Today Conservationists call for Action on BC Forests at Legislature Opening

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For Immediate Release
February 12, 2013

Today Ancient Forest Alliance to Unfurl Giant “Hands Off the Old-Growth” Banner During BC Legislature’s Opening Ceremonies – Calls for Action on BC’s Forests from BC Liberals and NDP

Today from 12:45 to 1:30 pm at the BC Legislative Buildings, a group of Ancient Forest Alliance supporters will unfurl a giant 10 meter long banner that reads “Hands Off the Old-Growth” during the opening ceremonies.  The BC Legislative Assembly will sit for its last session before a provincial election is held just over three months from now, on May 14, 2013.

The Ancient Forest Alliance (www.AncientForestAlliance.org) is calling on the BC Liberal government and the NDP Opposition to:

  • Commit to a new Provincial Old-Growth Plan to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests. Old-growth forests are vital to sustain endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures.
  • To ensure sustainable, value-added forestry in second-growth stands which now constitute the vast majority of the forest lands in southern BC.  The BC Liberal government is allowing a massive exodus of raw, unprocessed logs from BC to foreign mills in China, the US, and Japan, allowing the liquidation of BC’s forest resource while doing little to support investment in coastal second-growth mills and value-added facilities.
  • To halt the BC Liberal government’s sneaky plans to introduce a bill this legislative sitting to allow the expansion of Tree Farm Licences. Expanding Tree Farm Licences would confer increased private property-like rights for logging companies by granting them exclusive access to vast areas of public forest lands. Currently most logging licences are “volume-based” (ie. no specific areas given to companies, only an amount or volume of wood they can cut). See: https://blogs.theprovince.com/2013/01/27/ben-parfitt-sneaky-liberals-are-planning-a-b-c-forest-giveaway/

“During their last three months the BC Liberals can choose a legacy as the government that finally ended BC’s ‘War in the Woods,’ or acted as the ‘Despoilers of Beautiful British Columbia’ until the very end,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “Either way, we will ensure that they have a legacy, depending on what they do now – commit to protecting our ancient forests and to ending raw log exports, or continue to keep their heads in the sand by insisting that old-growth forests are not endangered and that raw log exports are a necessary evil.”

“For the NDP, they must remember their history in the 1990’s, when they continually battled environmentalists over old-growth forests,” Wu stated. “They need to significantly break from the disastrous status quo and adopt a truly new and courageous vision for a sustainable forest industry. Specifically, they must follow through and develop Adrian Dix’s promise during his 2011 bid to become NDP leader that if elected he would ‘Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans’”. See:  [Original article no longer available]

The Ancient Forest Alliance is planning to significantly ramp-up its grassroots mobilization campaign to inform the public on the stance of the political parties about BC’s old-growth forests and forestry jobs in the months leading up to the May provincial election.

75% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Of 2.3 million hectares of productive (ie. moderate to fast growth rates, with large trees) old-growth forests originally on Vancouver Island, 1.7 million hectares have already been logged (ie. about 600,000 hectares remain). See “before and after” maps at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/

See spectacular photos of Vancouver Island’s biggest trees and biggest stumps at:  https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/ (Note: Media are free to reprint any photos, credit to “TJ Watt” if possible)

The incredible Cathedral Grove Canyon near Port Alberni is just one of many conentious areas of old-growth forest land owned by Island Timberlands.

Media Release: Chinese Goverment’s Ownership of BC’s Forests Could Undermine New Environmental Laws, Forestry Jobs, and First Nations

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Chinese Government’s Ownership of British Columbia’s Forests Could Stifle New Environmental Laws, Undermine BC Forestry Jobs, and Infringe on First Nations’ Rights under Proposed Trade Agreement
 
Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are raising the alarm that the potential ownership of vast tracts of British Columbia’s private forest lands by the Chinese government could negatively impact BC’s environmental laws, forestry jobs, and the rights of First Nations in light of the proposed Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA). Island Timberlands is BC’s second largest private landowner, with over 254,000 hectares of private forest lands on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. The company is expected to close a $100 million deal soon with the China Investment Corporation (CIC), one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds owned by the Chinese government. The deal will see the CIC own a 12.5% stake in Island Timberlands (see the article: https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1099267/tiny-cortes-island-girds-battle-chinas-huge-cic-wealth-fund).

 
“The Communist Party of China is about to become one of the biggest landowners in British Columbia if this deal goes through. In light of the proposed Canada-China investment treaty, this could be at the expense of BC’s environment, forestry workers and First Nations,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “Chairman Harper seems to be channelling Chairman Mao’s spirit these days, as it’s hard to see how this proposed agreement will be a net benefit to Canadians.”
 

The Canada-China FIPA would allow Chinese investors in Canada to sue the federal government for lost profits due to new regulations, taxes, and environmental laws enacted federally, provincially, or municipally. This would undercut the ability of future governments to enact new regulations or policies that might result in a lawsuit by Chinese companies which are accountable to the Chinese government. Any disputes under FIPA would go for arbitration in tribunals outside of Canadian courts and mostly outside of any court. These tribunals are not independent, open, and procedurally fair in the manner of other international courts and tribunals. The agreement’s stipulations would last for a minimum of 31 years even if the Canadian government in the future opts out of the agreement at the earliest opportunity, which is after a 15-year minimum term. The federal government has yet to ratify FIPA, possibly as a result of major public opposition including within Conservative party constituencies. See more info at: https://www.desmogblog.com/2012/10/15/china-canada-investment-treaty-designed-be-straight-jacket-canada-exclusive-interview-trade-investment-lawyer-gus-van

 
“Not only could the Chinese government’s ownership of our forests under FIPA obstruct future measures to protect our endangered ecosystems, BC wood processing jobs, and First Nations land use plans, but it could result in Canadian taxpayers owing tens of millions of dollars to the Chinese government for protecting the interests of our own citizens,” stated Wu.
 
Measures to protect the environment, labour, and First Nations rights that could be negatively affected by the Canada-China FIPA and the CIC buying a stake in Island Timberlands include:
 
– Obstructions against new regulations or taxes to curtail unprocessed “raw” logs from being exported from BC to sawmills in China and abroad. Island Timberlands is one of BC’s largest exporters of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign mills in China, the US, and other countries. Public pressure is strong to curtail raw log exports in order to ensure a guaranteed log supply for BC’s wood manufacturing sector. “This trade agreement with China could provide an unfettered conduit for the free flow of unprocessed raw logs from BC’s forests to Chinese sawmills,” stated Wu.
 
– Undermining stronger Forest Practices regulations on private forest lands. Conservationists are calling for stronger regulations on Private Managed Forest Lands to protect salmon streams with wider forested“buffers”, to protect drinking watersheds, old-growth forests, and endangered species against industrial logging, and to enact controls on the unsustainable rate of overcutting. In 2004 the BC Liberal government removed 88,000 hectares of private forest lands now owned by Island Timberlands from the Tree Farm Licenses that once regulated them with stronger forest practices regulations with the same standards on public lands.
 
