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International Day of Forests: Conservation groups alarmed that BC is backsliding on Old-Growth Forest Policy Progress

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In light of International Day of Forests on March 21, the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) are expressing serious concerns that the British Columbian government is backsliding on its previous policy progress to ensure an ecological paradigm shift regarding its management of old-growth forests across BC.

“Despite significant conservation policy progress over the past year since Premier Eby came in, including his commitment to essentially double the protected areas system by 2030 and his allocation of major funding to enable this to happen, we’re concerned by what appears to be recent backsliding by the BC government on old-growth conservation,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

“This includes all manner of sophistry by the Ministry of Forests to sustain the destructive status quo of old-growth liquidation, including having ‘deliberate bad aim’ to miss critical protection targets — that is, having an emphasis on saving smaller trees while the big trees continue to get logged; returning to the old dishonest ways of statistical PR-spin to mask their failures; promoting weak protection standards full of logging loopholes; facilitating the increased economic dependency of First Nations communities on old-growth logging; and doing a ‘slow walk’ in working with First Nations to implement old-growth logging deferrals in order to see the status quo further entrenched before any potential paradigm shift can occur.

“The forces of the old guard within government are working strategically to contain change and limit any paradigm shift to minimize the impacts of new conservation policies on the available timber supply — that is, enabling industry to ‘log until extinction.’ Eby is in charge, and he needs to do a selective harvest or controlled burn to cleanse the politics, policies and bureaucracy in BC of these old, unsustainable logging mindsets ASAP. I know he has the backbone for this, should he choose to do so. And we expect this now.”

Old-growth logging in Quatsino territory on northern Vancouver Island.

AFA and EEA acknowledge the genuine historic progress for old-growth protection that has been implemented under this BC government in recent times and are thankful for several significant leaps forward in conservation policy that Premier David Eby and Minister Nathan Cullen have implemented.

Positive steps toward increased old-growth protection:

  • A commitment to incrementally protect 30% of BC by 2030 (currently, 15% of BC is in legislated protected areas). 
  • Securing over $1 billion to enable this expansion, which includes a dedicated $300-million conservation financing fund and a joint $100 million+ in a federal/provincial old-growth conservation fund.
  • Floating a promising draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) that has the potential to direct protected areas establishment correctly via “ecosystem-based targets”, which would ensure that science-based targets span all ecosystems, including the most endangered and least represented ones.
  • Establishing the Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship (MWLRS) as a necessary coordinating agency in land and resource management.
  • Supporting several Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) plans, including the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht conservancies recently announced in Clayoquot Sound and protecting the In​​comappleux Valley last year.

However, key issues threaten this progress, including:

  1. The failure to secure old-growth logging deferrals for half of the priority most at-risk old-growth forests (the grandest, oldest, and rarest) as identified by the province’s appointed science team, the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP). After over two years, only 1.23 million of the 2.6 million hectares are secured. This is primarily due to the BC government’s unwillingness to provide deferral or “solutions space” funding to cover the lost revenues of First Nations who have an economic dependency on old-growth logging in their territories. This has been an ever-present failure of this government.
  2. The BC government’s refusal to proactively identify and add incorrectly categorized old-growth forests that, in truth, meet the criteria for priority deferrals but were missed in the initial TAP mapping exercise. Currently, the province is providing guidance to industry on how to subtract incorrectly identified at-risk old-growth forests from the TAP maps. This “subtract, don’t add” policy for incorrectly categorized old growth that should be deferred from logging demonstrates an egregious bias toward the timber industry and a conservation loophole that must be closed.
  3. The alarming way in which the province is using misleading statistics to cover its failure to secure logging deferrals in the most at-risk TAP priority old-growth stands by lumping together vast tracts of much smaller trees/less at-risk old growth secured through unrelated deferrals. While all old-growth logging deferrals are welcome and needed (the separate set of deferrals are forests that First Nations have identified as important for cultural values or are included in Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) proposals are important areas too), but not identical to the grandest, rarest or oldest stands identified by the TAP which must always remain a conservation priority), lumping the smaller trees together with the biggest and most at-risk old-growth categories to produce an aggregated number of 2.4 million hectares serves to sow public confusion and enables the BC government to shirk its responsibility to secure the full 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk categories. In truth, 1.23 million hectares of the 2.6 million hectares of priority, most at-risk categories are currently deferred. In addition, the Ministry of Forests is also lumping together the TAP priority deferral areas with forests already protected in provincial parks and conservancies to get credit for “deferring” forests that had been protected for decades. These disingenuous and misleading statistics sow confusion and create mistrust. Fundamentally, these communication strategies suggest that the province is not prioritizing the full implementation of the 2.6 million hectares of TAP priority deferrals, and instead is trying to escape its commitment to preserve the most at-risk, big-tree forests by substituting protection for less threatened areas with smaller trees and lower timber values.

Other major problems with BC’s old-growth policies thus far include a lack of ecosystem-based protection targets to guide the protected areas expansion (which may yet come via the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework) as well as the weak protection standards of conservation reserves such as Old-Growth Management Areas, which has boundaries that can be moved around due to the influence of the timber industry lobby, and Wildlife Habitat Areas, which can be logged.

Additional issues include the province facilitating an increase in the economic dependency in many First Nations communities on old-growth logging, a lack of proactive advocacy by the province to foster new protected areas at planning tables and in general (rather, new protected areas are solely based on the will of First Nations, with the province doing nothing to actively identify and champion additional potential protected areas based on their high conservation values, subject to First Nations consent) and a lack of sufficient scale economic transition policies to move the timber industry away from old-growth toward second-growth stands.

 

“We’re in a global biodiversity and climate crisis, with the planet just experiencing its hottest year on record,” said TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “Endangered old-growth forests in British Columbia, which store vast amounts of carbon and are havens for diverse species, are the antidote for what ails our world. On International Day of Forests, Premier David Eby and the BC government must renew their commitment to ensuring the old-growth forests identified as most at-risk are protected. At least $100 million in ‘solutions space’ funding that helps offset lost logging revenues for First Nations who are being asked to defer the most valuable and at-risk forests in their territories, along with the implementation of ecosystem-based targets that prioritize the protection of rare, big-tree old-growth forests and other highly endangered ecosystems, are a necessity. 1.3 million hectares (roughly half) of the old-growth forests identified by the old-growth science panel as being most at-risk remain undeferred and open to logging. Will Premier Eby oversee these endangered forests persist into the future or risk their permanent destruction? The BC government has a global responsibility to do the right thing.”

To turn this around, the province must:

  1. Truly commit to the mapping and the spirit of the TAP methodology, which prioritizes protecting the threatened big-tree old-growth forests. This means identifying barriers to protection and creating a credible, transparent strategy to overcoming those barriers, such as committing $120 million in “solutions space” funding to allow First Nations to accept these deferrals without facing financial hardship from lost logging revenues, as well as pursuing the continued addition of forests that were missed in the initial mapping exercise through ground-truthing and improved inventory data.
  2. Develop a rigorous and binding Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework that mandates fine-filter ecosystem-based protection targets incorporating forest productivity distinctions, for all ecosystems across BC. This framework must scale up protection by incorporating the latest conservation biology science and be developed by independent scientists and Traditional Ecological Knowledge holders, not representatives from industry.
  3. Close loopholes in current landscape reserves such as Old Growth Management Areas and Wildlife Habitat Areas to ensure they can’t be moved to facilitate logging or to allow logging within their boundaries. Until then, they must not be included in BC’s accounting of how much territory is protected as part of its 30% by 2030 goal.
  4. Create a BC Protected Areas Strategy informed by the forthcoming BEHF that identifies the priority areas for protection and that guides the expenditure of the BC Nature Agreement and Conservation Financing funds as BC expands its protected area system to achieve 30% protection by 2030.
  5. Ensure that the BC government is taking an active hand in regional planning, especially at the Forest Landscape Planning tables, by advocating for the protection of key old-growth ecosystems and making conservation financing funding available to enable First Nations to reasonably choose protection instead of timber extraction without major financial loss.
  6. Undertake a much greater economic transition policy of incentives and regulations to move the timber industry from an old-growth industry toward a modernized, value-added, sustainable second-growth industry, and to incentivize the development of a larger conservation-based green economy associated with an expanded protected areas system.

