Power Grab Eyed by Clark Gov’t to Set Logging Levels

A leaked provincial cabinet document indicates that the provincial government is contemplating “suspending” the powers of one of its most powerful public servants in order to expedite a controversial logging program that has raised alarm bells in the professional forestry community.

The document leaked late Tuesday afternoon, is the second confidential report in as many days to find its way out of government through back channels — a sign, perhaps, of the growing unease that some public servants in the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations have with some aspects of the “jobs” agenda of Pat Bell, minister of jobs, tourism and innovation.

Bell, MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie, and John Rustad, MLA in the nearby riding of Nechako Lakes, have been actively promoting a plan to ease or eliminate environmental constraints on logging activities so as to artificially extend logging rates in the interior of the province where several rural communities are heavily dependent on logging and milling jobs.

The driving force behind the move is that after 25 years of elevated logging rates in the central interior of the province in response to two outbreaks of mountain pine beetles that killed upwards of one billion mature lodgepole pine trees, the logging and milling industries are running out of trees to cut. Personal Student Loans For College

The growing scarcity of trees came sharply into focus in January when an explosion and ensuing fire at the Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake — the town’s largest employer — destroyed the mill, killing two workers and displacing 250 more.

In the immediate aftermath of the mill burning down, word rapidly spread that the mill would likely not reopen given the generally depleted nature of forests throughout the region. But Bell and Rustad claim to have found enough trees to provide Hampton Affiliates Ltd. — the owner of the aforementioned mill — with enough wood fibre to reinvest in a new facility.

The trouble is that to get at the wood, the government would essentially have to override previous forest planning processes that set limits on what could be logged in order to protect remnant patches of old-growth forest, important wildlife corridors that make it possible for important species like woodland caribou and moose to survive, other forests with high biological diversity values, and forests with high visual values, for example forests within sight of communities or in important scenic corridors.

Such a plan, the leaked cabinet document makes clear, would likely place cabinet in a difficult position with the office of the chief forester, one of the most important posts in the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Operations.

‘Extraordinary legislation’ urged

“This action to enable a higher short-term supply would be a deviation from chief forester policy and practice in timber supply management,” the cabinet submission dated April 7 reads. “There is some risk that the independent chief forester of the day may not agree with this action, or of a legal challenge if he/she does.”

The same document then goes on to recommend that Cabinet consider introducing “extraordinary legislation” to artificially prop-up logging rates in the Lakes Timber Supply Area or TSA, thus providing the necessary “certainty” for Hampton to invest in a new Burns Lake mill.

“Under this option,” the leaked memo reads, “government would enact legislation to enable a set of specific actions to add certainty to the supply of timber for a new Babine Forest Products mill over a 15 year period.”

Such actions, the memo continues, would “suspend current Forest Act provisions for the chief forester to set the annual allowable cut and the Minister to make license apportionment decisions in the Lakes TSA.” The legislation would then “vest these functions with the Lieutenant Governor in Council.” In other words the decision would simply be a political decision, driven by the provincial cabinet.

Bruce Fraser, former chair of British Columbia’s independent Forest Practices Board, expressed deep concern over the contents of the memo.

“The independent status of the chief forester is designed to ensure effective management of the forests,” Fraser said. He said that were such legislation to be introduced it would mean that professional and technical expertise within the ministry was superseded by short-term political considerations. “Once that door is open, you can allocate pretty much anything” to be logged. It becomes “the burn the furniture stage.”

Pine beetles, jobs and road miles

A big unanswered question arising from the leaked cabinet document is what the provincial government may yet be contemplating when it comes to the chief forester’s powers in three other large timber supply areas where the pine beetle has also been active. Those TSAs include that in Bell’s riding — the Prince George TSA — as well as the Quesnel and Williams Lake TSAs. Those three TSAs, along with the Lakes TSA, were all each subject to “mid-term timber supply” studies conducted by the chief forester and other ministry staff last year. The studies resulted from a directive issued by Pat Bell, who was then forests minister.

The results of that work were temporarily posted on a government website Tuesday morning and early afternoon before the government summarily removed them following questions about the document raised in the legislature by Independent MLA, Bob Simpson.

