VICTORIA (Unceded Lekwungen Territories) – Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) commend a BC government announcement made today releasing independent scientific mapping of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, and in principle accepting recommendations to defer logging in 2.6 million hectares of at-risk old-growth forests. The province has also immediately deferred all future BC Timber Sales (BCTS) cutblocks that overlap with identified at-risk forests. However, critical conservation funding to enable the full scale of deferral recommendations is still missing.
A summary report and new scientific mapping produced by an independent Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel have revealed there are 5 million hectares of unprotected, at-risk old-growth forest across BC. These forests are categorized into ancient, rare, and big tree forests. The panel recommended the province immediately defer logging in 2.6 million hectares of these forests, focusing on the most critically endangered stands.
Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness beside an old-growth redcedar tree in BC Timber Sales tenure in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni in Hupacasath territory.
“The independent mapping is a major step forward,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt. “For the first time in history, the province has used the best available science to accurately identify old-growth forests at risk. This mapping confirms what conservation organizations have been saying for years: that much of BC’s forests are at risk of irreversible biodiversity loss and must be protected.”
“The province’s acceptance of the recommendation to defer logging in 2.6 million hectares of the best and most at-risk old-growth forests is also unprecedented,” stated Watt “However, these are not immediate and without a matching provincial commitment of several hundred million dollars in conservation financing, with a primary focus on First Nations economic relief linked to deferrals, the full scale of the deferrals, and eventual permanent protection, will be impossible to achieve. We have the road map in hand, but we’re missing the gas in the tank.”
A highlight of the announcement is that BCTS, which has stood at the centre of considerable controversy for the logging of some of BC’s finest remaining old-growth stands, will see immediate logging deferrals. Covering about 20% of the province’s annual allowable cut, this could represent an area of about 500,000 hectares being placed under temporary deferral. This area is larger than all protected parkland on Vancouver Island put together, vastly exceeding all deferrals in place thus far. Included in this area are some of the most critical old-growth hotspots remaining in BC, such as the Artlish, Tsitika, and Nahmint watersheds, areas that conservationists have struggled to protect for decades.
The province also announced its plan to launch a suite of programs to support workers that will be impacted by the deferrals, including connecting workers with short-term employment opportunities, education and skills training, or funds to bridge to retirement. However, the province did not announce economic relief for lost forestry revenues in First Nations communities due to proposed deferrals. $12.69 million over three years was committed to providing capacity funding for First Nations to participate in planning and negotiation, but no money has yet been committed to providing further conservation financing.
Port Alberni Watershed Forest Alliance’s Jane Morden beside an old-growth redcedar tree in BC Timber Sales tenure in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni in Hupacasath territory.
“Today’s announcement is a historic step in the right direction, but there are some critical pieces still missing,” said AFA campaigner Andrea Inness. “Besides a lack of funding, the province has failed to provide timeframes or deadlines for the implementation of deferrals or any of the OGSR recommendations. Meanwhile, at-risk old-growth forests are being left on the chopping block while negotiations take place.”
“The province needs to show leadership in supporting First Nations-led old-growth conservation. The $12 million committed today to support capacity building for First Nations to participate in government-to-government negotiations doesn’t go nearly far enough.”
“It’s about ensuring First Nations in BC have funding made available to support logging deferrals, First Nations-led land-use planning, Indigenous protected areas that conserve old-growth, and economic diversification of First Nations’ communities,” said Inness. “There must also be support for joint decision-making and Indigenous self-determination. Currently, the province doesn’t have the political will to deliver on these pieces. That needs to change.”
The federal government recently committed $2.3 billion to expand protected areas across Canada. Of this, several hundred million dollars are available for the expansion of protected areas in BC, with $50 million specifically allocated to protect old-growth forests in BC.
The Ancient Forest Alliance is urging the BC government to commit several hundred million dollars in conservation financing to match this federal funding in the upcoming spring budget.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/nahmint-valley-massive-old-growth-redcedar-tree-2.jpg10001500TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2021-11-02 05:30:002024-07-30 17:00:27Province uses best available science to identify and partially defer logging of at-risk old-growth, critical funding measures still missing
British Columbia Premier John Horgan patted down his suit pockets, theatrically searching for a misplaced $50-million cheque. The performance was in response to a reporter’s question about Ottawa’s offer to help resolve the ongoing conflict over old-growth logging.
The money was a campaign commitment, and with the federal Liberals returned to office, the province could start figuring out how to spend it. Instead, the province has been dismissive of the proposed BC old-growth nature fund.
Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal Minister of Environment, floated the idea in August as a means to preserve ancient forests from logging. “BC’s iconic old-growth forests are increasingly under threat,” Mr. Wilkinson said at the time.
In an interview on Friday, he said his government is ready to write that cheque, as a bulwark against further loss of biodiversity in Canada. “A first step is to preserve those ecosystems that remain intact,” he said. “And in British Columbia, that includes those old-growth forests that are at threat from the logging industry.”
The BC government also has promised to protect old growth, and has conceded that poor management of its forests has contributed to the province’s dismal record of protecting species at risk. Mr. Horgan has accepted the recommendations of his 2020 old-growth strategic review, which call for legislation that would make the conservation of ecosystem health and biodiversity of British Columbia’s forests an overarching priority.
With that apparent common ground between the two levels of government, Mr. Horgan’s chief complaint could be a simple bargaining tactic.
