supply of wood is what’s needed, and not moving into sensitive and protected areas for logging.

“People should make it a point to have their voices heard by the government on this issue,” he said.