That document flagged that there was a serious problem brewing in all four TSAs due to years of elevated logging activities in response to the pine beetle outbreaks.

“Under current lumber market conditions,” the document read, “it is uneconomical to harvest dead pine located at long haul distances from the mills. Licencees [logging companies] have indicated that the economic supply of dead pine varies from 1.5 years in Quesnel to about five years in the Prince George TSA.”

The document went on to suggest that the depth of job losses and mill closures could be offset, somewhat, by relaxing virtually all constraints on logging forests that had been reserved from logging for environmental reasons.

But job losses would, nonetheless, occur and they would be formidable.

In the Lakes TSA, for example, relaxing the logging rules would mean that instead of local milling and logging jobs falling from 1,572 jobs in the days before the pine beetle outbreak to 434 jobs in the near future, the jobs would decline to 521 jobs instead — a difference of 87.

In the Prince George TSA, relaxing the logging rules would “maintain” an additional 1,915 jobs. But overall, the decline in milling and logging jobs would still fall dramatically from 13,371 jobs in the pre-beetle-attack years to 8,763 jobs in the near future.

In the Quesnel area, relaxed logging rules were estimated to “maintain” 377 more forest industry jobs. But again, the overall trend was down from 3,321 jobs in the pre-epidemic period to 2,092 jobs in the near future.

And in the Williams Lake area, relaxing the logging rules allegedly maintained 1,144 jobs than would otherwise be the case. But once again, the trend was down from 4,626 pre-epidemic jobs to an estimated 2,955 jobs.

‘Things that need to be discussed’: Clark

In response to questions in the legislature by opposition leader Adrian Dix about the leaked cabinet memo yesterday, Premier Christy Clark said that the document had not gone before cabinet “in the form” that Dix and others had before them.
 “But it does discuss many of the things that are under discussion in the community — things that need to be discussed, issues that we’ve talked about with the steelworkers, with the First Nation, with community leaders and with people from across the province,” the premier said. “These are discussions that we have to have, and it’s a much bigger issue than just in Burns Lake.”

Clark also said that the government would be “consulting the public about these issues.” Presumably, it is hoped, that will happen before a decision to “suspend” the chief forester’s authority is made.

Read more:   https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/04/19/Logging-Levels/

Opposition mounts to government talks on opening forest reserves to loggers

The B.C. government is holding talks with the forest industry over ways to supply more timber to beetle-hit Interior sawmills, including the option of opening forest reserves that have until now been out of bounds to loggers.

The discussions have been limited to a few stakeholders who have saw-mills in regions where the mountain pine beetle has devastated the timber supply. But they are raising alarms – even from within the forest industry – that the province is acting unilaterally on issues with sweeping effects on the future of the forests and the communities that depend on them.

The issue of forest reserves has come to the fore after more than a decade of destruction in the woods by the pine beetle. Some sawmills, even the most modern, are going to be shutting down within three to five years unless more timber is found.

A report to be released later this month by the International Wood Markets Group is expected to show that sawmills are running out of economically accessible timber and that another round of mill closures, this time as a result of the beetle rather than the economic downturn, is expected to hit the Interior. The Cari-boo region is expected to be hit particularly hard.

“We don’t have a lot of time on our hands,” said John Allan, president of the B.C. Council of Forest Indus-tries, which represents the Interior industry.

Allan said the industry has been discussing the issue with government but wants a public dialogue on how additional timber supplies can be found. He said he is concerned that as word leaks out about what is under discussion, opposition will galvanize around the hot-button issue of logging in reserves. That could limit rational discussion, he said, noting that some of the timber set aside for visual quality objectives has already been killed by the beetle, making harvesting a more benign option.

“It’s time for the government to get out and get ahead of this issue.”

But logging the reserves is the equivalent of swapping jobs in industries like tourism for jobs in logging, say tourism operators. A forests minis-try study showed tourists view dead, grey trees as part of a natural cycle. Clearcuts do not evoke the same sentiments, Eric Loveless executive director of the Wilderness Tourism Association said in an April 4 letter to the government.