Without following these steps, BC will inevitably end up with a protected areas system that will continue to largely skirt around the rich valley bottoms and focus protection on predominantly alpine and subalpine areas with low timber values while the biggest trees continue to fall and BC’s 50-year “War in the Woods” will continue to flare up and rage on.

“The vast resources now available from the federal and provincial government for conservation must be laser-focused toward protecting the most biodiverse and threatened ecosystems, providing whatever resources First Nations need to offset lost revenues and allowing them to choose protection without taking significant financial losses,” stated Ian Thomas of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“The forests that TAP recommended for deferral are endangered because they are also the most lucrative forests to log, and therefore, successive governments have largely avoided protecting them. That must change. Whenever the government uses misleading statistics to obscure the stubborn fact that 50% of the most threatened forests remain open for logging, they signal a wavering commitment to protecting the irreplaceable. The province, which has driven the liquidation of the oldest and most magnificent forests in BC for over a century, cannot just shrug its shoulders and walk away while the last of these threatened forests are destroyed. There are consequences for all with this approach — including for the government.”

“In short, the BC government is at a crossroads,” said Watt. “It can choose to bolster the significant strides it has taken toward protecting old-growth forests by closing the funding and policy gaps, helping to save endangered ecosystems while supporting conservation-based economies. Or, it can slink back to its old ways of fudging statistics to imply old-growth forests are not at risk while facilitating the destruction of the best of what little remains, leaving behind impoverished landscapes and communities.”

Wu said, “We have hope that Premier Eby will ensure that his old-growth policy progress doesn’t ultimately end up as a sinking ship due to the old-growth timber lobby and its friends. The forthcoming Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework, still under development, holds the greatest promise of all. The single largest game-changer in BC’s conservation policies will be if the BEHF mandates legally-binding, ecosystem-based targets that include forest productivity distinctions to ensure that the most at-risk, least represented ecosystems are protected based on science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Premier Eby must see this done.”

View these infographics that explain the central importance of “ecosystem-based targets” and a strong Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework here.

And see an explanation of why “forest productivity distinctions” must be included in ecosystem-based targets here.

Conservation Groups Urge BC Government to Hurry Up and Close Gaps in Old-Growth Protection

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For Immediate Release
Monday, Sept 11th, 2023

Today on the three-year anniversary of the BC government’s September 2020 acceptance of the Old-Growth Strategic Review Panel’s 14 recommendations to ensure a “paradigm shift” in the conservation and management of old-growth forests in the province, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) and Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are urging the BC government to hurry up and close the gaps in old-growth protection in BC.

The McKelvie Valley near Tahsis in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territory where 2231 hectares (1852 hectares of old-growth) are now deferred from logging.

“The BC government under Premier Eby has taken some great steps forward in policy commitments: pledging to double protected areas from 15% to 30% of BC’s land area over the next seven years (it took over a century to protect the first 15%), bring major conservation financing support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and to target protection for biodiverse areas, which would naturally include the productive old-growth forests with big trees. Premier Eby started off strong nine months ago with these commitments, and now he needs to pick it up and close the remaining gaps to secure old-growth logging deferrals in all of the most at-risk old-growth forests and to ensure that funding and protection go to the right areas,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

Those gaps include:

  • Providing critical funding to First Nations to offset any lost revenues (from their own logging operations and from revenue-sharing agreements with companies) to enable them to implement old-growth logging deferrals with the province in the most at-risk old-growth stands. The lack of funding from the province for a “solutions space” related to old-growth logging deferrals for First Nations has so far been their greatest failure in the development of effective old-growth policies in BC. This lack of funding has resulted in less than half of the 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk unprotected old-growth stands recommended for deferral by the government’s own Technical Advisory Panel being accepted for deferral by First Nations.
  • Ensuring that the forthcoming conservation financing mechanism and the BC Nature Fund (a potential $1.2 billion in federal-provincial funding) and BC Old-Growth Fund ($164 of federal-provincial funding) currently under development and negotiation (between the federal, provincial, and First Nations governments) includes economic funding for Indigenous-owned sustainable businesses (eg. in tourism, sustainable seafood, clean energy, non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms, value-added second-growth forestry, etc) linked to new protected areas, as alternatives to economic dependency on old-growth timber revenues and jobs. So far the BC government has indicated they will fund the needs of First Nations regarding community capacity (eg. land-use planning), stewardship jobs, data collection, monitoring, and enforcement regarding old-growth protection, but has not said yet whether the funding will support Indigenous sustainable businesses that are necessary to provide the long-term revenues to permanently supplant income from old-growth logging — the fundamental barrier for many First Nations protecting old-growth forests.
  • Ensuring “ecosystem-based protection targets” for all types of ecosystems (not just an overall target of 30% by 2030 for BC’s total land area) that includes forest productivity distinctions (ie. the sites that produce large old-growth trees like well-drained valley-bottoms and lower elevations, versus small old-growth trees, like in bogs, on steep rock faces and at subalpine landscapes). Without ecosystem-based protection targets that include forest productivity distinctions, the BC government will continue to protect the sparsely treed alpine and subalpine ecosystems, while the larger old-growth stands continue to fall.
  • Closing the protection gaps in the “forest reserve system”, that is, remove the ability of the Ministry of Forests to readily shift boundaries of and/or log in Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s) and Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHA’s) and other such regulatory conservation designations, that, along with legislated protected areas such as Provincial Conservancies, are vital for the forthcoming protection of old-growth forests.
  • Allowing for the addition of unmapped old-growth stands into deferral consideration that meet the Technical Advisory Panel’s criteria for at-risk old-growth, but were missed in the initial mapping exercise due to data errors. Currently, misidentified stands can be removed from deferral if they do not meet the criteria, but there is no mechanism to identify stands that were missed — a blatant and outrageous bias toward the old-growth logging industry. The actual deferral of any stands will always be contingent on First Nations acceptance.
  • Include greater information transparency on where, how much, and in what categories old-growth logging deferrals and cutblocks are taking place.

Old-growth recommended for priority deferral in the Klanawa Valley currently under thread from road construction and logging.

In BC, successive court rulings regarding the government authority of First Nations on land use changes in their territory mean that the provincial government cannot unilaterally “just protect the old-growth forests” without the support of the local First Nations. First Nations have to consent to old-growth forest protection in their unceded territories if the province is going to establish any legislated protected areas. The province has also taken a position that First Nations support is necessary for any temporary deferrals on logging in their territories. Our organizations have heard from several First Nations that this is an important step to creating the goodwill needed for future negotiations over subsequent potential legislated protected areas in their territories.

However, many or most First Nations have an economic dependency on timber industry jobs and revenues in their territories, including in old-growth logging — a dependency facilitated and fostered by successive BC governments. Hence, government and private funding is vital to help finance First Nations’ sustainable economic alternatives (in industries such as eco-tourism, sustainable seafood, clean energy, non-timber forest products, etc.) to this old-growth logging dependency. Such “conservation financing” initiatives have resulted in the protection of major tracts of old-growth forests in the Great Bear Rainforest (Central and North Coast), Haida Gwaii, and increasingly in Clayoquot Sound. Recently alongside our partners, the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation and the Endangered Ecosyems Alliance, the Ancient Forest Alliance has begun working to bring conservation financing directly to the Kanaka Bar Indian Band and other First Nations to support their Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) initiatives.

Under relentless pressure from the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, Ancient Forest Alliance, and various First Nations, the BC government since David Eby came to power has agreed to develop a provincial conservation financing mechanism to fund Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), and several major funding agreements are currently being negotiated with the federal government and First Nations that will result in likely several billion dollars or more to expand the protected areas system in BC soon.

“It’s critical that the BC government expedites conservation funding — both in the short and long term — for the deferral and protection of old-growth forests and other endangered ecosystems,” notes TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “In the immediate term, ‘solution space’ funding is needed to help facilitate logging deferrals by ensuring that First Nations communities aren’t forced to choose between setting aside at-risk old growth and generating revenue for their communities. In the longer term, large-scale funding is necessary to support First Nations’ sustainable economic development, stewardship jobs, and creation of new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) linked to protecting the most at-risk old-growth forests and ecosystems. This can include new land-use planning, Indigenous guardians programs, and, most importantly, the development of sustainable economic alternatives to old-growth logging such as tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood harvesting, non-timber forest products, and value-added, second-growth forestry. We continue to find scores of old-growth stumps from freshly fallen trees, some measuring more than 10ft/3m wide, on our field expeditions, underscoring the permanent impacts these funding gaps have on the landscape.”

