San Juan Sitka Spruce
Sep 10 2012

On the big tree trail on Vancouver Island

These days, visitors to Port Renfrew can pick up a map to the area's largest trees and set out to explore what's been coined the Big Tree Capital of Canada. While some of Canada's largest trees are out of reach of a typical rental car, there are still plenty of accessible giants - aided by the recent paving of the Pacific Marine Circle Route, which allows travellers to drive across the interior of the island and pop out on the east coast near Duncan, rather than doubling back along the same route to Victoria.

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Photo by TJ Watt
Sep 4 2012

Letter to the Editor – Pine beetle claims refuted

Re: Kieran Report, Aug. 23-29 In his attempt to blame the NDP government of the 1990s for the pine beetle epidemic in B.C.'s forests, Brian Kieran claims that the "infestation was first detected in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park and could have been contained there if forest companies had been permitted to go into the park and selectively log infested areas” — an argument that has been roundly refuted by everyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of the issue.

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Aug 29 2012

Survey tape sparks logging concerns in Vancouver Island old-growth forest

The Vancouver Island old-growth forest that, over the decades, has sparked bitter confrontations over logging is again in the spotlight after survey tape was found near a grove of massive western red cedars.

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Aug 29 2012

Markers stir fears of Walbran logging

Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance found the tape in the Upper Walbran Valley, near Castle Grove, which contains the Castle Giant, a western red cedar with a five-metre diameter. The tree is listed in the provincial big tree registry as one of the widest in Canada.

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Aug 27 2012

Ben Parfitt and Anthony Britneff: B.C. MLAs take wrong approach to timber supply crisis

The real tragedy in the committee members’ recommendations is that they are well aware of where the real challenges lie. The committee acknowledges the essential importance of improved forest inventories—looking at how many healthy trees we have. Why isn’t this the first order of business? B.C. needs an expedited, thorough assessment now, before we have committed to even more unsustainable logging rates. To proceed with logging increases before such work is done is irresponsible and an insult to forest-dependent communities across the province.

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Photo by TJ Watt
Aug 16 2012

Environmentalist bristles over report urging more logging

A government report looking at the pine beetle's impact in B.C.'s central interior has taken the wrong approach in urging more logging, says the executive director of Ancient Forest Alliance. Ken Wu says the report's recommendation to increase the timber supply and value of pine-beetle wood could allow for logging in protected forests.

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Aug 7 2012

Lift on logging restraints would be ill-advised

As members of a hastily convened committee of the provincial legislature meet to consider a controversial government proposal to escalate logging activities in British Columbia's already hard-hit Interior forests, questions arise about whether the commit-tee is in any position at all to make an informed decision.  

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The stump of a 14ft diameter old-growth redcedar freshly cut in 2010 found along the Gordon River near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.
Aug 1 2012

More logging won’t cure forestry trade’s ills

The B.C. Liberal government stirred up controversy recently by proposing to remove scenic forest protections in the Harrison, Chehalis and Stave Lakes regions near Vancouver. Their “quick-fix” attempt to provide more timber for logging fails to recognize that the coastal forest industry’s 20-year decline has fundamentally been driven by their own resource depletion policies.  

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Jul 31 2012

Opening protected areas not ideal: Bercov

To access more timber, the Clark government is floating a plan that includes logging in areas that were previously off limits for environmental or visual quality reasons and changing the boundaries of forest districts to add more timber to the supply. Bercov said that while the focus of the committee is currently on the Interior, he fears that any changes to policy that would allow more logging in protected areas would inevitably apply to the Island.

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Jul 31 2012

Here’s what B.C. needs to do to save forestry

As a publicly owned resource, British Columbia's forests must be harvested in a manner that promotes sustainability and healthy forests that are ecologically diverse. This would protect and promote existing and new jobs in communities dependent on well-managed forests.

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