Much of the concern over revisiting decisions that were made a decade ago to protect forest lands is coming from foresters themselves. Reserves under consideration include everything from set-asides to maintain visual quality, to wildlife patches and old-growth management areas.

“We have maintained those old-growth areas or reserves for a variety of purposes. They are lifeboats of bio-logical diversity across the landscape,” said Mike Larock, director of professional practice and forest steward-ship for the Association of B.C. Forest Professionals. “They are important contributors and they occupy a very small percentage of the land base.”

Sharon Glover, association chief executive officer, said foresters are concerned that sustaining mills, not forest health, appears to be driving the government initiative.
 

The province’s 5,000 forest professionals have not been part of the discussions, she said.

“We are disturbed by the quickness and by the very small number of people that have been included in these discussions.

“What’s missing from our perspective is the focus on the forest. The forest is the wealth of B.C.,” she said. “When you have a healthy forest, then you have a number of mills that spring up and use that wood. If it is well-managed and sustainably man-aged, as B.C.’s forests have been, then forestry and those small communities in rural B.C. will prosper.

“If you don’t focus on the forest, and you focus on the mills, that’s when you’ve got the equation backwards. The mountain pine beetle took 10 years worth of merchantable timber out of B.C. We don’t have the luxury of not focusing on our forests.”

The reserves were set aside in land-use plans arrived at in some cases after years of confrontation and community involvement. During work on the Cariboo-Chilcotin Land Use Plan, for example, at one point an angry crowd hung in effigy commissioner Stephen Owen, who headed that land-use pro-cess, forcing cancellation of that particular meeting.

Now, said Glover, she fears short-term decisions may be made based on short-term economics.

“Decisions were made quite a while ago to protect certain areas. They were really good reasons. A lot of thought was put into it. We need to have broad discussions and serious, open discussions about what data are out there, what fibre is out there. We would argue that the focus has to be on the forests and whether they are healthy or not, and whether what the government may be proposing is good, sustainable forestry.”

However, Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell said that maybe it’s time some of those decade-old decisions were revisited in light of the changes to the landscape the beetle has wrought.

Bell, who was forests minister for three years, is leading the review of timber supplies along with current Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson.

Bell justified the province’s decision to proceed with limited public engagement because the data are still being collected.

“I don’t think anyone should assume that there is in any way an exclusionary effort going on here. Government needs to understand what options are available to it.”

“Until we have good information that we can then sit down and provide to people who care about the region, then it’s really premature to have those discussions.”

He said those open discussions could begin within a month or two.

The issue of coping with the fall-down in what the forests ministry calls the midterm timber supply – the amount of timber available during the time it will take for the beetle-killed forests to recover – was initially raised last September by the Union of B.C. Municipalities.

UBCM passed a resolution urging the province to do a cost-benefits analysis of the impact reserves – such as those set aside for visual quality objectives and for wildlife tree patches – are having on the timber supply for mills.
 

However, a fire last December that destroyed the Burns Lake sawmill and killed two sawmill workers, prompted the government to move more quickly on the timber supply issue.

The province has conducted a timber review in the Burns Lake forest district which, Bell said, has shown there is an additional 100,000 cubic metres of wood available if the mill should be rebuilt.

However, there are concerns outside government that that is not enough additional timber to justify a modern new mill.

Independent MLA Bob Simpson said a modern mill requires a diet of one million cubic metres of timber a year. The province would need to make the entire land base available to logging, he speculated.

Allan said the forest industry under-stands the concern at Burns Lake. The depth of the situation compels the government to act, he said, but he expressed concern that if the government searches outside the Burns Lake timber supply for additional wood, it may only pass the pain on to another community and another sawmill.

“I know the government is looking for incremental timber supplies. If there is enough timber, great; if there isn’t, then you can’t manufacture a new sawmill or an extension of a mill that needs to be rationalized with government subsidies and other forms of assistance. It’s not what we have been doing for the last few years and that has led to a smaller industry. But it is very efficient and very competitive.

“And that’s what you need in the world markets.”