AFA’s TJ Watt sits a top a giant redcedar stump in a recommended deferral area logged by Teal Jones in the Caycuse Valley, Ditidaht territory.

Eby has also committed to doubling the protected areas system from 15% now to 30% by 2030 of the province’s land area, that is, to do in seven years what took about 100 years to do to reach the first 15%. He has also committed to targeting ‘biodiverse areas’ for protection, launching a Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework that potentially could include the office of a Chief Ecologist who develops science-based protection targets for all ecosystems with Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees.

A month ago, EEA developed a small video series outlining the situation with old-growth forests in BC:

  1. Summary of BC’s Old-Growth Policy Development — Overview in early August 2023
  2. Why is Conservation Financing Vital? Video #1 and Video #2.
  3. Why are Ecosystem-Based Protection Targets Vital?

Many of these gaps in old-growth protection are elaborated upon in the EEA’s submission to the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework.

“The public is losing patience — and rightly so — over a lack of on-the-ground protection thus far, and the only way to speed this up is for the BC government to provide the enabling conditions — the critical funding for deferrals and protected areas, and the needed policy framework including ecosystem-based targets — to enable First Nations whose unceded lands these are to move forward more readily with logging deferrals and protected areas initiatives,” stated Ken Wu, EEA executive director.

Scouler’s Corydalis

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Beautiful and extremely rare in Canada, the Scouler’s corydalis is found only on southwest Vancouver Island around the Nitinat, Carmanah, and Klanawa valleys in Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht territories. With delicate pink-purple flowers and bright feathery leaves that look like stylized green flames when first emerging, this relative of the bleeding-heart flourishes in the rich soils along the banks of the rivers as well as disturbed areas.

Scouler’s corydalis has some interesting strategies for distributing its seeds. When jarred, the elastic seedpods will hurl the seeds up to 2 metres away from the parent. Fascinatingly, the seeds of the corydalis are sheathed in a lipid-rich layer (called an eliaosome) that contain proteins, sugar, and vitamins, which is not believed to be for feeding the baby plant, but for ants!

Ants are thought to harvest these seeds and take them back to their nests, where they strip off the fatty, nutritious coating to feed to their offspring and toss the seed onto their rubbish heap. This nutrient-rich substrate provides the infant seed with ideal growing conditions and the new colony of corydalis gets a headstart in the ant colony’s waste management site. That same seed coating that is so delectable for ants is believed to taste repulsive to deer mice, a handy way to deter these rodents which might otherwise eat the seeds.

Scouler’s corydalis is provincially blue-listed with only 24 known occurrences in Canada. Not only are they rare, they’re also ephemeral, with the plant dying back in the summer after seeding. The beauty of this unusual plant is present for only a few short months in spring, one of the countless wonders of our incredible coastal rainforest. If you see it, savour the experience!

Motion for Old-Growth Fund & Export Ban Introduced by MP Patrick Weiler

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For Immediate Release
May 5, 2023

MP Patrick Weiler Introduces Motion to Launch the $82 million Old-Growth Protection Fund ($164 million with BC matching funds) and to End Old-Growth Log and Wood Product Exports

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) give great thanks to Member of Parliament Patrick Weiler (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country) for his new motion to help protect old-growth forests in BC and Canada.

Weiler has crafted a motion, introduced into federal Parliament yesterday, calling for the $82 million BC Old-Growth Protection Fund (increased from $50 million previously, and contingent on matching BC funding that would bring it to $164 million), to end the international export of old-growth raw logs and wood products from across Canada as quickly as possible (and by no later than 2030), and to protect old-growth on federal lands on Department of National Defense and National Park lands from any destructive infrastructure developments.

If implemented, these motions will be significant contributions to help protect old-growth forests in BC and across Canada, where the main “War in the Woods” over old-growth forests has taken place over half a century.

“We welcome this motion by MP Patrick Weiler. $82 million dedicated to old-growth protection in BC, when matched by the province for a total of $164 million, is no small sum. It would result in a major leap forward to protect old-growth forests here, along with a much larger federal-provincial BC Nature Agreement fund — as would a rapid phase-out on the export of old-growth wood products across Canada with an emphasis on second- and third-growth wood products instead. We commend Weiler for taking the initiative here to help keep the ball rolling for old-growth protection,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner & photographer TJ Watt stands beside a giant old-growth redcedar growing unprotected on northwestern Vancouver Island in Quatsino territory.

“The Biden administration in the US is now creating a pathway that could end old-growth logging on their federal public lands across the country, and BC and Canada need to do the same. MP Patrick Weiler is starting this process, and I hope his positive motion pushes the province to really get on track — as the province is directly in charge of provincially-managed Crown lands where the vast majority of old-growth forests stand, along with the local First Nations whose unceded territories it is. Premier Eby’s recent move to embrace the 30% by 2030 target and to undertake a conservation financing mechanism to fund First Nations IPCA plans should be applauded. However, there is still significant space for spin and sophistry to keep the status quo of old-growth forest liquidation safeguarded as new provincial policies are being developed. I can see many of the same old actors from the old-growth timber industry and old timber bureaucracy at work in this regard right now, and they are both pervasive and clever,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

There are elements in the provincial government that appear to be employing a number of different strategies in an attempt to contain change and extend the life of the destructive status quo of old-growth liquidation, including efforts to minimize the centrality of fully protected areas — and instead to emphasize better old-growth logging rather than no logging of old-growth as the first consideration, as well as “conservation” areas that keep the door open for commercial old-growth logging. Other apparent strategies include minimizing ecosystem-based protected areas targets, including failing to distinguish between big-treed vs small-treed old-growth forests (forest productivity distinctions); minimizing the role of science and scientists in developing ecosystem-based targets in conjunction with Traditional Ecological Knowledge holders; and making conservation financing primarily about capacity and stewardship funding rather than about sustainable economic development funding to supplant the old-growth logging dependency in many First Nations communities.

Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner & Photographer TJ Watt stands atop the stump of an old-growth redcedar tree cut in 2022 the Klanawa Valley on Vancouver Island in Huu-ay-aht territory.

The federal government has been offering significant funding for years of several hundred million dollars, contingent on an agreement for matching funds from BC — to drastically expand the protected areas system across the province as part of Canada’s commitment to protect 25% of the country’s land area by 2025 and 30% by 2030 (BC has committed to the latter target). Currently 15% of BC is in legislated protected areas. Negotiations over a BC Nature Fund between the federal and provincial governments have been ongoing for two and a half years (since January of 2021), and now include First Nations, and an agreement is expected in the not distant future.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director Ken Wu stands beside a giant old-growth redcedar tree growing unprotected on Nootka Island in Mowachaht/ Muchalaht territory.

The provincial government has also stated that they will have a conservation financing mechanism in place by the end of June, and the EEA and AFA are encouraging the province to ensure that they bring in both provincial and federal contributions into that fund (not just private donations) which can be used to help ensure both old-growth logging deferrals and protected areas, including by providing the needed funds to First Nations for their capacity, stewardship, and sustainable business development needs linked to new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (typically legislated via Provincial Conservancy and various Protected Areas designations provincially).

The original sum of $50 million for a BC Old-Growth Fund has now been increased by MP Weiler and his colleagues to $81.9 million. If matched by provincial funds, it would be $164 million to help First Nations and other parties to specifically protect some of the grandest and most endangered old-growth forests in BC, with an emphasis on protecting Coastal and Inland old-growth rainforests and Interior Douglas-fir forests. Weiler also noted that additional federal protected areas funds are available from the $2.3 billion in terrestrial protected areas funding, as well as from the several billion dollar Nature Smart Climate Fund, that would also help protect old-growth forests in BC as part of the overall effort to expand protected areas in the province and across the country.

Old-growth forests across BC are on the unceded territories of diverse First Nations, whose consent is a legal necessity for the establishment of new protected areas on Crown/unceded First Nations lands (ie. the provincial government cannot unilaterally just protect old-growth forests in BC — the support of the local First Nations is needed, and the province should undertake the policy framework and provide key funding as part of the “enabling conditions” to facilitate interested First Nations to establish new protected areas). Across BC, many or most First Nations have a major economic dependency on timber revenues and jobs, including on old-growth forestry.