– Frustrating the establishment of a “Forest Land Reserve”, similar to the existing “Agricultural Land Reserve”, that would prohibit real estate subdivisions and suburban sprawl on private forest lands zoned for forestry use.
 
– Obstructing the implementation of First Nations land-use plans and shared decision-making measures that may require legally-binding orders from the BC government to protect sacred sites, important cultural use sites, and natural resource areas. Most of Island Timberlands’ lands are also unceded by First Nations where no treaties were signed that relinquished First Nations title to them. Many BC First Nations are pushing for increased legal control over their unceded territories and to implement their own land use visions even before treaties are settled, which in most cases are still many years away.
 
Island Timberlands is entangled in battles with communities across Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast who are upset by the company’s plans to log old-growth forests and sensitive ecosystems (see a list of contentious areas and beautiful photos at: https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=519).

 
On Cortes Island (see beautiful photos at: https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=12), local residents repeatedly protested and blocked Island Timberlands’ attempts to log earlier this month. Last week the company temporarily pulled out its logging crews from Cortes Island and postponed its pursuit of a court injunction against the protesters, with Island residents currently waiting for the company to meet with them to resume negotiations.

 
The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on Island Timberlands back off from logging its contentious “forest hotspots” across the coast until conservation funding can be secured for their purchase, and to log on Cortes Island according to community, ecosystem-based forestry standards.
 
In addition to strengthening environmental regulations on private forest lands, the AFA is also calling on the provincial government to establish a $40 million annual BC park acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands. The last time the provincial government had a dedicated park acquisition fund was in the 2008 budget.
 
“While private land trusts are vital for conservation, they simply don’t have the capacity to quickly raise the tens of millions of dollars needed each year to protect most endangered private lands before they are logged or developed —only governments have such funds,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “More than ever, considering the potential future difficulties to strengthen environmental laws on private lands under FIPA, the BC government must fund the purchase of the last endangered old-growth forests on private lands before they are logged.”
 
A battle over private forest lands on Salt Spring Island over a decade ago between local residents and a logging/development company was resolved when the federal, provincial and regional governments provided over $16 million in funding, along with $1 million raised by local citizens, to purchase over 1000 hectares of private forest lands on Mount Maxwell and around Burgoyne Bay – an area similar in size to Island Timberlands’ holdings on Cortes Island. Currently, Cortes Island residents are working to raise funds to purchase and protect the 250 hectare “Children’s Forest” from Island Timberlands, constituting about 25% of the company’s private lands on Cortes.
 
The transfer of lands from private corporate ownership to public ownership would also open up greater possibilities for First Nations shared decision-making and cultural uses on those lands. Other provincial funds could also be put forward to purchase private forest lands for conversion to Community Forests for ecosystem-based forestry operations controlled by local communities. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cortes Island resident and activist

Media Release: BC’s War in Woods on Cortes Island needs Political Leadership

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For Immediate Release

December 6, 2012

Political Leadership Needed to Resolve Cortes Island’s “War in the Woods” and other Island Timberlands battles

Conservationists renew call for BC Liberals to commit to restoring and expanding a “BC Park Acquisition Fund” to purchase and protect endangered forests on private lands

NOTE: Media are free to reprint any photos, credit to “TJ Watt” where possible.
“What is needed now is leadership from the BC Liberal government to help resolve the War in the Woods by committing funds to purchase endangered ecosystems on private lands, including old-growth forests on Cortes Island and throughout the southern coast where communities are fighting Island Timberlands’ old-growth logging plans,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “The province hasn’t had a dedicated annual fund to purchase and protect private lands in years, despite that fact that for every $1 invested in new parks in BC, another $9 is generated in revenues in the provincial economy, according to studies. Island Timberlands also has an obligation to log according to community, ecosystem-based forestry standards on Cortes Island.”
The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling for a $40 million annual BC park acquisition fund, which would amount to about 0.1% or 1/1000th of the province’s $40 billion annual budget. Over 10 years, $400 million would be available for purchasing critical habitats on private lands throughout the province. The last time the provincial government had a dedicated land acquisition fund was in the 2008 budget.  A similar battle on Salt Spring Island over a decade ago between local residents and a logging/development company was resolved through funding from the provincial, federal and regional governments and local citizens to purchase the endangered lands around Burgoyne Bay and on Mount Maxwell.
Park acquisition funds already exist in several Regional Districts in BC, including the Capital Regional District (CRD) in the Greater Victoria region, which has a Land Acquisition Fund of about $3.5 million each year. The CRD has spent over $34 million dollars since the year 2000 to purchase over 4500 hectares, including lands at Jordan River, the Sooke Hills, the Sooke Potholes, Thetis Lake, Mount Work, and Mount Maxwell on Salt Spring Island, to expand their system of Regional Parks.

“While private land trusts are vital for conservation, they simply don’t have the capacity to quickly raise the tens of millions of dollars needed each year to protect most endangered lands before they are logged or developed —only governments have such funds,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.

Logging giant Island Timberlands, which owns about 260,000 hectares of private forest lands on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, is entangled in battles with communities throughout the region. The company is also one of the largest exporter of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign mills in the USA and Asia. Currently, the Chinese government is looking to buy a major stake of Island Timberlands through the China Investment Corporation, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, and is expected to close a $100 million deal with the company soon.
Contentious old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems owned by Island Timberlands include (see beautiful photos in the following links):
–          Day Road Forest near Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/day-road-forest/
–          Stillwater Bluffs near Powell River on the Sunshine Coast: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/stillwater-bluffs/
–          McLaughlin Ridge near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/mclaughlin-ridge/
–          Cameron Valley Firebreak near Port Alberni: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/mclaughlin-ridge/
–          Cathedral Grove Canyon near Port Alberni: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/cathedral-grove-canyon/
–          Lands directly adjacent to Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park near Port Alberni
–          Labour Day Lake near Port Alberni
–          Pearl Lake adjacent to Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island
–          Eagle Ridge Bluffs near Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island
Old-growth forests are vital for supporting endangered species, tourism, recreation, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures. On Vancouver Island, 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including 90% of the most productive old-growth forests in the lowlands where the largest trees grow. Well over 90% of the old-growth “Dry Maritime” and Coastal Douglas-fir forests on BC’s southern coast have already been logged.

See the Ancient Forest Alliance’s petition for a BC Park Acquisition Fund at www.BCParkFund.com [Original article no longer available] and a recent newsletter at https://www.bcparkfund.com/newsletter/June-2012-Parks-Acquisition.pdf [Original article no longer available].