Read more: https://www.vancouversun.com/business/Opposition+mounts+government+talks+opening+forest+reserves+loggers/6459824/story.html

BC plan would open Interior’s protected woods for logging

Old-growth forests, wildlife corridors and other long-protected timber zones in the British Columbia Interior could be opened up to logging in order to keep mills operating, according to a cabinet document detailing a proposal under consideration by the provincial government.

The document, stamped “Confidential Advice to Cabinet,” was prepared for Forests Minister Steve Thomson earlier this month.

It proposes shifting forest management from a stewardship model to one that puts short-term economic interests first – but warns that such a dramatic policy change could trigger legal challenges and that it might meet with opposition from BC’s chief forester.

Mr. Thomson, who Wednesday said he was concerned that the document had leaked out, said he has been presenting a variety of options to cabinet on the crisis precipitated by the pine-beetle infestation, “but no decisions have been made yet.”

He wasn’t sure if the leaked document, which wasn’t in his possession at the time of the interview, had been presented to cabinet as it stood, or if it was an earlier version that was later revised.

But he said the issues raised in the document are under consideration by cabinet.

“It’s to provide awareness around some of the options that are being considered,” he said.

NDP Leader Adrian Dix raised the matter in the House Wednesday afternoon, saying: “The submission suggests that the proposals to seek adequate timber supply … would not be possible under current laws and would require, in fact, significant changes to allow it to happen.”

But Premier Christy Clark told Mr. Dix the document he had obtained “did not ultimately go in that form to cabinet,” although she did not provide any details on the final version.

The leaked document deals with timber-supply problems in the BC Interior, where a massive area of forest has been destroyed by pine beetles. Over the past several years, the annual allowable cut throughout the region has been increased, to allow the forest industry to harvest dead trees before the wood loses its commercial value.

BC government projections show that after the timber killed by pine beetles has been logged off, a major shortage of harvestable trees will occur, starting within two years and lasting for as long as 50 years.

In some regions, the amount of harvestable trees will fall by 75 per cent, causing mill closings and the loss of up to 12,000 forest-industry jobs.

A fire in Burns Lake this winter exacerbated the problem by destroying a mill the company said won’t be rebuilt without a secure supply of wood.

“Hampton Affiliates Ltd. requires government assurance of an adequate … timber supply before it will invest in rebuilding the Babine Forest Products sawmill,” states the cabinet document.

To find more timber for mills, the government has been looking at allowing logging in areas that have long been protected.

The document warns such an action “would be a deviation” from the policies followed by the chief forester.

“There is some risk that the independent chief forester of the day may not agree with this action, or of a legal challenge if he/she does,” it states.

Ben Parfitt, an analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, described the document as “shocking” because it proposes casting aside the stewardship approach and overruling the authority of the chief forester.

He said a proposal to log protected areas will preserve some jobs for a few years, but eventually the timber supply will collapse, and the jobs will be lost anyway.

“If you go that route, you lose wildlife corridors, you lose biodiversity and you end up with a grotesquely compromised land base,” he said.

Vicky Husband, a leading environmentalist in BC, said the document shows government is contemplating drastic measures that would do long-term damage to the forest.

Independent MLA Bob Simpson said the public should not have to learn from leaked documents that such significant changes are being contemplated by government.

“It is time to get public consultation going on this,” he said.

Hike raises awareness of bluffs

Friends of Stillwater Bluffs hosted a group of 50 people and 10 dogs on a hike around Stillwater Bluffs on Sunday April 15. It was part of an awareness-raising campaign that this area needs to be protected before Island Timberlands follows through on its plans to log it.

District Lot 3040, known locally as the Stillwater Bluffs, was noted as a priority for protection through the Powell River Regional District’s parks and greenspace plan. However, Island Timberlands timber-cruised the area this winter and stated recently that it plans to begin road building in the next month or so.