Land Guardian Domonique Samson with the Kanaka Bar Indian Band stands beside an old-growth Douglas-fir tree on a property recently purchased by the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation to be given back to the band with a conservation covenant.

“Conservation financing” refers to funding from governments and private sources for the development of sustainable economic alternatives in First Nations and other communities that enable the development of Indigenous businesses and jobs in eco- and cultural tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products (eg. wild mushrooms) and other industries, linked to the establishment of new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs). In the Great Bear Rainforest, Haida Gwaii, and currently in Clayoqout Sound, major conservation financing funds from the federal and provincial governments, environmental groups, and carbon offset projects have enabled high levels of forest protection and conservation to move forward. The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and the Ancient Forest Alliance, with our partner organization the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation, are now moving ahead with similar conservation financing projects to support old-growth protection initiatives and new IPCAs by the Kanaka Bar Indian Band near Lytton and the Salmon Parks initiative of the Mowachaht/ Muchalaht First Nation.

Over 80% of the medium to high productivity forest lands (places that typically grow the largest trees the fastest) in BC are now second-growth. With appropriate government incentives and regulations, old-growth forests can be protected while forestry employment levels could be enhanced with the development of a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry. This is particularly true if the extensive second-growth harvest (which currently is also unsustainable), which already contributes most of the cut in BC, is turned into higher end wood products in the province, rather than being shipped out as raw log exports. Eby is now starting to provide funding for a value-added transition for industry to manufacture smaller diameter (ie. mainly second-growth) logs, and we encourage him to continue this trajectory, while the federal government is also starting to support the value-added sector.

Old-growth forests are typically defined by the BC government as stands older than 250 years on the Coast and older than 140 years in BC’s Interior, although old-growth characteristics (canopy gaps, well-developed understories, multi-layered canopies, large woody debris) can develop in significantly younger stands in many areas.

Old-growth forests are vital to support endangered species, the climate, tourism and recreation, clean water, wild salmon, and diverse First Nations cultures whose unceded territories it is. Old-growth forests have unique characteristics that are not replicated in the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with. Because they are re-logged every 50 to 60 years on BC’s coast and every 80 to 100 years in the Interior, they never become old-growth again. As a result, old-growth logging is not a sustainable activity under BC’s and Canada’s system of forestry but is more similar to “forest mining”.

A logging truck loaded with old-growth logs passes through the Klanawa Valley on Vancouver Island.

 

Redwood Sorrel

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Looking like an oversized clover, the redwood sorrel (oxalis oregana) is one of BC’s loveliest and rarest rainforest plants, found only in a few scattered sites on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii.

Because they have adapted to live on the shady forest floor, these plants are actually light-sensitive and will fold their leaves to protect themselves from intense sunlight. When the late afternoon sun creeps into a sorrel colony, the lucky observer will see thousands of leaves folding to ward off the glare.

On Vancouver Island, these exceedingly rare old-growth sorrel gardens reach their most magnificent expression in the Klanawa Valley in Huu-ay-aht territory. In these enchanted groves along the banks of the Klanawa River, delicate carpets of sorrel flowers and fairybell lilies are braided with wildlife trails made by Roosevelt elk, black bears, and coastal wolves, giving the impression of a manicured garden and trails deep in the rainforest. The idyllic forest scenes here are among the most beautiful we have ever encountered.

 

NGO report card: One year after BC promised action, logging continues in almost all at-risk old-growth forests

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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.

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For more information, please contact:

Jens Wieting, Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner/Science Advisor, Sierra Club BC

604-354 5312, jens@sierraclub.bc.ca

Andrea Inness, Campaigner, Ancient Forest Alliance

778-953-5983 (text only), andrea@15.222.255.145 

Joe Foy, Protected Areas Campaigner, Wilderness Committee

604-880-2580, joe@wildernesscommittee.org

Logging in the Klanawa Valley: “World’s best forestry practices”?

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These recent images from the Klanawa Valley highlight the brutal impacts of clearcut logging on Vancouver Island.

Until recently, this mountain was one of the last largely intact stands of unprotected old-growth in the valley. Now a sprawling 30-hectare cutblock, a web of roads from Western Forest Products scar the hillside here in Tree Farm Licence 44, north of Nitinat Lake in Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht territory. This is what ‘talk & log’ looks like.

Speak up! Send a message to John Horgan and the NDP, demanding they take action to protect endangered old-growth forests in BC.

B.C.’s old-growth forest nearly eliminated, new provincewide mapping reveals

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The Narwhal
February 9, 2021

As old-growth logging continues unabated in most unprotected areas of B.C., one conservation organization decided to spend a year creating a detailed map that shows the province’s original forests have all but disappeared under pressure from industrialization

Many people imagine British Columbia as a province carpeted in forests, with giant old-growth trees, but a new interactive map reveals that little remains of B.C.’s original and ancient forests, showing logging and other industrial human activity as a vast sea of red.

The “Seeing Red” map, released Tuesday by the Prince George-based group Conservation North, took one year, 10 provincial and federal government datasets and $4,200 to pull together.  

“The cumulative impacts of industrial forestry have never really been put on display for analysis or review,” Conservation North director Michelle Connolly told The Narwhal.

“And it became clear that if we wanted the truth, we would basically have to figure it out for ourselves.”

Connolly said one of the most striking things about the map is how little primary forest remains in B.C.’s interior, especially in the rare inland temperate rainforest where skyscraper cedar trees can be more than 1,000 years old and endangered deep-snow mountain caribou live in the spring and early winter, surviving on lichen found only on old-growth trees.

All B.C. old-growth forests are primary forests — also known as original, or primaeval forests — meaning they have never been logged. But not all B.C. primary forests are old-growth, as some have been affected over the centuries by natural disturbances such as wildfire. 

Scattered amidst an enormous blaze of red, the map clearly depicts the few old-growth conservation opportunities that are left in the province’s interior, Connolly said. 

“This part of B.C. has been ignored when it comes to discussions about old-growth forests.” 

She pointed to three splashes of green in the eastern interior, toward the Alberta border, in areas outside federal and provincial parks. The comparatively small green swaths — known as the Walker Wilderness, the Raush Valley and the Goat River watershed — represent some of the last relatively intact and unprotected areas of rare interior temperate rainforest. 

“These are really areas of focus for us because they still have values that people would like for nature,” Connolly said. “They’re home for wildlife, they have intact habitat, they’re diverse, they represent carbon assets, and they’re corridors that connect plant and animal populations.”

Zoom in even further, and much smaller, scattered splotches of green emerge in the blotchy red interior landscape, disclosing unprotected pockets of old-growth and original forests that could soon be logged in the Okanagan and the Kootenays, including in the Argonaut Valley, where conservation groups recently sounded the alarm about impending clear-cutting in endangered caribou habitat.

“Those are really important to protect because they function as lifeboats for biodiversity,” Connolly said. “We have landscapes here that are very fragmented.”

Map will ‘shock the heck’ out of British Columbians

Pacific Wild creative director Geoff Campbell said the high-resolution map, which allows people to zoom in anywhere in the province to view unlogged forests, will “shock the heck out of your average B.C. resident.” 

“People around the world and even British Columbians have an idea of what B.C. is — it’s pristine, it’s wild. The true reality is that essentially all of B.C.’s old-growth forest has been eliminated, and all you need to do is to look at this map to see that,” Campbell said. 

“The only places where you don’t really see habitat destruction happening is in the high, high mountains. Everything else is basically red.” 

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Zooming into the Great Bear Rainforest area on B.C.’s central coast, inlets and waterways are etched in red, flanked by larger chunks of green that represent nearly three million hectares protected in parks and conservation areas.

“At Pacific Wild, we talk about how the ocean feeds the forest and the forest feeds the ocean,” Campbell said. “That is really where wildlife thrives, in these inlets, and that’s where you’re seeing all this industrial activity happening. It’s just heart-breaking … It shows that a place like the Great Bear Rainforest, which people see as pristine, really isn’t.”

Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, secretary-treasurer of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and Chief of the Neskonlith Indian Band, said the map is a visual representation of First Nations concerns.

“We’ve decimated our old-growth forest and somebody has to be accountable,” Kukpi7 Wilson said in an interview. 