The $50-million fund “would be a very small amount of money relative to the consequences to the forest industry, to communities and to workers,” Mr. Horgan told reporters on Thursday. “I’m hopeful that the federal government will recognize the importance of us working together on this and will up their game a little bit, so that we can have a real, meaningful discussion and get the conclusions that I know all British Columbians want to see – protection our special places, and continuing to have a foundational [forest] industry, not just now, but well into the future.”
He suggested Ottawa could “add a zero” to the proposed fund as a starting point.
It is an audacious counteroffer, considering the bind that Mr. Horgan’s government finds itself in. Since the RCMP moved to break up blockades that are disrupting logging in the Fairy Creek watershed last May, more than 1,000 people have been arrested. All of this protest against old-growth logging is being staged in the Premier’s riding.
Mr. Horgan’s government has tried to defuse the protests by giving the local First Nations communities, which have interests in the forest industry, a central role in deciding what can be logged and what should be protected. That’s made it awkward for protesters who don’t want to be seen undermining Indigenous rights, but it hasn’t stopped them.
The protesters have said they won’t end their blockades until the province’s ancient forests are protected, and not just in the Premier’s riding. The forest industry says three-quarters of the province’s old-growth forests are already protected, and a balance is needed that allows them access to some old-growth timber. Bridging the gap between those two positions will be costly.
Andrea Inness, forests campaigner for the Ancient Forest Alliance, says Mr. Horgan’s estimates are in the ballpark: Permanent protection of old-growth forests in BC would add up to $500-milllion or more. That’s to buy back tenure from forestry companies, but also to support economic diversification, particularly for Indigenous communities.
But Ms. Inness wonders if the province really wants to make the shift. “They are dragging their heels on the implementation of the old-growth strategic review panel’s recommendations, falling behind on their own implementation timeline, and have failed to commit any funding to expanding protected areas or supporting urgently needed economic transitions.”
Mr. Horgan says there is no “instant gratification” to be had on this file. Two years after commissioning the old-growth review, the province now has set up a technical panel to define just what an old-growth tree is, exactly. “We want to ensure that we’re talking about the same types of trees, large trees, ancient trees, rare trees,” the Premier explained. But he said that work is due to be completed in the weeks ahead.
Mr. Wilkinson says he is ready to dig up more money in Ottawa and help the province find a path out of the Fairy Creek conflict, but BC needs to move beyond temporary deferrals and look at permanent solutions.
British Columbia also needs to up its game.
The original article is only available to subscribers of The Globe and Mail.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Globe-Mail-Old-Growth-Fund.png467700TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2021-09-26 01:15:002023-04-06 19:05:56Ottawa’s offer to help end battle over old-growth logging insufficient, BC says
Report card raises alarm about predatory delay contributing to climate and extinction crises, lack of support for First Nations and forestry reforms, fuelling Canada’s biggest act of civil disobedience
VICTORIA (Unceded Lekwungen Territories) — One year after the BC government shared its Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR) report and Premier John Horgan committed to implementing all of the panel’s recommendations, Ancient Forest Alliance, Sierra Club BC and Wilderness Committee have released a report card assessing the province’s progress on their promise to protect old-growth forests.
The OGSR’s report, made public on September 11, 2020, called on the province to work with Indigenous governments to transform forest management within three years.
The panel recommendations include taking immediate action to protect at-risk old-growth forests and a paradigm-shift away from a focus on timber value and towards safeguarding biodiversity and the ecological integrity of all forests in BC. However, old-growth-related headlines in recent months have been dominated by police violence and arrests of forest defenders, rather than protection. As of this week, with at least 866 arrests, the fight to save what is left is now Canada’s biggest-ever act of civil disobedience.
“The tough reality is that thousands of hectares of the endangered forests that Premier Horgan promised to save a year ago have been cut down since then,” said Torrance Coste, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee. “We’ve seen pitifully little concrete action to protect threatened old-growth, and ecosystems and communities are paying the price for the BC NDP government’s heel-dragging.”
In their report card, the organizations issued new grades on the BC government’s progress in five key areas, crucial for implementation of the panel recommendations: immediate action for at-risk forests (F), the development of a three-year work plan with milestone dates (D), progress on changing course and prioritizing ecosystem integrity and biodiversity (F), funding for implementation, First Nations and forestry transition (D), and transparency and communication (F).
“Our assessment is as devastating as a fresh old-growth clearcut. The ongoing ‘talk and log’ situation combined with police violence and the escalating climate and extinction crisis can only be described as predatory delay,” said Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner at Sierra Club BC. “Premier Horgan’s failure to keep his promise has now fueled the largest act of civil disobedience in Canada’s history, larger than Clayoquot Sound, with no end in sight. People know that clearcutting the last old-growth is unforgivable”
Clearcut logging in the Klanawa Valley in Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht territory.
“In the last six months, the BC government has failed to allocate any funding toward protecting old-growth, instead funnelling millions into police enforcement to clear a path for old-growth logging,” said Andrea Inness, forest campaigner for the Ancient Forest Alliance. “Without funding to support old-growth protection, the BC NDP government is forcing communities to make the impossible choice between revenue and conservation. They’re choosing inaction while the conflict in BC’s forests worsens.”
In July, the province created a technical expert panel to inform the next announcement of old-growth deferral areas. Repeated government remarks about new deferrals in the summer, that are yet to be announced, have sparked a glimmer of hope for science-based interim protection for all at-risk old-growth forests in BC in the near future.
Ancient Forest Alliance, Sierra Club BC and the Wilderness Committee will continue to mobilize their tens of thousands of supporters and hold the government accountable for its old-growth promises. The next report card will be issued on March 11, 2022.