 

 

Media Release: Conservationists Relieved as Forest Company Backs Away from Logging Canada’s Finest Old-Growth Cedar Grove, Vancouver Island’s "Castle Grove" in the Upper Walbran Valley

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For Immediate Release

November 30, 2012

Conservationists Relieved as Forest Company Backs Away from Logging Canada’s Finest Old-Growth Cedar Grove, Vancouver Island’s “Castle Grove” in the Upper Walbran Valley

BC government also moving forward with a “legal tool” to potentially protect BC’s largest trees and monumental groves in spring of 2013 – but more comprehensive “ecosystem-level” old-growth protection also needed

See spectacular PHOTOS of the Castle Grove at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=21

(NOTE: Media are free to reprint any photos, photo credit to “TJ Watt” if possible.)

Conservationists are breathing a sigh of relief as Canada’s finest stand of old-growth redcedar trees appears to have been spared the axe – for now. The Castle Grove in the Upper Walbran Valley on southern Vancouver Island (west of Lake Cowichan) had been flagged for logging in August by the Teal-Jones Group and subsequently was the focus of an intense environmental campaign by the Ancient Forest Alliance (www.AncientForestAlliance.org). In addition, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations has recently indicated that they intend to follow through on a 2011 promise to create a “legal tool” to potentially protect the province’s largest trees and monumental groves, which the AFA would like to see used to protect the Castle Grove.

“We’re happy that the logging company has given some breathing room for Canada’s finest old-growth redcedar grove – now we need the BC Liberal government to follow up with some legal protection so we don’t ever have to refight this again,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance. “We’re also pleased to hear that the BC government is finally moving forward with the potential legal protection for BC’s largest trees and monumental groves – whether this actually happens, what legal form it takes, where the protections are located, and how extensive the protections are, won’t be known until the spring. Most importantly however, we need much more comprehensive ‘ecosystem-level’ protection for BC’s endangered old-growth forests, which are vital to sustain endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures. Sustainable, value-added second-growth forestry is also needed to support BC forestry jobs, as most of our forests in southern BC are second-growth now.”

In several recent emails to the Ancient Forest Alliance, the Ministry of Forests stated that while the forest company, the Teal-Jones Group, is still actively pursuing old-growth logging in other areas in the region, the company has backed down from their logging plans in the Castle Grove. The email stated:

“There is no cutting permit application for the Upper Castle Grove area. Apparently the company did some preliminary work, hence the tape, but has decided not to pursue any harvesting in that area.”

Another email stated:

The Ministry…is currently conducting policy analysis and stakeholder consultation around legal tool(s) that could specifically protect the big trees we are already aware of. The ministry is also exploring the feasibility of a legal mechanism that could protect big trees that have not yet been located …Options are currently being identified and will be thoroughly analyzed…conclusions and recommendations will be brought forward by the spring of 2013. “

For the past several months the Ancient Forest Alliance had been bracing for a major escalation in BC’s “War in the Woods” as survey tape marking the “falling boundary” for logging had been discovered in August in Upper Castle Grove. Subsequently, the organization began a public awareness campaign that included media coverage (see the Vancouver Sun and Times Colonist article), photography and video expeditions, slideshow tours, and a major letter-writing campaign among thousands of environmental supporters.

“Not all old-growth forests are created equal – the Castle Grove tops all remaining ancient cedar forests that we know for its combined qualities of grandeur, geographic size, and intactness. It’s a real life Jurassic Park-type landscape, a global treasure that must absolutely be protected,” stated TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “Of all places, the Castle Grove is THE place where a legal designation to protect our monumental ancient groves would make the most sense. The existing so-called ‘Special Management Zone’ in the Upper Walbran Valley has resulted in the area’s old-growth forests being turned into Swiss cheese, punctured with major clearcuts throughout.”

The Castle Grove is an extensive stand of densely-packed enormous redcedars, including the “Castle Giant”, a 16 foot (5 meter) diameter cedar that is one of the largest trees in Canada. It sits on unprotected Crown (public) lands within Tree Farm License 46 in the Upper Walbran Valley. Unfortunately much of the grove is not protected by any forest reserve designations such as Old-Growth Management Areas, Ungulate Winter Ranges or Wildlife Habitat Areas. The Walbran Valley has been the focus of protests against old-growth logging for years, and early protests in 1991 there played an important role in the build-up towards the massive Clayoquot Sound protests near Tofino on Vancouver Island in 1993. Most of western Vancouver Island, including the Walbran Valley, is in unceded Nuu-cha-nulth First Nations territory.

See a beautiful photogallery of the Walbran Valley at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=7

In February, 2011, former Minister of Forests Pat Bell promised that the BC Liberal government would implement a new legal tool to protect the largest trees and associated groves after a Forest Practices Board report that investigated the logging of an exceptionally grand stand of ancient redcedars near Port Renfrew showed a deficiency in protection levels for productive stands over 400 years in age. The BC government has indicated that they may be looking at using existing legal tools, namely provincial Recreation Sites and Old-Growth Management Areas, to fulfill this function.

See the BC government’s announcement in February, 2011, about creating a new legal tool to protect BC’s largest trees and groves:

Vancouver Sun and Times Colonist: “B.C. looking for new ways to protect ancient trees” (Feb.16, 2011)

“We don’t care if the BC Liberal government uses new or old tools to protect our endangered ancient groves like the Castle Grove. The main thing is they need to actually designate such areas for protection, otherwise it was simply an empty promise for PR purposes at the time,” stated Ken Wu. “Most importantly, the BC Liberal government needs to implement a much more comprehensive Provincial Old-Growth Strategy to protect old-growth ecosystems on a much larger scale across BC.”

The BC government’s PR-spin inflates the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including hundreds of thousands of hectares of marginal, low productivity forests growing in bogs and at high elevations with smaller, stunted trees, lumped in with the productive old-growth forests (where most logging takes place). “It’s like including your Monopoly money with your real money and then claiming to be a millionaire, so why curtail spending?” stated Ken Wu.

These low productivity forests are extensively protected and are disproportionately represented in parks and regulatory-protections compared to the productive, big-treed forests. The government’s statistics also fail to reveal the context of the remaining old-growth forests, that is, how much of these forests once remained across Vancouver Island, including on the vast corporate-owned private lands on eastern Vancouver Island that until recent years were managed as public lands (until the Tree Farm Licenses were removed, thus deregulating the lands) and where about 95% of the old-growth forests have been logged.

On Vancouver Island, satellite photos show that about 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including 90% of the valley-bottom ancient forests where the largest trees grow and most biodiversity resides. Only about 10% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s). Of 2.3 million hectares of original, productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, about 1.7 million hectares have now been logged. Of the remaining 600,000 hectares of productive old-growth forests, just over 200,000 hectares are protected in parks and regulatory protections like OGMA’s.