A Vancouver Island-based environmental organization, the Ancient Forest Alliance, has included the Stillwater Bluffs campaign in its province-wide push to get the provincial government to create a fund for regional districts to access funds for parks creation that would protect old growth forests and other areas of ecological and social value. Student Loan Consolidation

Three staff members of the alliance attended Sunday’s hike and took photographs. Ken Wu, executive director, said, “Wow, I was so impressed with the dramatic beauty of Stillwater Bluffs, with the bluffs themselves and with the forest and its enormous veteran old-growth trees. You could not find a better park candidate in the area. Island Timberlands needs to back off instead of escalating a conflict, while the regional district and province need to step in to help buy this coastal gem for protection.”

Friends of Stillwater Bluffs have collected over a thousand signatures to protect the area and are working hard to raise awareness about its unique value to the community.

“A representative of Island Timberlands told me they want to log it in a way that would keep anyone from logging there again,” said Nola Poirier, a member of the group. “Instead, we are working to protect it, in a way that will keep anyone from logging there again.”

Meanwhile, David Moore, a member of the group’s organizing committee, made a presentation at the April 10 Powell River Regional District committee-of-the-whole. He told directors he and another member of the group were invited to have a walk around the site with Wayne French, an Island Timberland’s forester, in the last week of March. “He made it very clear to us that they had received no indication from the board here of any interest in the property, so they were going full steam ahead in their logging plans,” Moore said.

Moore explained that the company is moving into an active stage of harvesting planning, which involves mapping, staking, flagging and spray-painting of tree trunks. “This set off the alarm bells that something has to happen soon, or we’re going to see a real incursion on the property, let alone a large investment from their company in terms of manpower, hired work and mapping, if in fact we are going to make a proposal to them for park acquisition,” Moore said. “So, we’re back, simply asking for some direct communication between the board and the company to give them an indication that there is something going on here and would they simply put their train into park mode for just another month or two while we do get our parks process in full swing.”

The regional district has appointed a parks and greenspace plan implementation committee, which is meeting for the first time tonight, April 18. After discussing the issue, the committee passed a motion to send a letter to the president of Island Timberlands requesting a delay on logging activities on the Stillwater Bluffs property until such time as the regional district can discuss a possible acquisition.

Read online:  https://www.prpeak.com/articles/2012/04/18/news/doc4f8e05ef3b82f065483061.txt

Photo by TJ Watt

Harper changes the rules for the environment

Four years ago, sitting in the house he built with his own two hands way up the coast in Echo Bay, 73-year-old Billy Proctor listed the ways he could tell salmon stocks had collapsed.

Hungry eagles had taken to hunting seagulls, had even killed a couple of loons before his eyes. Bears had been reduced to clawing through creek beds for salmon eggs. Seals were chasing fish far up the streams.

Proctor even saw a humpback whale scare herring right onto the mudflats in front of his home on Gilford Island, which sits in the heart of the Broughton Archipelago, a float-plane ride east of Port McNeill.

Overfishing was partly to blame for the loss of salmon, Proctor said. So was predation by seals, sea lions and dolphins. But particularly galling was the free for-all in the forest industry: bridges and culverts disrupting streams, mudslides silting up the spawning gravel, the shock of blasting for road building killing roe.

When the shade-giving trees along the banks of a high altitude river were cleared, the rocks heated, the water temperature rose and the salmon eggs died. The rules go out the window when the logging is done away from prying eyes, Proctor said.

Me, I just sat and listened, having been advised that when Proctor opened his mouth, the smartest thing to do was keep yours shut. A commercial fisherman for 60 years, and a logger, too, his knowledge of the natural world is legendary on the coast.

The conversation came to mind Wednesday with two stories out of Ottawa.

The first one dealt with the leak of a proposal to weaken 36-year-old rules protecting fish habitat, the intent being to clear some of the barriers faced by projects such as the proposed Enbridge pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat.

The fisheries minister’s office reacted to the leak with a statement saying “federal fisheries policies designed to protect fish are outdated and unfocused in terms of balancing environmental and economic realities.”

The second story dealt with a government plan to “modernize” environmental assessment legislation for the same purpose. The Conservatives talk about being “efficient” and “effective,” about needing to save industrial development from getting bogged down by time consuming environmental reviews. They paint a picture of economic opportunities being lost to the woolly headed, woolly hatted ecoshrubs who say “no” to every job-creation idea that involves shifting a rock or chopping down a tree.