–30–
For more information, please contact:
Jens Wieting, Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner/Science Advisor, Sierra Club BC
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Caycuse-River-Aug-2021-158.jpg10001500TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2021-09-09 09:35:542024-06-17 16:00:14NGO report card: One year after BC promised action, logging continues in almost all at-risk old-growth forests
On August 21st, 2021, the federal Liberal Party made an election commitment to establish a $50 million BC Old Growth Nature Fund and develop a nature agreement with the province of British Columbia to protect more of BC’s old-growth forests and expand protected areas.
The Liberals’ $50 million pledge is part of the $2.3 billion allocated in this year’s federal budget to expand protected areas across Canada over the next five years, which, among other programs, includes $340 million for Indigenous Protected Areas and Guardians Programs and $377 million for the protection of endangered species habitats.
Two days later, while on the campaign trail, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pledged $500 million toward Indigenous-led stewardship programs to protect Canada’s lands, waters, and forests – including old-growth.
These funding commitments come at a critical time, as the last remnants of at-risk ancient forest continue to be liquidated across BC, British Columbians grow increasingly outraged by the lack of government action to protect at-risk forest ecosystems, and as police enforcement of Teal Jones’s injunction at the Fairy Creek blockades in Pacheedaht territory on Vancouver Island becomes increasingly violent.
For years, the AFA, the environmental community, scientists, First Nations leaders including the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and the BC and federal Green Parties have been calling for significant funding to support First Nations-led old-growth conservation in BC, help communities and workers transition away from destructive old-growth logging, and create sustainable, conservation-based economies.
While it’s unknown at this stage how much of the NDP’s promised $500 million will go to protecting old-growth forests in BC, the Liberals’ $50 million commitment doesn’t go far enough.
But these funding pledges represent a start, which must be leveraged to access more federal funding from the incoming Canadian government, and must be matched – and exceeded – by the BC government, philanthropists, and the private sector to create approximately $600 million for old-growth protection.
Specifically, this funding must go to supporting:
Immediate deferrals while alleviating short-term economic pressures faced by First Nations communities;
Workers and communities to transition to a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry;
Sustainable economic development and diversification of First Nations communities;
Long-term conservation solutions that prioritize the permanent protection of high productivity, carbon-rich forests that meet the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel’s and the Old Growth Technical Panel’s definition of “at-risk”.
The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC NDP to commit significant provincial funds in order to deliver on their promise to implement the Old Growth Panel’s 14 recommendations before it’s too late for remaining at-risk old-growth.
All eyes are on BC Premier John Horgan – especially now that the federal NDP is stepping up to the plate with potential funding – to see whether he’ll keep his old-growth promises or condemn BC’s remaining ancient forest ecosystems to the chainsaw.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Caycuse-River-Aug-2021-13.jpg10001500TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2021-08-24 16:04:572023-04-06 19:05:57Federal Liberals and NDP make election promises to help fund protection of old-growth forests
I’ve fought to save forests for 40 years. It’s time for real change.
NDP forest policies are just more ‘talk and log,’ writes veteran environmentalist Vicky Husband. This recent old-growth clearcut is adjacent to the Fairy Creek Valley. Photo by T.J. Watt.
Let’s call Premier John Horgan’s forest policies what they are — a colonial defence of talk and log and a moral failure to protect the province’s remaining old-growth forests.
Horgan has sparked a brutal new war in the woods by denying two realities: our forests have been massively overcut for little added value, and we are now nearing the long-predicted end of our old-growth forests.
In this regard Horgan and his government share with Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro a disregard for the value, work and beauty of primary ancient forests.
For more than 40 years now I have fought to save ancient complex forests from corporate chainsaws on Meares Island, and later Clayoquot Sound, South Moresby/Gwaii Haanas, the Khutzeymateen and more.
I did so because I saw these forests not solely as a source of giant trees, but also as groundwater regulators, carbon holders, medicine makers, water filters, biodiversity bankers, fungal communicators, salmon guardians and rainmakers.
We won a few battles, but we never saved enough ancient forest. After every protest, the government dutifully promised to reform the industrial logging system. And then the clear cutting of ancient forests resumed.
Under Horgan, the deadly game continues. After some 200 arrests at Fairy Creek, the premier now promises to defer logging on “part” of that timber licence and in the Central Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island. But that part is less than one-sixth of one per cent of the forest that needs protection province-wide.
Last year the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel gave the government an urgent message — defer logging on province’s last old-growth forests or risk losing the province’s remaining ecosystem health and diversity.
But Horgan didn’t listen.
B.C. has the nation’s richest biodiversity, containing 50,000 species — everything from ferns to fungi. Our forests nourish much of this diversity. Without that diversity the forest perishes and there remains nothing “super, natural” about this place.
But as these primary forests disappear into two-by-fours, wood pellets and raw log exports, B.C. is now seeing not only an extreme loss of species but the risk of multiple extinctions.
Salmon numbers have dwindled because they spawn in the headwaters of B.C. rivers where they need forest-shaded and sediment-free water. The health of our wild salmon and the integrity of our forests are one and the same.
It took 150 years to get to this reckoning. But the most extreme damage to once-bountiful forests has all happened in the last 70 years.
We liquidated ancient forests hundreds, even more than a thousand, years old, to “build the province” and export fibre. As the companies and machines got bigger, the primary forests shrank, rural communities began to grow poorer and fish and wildlife populations declined.