See maps and stats at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government and the NDP Opposition to commit to implementing a BC Old-Growth Strategy that will protect old-growth forests wherever they are scarce (such as on Vancouver Island, in the Lower Mainland, in the BC Interior, etc.). The AFA is also calling for the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which constitute most of the forests in southern BC, and to ensure a guaranteed log supply for BC mills and value-added wood manufacturers by ending the export of raw logs to foreign mills.

AFA's Hannah Carpendale stands near a giant red cedar and Douglas-fir in the Echo Lake ancient forest.

Campaign Launched to Protect Rare Lowland Old-Growth Rainforest and Internationally Significant Eagle Roosting Area east of Vancouver

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For Immediate Release
October 11, 2012

Campaign Launched to Protect Rare Lowland Old-Growth Rainforest and Internationally Significant Eagle Roosting Area east of Vancouver

Between Mission and Agassiz, Echo Lake’s old-growth Douglas fir and redcedars are home to hundreds of roosting bald eagles during the fall salmon run. A new BC government proposal would protect some of the area but is still missing key old-growth groves, with public input ending on Nov.5

See SPECTACULAR photos of Echo Lake’s ancient forest at:  https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/echo-lake/

Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) have launched a new campaign to fully protect one the last endangered lowland old-growth forests left in the Lower Mainland at Echo Lake east of Mission, as part of the organization’s larger campaign to lobby the BC government for a new Provincial Old-Growth Strategy to save endangered old-growth forests across the province. The campaign to protect the Echo Lake Ancient Forest coincides with the onset of a 60 day public input period launched last month by the Ministry of Forests, ending on November 5, in regards to proposed new Old-Growth Management Areas in the Chilliwack Forest District.

The Echo Lake Ancient Forest is a spectacular, monumental stand of enormous mossy redcedars and extremely rare old-growth Douglas firs (99% of which have already been logged on BC’s coast) found on the shores and lower slopes around the lake. The area is within the traditional, unceded territory of the Sts’ailes First Nations band (formerly the Chehalis Indian Band).  The BC government’s newly proposed Old-Growth Management Area (OGMA) for Echo Lake excludes some of the area’s finest old-growth trees.

“This is really an extremely rare gem of lowland ancient rainforest in a sea of second-growth forests, clearcuts, and high altitude old-growth patches. It’s like a little slice of the Carmanah-Walbran, but in the Lower Mainland. To still have an unprotected lowland ancient forest like this left near Vancouver is like finding a Sasquatch. But on top of that, during the fall salmon run the region is home to one of the largest concentrations of raptors on Earth – that is, thousands of fishing and roosting bald eagles,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The BC government’s proposed new Old-Growth Management Area for Echo Lake excludes some of its most spectacular old-growth trees. It’s sort of like serving a burger without the patty, or a lobster without the tail meat. All of the old-growth forests around Echo Lake must be protected.”

In September, the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations launched a 60 day public review ending on Nov.5 of proposed Old-Growth Management Areas that prohibit logging as part of the process to complete the land use planning process in the Chilliwack Forest District. See:[Original article no longer available]

Echo Lake is found within the Hatzic Landscape Unit, one of 6 landscape units under review in the plan. Unfortunately, while the boundaries of a proposed Old-Growth Management Area (OGMA) for Echo Lake encompasses the old-growth forests on the south side of the lake, some of the finest old-growth redcedars and Douglas firs on the west and north sides of the lake are still excluded from the proposed boundaries, as are mature forests that buffer these groves and provide scenery and additional wildlife habitat.

The Harrison and Chehalis Rivers area is home to one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles on Earth. Thousands of eagles come in the fall to eat spawning salmon in the rivers and hundreds roost in the old-growth trees at night around Echo Lake. It is also home to a large array of biodiversity including bears, cougars, bobcats, deer, mountain goats, and osprey, and until recent times would have been populated by the critically endangered northern spotted owl.

Virtually all low elevation old-growth forests in the region have been now been logged, with most remaining old-growth stands consisting of smaller mountain hemlocks, amabilis firs, and yellow cedars at higher altitudes on steep slopes.

The vigilance of local landowners on the east side of Echo Lake, whose private lands restrict public access to the old-growth forests on the Crown lands on the west side of the lake, have held-off industrial logging from the lake’s old-growth forests for decades. Across the southern coast of BC, about 80% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged.

“A professor from Oxford University did a study in the 1980’s on the eagles that roost every fall in the old growth trees surrounding Echo Lake. He said that this small valley has offered sanctuary to these majestic birds for over eight thousand years. When you see them come in at sunset by the hundreds, you quickly realize this valley should be theirs in perpetuity,” stated Stephen Ben-Oliel, the landowner whose private property at Echo Lake abuts the Crown lands covered in old-growth forests.

“Considering the exceptional importance of Echo Lake for bald eagles and the scarcity of these lowland ancient forests in the Lower Mainland, it really should be a no-brainer that all of the old-growth and mature forests around the lake should be protected,” stated TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance.  “But that also goes for all of the remaining endangered old-growth forests now throughout the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and elsewhere in BC where logging has greatly depleted these ancient ecosystems.”

Local conservationists are also interested in stronger conservation measures for the massive bald eagle population in the area, including stronger protections for salmon habitat, water quality, and forests.  The protection of the Echo Lake Ancient Forest where the eagles roost at night would be a vital part of such a plan. For example, near Squamish at another major eagle congregating region, the Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park protects over 700 hectares of forests on the west side of the Squamish River. The local Sts’ailes First Nations band have a particular interest in protecting the salmon habitat and water quality in the region that supports the eagles.

While the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling for the full protection of Echo Lake’s forests, the organization is primarily calling for a larger provincial plan to protect the remaining endangered old-growth forests across BC while ensuring sustainable second-growth forestry jobs. In particular, some of the key policy shifts the organization is calling for include:

  • A Provincial Old-Growth Strategy that would inventory the remaining old-growth forests in BC and protect them in regions where they are scarce (egs. Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc.)
  • A shift to sustainable logging in second-growth forests, which now constitute the vast majority of forested lands in southern British Columbia.
  • An end to the export of raw logs to foreign mills in order to ensure a guaranteed log supply for BC mills and value-added manufacturers.

“How many jurisdictions on Earth still have trees that grow as wide as living rooms and as tall as downtown skyscrapers? And how many jurisdictions still consider it okay to turn such trees in giant stumps and tree plantations? What we have here in BC is something exceptional, the likes of which won’t be seen again for a long, long time if they are logged,” stated Wu. “More than ever we need the BC government to have the wisdom and courage to move ahead with a provincial plan that will protect our endangered old-growth forests, ensures the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and ends the export of raw logs to foreign mills”.

Media Release: BC Liberals open the back door to log protected forests under the guise of "science" and "local communities"

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For immediate release,
October 10, 2012.

BC Liberal Government opens back door to potentially log protected old-growth forests in BC’s Central Interior under the guise of “science” and “local communities”.