“The old-growth policies unfortunately didn’t serve us well. It’s just allowed the removal of our old-growth.”Tavish Campbell Gilford Island Great Bear Rainforest

Tavish Campbell stands on a giant cedar stump on Gilford Island in the Great Bear Rainforest where old-growth logging is still taking place in some areas. Photo: April Bencze

First Nations call for transparency

The map’s release comes as the B.C. government dawdles on a fall election promise to implement 14 recommendations made by an old-growth strategic review panel led by foresters Al Gorley and Garry Merkel. 

Gorley and Merkel called for a paradigm shift, saying old forests have intrinsic value for all living things and should be managed for ecosystem health, not for timber supply. They also said many old forests are not renewable, countering the notion that old-growth trees can always grow back. 

The two foresters recommended the B.C. government immediately defer development in old forests “where ecosystems are at very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss.” 

In response, last September the NDP minority government announced old-growth logging deferrals for two years in nine areas, totalling 353,000 hectares. 

Ten days later, the government called a snap election and the BC NDP  took out campaign ads saying it had “protected” 353,000 hectares of old-growth.

But mapping subsequently revealed that much of the deferral areas were already under some sort of protection, had already been logged or consisted of non-forested areas. 

Scientists Karen Price, Rachel Holt and David Daust estimated that only about 3,800 hectares of B.C.’s remaining productive old-growth was included in the nine deferral areas. Price and her colleagues also found that only 415,000 hectares of productive old-growth forests are left in B.C. 

High productivity forests, where the biggest trees are found, contain the greatest biodiversity and are home to the most endangered species, such as mountain caribou, northern goshawk and fisher, a charismatic and reclusive member of the weasel family that, in B.C., dens only in five species of old trees.

Connolly said Conservation North wants people to be able to see where B.C.’s remaining old-growth is located. So, in tandem with the Seeing Red map, the group also mapped the 415,000 hectares of productive old-growth identified by Price and her colleagues. The second map, titled “Where is B.C.’s Remaining Old-Growth?” is also available online for free. 

B.C.’s forestry practices came under renewed scrutiny this month when the Wilderness Committee discovered the new NDP majority government had sanctioned logging and road-building in 157,000 hectares of second-growth forests in the deferral areas it claimed it had “protected.” 

Wilderness Committee national campaign director Torrance Coste called the government’s suggestion that it had protected 353,000 hectares of old-growth “factually incorrect and incredibly misleading.”

“At the bare minimum, people deserve to be told honestly by the government what is going on,” Coste told The Narwhal.

Kukpi7 Wilson said there is a lack of transparency and clear communication from the government about the old-growth deferrals, including what areas they cover, what criteria were used to determine the areas where logging was deferred for two years, and the total breakdown of old-growth areas eligible for deferrals. 

She said the public needs to know the location of the most biodiverse, vulnerable areas that were neglected in the nine deferral areas and are in urgent need of protection. 

“We need a transparent, accessible and easy-to-read way of understanding and analyzing the wealth of data around old-growth management in B.C.,” she said. “This is why an interactive map is so important.”

First Nations hope to expand on the map, she said, adding layers and datasets, “including further details around the areas that fall within traditional Indigenous territory and which companies are having the most impact in which high-risk areas.”

Old-growth protection opportunities in B.C.’s interior

When Valhalla Wilderness Society examined the government’s old-growth deferral area in the Incomappleux Valley east of Revelstoke, an inland rainforest with trees up to 1,500 years old, the society found only one-fifth of the 40,000-hectare deferral area consisted of old-growth.

Valhalla Wilderness Society spokesperson Anne Sherrod said parks and protected areas in the interior often don’t include highly productive low elevation valleys, where the biggest and oldest trees grow.

“We need a dramatic expansion of fully protected areas,” Sherrod said in an interview. 

“When you look at that Seeing Red map, how can you question that? We have logged so much of our original forest, the primary forest. These forests are key for protecting biodiversity and mitigating climate change. These are two profound environmental disasters encroaching on B.C.”

Valhalla has been working for years to permanently protect wilderness along the north and east arms of Quesnel Lake — three puzzle-like pieces on the Seeing Red map that slide into the western boundaries of the Bowron Lakes, Cariboo Mountains and Wells Grey parks.  

Sherrod described the proposed Quesnel Lake wilderness reserve as possibly “the largest and most intact body of inland temperate rainforest in existence today that is unprotected.”

The area is home to the endangered Wells Grey caribou herd, and has trees almost 2,000 years old. 

“I don’t think the interior rainforest is getting nearly enough attention,” Sherrod said. “There needs to be a re-thinking of the province’s rainforest.”Michelle Connolly in cedar old growth forest

Conservation North director Michelle Connolly, who has a background in forest ecology, surveys old-growth cedars in B.C.’s inland rainforest to estimate the amount of carbon the area holds. The ancient cedars pictured here are part of an old-growth management area where logging to facilitate road-building can take place. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

She said 72 per cent of the proposed Quesnel Lake wilderness protected area has been set aside as wildlife habitat areas for caribou, where logging isn’t permitted at the moment. But that’s not enough habitat to ensure the long-term survival of the Wells Grey herd, she pointed out.

“It doesn’t cover enough of the caribou habitat and, furthermore, it doesn’t cover the old-growth inland temperate rainforest.”

Almost 70 per cent of the ancient cedar and hemlock forests that would be protected in the proposed Quesnel Lake wilderness reserve has been left out of the wildlife habitat areas, which can be removed “with the stroke of a pen” if the endangered caribou herd disappears, Sherrod said.

“If they don’t create fully protected parks for future generations [after] decades of caribou planning in this province, that would leave us with nothing.”

Roy Howard is the president of the Fraser Headwaters Alliance, which has been working for decades to protect inland temperate rainforest in the Goat River watershed, part of the Fraser River headwaters. The upper reaches of the Goat River provide important spawning habitat for at-risk bull trout, while the watershed’s rare inland temperate rainforest supports endangered caribou, grizzly bears and rare lichens. 

“The Goat contributes to the Fraser headwaters,” Howard said. “[It’s about] purity of water. To me, it’s just obvious that you protect things like that.” 

The upper Goat watershed is currently off limits to logging because it has been designated as an ungulate winter range for endangered caribou, Howard said. 

“That will only last as long as the caribou do, and we’re not optimistic about that.” 

Howard said the alliance met with B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman in 2018 and made the case for protecting the Goat River watershed, but has not heard back from the government. 

The unprotected Goat River watershed contains one of the few old-growth temperate rainforests left in B.C.’s interior. At-risk bull trout spawn in the upper reaches of the watershed, while old-growth forests are home to endangered caribou, grizzly bear and rare lichens. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

Map shows intact forests in B.C.’s north 

Some of the largest swathes of green on the Seeing Red map are in northeastern and northwestern B.C. One green patch in north central B.C. overlaps with a 40,000 square-kilometre area the Kaska Dena are working to protect as an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area. Indigenous protected areas are gaining recognition worldwide for their role in preserving biodiversity and securing a space where communities can actively practice Indigenous ways of life.

The Kaska protected area would surround or connect to six existing protected areas, conserving watersheds and critical habitat for caribou and other species at risk of extinction while creating sustainable jobs.Kaska IPCA Area Map

Proposed Kaska Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

Kukpi7 Wilson said protecting what little remains of B.C.’s original forests is an urgent First Nations Title and Rights issue. Old-growth trees are crucial to healthy ecosystems and Indigenous livelihoods and cultures, she pointed out. 

Protecting old-growth and adequately working with and consulting with First Nations also aligns with B.C.’s commitment to implement its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, she said.

“The province must ensure decision-making and planning around old-growth forestry does not exclude First Nations and meets its commitment to the UN Declaration.”

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has said it wants to work with the province to implement an old-growth strategy that will enable conservation financing and the expansion of Indigenous protected and conserved areas, while also allowing First Nations to pursue economic alternatives to old-growth forestry — including businesses in cultural and eco-tourism, clean energy and second-growth forestry.Logging Vancouver Island

An aerial view highlighting extensive clearcut logging of productive old-growth forests in the Klanawa Valley on southern Vancouver Island, B.C. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance

In September, the union passed a resolution calling on the province to implement all 14 of Gorley and Merkel’s recommendations. The union said the recommendations would enable an improved old-growth strategy that will include and respect Indigenous Peoples, in keeping with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that B.C. has implemented through legislation.