In this reductionist scheme, the government gambled that uniform tree plantations could replace complex ecosystems. These second- and third-growth forests aren’t as diverse or valuable, and now we are hunting the last great trees like buffalo.
Throughout the Fairy Creek blockade, Horgan has noted the Pacheedaht Nation supports logging in the territory and had called on the protesters blocking roads not to interfere. Government defenders have talked about the nation’s forest revenue-sharing agreement, sawmill and tenure.
Green MLA Adam Olsen, a member of the Tsartlip First Nation, shredded those claims. In a statement, he wrote that nations like the Pacheedaht have little choice but to sign take-it-or-leave it agreements “that provide limited benefits, do not affirm the human rights of Indigenous peoples, or recognize their rights.”
Clauses in the agreement, he writes, commit the Pacheedaht to “not support or participate in any acts that frustrate, delay, stop or otherwise physically impede or interfere with provincially authorized forest activities.”
But there is a bigger problem with these colonial agreements. The government offered the Pacheedaht no other economic alternatives or ecological choices other than logging their remaining heritage. Horgan has cynically called this political shell game “reconciliation.”
All of my life I have supported Indigenous rights and title. But using First Nations’ rights as a weak excuse for logging the last vestiges of biological diversity in this province and removing our best defence against climate change is morally wrong. It is also an insult to First Nations.
Horgan has accepted the Pacheedaht call for a two-year deferral of old-growth logging in Fairy Creek. But the Squamish Nation has called for a similar ban in its territory, and others are expected to follow. We’ll see how far the government’s claimed respect for Indigenous rights extends.
During this latest war in the woods, Horgan’s government has been in denial about another fundamental reality: the declining value of B.C.’s aging forest industry.
Two decades ago, B.C.’s forest industry employed 91,000 citizens: today it employs fewer than 50,000 people. The industry accounts for a paltry two-per-cent share of GDP. Forest revenue is forecast at $1.1 billion this year, less than two per cent of total government revenues.
An analysis by Focus on Victoria magazine found that operating the Forests Ministry — managing timber sales, fighting wildfires, tree planting and other expenses cost taxpayers more than $10 billion between 2009 and 2019. During the same period the industry produced direct government revenues of $6 billion. That’s appalling math, and even worse stewardship.
The industry has closed 100 mills since the late 1990s. And contrary to Horgan’s explanation, this has nothing to do with fires and pine beetles, but everything to do with allowing existing tenure holders to harvest too much wood, too fast.
Not surprisingly, the government, the steward of this grand mess, hasn’t even bothered to issue a report on the state and conditions of our forests since 2010.
Meanwhile, the government has allowed the export of raw logs to China, Japan and Korea to grow to an average of six million cubic metres. That amounts to the export of an estimated 3,600 full-time manufacturing jobs every year.
Unlike the industrial forest business, tourism generated $22.3 billion in revenue in 2019 and employed more than 130,000 people. The millions of visitors didn’t come here to view clearcuts, flooded valleys or destroyed salmon habitat. They came to see the very same “super, natural” beauty that the government seems dedicated to erasing on behalf of a few special interests.
The time for half measures, intentions and denial is over. British Columbians have spoken: they want to protect what few sylvan elders remain and end the destructive travesty in our forests.
The political tool is simple: a moratorium on the logging of the province’s remaining old-growth forests.
And while reducing the scale of the industry, why not create a special and innovative fund to pay First Nations and other communities to protect and monitor the health of our forests?
One obstacle remains: we must drag a premier stuck in a 19th-century culture of exploitation into the 21st century. It is time to manage our forests for the survival of all living things.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Teal-Jones-Old-Growth-Logging-Aerial.jpg10001500TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2021-06-14 13:35:002024-06-17 16:10:31Ending Horgan’s War against Old Growth
VICTORIA — The British Columbia government has approved a request from a group of First Nations to defer old-growth logging in their territories on southwestern Vancouver Island for the next two years.
Premier John Horgan announced the province’s decision to approve the request on Wednesday, saying he was “very proud” to receive the deferral request and says more requests will be coming this summer.
The deferred lands include 884 hectares of old forests in the Fairy Creek watershed, near Port Renfrew, and 1,150 hectares of old growth in the central Walbran valley, near Lake Cowichan.
When asked if he thought the two-year deferral on roughly 2,000 hectares of old-growth forests would end the months-long protests in the region, Horgan was cautiously optimistic.
“I’m hopeful that those who have taken to the roads of southern Vancouver Island will understand that this process is not one that can happen overnight,” the premier said.
“I understand the importance of preserving these areas,” Horgan added. “But I also understand that you can’t turn on a dime when you’re talking about an industry that has been the foundation of BC’s economy.”
The Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, and Pacheedaht First Nations told the province on Saturday of their plan to postpone old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek and central Walbran areas while the nations develop long-term resource stewardship plans.
Horgan acknowledged Wednesday that his government’s approval of the deferral request comes at a cost to the forestry sector but said the anticipated impact on jobs is “modest in this area.”
“Over time there will be costs to moving in this direction but those are going to be dollars well spent,” Horgan said. “We’re changing the way we do business on the land and that is hard work.”
MORE LOGGING DEFERRALS COMING
Protesters have been blockading logging roads in the Fairy Creek area since August, preventing forestry company Teal-Jones from accessing the watershed. In April, the BC Supreme Court granted the company an injunction to have the blockades removed.
Since the RCMP began enforcing the injunction in late May, at least 194 people have been arrested, including more than two dozen arrests since the First Nations announced their deferral plans.