VICTORIA, BC – The BC Liberal Government announced yesterday a new forestry action plan for BC’s Central Interior that would open the “back door” for logging in currently protected forests. By the spring of 2013 the BC government plans to create frameworks for a “science-based review” and “community-engagement” process to potentially open up forest reserves that currently protect old-growth forests, scenery for tourism, species at risk, and wildlife in the Central Interior. Conservationists are calling the government’s invoking of “science” and “local community input” as Trojan horses for logging companies to access protected forests. The government’s action plan is detailed in a new report, “Beyond the Beetle: A Mid-Term Timber Supply Action Plan” at: https://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2012FOR0193-001516.htm

“The BC Liberals are using weasel-words and sneaky manoeuvres to open the back door for the logging industry to get into these currently protected forests under the guise of ‘science’ and the politically correct phrase of ‘local community input’ – despite the fact that a majority of people have already clearly said ‘no’ to logging in protected forest reserves during the public input process and that a true science-based review would show the need to protect more forests to slow the decline of endangered species and wildlife, not to log their few protected reserves,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “What I predict is that the BC government will set-up a ‘rigged-game’ for the science review with an overarching constraint that the existing unsustainable levels of timber harvest must be maintained – meaning that science will be used as a tool to determine which protected areas should be logged, not whether or not they should remain protected or be expanded as needed by endangered species, wildlife, tourism, and wild salmon. In addition, having local logging industry reps sit at local committees to decide whether to log these areas certainly won’t hinder the BC Liberals’ logging goals.”

The rationale for opening up protected forest reserves is that an impending shortfall in available timber supplies to support Central Interior sawmills will soon take effect, known as the “falldown effect”. This shortfall in timber supplies in relation to an overcapacity in the forest industry is the result of the loss of mature forests from the pine beetle infestation (caused by climate change and forest fire suppression) and a massive forest industry expansion in the Interior in recent years to take advantage of the infestation, as well as a decades-long history of overcutting the best stands at lower elevations resulting in diminishing returns as the standing timber declines in volume and value and becomes more expensive to access.

“Rewarding unsustainable behaviour with more unsustainable behaviour is wrong and foolish. The Interior timber industry’s unsustainable expansion and overcutting of beetle-affected wood and vast areas of living trees should not be rewarded with more of the same inside of our protected forest reserves now – that’s the worst, most myopic course of action possible and it’s precisely the type of mindset that has brought this planet to the ecological brink,” stated Wu. “Instead the BC Liberal government should diversify rural economies, reduce overcutting while supporting the creation of more higher-end value-added wood manufacturing jobs, ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, end wood waste in clearcuts, end raw log exports to foreign mills, retrain forestry workers, and expand forest protections for wildlife, tourism, recreation, and wild fisheries.

The move to log protected forest reserves and Old-Growth Management Areas is based on the false notion that because there are many beetle-killed trees, that the entire ecosystem is not ‘living’ and therefore clearcutting and punching roads into vast swaths of protected forests – which are a mix of living and dead trees that are part of very vibrant, alive, and continually growing ecosystems – does little environmental damage.

Pine beetle-affected forests include living, unaffected trees of various species, younger regenerating trees, and intact understory vegetation and soil structures, while the dead trees and woody debris provide homes for much wildlife. The extent of the pine beetle infestation is unnatural, caused by anthropogenic climate change and decades of wildfire suppression by the forest industry – however, further clearcutting of these living, dynamic forest ecosystems by removing all the living and dead trees and punching road networks throughout them, leading to soil erosion, vastly increases the environmental damage and removes vital wildlife habitat.

Forest reserve designations in the BC Interior include:

– Old-Growth Management Areas (that protect representative tracts of scarce old-growth forests)
– Riparian Management Areas (that protect fish habitat and water quality)
– Ungulate Winter Ranges (wintering habitat for mountain caribou, mountain goats, etc.)
– Wildlife Habitat Areas (that protect species at risk such as grizzlies and other wildlife)
– Visual Quality Objectives (that protect scenery for tourism)
– Recreation Areas (campsites, hiking areas, etc.)

The proposed environmental deregulation would take place in four Timber Supply Areas (TSA’s): the Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, and Lakes (Burns Lake area) TSA’s.

A true science-based framework without the constraint of needing to maintain unsustainable harvest levels, and that focuses on what it will take to sustain species at risk, biodiversity, water quality and scenery (ie. that focuses on the original land-use plan goals without new, added logging goals) would almost certainly recommend the expansion of Old-Growth Management Areas and other forest reserves, given the advancement of landscape ecology and conservation biology over the past two decades in recognizing the destructiveness of habitat loss and fragmentation on species at risk and fish-bearing streams. A true science-based review without unsustainable timber constraints would almost certainly reveal the inadequacy of the existing land-use plans and their system of protected forest reserves to stem the decline of species at risk, to sustain old-growth ecosystems, to support scenery for tourism, and to protect fish habitat – it would lead to an expansion of forest protections.

“More overcutting and opening up protected forest reserves to try to prop-up an unsustainable industry a bit longer is like burning up parts of your house for firewood after depleting all your other wood sources. In the end, you’re a lot worse off,” stated Wu. “Logging protected forests in this province is a no-go in terms of public opinion. For the BC Liberals to hang this albatross around their neck in the months leading up to BC election is both wrong and unwise – they need to start correcting their course, fast.”

 

 

Media Release: Canada’s Finest Cedar Grove Marked for Logging

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The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is bracing for a potential, major escalation in BC’s “War in the Woods” as survey tape marking the “falling boundary” for logging has been recently discovered in the finest, unprotected stand of monumental old-growth western redcedar trees in Canada:the “Castle Grove” in the unprotected Upper Walbran Valley west of Lake Cowichan on southern Vancouver Island. The Castle Grove is an extensive stand of densely-packed enormous redcedars, including the “Castle Giant”, a 16 foot (5 meter) diameter cedar that is one of the largest trees in Canada.

See new, spectacular PHOTOS of the Castle Grove and the“falling boundary” survey tape at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=21#1

See a beautiful photogallery of the Walbran Valley at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=7

The Ministry of Forests has so far failed to confirm whether the logging licensee, Teal-Jones, has applied for an application for a cutting permit in the Upper Castle Grove, although the survey tape clearly denotes the company’s interest in potentially logging the grove. The Upper Castle Grove sits on unprotected Crown (public) lands within Tree Farm License 46.Unfortunately it is not protected within the nearby Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park nor in any forest reserve designations such as Old-Growth Management Areas, Ungulate Winter Ranges or Wildlife Habitat Areas.

The Victoria-based conservation organization, the Ancient Forest Alliance, is calling on the BC Liberal government to protect the area using a long-promised (but as yet unrealized) “legal tool” to protect BC’s largest trees and monumental groves. A letter has been sent to all BC Liberal MLA’s on Vancouver Island and to various cabinet ministers requesting the protection of the Castle Grove through the promised legal designation.