In an emailed response to questions from The Narwhal, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said it plans to implement the 14 recommendations within the three-year timeframe recommended by Gorley and Merkel.

Asked when the government expects to take action on the recommendation to immediately defer development in areas where ecosystems are at “very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss,” the ministry said initial discussions are beginning with Indigenous groups, industry, labour and community leaders around identifying additional old-growth logging deferral areas. 

“We heard loud and clear that the old way of protecting old-growth forests wasn’t working for anyone,” the ministry said. “We also know that getting this right is going to take time.” 

The panel’s first recommendation is for government to government engagement with leaders from B.C.’s Indigenous nations, the ministry noted. “We know from discussions with a number of Indigenous groups that an engagement process of this scope and scale will require additional resources and we are taking steps to get the appropriate resources in place.” 

Connolly said B.C.’s inland rainforest and boreal rainforest have largely been ignored in discussions about protecting the last of the province’s old-growth forests, even though a recent Forest Practices Board report sounded the alarm about the accelerating loss of biodiversity in the Prince George timber supply area in the province’s interior.

“These views that British Columbians get of our forests, both with our own eyes from the highway and via the messages that come out of industry and government, are carefully curated.”

The Forest Practices Board recommended that interior old-growth be promptly mapped and protected where it is most threatened by industrial logging. Connolly said that includes places like the Anzac Valley north of Prince George, which is home to old-growth spruce and subalpine firs and the endangered Hart Ranges caribou herd.

The board also recommended that the legal requirements for protecting biodiversity in the timber supply area be updated to reflect current ecological knowledge. 

Connolly said Conservation North decided to map all original forests, not just old-growth forests, because all B.C. forests that have never been logged are now at risk, as biofuel and wood pellet industries expand quickly with provincial government support.

“What we’re seeing now is that the province has basically given permission to log lower productivity forests for things like pellets. We realized we had to broaden the umbrella of our concern. Here in this part of B.C., it’s not just the productive forests that are in trouble.” 

Most people have driven down B.C. highways and looked out the window at a screen of trees, Connolly noted. 

“And you can’t quite see what’s going on behind that strip of green but sometimes you’ll see a gap between the trees. These views that British Columbians get of our forests, both with our own eyes from the highway and via the messages that come out of industry and government, are carefully curated.”

She recalled taking a forestry course on how to conceal ugly industrialized landscapes from public view. 

“We called that course ‘lying with the landscape 101.” 

The Seeing Red map doesn’t hide anything, Connolly said. “It gives people a bird’s eye view.” 

Read the original article

Logging change: old-growth harvesting has deep roots on Vancouver Island, but how long can it last?

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Capital Daily
January 31, 2021

Logging-dependent communities are facing an existential threat from what conservationists and First Nations say is an overdue change to forestry practices.

If there’s a stand of ancient trees anywhere on Vancouver Island, chances are TJ Watt has seen and photographed it. Watt is cofounder of Ancient Forest Alliance, which has taken him to every corner of the Island in search of big trees. 

In 2018, Watt was scouring satellite imagery on his laptop when he stumbled across an application to cut down old growth in the upper Caycuse River watershed, in the mountains above Lake Cowichan and Nitinat Lake. He hopped into his trusty van, headed north, and navigated a maze of bumpy logging roads that led him to a breathtaking grove of western red cedar giants that he thought would be a candidate for conservation. 

He returned twice: once to document the forest as it was, and a second time to witness what remained after it was logged. 

Fallers, working for Surrey-based Teal Jones Group, left a clearcut where a 33-hectare stand of ancient forest once stood. Watt’s stark before-and-after images triggered a storm of media and public interest that was surprising, even for a conservation photographer accustomed to shooting big trees and stumps with impact in mind. Some of the tree stumps measured four meters in diameter. Watt says he stopped counting rings on one of them at 800 when he got to its hollow core, leading him to estimate some of the specimens to be at least 1,000 years old. He was alarmed, but not surprised.

“I think it’s criminal that this is happening. To put it into perspective, it would be the year 3020 before we would ever see trees or a forest like that again in the same place,” Watt says, adding that he doesn’t oppose logging—he believes it’s time to make the shift into harvesting mostly second growth. “They will never have the chance to become old-growth forests again.”

The Caycuse logging controversy underscores an uncomfortable truth: that the province’s oldest, most biodiverse, and increasingly rare forests are also some of the most commercially valuable to the logging industry. It’s a political hot potato for the NDP government, which traditionally courts two often-conflicting constituencies. On the one hand, labour, resource communities, and powerful lobbies, like the Truck Loggers Association, which represents more than 500 companies and contractors, will fight hard to protect jobs and land access. On the other hand, conservation groups like the Ancient Forest Alliance, scientists, and an environmentally conscious public are crying foul as industry continues to cut down thousand-year-old trees.

The tension has resulted in plenty of discussion. In April 2020, independent scientists Rachel Holt, Karen Price, and Dave Daust published B.C.’s Old Growth: A Last Stand for Biodiversity, in which they dissected the BC government’s accounting of the province’s old-growth resources. The results were alarming. After parsing out old forests containing small trees (typically found on high-elevation, boggy, or nutrient-poor sites), the researchers found that just 3% of the 13.2 million hectares of old growth habitat in BC is suitable for growing massive trees like those felled in the Caycuse. 

Of the small percentage of land area in which the biggest, strongest old trees can possibly grow, 97% has already been logged. What’s worse is that BC’s main protection tool, Old Growth Management Areas (OGMAs), are often too small to have any sustained biodiversity value and are poorly regulated. 

Sonia Furstenau, leader of the Green Party of British Columbia and Cowichan Valley MLA, likens the continued logging of rare old growth in BC to an African nation deciding to permit the hunting of white rhinos. 

“Our government would be outraged,” Furstenau says. “We should be just as outraged by what’s happening to our old growth forests. The NDP is moving the needle in the wrong direction.” 

Valuable resources; invaluable ecosystems

Watt had a life-changing moment 15 years ago when he stood at the base of a giant western red cedar in the upper Walbran Valley, which had been the focus of anti-logging protests. Sun rays pierced the canopy and landed in luminescent pools on the sword ferns and mossy forest around him. The experience inspired him to pick up a camera and dedicate himself to conservation of these long-lived temperate rainforests that are engines of biodiversity. 

Three-quarters of all mammal species and two-thirds of amphibians found in BC live in coastal rainforests. For botanists, the coastal-like forests found in the interior are a frontier of discovery. Darwyn Coxson, a University of Northern British Columbia biologist, has been studying old cedar-hemlock forests in the Robson Valley along with Trevor Goward and Curtis Bjork, scientists affiliated with UBC’s Beatty Biodiversity Museum. Over the past six years, the researchers have catalogued more than 2,400 plant species, including dozens previously unknown to science. 

“It shows just how little we know about this ecosystem,” says Coxson.

BC’s temperate rainforests are also powerful allies in the fight against climate change as they are able to sequester more carbon than any other forest type in the world. 

As precious as they may be to science and the climate, they’re also extremely valuable as timber. Old-growth forests (by some definitions, those that are 250 years or older on the coast and 140 years in the interior) have traditionally anchored BC’s forest sector, which contributed $13 billion to the provincial GDP in 2016. 

The supple, rot-resistant wood of old growth western red cedar, the iconic BC rainforest species and the official provincial tree, is a highly sought-after commodity. The rarer it becomes, the more valuable it is to loggers. In the summer of 2019, western red cedar was fetching roughly $360 per cubic metre on the international market, more than twice the amount being paid for Douglas fir, the next most valuable BC wood export. 

During the 2017 provincial election campaign, John Horgan’s NDP made a vague promise to use the ecosystem-based management being applied in the Great Bear Rainforest as a model for sustainable management of old-growth forests provincewide. But the public was growing impatient. Controversial logging in the Nahmint Valley, 30 kilometres southwest of Port Alberni, and uncertainty over the future of interior rainforest like the spectacular Incomappleux Valley near Glacier National Park (where biologists have discovered dozens of new lichen species) added fuel to the ongoing debate.

In July 2019, the provincial government commissioned an Old Growth Strategic Review, led by two veteran professional foresters: Al Gorley, former chair of the Forest Practices Board, and Garry Merkel, a member of northwestern BC’s Tahltan Nation and a natural resources specialist. Merkel is a candid, independent thinker. He’s been around long enough to see more than one government report come and go but hasn’t given in to cynicism. 