“These are monumental steps,” the premier said of the logging deferrals, noting that more deferral requests will be coming.
“These announcements are transformative for an industry that has been foundational to British Columbia’s success and will be foundational to our future success, but it has to be done a different way,” Horgan said.
“Today I am proud to have deferred these territories at the request of the title-holders and I’m very excited about the deferrals that will be coming later in the summer and all through the implementation of our old-growth plan,” the premier added.
Teal-Jones told CTV News on Monday that it would abide by the First Nations’ deferral request even before the province had accepted it.
“Teal-Jones acknowledges the ancestral territories of all First Nations on which we operate and is committed to reconciliation,” the company said.
The deferral prevents not just old-growth logging but all logging activities in the designated old-growth areas. It also prohibits the construction of new logging roads, however some maintenance and deactivation work may continue for safety and environmental reasons.
The First Nations say forestry operations in other parts of their territories will continue without disruption and they are asking protesters not to interfere with these approved operations.
“Today, we welcome the decision by the Government of British Columbia to approve the request made by our three nations,” the Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, and Pacheedaht said in a joint statement following the premier’s announcement.
“We expect everyone to allow forestry operations approved by our nations and the Government of British Columbia in other parts of our territories to continue without interruption,” the nations added.
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-10-at-10.14.19-AM.png7161256TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2021-06-09 10:12:002024-07-30 16:27:13These are monumental steps’: BC government approves old-growth logging deferral on Vancouver Island
The province says there are 57 million hectares of forested land in B.C. (The Wilderness Committee)
Forestry Minister Katrine Conroy says she expects new logging deferrals to be announced this summer, following Tuesday’s announcement of a new forestry plan.
The province’s plan is intended to modernize the industry, focusing on sustainability and redistribution of forest tenures.
Deferrals temporarily protect old growth, putting harvesting on hold in old forest ecosystems at the highest risk of permanent biodiversity loss. They can expire, and can be extended.
The province says there are 57 million hectares of forested land in B.C., and there are currently 13.7 million hectares of old growth in British Columbia, 10 million of which are protected or considered not economical to harvest.
Conroy said there is a policy in the new plan’s intentions paper that is a commitment to continue to defer logging old-growth forests.
“We are continuing to engage with Indigenous leaders, we’re working with labour, with industry and environmental groups to look at where there is to identify the potential for additional deferral areas,” she told All Points West host Kathryn Marlow.
“I expect we’ll be able to announce additional deferrals this summer.”
An ancient red cedar stump measuring four metres in diameter is shown in this file photo. (TJ Watt/Ancient Forest Alliance)
“The reality is this crisis is precipitated by the government making promises to save the most at-risk old growth and then not doing anything,” Wilderness Committee campaign director Torrance Coste said in an interview on Tuesday.
“We were expecting some acknowledgement of that and maybe a faster timeline or some immediate on-the-ground measures, some things that would actually make it different out in the forest tomorrow.”
Consulting with First Nations
Dallas Smith, president of the Nanwakolas Council in Campbell River, said First Nations have been concerned about logging old-growth trees for two decades, but recent protests in the Fairy Creek area have created more awareness.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s got to the point that it’s gotten to,” he said.
A sign at the entrance to the Eden blockade in the Fairy Creek area near Port Renfrew, B.C., is shown on May, 11. (Jen Osborne/Canadian Press)
Smith hopes there will be more engagement between the provincial government and First Nations communities about the process of getting deferrals.
“We would love a chance to sit down with government, with the Ministry of Forests and have that discussion about all the tenures that exist within our territories, including B.C. timber sales, and just have a talk about how we fit within those licences that go there and start making some of that transition,” he said.
“There’s no new tenures out there so we have to find a way of redistributing existing tenures while keeping the continuity of the economy going.”
He wants to find the balance between conservation and First Nations being able to benefit from forestry on their lands.
Conroy said those conversations will happen.
“From my perspective, that’s a key part of it, she said, adding that the new plans include ensuring that Indigenous nations are involved when it comes to land management.
In the midst of escalating protests over logging, Horgan released an intentions paper on Tuesday that critics say fails to implement any immediate solutions
As protests over old-growth logging continue to escalate on southern Vancouver Island, where more than 140 people have been arrested, all eyes were on the provincial government Tuesday as it announced much-anticipated action on the future of forest policy.
But the province’s policy intentions paper failed to present any immediate solutions to the problems unfolding on the landscape, deferring action on old-growth until 2023 in a move critics say sets the stage for more conflict.
“It’s just a stunning denial of the reality on the ground,” Torrance Coste, national campaign director with the Wilderness Committee, told The Narwhal in an interview. “There was a good chance that there were people arrested during the press conference.”
Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, also pointed out the stark contrast between the passion of hundreds of people fighting to protect ancient forests and “their connection to these magnificent living ecosystems” versus the government response.
“You have, essentially, these guys who are trying to buy time and take it slowly and not put in place the key components to actually save those ecosystems. You can see the fury developing.”
The intentions paper outlined how the province plans to implement changes to its forest management policies, including preparing the way to transfer forest tenures to First Nations, but according to numerous conservation organizations, the plan lacks key elements needed to support communities and protect biodiversity.
Here’s what you need to know about the province’s plan for BC forests.