Hold on, replies Green Party leader Elizabeth May. That’s a nicely spun narrative, but not one rooted in fact.

In the entire history of the environmental review process, only three projects have been flat-out rejected, says the Saanich-Gulf Islands MP.

That includes the most commonly cited example, Ottawa’s thumbs-down to a proposed mine near Williams Lake in 2010. The rest of the time, the review process is merely used to tweak proposals to mitigate their environmental damage, not stop them altogether.

“This isn’t a system that’s set up to operate with a red light and a green light,” May said Wednesday from Ottawa.
She maintains there is really only one reason the Conservatives are intent on “gutting” the Fisheries and Canadian Environmental Assessment acts: “It’s all about fast-tracking oilsands projects that link to supertankers.”

The broader consequences will be disastrous and should alarm any Canadian, regardless of political persuasion, who cherishes the great outdoors, she says. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is intent on stripping Canada of environmental safeguards that have been around for generations.

We can assume the prime minister has a different take. And maybe he’s right. It’s a matter of perspective and priority.

But the thing is, the farther you get from Ottawa (or Victoria, for that matter), with the sound of ideological warfare fading with every step, it’s hard to think of the Canadian wilderness as being over-regulated.

Mismanaged, perhaps, and more troubled than a Hollywood marriage – but even when rules exist, they’re enforced so sporadically that sometimes they might as well not exist at all. No wonder David Suzuki is always scowling.

When the Conservatives talk of “balancing environmental and economic realities,” it’s easy to imagine a voice bouncing back from Echo Bay saying, “That would be a good idea.”

Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Harper+changes+rules+environment/6305828/story.html

Liberals ignoring committee on raw log exports: Dix

The B.C. Liberal government has, since December, been exporting raw logs that its own advisory committee has been saying should be going to producers in B.C.

On Tuesday, New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix said the Timber Export Advisory Committee (TEAC) deter-mined last December that logs from Quatsino Sound on Vancouver Island should be sold to Teal-Jones of Surrey instead of being shipped overseas.

But Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson overruled that recommendation, Dix said, allowing the logs to be sold into foreign markets.

“The minister owes people an explanation for his decision,” Dix said during question period Tuesday.

“The committee made the determination that keeping those logs in British Columbia was better for our economy than exporting them, and the minister overruled them.”

Thomson said his ministry rejected the recommendation because TEAC had changed the way it was evaluating whether or not logs should be sold to foreign buyers.

“Without just taking their advice directly, in this case because we knew there was policy implications that needed to be considered, we administered the policy the way that it had always been administered and the way they had previously been providing advice to us,” Thomson said Tuesday, adding the committee has no regulatory function, and is an advisory body only.

“It’s not a process of overruling TEAC,” he continued, “it’s a process of a shift in policy advice being received from the advisory committee.”

Ministry staff said the issue stretches beyond Teal-Jones, and has affected about 150 applications since December, comprising about 116,000 cubic metres of timber.

The ministry said that staff overturned TEAC recommendations on 86 applications in December and January, covering 70,145 cubic metres.

In February, the ministry stopped referring anything to the committee from the west coast of Vancouver Island, as they expected the decisions would be overturned. There were 47 offers in February, comprising 35,532 cubic metres.

In March, TEAC requested it be allowed to review cases again, and government agreed. The committee has so far reviewed 18 offers for 10,168 cubic metres, staff said.

Thomson said he has met with members of the committee and is reviewing the change they made in December to deter-mine if it’s something government is willing to adopt.

“We’re continuing to review that with [TEAC] and we’ve committed to get back to them,” he said, adding he will have an answer before the committee’s next meeting in April.

“But because there was a change in determination and a change in policy in terms of their advice we know we needed to look at this and have a discussion around the implications of the policy.”

At issue in the matter is the way TEAC judges fair market value for logs.

As of December, the commit-tee began looking at domestic offers for coastal logs that did not include the costs to ship the logs to the buyer. This represents a change from before, where the offer made for the logs had to include the cost of freight.