However, it’s not the first time a ruling NDP party has tackled old growth logging practices. In 1992, Mike Harcourt’s government unveiled the Old Growth Strategy, but the report gathered dust while critical aspects of it were “either discarded or partly implemented,” Merkel told Capital Daily over the phone from his home office in Kimberley. Had this report been fully implemented more than 20 years ago, Merkel believes BC’s old-growth forests would be in a much more stable position. So it was with a sense of urgency that he and Gorley hit the road late in 2019, touring the province for two months and meeting with loggers, First Nations, conservationists, and community members. 

Old-growth forests are made up of a mix of tree ages, which gives variety to the landscape and more habitat. Photo: TJ  Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance

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Last April, they submitted their report, A New Future for Old Forests. It pulls no punches. Not only does it call for the suspension of logging in BC’s most at-risk old forests, it’s also an indictment of entrenched land-management practices that treat forests like industrial tree farms. 

“We are recommending a paradigm shift, from a timber-focused regime that views ecological health as a constraint, to an ecological focus with timber as one of the many benefits,” Merkel says. “Everybody knows that the current system is not working—one that is a trade-off between biodiversity and timber values.”

Merkel and Gorley made 14 recommendations to be enacted by 2023. Topping the list is immediate engagement with First Nations across BC on a government-to-government basis and the provision of much-needed resources to support the forestry industry’s transition. Also among the recommendations are a call for more government transparency, establishing clearly defined biodiversity targets, and also helping timber-based communities adapt to forest management changes.

Merkel concedes that it will mean reductions in timber harvesting in some areas of the province.

As a first step last September, BC announced two-year logging deferrals on 350,000 hectares of old growth scattered across the province, including forests in the McKelvie Valley near Tahsis, Clayoquot Sound, and the Incomappleux. In addition, the province committed to increased protection for and expansion of the province’s big tree registry to as many as 1,500 specimens, each surrounded by a 1-hectare conservation buffer. It’s likely too early to judge the province’s response to the report, but Merkel is optimistic.

“I wouldn’t have agreed to do this review if I didn’t believe the government was sincere,”he says.

Katrine Conroy, MLA for Kootenay West and the newly minted minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, says she is committed to implementing all 14 recommendations, but admits the three-year timeline is ambitious. For example, the province has yet to roll out a plan for government-to-government talks with First Nations about forestry transition and funding, something she says will likely require going to the Treasury Board with cap in hand at a time when public finances are being stretched by the pandemic. Shifting to biodiversity-based forest management provincewide will first require unpacking forest policy—and that, too, will take time and debate.

“This is not just about old-growth trees; it’s also about the ecosystems around them. We need to take a much more holistic approach and think of forestry in terms of high value rather than high volume,” Minister Conroy told Capital Daily in an exclusive interview. “We’re just getting started but we want to build a more sustainable and competitive industry.”  

‘We don’t even know how much old growth is left’

Over the past half-century, the Nitnat-based Ditidaht First Nation has witnessed the liquidation of valley-bottom and mountainside ancient forests within its territory, which extends from the rugged coastline between Pacheena Point and Bonilla Point, inland to Cowichan Lake. While the eleventh hour for BC’s rarest old-growth trees approaches, timber-based communities and First Nations like the Ditidaht are stuck in the middle. 

One of the old growth review panel’s key recommendations hones in on a critical problem for First Nations provincewide: a lack of capacity and technical know-how to stay on top of industrial activity within their territories.

“Am I concerned? Yes. We don’t even know how much old growth is left on our territory,” said Paul Sieber, the Ditidaht’s natural resource manager. “Industry keeps the information pretty close and it makes it hard for us to respond in a meaningful way to logging plans.”

Sieber’s desk is piled high with reports and documents. He’s perpetually stretched and hasn’t yet found time to peruse Merkel’s and Gorley’s old-growth report. In the early 1990s, heavy logging by a previous tenure holder in the Klanawa River valley, which drains out to the west coast through Pacific Rim National Park, led to landslides, erosion, and damage to a river that once teemed with steelhead and salmon. It angered Sieber then, and it still angers him now. He fears that the recent cutting of old-growth forest in the upper Caycuse River watershed will further damage what is already a heavily logged watershed.
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Second-growth forests do not support nearly the same amount of biodiversity as old-growth stands. Photo: Sergej Krivenko / Capital Daily

This is a complex time in the relationship between forestry companies and First Nations, who have for too long been bystanders as companies profited from old-growth logging in their territories. They’re late to the party. Many nations, like the Ditidaht have only recently entered into revenue sharing agreements and partnerships with forest corporations. Teal Jones Group and Western Forest Products (WFP) each hold an area-based tenure on Crown land known as a tree farm licence, or TFL, that requires them to pay stumpage fees to the Crown for the right to log within Ditidaht territory. The Ditidaht, through their forestry arm Ditidaht Forestry Ltd, are now logging in partnership with TimberWest, and negotiating with Teal Jones and WFP for long-term timber access and revenue sharing agreements.

The problem, according to Garry Merkel, is that many nations now find themselves in the untenable position of harvesting at-risk old growth to support their businesses.

“We need to find solutions that don’t involve forcing First Nations to shut down or fight to harvest areas they may not agree with,” he says.

A raw deal for small communities

Twenty-five years ago, a small-town tour of Vancouver Island would have been much different than it is today. Timber mills were pumping out lumber in places as remote as Youbou and Tahsis, while high-paying union jobs supported thriving communities and small businesses sprang up around these anchor industries. 

TimberWest closed its Youbou operation in 2001, the same year that the mill in Tahsis was mothballed. It was a sign of things to come. In 2003, the then-Liberal government scrapped a Forest Act provision called appurtenance requiring companies with Crown forest tenures to operate mills in communities located within the geographical area of a given tenure. It only added to the decline in manufacturing capacity. 

Last May, Langley-based San Group began production at a new $70-million plant in Port Alberni, the first major investment in coastal sawmilling in 15 years. But this is a lonely bright spot: since 1997, roughly 100 mills have shut across BC. Over the past decade, the forest sector has lost more than 22,000 jobs, mostly in lumber and pulp and paper manufacturing. 

Campbell River symbolizes the changing economic reality of many Island communities. Between 2008 and 2010, TimberWest shut its sawmill and sawdust, pulp, and containerboard operations, then Catalyst Paper closed its Elk Falls mill. They laid off 700 workers between them and left behind vacant industrial lots on the waterfront north of the city. 

Companies are required by law to process BC logs domestically. However, there’s a loophole: if they are unable to secure a fair price after advertising in the domestic market, logs can be sold to foreign mills.

A 2018 study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives showed the relationship between   mill closures and rising raw log exports. Between 2013 and 2016, forest companies shipped 26 million cubic metres of raw logs, and old growth accounted for roughly half of the exports. 

The three largest exporters of raw logs are big players on Vancouver Island: Western Forest Products, Island Timberlands, and TimberWest. In 2016, TimberWest, which owns 327,000 hectares of timberland on Vancouver Island, sent more than 2 million cubic metres of raw logs out of the province. 

But in Port McNeill, logging still matters. The town’s motto, “Tree Farming Country,” speaks volumes. The “world’s largest burl,” an estimated 30-tonne knot that was cut from a Sitka spruce in 2005, is proudly displayed on the Port McNeill waterfront. When loggers are working, business is booming. That’s why the eight-month bitter labour dispute between Western Forest Products and the United Steelworkers Union that began in July 2019 hit the northern Vancouver Island community hard.

“I’d say 80% of Port McNeill’s economy is either directly or indirectly tied to the forest sector,” Mayor Gaby Wickstrom says. 

Port McNeill is one of a dozen members of Forest Friendly Communities, an industry-promoting organization formed in 2016. Wickstrom recalls the strike as one of the darkest periods since she moved to the area 25 years ago to drive a forest industry tour bus. Port McNeill was plunged into a mini recession that impacted everyone, from stylists at Bangles Hair Studio to servers at Tia’s Cafe.

“We had people accessing the food banks who never had to before.”

She worries about the speed of change if the province follows through with the old-growth review panel’s recommendations to transition out of old-growth logging. In a Vancouver Sun op-ed, she argued for “a decision that fairly balances the interests of conservation and the economy.”