A protester is carried on a police stretcher after being arrested at a blockade near the Fairy Creek watershed on Monday, May 31. Photo: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal
1. No new BC old-growth logging deferrals implemented
In the spring of 2020, an independent panel commissioned by the province reviewed BC’s management of old forest ecosystems and called for a “paradigm shift” in the way the province oversees the forest industry. The panel made 14 recommendations, including an urgent need to immediately defer logging in old-growth forests at risk of irreversible biodiversity loss, to buy time for the province to develop a new strategy. The panel gave the province six months to implement deferrals.
At a press conference, Premier John Horgan claimed the province is working on implementing the recommendations and cited 200,000 hectares of deferrals that were implemented last year. But critics said those deferrals failed to protect ecosystems facing the highest risk, and noted deferrals are no more than temporary protective measures. https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-old-growth-forest-vancouver-island-caycuse/embed/#?secret=SPf1B04tkD
“To say they’re implementing the panel’s recommendations is demonstrably false,” Wu said. “They missed their six-month deadline — in fact, it’s been over a year and they haven’t implemented critical deferrals, in particular on the high-productivity old-growth.”
Last month, a trio of independent scientists analyzed and mapped the province’s old forests to provide the province with a ready-to-go tool for implementing the deferrals. As The Narwhal previously reported, the map identified about 1.3 million hectares of forest in harm’s way, which is around 2.6 per cent of BC’s timber supply.
The province’s plan did not include any new deferrals, instead noting it intends to commit to more deferrals.
A statement provided to The Narwhal by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said the panel did not recommend a pause on all old-growth harvesting and added one of the key recommendations is engaging the full involvement of Indigenous leaders and organizations.
“Indigenous engagement is critical but will take time,” the statement said. “Government recognizes the importance of this issue to many Indigenous nations, and has sought advice from some Indigenous organizations to develop an engagement approach that can be effective. Discussions have begun with some nations, but not all nations yet.”
During a press briefing, the province noted the organizations it consulted, including Indigenous organizations, were confidential.
In a recent interview with The Narwhal, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said time is of the essence.
“It makes no sense to have a protracted dialogue if, at the end of it, we discover the old-growth is gone.”
“It’s a basic denial of what this moment requires,” Coste said of the province’s intentions paper. “This moment requires hitting the brakes, realizing that the public trust is extremely frail. And without that public trust, none of these intentions are achievable.”
An aerial view of a clearcut timber supply area in the Caycuse watershed. Photo: TJ Watt
2. No clear path for funding a transition to more sustainable BC forestry
According to critics, the intentions paper notably lacks a plan to financially support the province’s modernization goals, and warned that redistributing forest tenures from large logging companies to First Nations could perpetuate the harvest of at-risk ecosystems.
“The most insidious thing is that they look like they are working to increase the economic dependency of communities, including First Nations, through an economic stake in old-growth logging,” Wu said.
Coste said First Nations relying on the revenue generated by old-growth logging need to be compensated for any economic losses resulting from putting the brakes on forestry activities, but noted that Premier Horgan said he cannot implement deferrals without consent from Indigenous communities.
“The choice for First Nations is: agree to deferrals and get no revenue or agree to logging and get revenue. That’s not a choice, not after 150 years of colonization,” he said. “There’s zero dollars earmarked under that policy intention, zero dollars earmarked in the budget and zero plan for how these immediate, medium and long-term steps will be funded.”
Wu said without alternative economic solutions, old-growth logging will continue.
“That’s a game changer if there’s no funding and agreements to protect the at-risk old-growth and to finance the alternative, which is conservation-based economies,” he said. “[The province has] made no commitments to increase … provincial funding for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and associated sustainable economic development.”
The Ministry of Forests did not respond to questions about allocating funding to support its policy intentions.
3. Province intends to double forest tenures held by First Nations
One of the principle themes outlined in the intentions paper is increasing Indigenous participation in BC’s forest management. At the press conference, Horgan repeated his government’s commitment to reconciliation.
“We continue to collaborate with First Nations, and others, to make sure that we protect species, and we protect the biodiversity that is so critically important to our old-growth forests,” he said. “It’s vital that we do not repeat the colonial activities of the past and [dictate to] the First Nations what they do on their territories today.”
According to Jessica Clogg, executive director and senior counsel with West Coast Environmental Law, these statements only addressed one side of the story.
“I was quite appalled at how the premier hid behind the Crown’s constitutional duties to Indigenous People in justifying [the province’s] failure to act on its commitment to immediately defer at-risk old-growth,” she said. “The province has continued for decades to issue cutting permits to new tenures, all without Indigenous consent, keeping the momentum of clearcut logging going in this province. And yet, when it comes to pressing the pause button in order to avoid talking and logging while negotiations are ongoing, the premier then trotted out consultations as an excuse.”
The plan, according to Horgan and Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Katrine Conroy, is to double the tenures owned by First Nations.
“The idea of breaking up tenure concentration and ensuring local partnerships with Indigenous Peoples are all good words,” Clogg said. “But when you look at the details, you see the province saying that they hope to increase the amount of replaceable forest tenure held by Indigenous Peoples to 20 per cent from the current level of 10 per cent. That’s effectively saying that they intend to leave the other 80 per cent of logging rights in the control of major forest companies.”
Clogg admitted one policy intention gives her some optimism.
“What I read as a commitment to work with Indigenous Peoples to reintroduce prescribed and ceremonial burning — there are definitely forest ecosystems in which Indigenous management through fire was an integral part of the historic ecosystem condition. That is a very positive thing.”
Wu noted the province has an opportunity to protect BC’s forests, which he said Horgan acknowledged.
