News Coverage

Massive stumps found on Crown land near Port Renfrew are arousing fears that logging companies are taking the biggest and best old-growth trees — at the same time as the local chamber of commerce is trying to promote giant-tree tourism.

Old-growth red cedar stumps, measuring 3.7 to 4.6 metres in diameter and cut in the last few months, were found in the Gordon River Valley, near a huge stand of old-growth trees nicknamed Avatar Grove, by members of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“People need to understand the urgency of the situation,” said Ken Wu, co-founder of the alliance.

“Globally rare ancient forests are being turned into a sea of giant stumps and tree plantations.”

John Cash, Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce president, said it’s disappointing that old-growth logging is accelerating just as the Pacific Marine Circle Route — a paved road connecting Port Renfrew to Lake Cowichan — is being promoted as a scenic tourist attraction.

“Even on that road they didn’t allow a buffer, so it’s clearcut right up to the edge of the road. I get comments about it all the time,” he said.

Tourists want to see big trees and Port Renfrew has some of the biggest, Cash said, but long-term benefits for the community are being sacrificed for short-term profit for logging companies.

“It’s like open warfare here,” he said. “If the forest companies had been responsible to begin with and had done their planting and management properly, there would be no need to cut down old-growth forests.”

The largest stumps found by the Alliance were on land being logged by Surrey-based Teal-Jones Group, which also has cutting rights for part of Avatar Grove, although the company has not yet applied for a permit.

A Teal-Jones spokesman did not return calls yesterday.

Forests Minister Pat Bell said there is no shortage of old-growth on Vancouver Island, which constitutes 900,000 hectares of the 1.9 million hectares of Crown land. “It represents a significant part of the Island,” Bell said.

Vancouver Island also has 438,000 hectares in protected areas and parks, many of which include old-growth forests. In the area around Port Renfrew, 19,000 hectares are protected in old-growth-management areas, he said.

“I think there’s a good balance there already, but it is always worth looking at specific sites,” he said.

The Alliance is asking the government to inventory and protect old-growth forests where they are scarce and to ensure sustainable logging of second-growth forests.

Bell said forest companies are already shifting to second growth.

But the Alliance is notching up the PR battle with the launch of a Facebook competition called Canada’s Biggest Stumps, where members can upload photos of the largest tree stumps they find.

“With relatively few eyes and ears out there monitoring what is going on in our forests, photo expeditions and competitions like this will help to show the public what serious environmental destruction is happening just down the backroads,” said Alliance co-founder TJ Watt.

On the heels of issuing layoff notices to 294 public service workers Monday, the B.C. government is planning for another round of cuts in the Ministry of Forests by early summer.

At a time when lumber prices are booming but the industry is far from recovering, it’s either the worst time to slash jobs — according to the leader of the Opposition — or an opportune time to cut, according to an industry leader.

Of the 294 notices issued yesterday, 204 are in the Forests Ministry and 38 in the Integrated Land Management Bureau. The remaining 52 positions are in the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources.

The government intends to cut “no more than five per cent” of the 30,000-member civil service — a maximum of about 1,500 full-time equivalent positions — over the next three years.

In a letter to employees Monday, deputy minister Dana Hayden said the sooner the upcoming cuts are identified, the better. “Consequently, the workforce adjustment process for 2011/12 will likely occur before this summer.”

After more than three years in a down market cycle for the forest industry, lumber prices are up substantially — mainly because supply was taken off the market — but the industry is not expected to ramp up overnight, said John Allan, president of the Council of Forest Industries.

B.C. lumber production is down by 37.4 per cent in the last two years.

Allan said the ministry can absorb the cuts and continue to carry out its duties, including enforcement. “I’m frankly not concerned.”

But NDP Opposition leader Carole James slammed the government in question period yesterday, saying it doesn’t make sense to cut forestry workers when the government is trying to open new markets for lumber and diversify the industry. “I think it’s short-sighted and not looking long-term at growth,” said James in an interview.

Government should have run a deficit for at least another year, depending on the economic recovery, so it wouldn’t have had to make such deep cuts and lose so many experienced staff, she said.

The cuts, which include 22 compliance and enforcement staff, will have an impact on the forests ministry’s ability to monitor whether companies are following the law and protecting the environment, she said.

Ken Wu, of the Ancient Forest Alliance, agrees, saying enforcement in B.C.’s forests is already “way down” from the level in the early 1990s. “They never had enough people to begin with,” said Wu.

Rick Jeffery, chief executive officer of Coast Forest Productions Association, said the cutbacks won’t have any impact on the quality of B.C. forest management, however.

The annual allowable cut hasn’t been harvested in the last three years and that trend will likely continue, he noted. “One can ask whether we need as many bodies looking after ministry business if the amount of business they have has significantly dropped.”

Darryl Walker, president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, said the cuts have already gone too far, and the government appears to have no plan.

“In this day when forestry is in jeopardy — the great industry and engine that drove the building of this province and we seem to be giving up on it — I just don’t understand it,” Walker said.

The Forests Ministry budget drops to $595 million in 2011/12, from $641 million this year.

More people should be working in areas such as research in the ministry, not fewer, Walker said.

“It will turn around and we will want to rebuild the forest industry and yet we’re not doing anything to prepare young people for it.”

I had the pleasure March 28 of joining 80 other members of the Ancient Forest Alliance to experience the small grove of old growth trees near Port Renfrew known (informally) as Avatar Grove. This amazingly rare site, which comprises an area approximately 10 square hectares, holds some of the oldest and largest trees remainig on Vancouver Island, some of which are more than 30 feet around and stand over 100 feet tall. My friends and I gazed up at these monstrous trees in amazement, realizing that many of them were 500 to 800 years old. We were shocked and deeply saddened to see survey tape surrounding the grove, including tape which indicated proposed new logging roads as well as cut lines.

We feel that it is extremely important that this small grove of trees is preserved, as it is one of the last such stands of ancient, old growth trees on the Island, 99 per cent of which have been destroyed by 150 years of industrial logging. Logging has left most hillsides and valley bottoms on the island devoid of much, if any life and what were once very rich and diverse eco-systems are now nothing more than sterile tree farms, assuming they have been fortunate enough to be re-planted. It’s amazing to me that the very few old growth trees which remain haven’t been protected from the chainsaws which have devastated our once verdant forests.

With the recent decline in fishing, Port Renfrew is in serious need of additional sites which will attract tourism. The Avatar Grove would be an ideal addition to what they currently offer the travelling public. Acquiring this grove of trees would be a win for all concerned, especially our children who we are forcing to live in a world greatly diminished in nature. This is our very last chance to preserve the Avatar Grove and the few remaining sites like it.