It means domestic offers can potentially be more competitive than before.

On Tuesday, NDP forest critic Norm Macdonald said the issue goes beyond the details of how to calculate market value, adding the key is all about jobs.

“You have manufacturers that are ready. You have Teal-Jones that has gone through the pro-cess. This is a company that produces jobs,” said Macdonald. “You have a host of companies that are ready, and these are the crumbs we’re talking about that go through this advisory committee. These are the crumbs, and even them – this minister will deny those mills.”

In 2011, British Columbia exported 5.87 million cubic metres of coastal raw logs. That was up from the 3.86 million cubic metres that were exported from the coast in 2010.

Read more: https://www.vancouversun.com/Liberals+ignoring+committee+exports/6298779/story.html#ixzz1p7mGGyHA

Minister costing logging jobs, critics say

B.C. Forests Minister Steve Thomson has overruled recommendations from his own advisory board on log exports dozens of times in the past three months, electing to send millions of dollars worth of raw logs to Asia rather than local mills.

The minister’s decisions effectively put logging profits ahead of jobs in B.C. mills, says a forestry executive whose bid for coastal logs was approved by the minister’s Timber Export Advisory Committee but quashed by the minister.
Mr. Thomson said he has rejected his committee’s advice, citing an arcane policy debate about freight costs. But the result is that workers at a Teal-Jones Group sawmill in Surrey are facing down time this week because of a shortage of fibre, while buyers in China, Japan and South Korea are purchasing B.C. logs in record volumes at premium prices that B.C. mills can’t afford.

“There is room for exports, but I think the significant increase in exports is going to ensure nobody can put up another mill in B.C.,” said Hanif Karmally, chief financial officer for the Teal-Jones Group.

Teal-Jones, which owns a string of forestry operations across the province, found that the committee started approving its domestic timber bids in December – after a year that saw a 50-per-cent increase in the volume of logs being shipped overseas.

But the minister’s office disagreed with the committee’s new-found reluctance to declare as “surplus” those logs that were being sought by local mills. Throughout December and January, the ministry spiked 86 recommendations by the advisory board that would have kept roughly 70,000 cubic metres of wood in B.C. mills. By February, the ministry simply stopped sending the applications to the committee at all, directly rejecting another 47 local offers for 35,000 cubic metres of wood.

The wood is being sold to Asian mills at about double the domestic price.

The minister’s decisions were raised in the legislature on Tuesday, just hours after Premier Christy Clark held a press conference to tout the success of her jobs plan.

NDP Opposition Leader Adrian Dix blasted her government for putting mill jobs at risk. “They specifically intervened to stop jobs from being created in British Columbia,” Mr. Dix later told reporters.

Ms. Clark was not in the legislature on Tuesday. Instead, she attended an event at Seaspan Shipyards to mark the six-month anniversary of her jobs plan.

“That’s the problem when you have a communications exercise dressed up as a jobs plan,” Mr. Dix said. “That’s the reason, ultimately, that the government is in such trouble.”

Mr. Thomson told reporters he rejected the advice of his committee because his government is in the midst of a policy review on raw log exports and the committee appeared to be changing policy on its own by pushing more wood to local mills.

“They are an advisory committee … but given the fact that there was a shift in policy advice, we administered the policy as it had previously been administered.”

He said his government needs to find the “appropriate balance” to ensure harvesting jobs are maintained as well as processing jobs. He is set to visit the Teal-Jones operations next week. “The Teal-Jones boys know we are looking at this policy, what we are telling them is that it is under review.”

He said the question of surplus timber is wrapped up in the larger review of raw-log exports that is under way.

In January, Ms. Clark promised a conference of truck loggers that the review would not shut the door on raw-log exports. “I can assure you that on log exports, my government is taking a common-sense approach,” the Premier said at that time.

Read more in the Globe and Mail:  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/minister-costing-logging-jobs-critics-say/article2368563/

Bluffs receive high-profile focus

A campaign to protect Stillwater Bluffs south of Powell River received high-profile help from a provincial organization recently.

