With a provincial election tomorrow, the Ancient Forest Alliance is summarizing the position of BC’s main political parties for its supporters.
New maps of BC’s southern coast highlight the ecological crisis in BC’s forests due to old-growth logging. The most conservative figures from the preliminary analysis of Vancouver Island and the southwest mainland reveal that at least 74% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including at least 91% of the biggest, best old-growth stands.
“The BC Liberals have decimated the province’s forestry workforce through massive raw log exports, industry deregulation, and unsustainable practices. 30,000 BC forest workers lost their jobs and over 70 mills were shut down under the BC Liberals, yet they've allowed companies to cut at near record levels,” stated Arnold Bercov, national forestry officer of the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada. “Under the BC Liberals, we lost both our forests and our jobs, it’s nuts.”
Proposal for UN World Heritage Site for the Giant Cedars in BC’s Inland Rainforest Gains Momentum Cooperation between conservationists across BC is ramping up a public awareness campaign to protect BC’s globally rare Inland Temperate Rainforest and to have one of its finest natural areas, highlighted by giant redcedars, designated as a UN World Heritage Site east of Prince George.
The Environment Platform states the party will “Protect significant ecological areas like wetlands, estuaries and valuable old-growth forests.” The recognition of the importance of protecting old-growth forests is a step forward for the party, which made no mention of old-growth or the environment in their previously released Forestry Platform, to the chagrin of conservationists. However, the critical details of “how much”, “where”, and “when” are not mentioned in today's platform.
Today on Earth Day BC NDP leader Adrian Dix announced the party’s environment platform, stating that an NDP government would “reinvest in BC’s parks” and “protect endangered species and habitats”. A version of the media release (not posted online) also stated the party would work to “acquire” “wetlands” and “old-growth forests”.
Clearcuts adjacent to Mountain Caribou habitat support increased moose and deer, and so bolster predator populations that also prey on caribou. Mountain Caribou are the world’s most southerly reindeer and Canada’s largest old-growth dependent animal. Resident almost exclusively in British Columbia, their population has declined precipitously in recent decades.
“This is a disappointing flop of a forestry platform, ecologically-speaking. It continues the unsustainable status quo of resource depletion in this province that is causing the collapse of species, ecosystems, and human communities. Nowhere does it mention the need to protect endangered old-growth forests and to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, the central forestry land-use conflicts. All it says is to plant more trees. Tree farms do not replicate ancient forests for supporting endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, or wild salmon,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director.
A legislative proposal for an “Old Growth Protection Act” by the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre (ELC) would ensure better protection for BC’s ancient forest heritage if adopted by the provincial government. The science-based plan would incorporate timelines to immediately end old-growth logging in “critically endangered” forests, and quickly phase out old-growth logging where there is a “high risk” to biological diversity and ecosystem integrity.
https://www.elc.uvic.ca/press/documents/AnOldGrowthProtectionActforBC-2013Apr10.pdf
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