“The one tiny little glimmer of hope is it seems like he’s recognized that the federal government is providing $2.3 billion largely for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas over the next five years and BC’s share of that would probably be [around] $300 million.”
He said that funding could be used to support communities as part of a strategy to save what’s left of BC’s old-growth.
4. Intentions include plans to maximize value and support local manufacturers
Several of the policy intentions focused on restructuring provincial rules and regulations to support local manufacturers, including addressing issues with the province’s own forestry outfit, BC Timber Sales, which manages about 20 per cent of BC’s forests.https://thenarwhal.ca/indicative-of-a-truly-corrupt-system-government-investigation-reveals-bc-timber-sales-violating-old-growth-logging-rules/embed/#?secret=yD5vFpAJW0
Clogg said there could be positive outcomes from revising how BC Timber Sales operates in the province, but warned any changes would need to be supported by additional measures to ensure local manufacturers don’t have to log themselves to access the wood.
The province also noted its intention to revise its rules on how companies operate on the landscape, which could reduce the amount of waste, which is typically burned on the forest floor. But Clogg said the wording in the intentions paper is vague.
“The way the language in the paper is structured, you could say the province is finally going to take some measures to prevent high-grading — taking some of the highest and best trees and leaving the rest,” she said. “On the flip side, we could be going back to the bad old days, where you had even more draconian ‘log it or lose it’ provisions.”
She added that the province’s plan does little to shift the forest industry away from being controlled by a handful of large companies.
“The underpinning foundation of our forest sector is a set of what we call tenures — various licences and logging rights — that were established between the ’40s and the ’60s, and were always designed to attract and support major logging companies,” she said. “That fundamental foundation would not be altered by these proposals.”
5. BC forestry plan does not address the biodiversity crisis
The 2020 old-growth strategic review urged the province to prioritize biodiversity and at-risk species over the economic benefits of the forest industry. The intentions paper does not mention biodiversity and instead focuses largely on forest-based economy.https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-biodiversity-targets-ecojustice-report/embed/#?secret=5voV5472Vv
Andrea Inness, campaigner with Ancient Forest Alliance, said in a statement that was a glaring omission from the intentions paper.
“A vision for BC’s forests that isn’t firmly rooted in ecological health does no favours for communities. This path continues to rob British Columbians of old-growth forests and the critical ecological services they provide while driving communities ever closer to the looming economic cliff ahead of them.”
Clogg said it was clear the province continues to view BC forests as timber supply, not ecosystems, and noted the speakers at the press conference included forest industry advocates and lacked any environmental organizations.
“The timber-oriented orientation of the intentions paper really leaves me doubting that this increased discretion the province now intends to give itself legally will be used in a way that protects biodiversity and ecosystem health or upholds Indigenous Rights.”
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-11-at-11.37.59-AM.png10661798TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2021-06-02 11:41:002023-04-06 19:06:07Five ways BC’s new forestry plan sets the stage for more old-growth conflict
Environmentalists say BC’s new vision for forestry isn’t going to quell the current wildfire of old-growth protests. File photo of Caycuse Camp activists locked to chainsaws courtesy of Rainforest Flying Squad
Environmental groups already riled by the pace of protections for ancient forests in BC were further provoked after the province failed to announce any new old-growth logging deferrals in its new vision for forestry Tuesday.
“If Premier John Horgan’s intention is to make the conflict raging around old-growth forests even worse, this is the perfect plan to do that,” said Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee.
The unveiling of the NDP intentions paper to modernize forestry policy took place as 1,000 protesters defied an injunction over the weekend to support Fairy Creek blockades — happening in Horgan’s own riding on Vancouver Island for the past nine months.
As of Monday morning, RCMP had arrested 142 people in connection to protests in logging company Teal-Jones’s tree farm licence (TFL) 46 near Port Renfrew — which is becoming the epicentre of environmental civil disobedience on a scale comparable to the 1990s War of the Woods in Clayoquot Sound.
The plan — which won’t be complete until 2023 at the earliest — includes worthy goals such as reconciliation and co-operation with First Nations, ensuring more communities benefit from forestry, and diversifying access to tenure and timber supply, Coste noted.
But the NDP government’s vision will do nothing to quell the immediate wildfire of public discord about the lack of protection for big trees and the at-risk ecosystems that support them, he said.
“It’s gasoline on the fire. It completely fails to speak to what this moment demands,” Coste said, adding the NDP is losing social licence for its forestry objectives.
“The premier doesn’t seem to grasp that everything in this plan is unachievable without immediate-term on-the-ground changes.”
BC needs to take urgent action to protect increasingly scarce old-growth ecosystems because forests have been managed solely for timber values for far too long, as the old-growth strategic review commissioned by the province found, Coste said.
“There’s strong public value for all the other important things the forests provide,” he said.
“While there are nods in this plan to change that over the course of coming years, there’s still this denial of the basic reality that we need some immediate stop-gap measures.”
Environmental groups (ENGOs) in the province want Horgan to temporarily defer old-growth logging in the most critical ecosystems, and put money on the table for First Nations that might lose revenue while discussions take place over the longer term.
Horgan reiterated his intent to meet all 14 recommendations in the old-growth review while unveiling the intentions paper Tuesday.
The province was following a core recommendation of the report by ensuring it was consulting with First Nations to avoid making any decisions around forestry in their territories unilaterally, he said.
BC Premier John Horgan unveiled an intentions paper around the future of forest policy on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of the BC government
“The critical recommendation that’s at play at Fairy Creek is consulting with the title-holders, the people whose land these forests are growing on,” Horgan said.