See the BC government’s announcement in February, 2011, about creating a new legal tool to protect BC’s largest trees and groves: Vancouver Sun and Times Colonist: “B.C. looking for new ways to protect ancient trees” (Feb.16, 2011) https://ancientforestalliance.org/b-c-looking-for-new-ways-to-protect-ancient-trees/

The Castle Grove (Lower and Upper) is the most impressive stand of unprotected monumental ancient redcedars in Canada. The Grove has been featured in numerous media reports on BC’s old-growth forests for over two decades, including the front pages of the Victoria “Times Colonist” and in the “Vancouver Sun”. The Walbran Valley in which the Castle Grove is found was the focus of early protests against old-growth logging in 1991 and 1992, playing an important role in the build-up towards the massive Clayoquot Sound protests near Tofino on Vancouver Island in 1993.

“The Castle Grove in the Walbran Valley is ‘Ground Zero’for the ancient forest movement on southern Vancouver Island – both historically and today. Because it’s Canada’s finest stand of endangered old-growth redcedars, it has been the focal area for ancient forest campaigns for decades. To try log it will only escalate the ‘War in the Woods’ to a whole new level,”stated Ken Wu, the executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “We’ve waited for over a year and a half for the BC Liberal government to implement their promised ‘legal tool’ to protect BC’s largest trees and monumental groves and so far we’ve still seen nothing. Of all places, the Castle Grove is THE place where such a legal designation would make most sense. Otherwise the BC Liberals’ rhetoric has been as empty as a clearcut.”

In February, 2011, former Minister of Forests Pat Bell promised that the BC Liberal government would implement a new legal tool to protect the largest trees and associated groves after a Forest Practices Board report that investigated the logging of an exceptionally grand stand of ancient redcedars near Port Renfrew showed a deficiency in protection levels for productive stands over 400 years in age. To date, the BC Liberal government under the new Minister of Forests Steve Thomson has not publicly followed through with this promise, although sources within the ministry have indicated that the BC government is now looking at using existing legal tools, namely provincial Recreation Sites and Old-Growth Management Areas, to fulfill this function.

“We don’t care if the BC Liberal government uses new or old tools to protect our endangered ancient groves like the Castle Grove. The main thing is they need to actually start identifying and designating such areas for protection, otherwise it was simply an empty promise for PR purposes at the time, and hollow promises like that won’t go unnoticed by the conservation movement during this pre-election period,” stated Wu. “More importantly, the BC Liberal government needs to implement a much more comprehensive Provincial Old-Growth Strategy to protect old-growth ecosystems on a much larger scale across BC.”

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt found flagging tape marked “Falling Boundary” in the Upper Castle Grove earlier this month, less than 50 meters from the “Castle Giant”, one of the largest western redcedars in the world at over 16 feet (5 meters) in diameter. The Castle Giant has graced the front page of many BC newspapers and grows on the adjacent flats in the Lower Castle Grove.

“We’ve been waiting for several weeks now to get an answer from the Ministry of Forests on whether the company has applied for a cutting permit yet in the Upper Castle Grove,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “Perhaps they haven’t yet, in which case the Castle Grove is simply an ‘area of interest’ for the company which they’re contemplating to log, as indicated by their flagging tape. But if they’ve already applied for the cutting permit, then it looks like we may be headed for a major conflict.”

Ecological surveys done in the Castle Grove have revealed the presence of threatened marbled murrelets, screech owls, Queen Charlotte goshawks, red- legged frogs, cougars, black bears, and black-tailed deer in the Upper Castle Grove, while steelhead and coho salmon spawn in the Walbran River below the Castle Grove.

On southern Vancouver Island south of Barkley Sound and Port Alberni, satellite photos show that over 87% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged (the rest mainly being second-growth forests now and some urban/agricultural areas). See maps and stats at: htt p://15.222.255.145//old-growth-maps.php

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government and the NDP Opposition to commit to implementing a BC Old-Growth Strategy that will inventory and protect old-growth forests wherever they are scarce (such as on Vancouver Island, in the Lower Mainland, in the BC Interior, etc.). The AFA is also calling on the BC Liberal government to ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which constitute most of the forests in southern BC, and to ensure a guaranteed log supply for BC mills and value-added wood manufacturers by ending the export of raw logs to foreign mills.

Old-growth forests are vital to sustain endangered species, the climate, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations.

Today the Special Committee on Timber Supply released its report on how to deal with a timber shortfall in BC’s Central Interior in relation to the forest industry’s regional overcapacity. See article for link to PDF.

Media Release: Timber Committee Opens Back Door for Potential Logging of Protected Forests

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For Immediate Release
August 15, 2012

Timber Committee Opens Back Door for Potential Logging of Protected Forest Reserves in BC’s Central Interior

Committee also recommends continued overcutting, logging of “marginal” stands (ie. slow growing subalpine forests) and creating more “area-based tenures” ie. increasing private property-like rights on public forest lands.

Today the Special Committee on Timber Supply released its report on how to deal with a timber shortfall in BC’s Central Interior in relation to the forest industry’s regional overcapacity. See the report here:  https://www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/39thparl/session-4/timber/reports/PDF/Rpt-TIMBER-39-4-GrowingFibreGrowingValue-2012-08-15.pdf

Of greatest environmental concern was the committee’s recommendation to create local committees to review the possibility of opening up protected forest reserves for logging. These forest reserves include:

– Old-Growth Management Areas that currently protect old forests
– Wildlife Habitat Areas that protect species at risk
– Visual Quality Objectives that protect scenery for tourism
– Riparian Management Areas that protect water quality and fish habitat
– Ungulate Winter Range that protects the winter habitat of large herbivores like mountain caribou
– Recreation Areas for camping, hiking, outdoor activities  

 Recommendation 2.2 calls for the BC government to:  

“Design a science-based review process for local use by monitoring committees in the assessment of existing sensitive-area designations to ascertain if they are still defensible or whether they need to be modified.”

“Instead of opening up protected forest reserves directly, which they know is highly unpopular with the public, they’re recommending a back door entry point for the logging industry into these currently protected forests.  It’s based on the false notion that because there are many beetle-killed trees, that the entire ecosystem is not ‘living’ and therefore clearcutting and punching roads into vast swaths of protected forests – which are a mix of living and dead trees that are part of very vibrant, alive, and continually growing ecosystems – does little incremental damage. That’s just plain false and any ecosystem-based science review will show that,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “In particular, it looks like they’re recommending an expedited process for logging sensitive areas in the Burns Lake region, with other regions to follow.”