That balance, she argues, can’t leave communities like hers behind.

“If there’s going to be a moratorium on old-growth logging, we’re going to need help with the transition,” Wickstrom says. “We want to make sure our community has a voice.”

The members of Forest Friendly Communities definitely have the Truck Loggers Association (TLA) in their corner. Bob Brash, a forester and TLA’s executive director, calls old-growth logging an “emotionally charged” issue.

“Our industry has proven to be adaptable but we need certainty around the working forest land base. We’re still waiting for the government to conduct a socio-economic analysis on the impact of a moratorium on old-growth logging, ” Brash says, noting that 50 million hectares of BC forests have been certified since 2002 by third-party sustainability auditors like the Forest Stewardship Council. “Government has to get this right and it has to be based on science, not emotion.” 

Garry Merkel agrees—and the science is clear, he says. High-productivity old-growth forests in BC are under threat. Hard, but necessary, discussions about the future of forestry lie ahead.

At her Cowichan Valley constituency office, Sonia Furtseneau sifts through the daily deluge of emails. Old-growth logging completely dominates the correspondence. Furstenau believes “talk and log” is no longer an option. Neither is waiting for industry to make the shift. 

Forest companies will do whatever they can to be efficient and extract the most value from the forest, she says. Government has the blueprint—Merkel and Gorley’s report—and their 14 recommendations that she believes could be “a game-changer.”

“We don’t have time for more discussion and studies. The NDP government needs to come to the table with resources for First Nations and logging-based communities and help them make that economic transition into activities like renewable energy and value-added wood products manufacturing,” Furstenau says.

The clock is ticking, and it’s already too late for some forests like the trees that once stood in the upper Caycuse watershed captured in Watt’s stark photos. 

Corrections: This story was corrected on Fed. 1, 2020 at 11:30 am. It originally referred to the Ditidaht First Nation as “Port Alberni-based”. The First Nation is based in Nitnat. Further, it referred to a stand of trees in the Caycuse River watershed as a 70-hectare stand. It was a 33-hectare stand.

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Where do BC’s Major Political Parties Stand on Old-Growth Logging and Related Issues?

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The BC government has called a snap election for October 24th, putting critical issues like the continued logging of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, reconciliation with Indigenous Nations, climate change, forestry practices, and the economy into the spotlight.

We’ve prepared a summary of where each of BC’s three major parties stand on old-growth and related issues and given each party a grade to help voters make informed decisions this election.

For information on how and where to vote visit Elections BC

BC NDP

Old-growth forest policies

GRADE: D

Over the last three and a half years, the BC NDP have continued to enable the massive, widespread destruction of BC’s old-growth forests at the same rate as the BC Liberals even as endangered species like mountain caribou and spotted owls continue to dramatically decline in numbers. They also failed to implement their 2017 election platform commitment to “take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model” to sustainably manage BC’s old-growth.

Instead, in 2019, the BC NDP announced they would protect 54 big trees on BC’s Big Tree Registry and convene an independent panel to review BC’s forest policies. The panel’s final report was released in September, at which time the NDP announced they would enact a regulation estimated to protect up to 1,500 more of BC’s biggest trees. They also announced two-year logging deferrals in 353,000 hectares (ha) in nine areas across BC. However, only 3,800 ha – just 1% – of the 353,000 ha contains productive old-growth forest with big trees – the type of forest the old-growth panel has recommended the BC government take immediate action to protect.

In their 2020 election platform, the BC NDP promised to work with First Nations governments, labour, industry, and environmental groups to implement the Old Growth Strategic Review panel’s recommendations to protect old-growth forests. The 14 recommendations outlined in the independent panel’s report are a blueprint for a complete paradigm shift in the way BC manages old-growth forests, putting ecosystem health and biodiversity above timber values. However, the NDP haven’t committed to implementing the recommendations on the panel’s three-year timeline and they have failed to protect the last remaining 3% of BC’s productive, big tree old-growth forests. They have also failed to commit critical funding to support the creation of new protected areas; help BC transition to sustainable, value-added, second-growth forestry; and support First Nations’ land-use plans and sustainable economies.

Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition

GRADE: D

Since coming to power, the NDP have failed to curb the export of raw, unprocessed logs from BC’s coast – something the NDP were strongly in support of doing while in opposition. Although the NDP claim to want to get more value out of BC logs, and despite continued job loss and mill closures across BC due to decades of unsustainable harvesting and a lack of long-term planning, they still haven’t devised a comprehensive economic strategy or committed sufficient funding to expand BC’s value-added wood manufacturing sector, help forest-based communities diversify their economies, or expedite the transition to a sustainable, second growth forest sector.

Instead, the NDP have allowed old-growth forests to be logged to make wood pellets for BC’s burgeoning biofuels industry (which releases massive amounts of CO2 emissions) and have promoted the use of mass timber in public buildings as a “sustainable” alternative to concrete, even though it could be manufactured using old-growth trees.

In their platform, the BC NDP promise to allocate a specific portion the annual allowable cut to value-added producers and say they will continue “revitalizing” BC’s forests through greater investments in tree planting and wildfire prevention. As part of their post-COVID Economic Recovery Plan, they also promise to support resource communities facing job loss, help retrain impacted workers, and develop higher value goods.

BC Green Party

Old-growth forest policies

GRADE: A+

The Greens have been outspoken about the need to protect endangered old-growth throughout their time in government. For example, in the spring of 2019, they called on the BC NDP to enact immediate moratoria on old-growth logging in hotspots on Vancouver Island and to invest in mill retrofits to aid the transition to a sustainable second-growth industry.

In their election platform, the BC Greens promise to put an immediate end to the logging of old growth forests in high risk ecosystems and partner with First Nations to fully implement all of the old-growth review panel’s recommendations. They also commit to enacting legislation that establishes forest ecosystem health and biodiversity as an overarching priority and establishing funding mechanisms to support old-growth protection and communities.

Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition

GRADE: A+

The Greens have promised to ensure small producers in BC have better access to fibre and to incentivize value-added wood manufacturing, including non-traditional uses of BC wood.

They have committed to ending raw log exports, reducing emissions from forestry, and ensuring that First Nations, municipalities, and regional districts reap more benefits from BC’s forest sector.

Finally, the BC Greens promise to support forestry workers and communities in the transition away from old-growth logging by investing in retraining and by supporting more sustainable use of BC’s forests, for example, through investments in tourism and carbon economies.

BC Liberal Party

Old-growth forest policies

GRADE: F

During their time in power, the BC Liberals significantly increased the rate of old-growth logging in BC’s interior and allowed Old-Growth Management Area boundaries in many parts of BC to be adjusted to allow for more logging. Using stumpage fees and taxpayers’ dollars, they aggressively marketed BC old-growth wood abroad and reduced old-growth forest retention targets in the Central Interior to prop-up ailing mills. They also deregulated vast areas of private, corporate forest lands that were once publicly regulated, opening up major tracts of protected old-growth forests for liquidation. The Liberals’ key area of progress in reducing the rate of cut was in the Great Bear Rainforest, where the AAC was reduced by 40%, and in Haida Gwaii, where the AAC was reduced by 50%.

The BC Liberals’ current forestry platform [Original article no longer available] is the unsustainable status quo: maintain business-as-usual logging (which includes clearcutting old-growth forests), support mass timber construction projects made from BC wood, and plant more trees. They also promise to “modernize” management practices and provide more public subsidies to make it easier and cheaper for companies to log. Their platform makes no mention of the need to protect old-growth forests. In fact, they promise to introduce legislation to protect the “working forest” – an approach that would see the vast majority of BC’s remaining endangered old-growth logged.

Raw log exports, wood manufacturing, and support for communities in transition

GRADE: F

The BC Liberals dramatically increased the rate of raw log exports during their 16 years in power, quadrupling average annual log exports to over 6 million cubic meters each year, resulting in the loss of thousands of potential forestry jobs in BC. They removed the local milling requirement, granted scores of log export permits from Crown lands, issued general exemptions against log export restrictions for the entire North Coast, and removed Tree Farm Licences on corporate private lands, opening the floodgates to log exports.

They have not made any commitments in their 2020 platform to curb raw log exports, invest in value-added wood manufacturing, or help forest-based communities diversify their economies or transition to second-growth logging.