Not doing so would smack of colonialism, the harms of which were graphically depicted with the confirmation of a mass grave with the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops last week, he noted.
“I’m not prepared to do that,” he said.
There must be buy-in by area First Nations for any deferrals in the Fairy Creek or other old-growth areas located in TFLs 46 and 44 in the region, he said.
Old-growth activists at blockades aren’t going anywhere after hearing the province’s plan, according to the Rainforest Flying Squad (RFS), the grassroots coalition organizing the movement.
“We’re profoundly disappointed,” said RFS spokesperson Saul Arbess on Tuesday afternoon.
“What you’re going to see is a strengthening of resolve, and a strengthening of the barricades.”
More and more people from all walks of life and age groups are joining the protests, Arbess said, adding more than 90 per cent of British Columbians want protections for old-growth.
“Old-growth protection was barely mentioned, and we’re not seeing any kind of sustainable ecosystem-based management,” Arbess said.
“What we’re seeing is essentially business as usual with some modifications and changes, and a greater emphasis on allocation of timber to First Nations.”
But the economic model for relying solely on the extraction of timber is still at play, said Arbess, who had hoped to see funding commitments and initiatives to lay the foundation for other forest values, as was done in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Arbess said he hoped that ENGOs would be among the stakeholders consulted in any coming talks around the NDP’s promise to make additional deferrals — especially since no such groups were present to speak to the plan today, though unions and First Nations were extended the opportunity to do so.
“This is the opportunity to defer the five forest areas that we’re trying to protect,” Arbess said.
“But you don’t enter into an engagement process while at the same time the lands and forests under discussion are being destroyed.”
Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer
http://15.157.244.121/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-03-at-11.49.53-AM.png9301774TJ Watthttp://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px-300x300.pngTJ Watt2021-06-01 11:42:002023-04-26 16:08:47BC premier’s new forestry plan adds fuel to old-growth fire
A commentary by a retired forest ecologist and retired professional forester and professional biologist.
When a province’s motto is invoked ironically, it may be time to reconsider that motto.
British Columbia’s provincial motto is Splendor sine occasu, a Latin phrase usually translated as “Splendour without diminishment.” Narrowly defined, it was intended to refer to the sun on the provincial shield that “although setting, never decreases.”
But the “splendour” applies equally well to the entire province. B.C. has more topography than any other province or territory — more mountain ranges, more coastlines. It has more climatic zones, more ecosystems and species than anywhere else in Canada. Or perhaps anywhere else in the world at temperate latitudes.
And that “splendour” — B.C.’s natural heritage — has been greatly diminished by our activities. This applies to our oceans and our freshwater as well, but today I’d like to focus on B.C.’s old-growth forests.about:blank
More than 80 per cent of B.C. is covered with forest — we are truly a forested province. There are more types of forest in B.C. than anywhere else in Canada, from our northern boreal forests to our coastal rainforests. For thousands of years, these forests have provided the essentials of life for B.C.’s First Nations. And they’ve provided habitat for our province’s plants, animals and fungi.
But today, we find our rich forest endowment greatly diminished. B.C. logs considerably more forest each year than any other province.
Except where we’ve built large cities, however, we haven’t deforested our province. We’ve simply clearcut our original (old-growth) forests, and regenerated second-growth forests.
But these second-growth forests are profoundly different from the forests that were logged, in just about any way you can imagine. They are different structurally and functionally, and they provide little in the way of habitat for the many species that have adapted over millennia to life in old-growth forests.
And so perhaps it’s not surprising that B.C. leads Canada in another category — we have more threatened and endangered species than any other province or territory.
One area that B.C. doesn’t lead Canada is in protecting old-growth forests and species at risk. We remain one of the few provinces without endangered species legislation.
For old-growth forests with very big old trees, only about three per cent (about 35,000 hectares) remains today outside of protected areas. That’s certainly splendour diminished.
The NDP government’s Old Growth Panel called for a deferral on logging on the most at-risk old-growth forests within six months of publication of its report.
It has been more than a year now, a year during which the rate of old-growth logging has accelerated considerably. The NDP government promised endangered species legislation for our province, but has subsequently changed their mind.
While independent scientists (using provincial government inventory data) have clearly documented and mapped how little high-productivity old-growth forest remains, the provincial government and industry continue to assure us that there is lots left, and they’re developing a plan.
Talk and log. There’s an urgency to this issue — every week fewer of these iconic forests remain.
Fortunately, more and more people are rejecting the “relax, we’re on it” message of the provincial government and industry.
Instead, they’re listening to what independent scientists are saying, or they’re paying attention to what air photos and satellite images are making abundantly clear. Or perhaps they simply appreciate what they see when they drive the backroads of our province.
For old-growth forests and species at risk, there is no objective on-the-ground difference between Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberals and John Horgan’s NDP. They share the same legislation and policies.
Perhaps the biggest difference is that the NDP promised to be a champion for forests and species, and the Liberals never did. That certainly makes the inaction of the NDP seem all the more appallingly cynical.
Activists frustrated at the inaction of our provincial government are beginning to take direct nonviolent action at roadblocks in Fairy Creek and elsewhere.
B.C.’s natural splendour is certainly diminished. But there are clear opportunities for our governments to protect some of what’s left.
For old-growth forests, the recommendations of the government’s own Old Growth Panel report provide an excellent path forward.
The NDP have promised to implement these recommendations. Now, all that’s required is the political will to keep their promises.