Pine beetle-affected forests include living, unaffected trees of various species, younger regenerating trees, and intact understory vegetation and soil structures, while the dead trees and woody debris provide homes for much wildlife. The extent of the pine beetle infestation is unnatural, caused by anthropogenic climate change and decades of wildfire suppression by the forest industry – however, further clearcutting of these living, dynamic forest ecosystems by removing all the living and dead trees and punching road networks throughout them, leading to soil erosion, vastly increases the environmental damage.

The potential environmental deregulation would take place in four Timber Supply Areas (TSA’s): the Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, and Lakes (Burns Lake area) TSA’s.

“However, I should also point out that if the government does follow up on this recommendation, then it does open the door for the potential expansion of protected forest reserves if it is guided by a true ecosystem-based science framework. Such a science framework, particularly with the advancement of landscape ecology and conservation biology over the past two decades, would clearly reveal the inadequacy of the existing land-use plans and their system of protected forest reserves to stem the decline of species at risk, to sustain old-growth ecosystems, to support scenery for tourism, and to protect fish habitat. If anything, a true science-based review process would lead to an expansion of forest protections in the old land-use plan areas. But I wouldn’t count on the BC Liberal government, given the pressure by the massive timber lobby, to not create a rigged-game in the terms of reference and constraints placed on such a process,” notes Wu.

The Special Committee on Timber Supply, consisting of four BC Liberal MLA’s and three NDP MLA’s, held public hearings in rural communities in July in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region and met with stakeholders in Vancouver to gather input. Prior to the tour, Committee Chair John Rustad, BC Liberal MLA for Nechako Lakes, had spoken in the media several times with a heavy bias towards justifying logging in forest reserves and even suggested opening up Tweedsmuir Provincial Park for logging.

The rationale for opening up forest reserves is that an impending shortfall of available timber to support local sawmills will soon take effect, known as the “falldown effect”. This shortfall in timber in relation to an overcapacity in the forest industry is the result of the loss of mature forests from the pine beetle infestation (caused by climate change and forest fire suppression) and a massive industry expansion in the Interior in recent years to take advantage of the infestation.

Other destructive recommendations by the committee include:

– Expanded harvesting of “marginal” forest types (Recommendation 2.1), that is, in high elevation subalpine regions with slower growth rates and where regeneration after logging is slower. This will not only damage sensitive ecosystems, but will result in an expansion of Not Sufficiently Restocked (NSR) sites in the province.

– Expanding area-based tenures (Recommendation 5.1), as opposed to volume-based tenures and timber sales. Area-based tenures,  ie. Tree Farm Licenses, ultimately limit the diversity of firms in the industry. Over time typically larger entities will acquire area-based tenures in areas with higher timber values, as the history of the province shows. While Community Forest Tenures can be progressive additions to BC’s system of forestry, most area-based tenures are a means towards corporate concentration in the industry. They also diminish the public’s ability to regulate such lands and to create new protected areas, as they confer more private-property type rights on technically public lands.

Instead of opening up protected forest reserves and ensuring more overcutting that will only exacerbate the future falldown, the AFA is calling for a forest and jobs transition strategy involving ending massive wood waste in clearcuts, incentives for value-added wood manufacturing industries, support and training for unemployed forestry workers, expanded protection of forests to sustain ecosystems and communities, and economic diversification of rural communities.

“More overcutting and opening up protected forest reserves to try to prop-up an unsustainable industry a bit longer is like burning parts of your house for firewood after depleting all other wood sources. In the end, you’re a lot worse off,” stated Wu. “Rewarding unsustainable behaviour with more unsustainable behavior is completely the wrong approach. The Interior timber industry’s unsustainable expansion and overcutting of beetle-affected wood and vast areas of living trees should not be rewarded with more of the same inside of our protected forest reserves – that’s the worst, most myopic course of action possible and it’s precisely the type of mindset that has brought this planet to the ecological brink.”

 

 

 

 

Ancient Forest Alliance

Timber Workers and Conservationists Join Forces to Oppose Proposed Logging of Protected Forest Reserves in BC’s Interior

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Two seemingly disparate organizations, the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC), a union of several thousand BC sawmill and pulp mill workers, and the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), a non-profit conservation organization, are joining forces to defend forest reserves in BC’s Interior from a BC government proposal to log them (see https://thetyee.ca/News/2012/06/18/Timber-Survey/). The two organizations will work together to raise public awareness and to encourage their members and supporters to write-in and speak up during the government’s public consultation process that ends on July 15.

“Many people believe forestry workers only think about the short term and care nothing about the bigger picture or future generations. That’s simply not the case. Our members live in the communities that would be directly affected by this short-sighted proposal and some of them took part in the land use planning processes twenty years ago that established these forest protections. They hunt, fish, hike, recreate, enjoy the scenery, and have a quality of life that is enhanced by the standing forests in their regions,” stated Arnold Bercov, Forest Resource Officer of the PPWC. “Opening up protected forest reserves is short-term thinking that does nothing to solve the fundamental problem of unsustainable overcutting, massive wood waste, a lack of value-added manufacturing, and a failure to diversity rural economies. We need to come up with more sustainable strategies that instead factor in the big picture and the long-term health of communities.”

Currently the BC Liberal government is floating a proposal to potentially open up protected forest reserves for logging in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of BC’s Interior. These threatened forest reserve designations include:

  • Old-Growth Management Areas (that protect representative tracts of scarce old-growth forests)
  • Riparian Management Areas (that protect fish habitat and water quality)
  • Ungulate Winter Ranges (wintering habitat for mountain caribou, deer, elk, moose, and mountain goats)
  • Wildlife Habitat Areas (that protect species at risk such as grizzlies and other wildlife)
  • Visual Quality Objectives (that protect scenery for tourism)
  • Recreation Areas (campsites, hiking areas, etc.)

The proposed environmental deregulation would take place in four Timber Supply Areas (TSA’s): the Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, and Lakes (Burns Lake area) TSA’s.

The rational for opening up forest reserves is that an impending shortfall of available timber to support local sawmills will soon take effect, known as the “falldown effect”. This shortfall in timber in relation to an overcapacity in the forest industry is the result of the loss of mature forests from the pine beetle infestation (caused by climate change and forest fire suppression) and a massive industry expansion in the Interior in recent years to take advantage of the infestation.

Instead, the workers-conservationist alliance of the PPWC and AFA is calling for a forest and jobs transition strategy involving ending massive wood waste in clearcuts (see https://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/wood-wasted-bc-logging-sites-would-fill-cross-country-truck-convoy-%E2%80%94-twice), incentives for value-added wood manufacturing industries, support and training for unemployed forestry workers, and economic diversification of rural communities.

“Opening up protected forest reserves to try to prop-up an unsustainable industry a bit longer is like burning parts of your house for firewood after depleting all other wood sources. In the end, you’re a lot worse off,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “You can’t just reward unsustainable behaviour with more unsustainable behaviour. The Interior timber industry’s unsustainable expansion and overcutting of beetle-affected wood and vast areas of living trees should not be rewarded with more of the same inside of our protected forest reserves now – that’s the worst, most myopic course of action possible and it’s precisely the type of mindset that has brought this planet to the ecological brink. If this option is chosen, it’ll be the albatross hanging around the responsible politicians’ or party’s necks heading into the next BC election.”

Over the next several weeks, until July 15, the Special Committee on Timber Supply, consisting of four BC Liberal MLA’s and three NDP MLA’s, will be holding public hearings in rural communities in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region to gather public input and to meet with key stakeholders. Committee Chair John Rustad, BC Liberal MLA for Nechako Lakes, has already spoken in the media with a heavy bias towards justifying logging in forest reserves. While the committee will meet individually with stakeholders in Vancouver from July 9 to 11, no public hearings have been scheduled in Vancouver or Victoria despite the issue’s importance to all British Columbians.

“This is a precedent-setting proposal of provincial significance. If the falldown in timber volumes in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region can be used to justify opening protected forest reserves there, it could also be used to open up protected forest reserves across much of the province where the timber industry’s massive overcutting of lower elevation old-growth forests has caused a huge falldown effect and extensive mill closures everywhere,” stated Ken Wu. “We’re going to encourage everyone across the province to speak up on this one and to prepare for an extended and relentless battle if need be.”

Opposition against opening up protected forest reserves has come from such organizations as the BC Association of Professional Foresters, BC Wildlife Federation, BC Wilderness Tourism Association, the Healthy Forests Healthy Communities initiative, BC’s main environmental groups including the Ancient Forest Alliance, and now the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada union.

Local Port Alberni resident and Watershed-Forest Alliance coordinator Jane Morden (red shirt) hikes amongst some of the giant old-growth Douglas-fir trees found in the endangered Cameron Valley Firebreak.

Island Timberlands Begins Logging Old-Growth in Area Formerly Intended as Protected Elk Winter Range in the Cameron Valley near Port Alberni

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Media Release

April 27, 2012

Island Timberlands Begins Logging Old-Growth in Area Formerly Intended as Protected Old-Growth Elk Winter Range in the Cameron Valley near Port Alberni

Port Alberni, BC – Island Timberlands has begun logging an area formerly intended for protection as Roosevelt elk and black-tailed deer winter range earlier this week in the Cameron Valley “Firebreak” on Vancouver Island. The Cameron Valley Firebreak is an extremely rare, 150 hectare section of old-growth forest that spans the distance from the valley bottom to mountain top that is a 30 minute drive from the town of Port Alberni and lies several kilometres upstream from the world-famous Cathedral Grove.

See beautiful new photos of the imminently endangered Cameron Valley Firebreak Forest and the beginnings of the logging incursion by Island Timberlands at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/cameron-valley-firebreak/

Local activists with the Port Alberni-based Watershed-Forest Alliance and the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance were dismayed to come across a logging crew on Monday that had begun to fall along the edge of the grove, including scores of huge and extremely rare old-growth Douglas fir trees. In the grove are also large numbers of Culturally Modified Trees stripped for their cedar bark.

The forest was formerly planned for protection by the provincial government as an Ungulate Winter Range (UWR) for Roosevelt elk and black-tailed deer until the land was largely deregulated in 2004 due to its removal from Tree Farm License 44. Conservationists are calling on Island Timberlands to halt their logging of the grove until funds can be secured for the purchase of Island Timberlands’ high conservation value forests, including the Cameron Valley Firebreak.

“This old growth forest that stretches from mountain top to valley bottom is of monumental importance to deer and elk and is incredibly beautiful to wander through. The loss of any of this precious wildlife habitat seems unjustifiable for the amount of job hours it will create,” stated Jane Morden, coordinator of the Watershed-Forest Alliance based in Port Alberni.

Island Timberlands employs few people in Port Alberni and is one of BC’s largest exporters of raw logs to foreign mills.

In 2004 the BC Liberal government removed 88,000 hectares of Weyerhaeuser’s forest lands, now owned by Island Timberlands, from their Tree Farm Licenses (TFL’s), thus removing many existing environmental protections as well as provincial restrictions on raw log exports on those lands, and not implementing other planned protections – including intended Ungulate Winter Ranges (UWR’s) in areas such as the Cameron Valley.

“The Cameron Valley Firebreak is clearly an exceptional place. The grove is just jam-packed with elk sign and ancient coastal Douglas Firs, 99% of which have already been logged. Who can argue against the fact that these extremely scarce ancient coastal Douglas fir forests should be protected?” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder and photographer. “Why are we still being forced to fight over the last 1%? Once it’s gone it’s gone and we could be just days away from that being the case.”

The Cameron Valley Firebreak was left unlogged for decades by previous companies who owned the land to slow the spread of forest fires moving through the parched clearcuts and tree plantations. Fires would be stifled by the giant, water-saturated fallen logs and woody debris kept cool and moist in the shade, underneath the canopy of the ancient forest.

The original logging rights on public (Crown) lands on Vancouver Island were granted to logging companies for free earlier last century on condition that the companies allowed their adjacent private forest lands to be placed into regulatory designations known as Tree Farm Licenses (TFL’s), in order to control the rate of cut, ensure their logs went to local mills, and to ensure environmental standards on those private lands. In recent times the companies (Weyerhaeuser in 2004 and Western Forest Products in 2006) greatly benefitted from the removal of their private lands from their TFL’s as it allowed them to log previously protected forests, to export raw logs, and to sell-off forest lands to developers – but meanwhile were still allowed to retain their Crown land logging rights (despite no longer upholding the conditions of the original agreement on their private lands). This failure to uphold the original agreement is considered by many to be a breach of the public interest. Weyerhaeuser has since moved off the coast, with the company’s former private lands now owned by Island Timberlands and its Crown land logging rights held by Western Forest Products.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the provincial government to establish a BC Park Acquisition Fund of at least $40 million per year, raising $400 million over 10 years, to purchase old-growth forests and other endangered ecosystems on private lands across the province, such as the Cameron Valley Firebreak. The fund would be similar to the park acquisition funds of various regional districts in BC which are augmented by the fundraising efforts of private citizens and land trusts.

“Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government must step forward with a funding solution, a BC Park Acquisition Fund similar to those of many regional districts, to purchase old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems on private lands for protection – particularly Island Timberlands’ contentious lands,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “At the same time, Island Timberlands absolutely must put the brakes on their plans to log the last old-growth stands like the Cameron Valley Firebreak until those lands can be purchased for protection.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance and local conservationists are calling for the protection of old-growth forests, sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and an end to the export of raw logs to foreign mills in order to ensure a guaranteed log supply for BC mills. The provincial government’s new BC Forest Strategy emphasizes the export of BC wood products – in large part BC raw logs – to China.