Jason Addy, of the Friends of Stillwater Bluffs, joined Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, at a press conference at the Sooke Potholes. The groups were calling on the BC government to form a land acquisition fund dedicated to protecting parkland.

Powell River Regional District’s Parks and Greenspace Plan identifies Stillwater Bluffs as one of the top five sites earmarked as priorities for parks acquisition. The regional district discussed the issue at its Thursday, March 8 committee-of-the-whole meeting, during which Laura Roddan, regional district planner, reported on a meeting with Island Timberlands on March 8.

Stillwater Bluffs is part of the 48-hectare District Lot 3040, owned by Island Timberlands. The company has completed a timber cruise to identify high value timber and logging may start next year or the year after.

Planning work has started and will continue over the coming months. It includes confirming road access, ground-truthing sensitive ecosystems, setting visual management objectives and considering recreational uses and community interests.

Planning work to date has confirmed that mosses and lichens, classified as herbaceous sensitive ecosystems, are on the rocky bluffs, which don’t have a high timber value.

The company’s real estate group handles all negotiations for land acquisitions. Park acquisitions are considered more valid if requested by local governments and there have been no park acquisitions negotiated with community groups.

If negotiations begin with the regional district, a confidentiality agreement would be signed and all planning activities would be suspended. Market value of the land would be determined through a property assessment based on residential use plus timber valuation.

Island Timberlands will not approve a moratorium on logging unless the regional district is in negotiations with the real estate group.

The Friends of Stillwater Bluffs has offered to pay Island Timberlands’ property taxes on the property while negotiations take place.

The committee agreed to refer the issue to the parks and greenspace plan implementation advisory committee.

Colin Palmer, board chair and Electoral Area C director, said there is no money in the system to purchase any land. However, he said the regional district should have some way of raising money for regional parks and suggested a parcel tax across the region, including in the city, should be explored. He also said the board would want to know from the parks and greenspace plan committee what other organizations or groups would be interested in raising money for Stillwater Bluffs.

The regional district has close to $300,000 in a community parks reserve. When asked about the funds, Palmer said it is not money for regional parks, because it came from subdivisions within the rural areas. “You can’t move money from an electoral function, which is where the money is, and put it into regional parks, which is a totally separate service,” he said.

When asked if the money in the community parks reserve could be used as an electoral area contribution toward a regional park, Mac Fraser, regional district chief administrative officer, said not without reviewing the terms in which it was accepted. “I believe we lack specific policy about how to use it,” he said. “In that situation, it would default to what was the statutory intention.”

Fraser said he would research the issue and bring the answer back to the committee.

Read more at: https://www.prpeak.com/articles/2012/03/14/news/doc4f5fe07ade3a4762868102.txt

Avatar Grove

Artists unite to protect the planet

When photographer Frances Litman realized she was considered one of the biggest donors to local environmental charities, she was surprised.

“It made me laugh because I’m an artist,” she said. “I thought, if I’m considered a good donor, this is pretty sad.”

Through research, she says, she learned that environmental charities receive less than four per cent of all charitable giving in Canada – compared with the medical charities that receive more than 80 per cent.

“I thought, this is insanity,” she said. “I thought I was alone in this thought, but what I realized was that all of my artist friends felt the same way. So I said, ‘Why don’t we creatively unite?’ ”

The movement will take the shape of a new festival, appropriately held April 20 to 22 during Earth Week. Creatively United for the Planet, a three-day, all-ages event, will mix entertainment with opportunities to support green charities.

“It’s a way to bring the environmental charities to a fun event,” said Litman.

Several artists have donated their time to the volunteer-run festival, including Ann Mortifee, Robert Bateman, the Soul Shakers, flutist Paul Horn, the Gettin’ Higher Choir and conservation photographer Garth Lenz.

Events kick off April 20 with an all-ages Mardi Gras-themed dance party. Costumes are optional.

There will be sessions on how to make your house green, growing young gardeners and more.

Other events include creative events for kids, opportunities to learn about various animals, a fashion show, a John Lennon tribute concert and a student art auction.

Events will be held both indoors and outdoors at St. Matthias Hall.

Funds raised through the event will benefit the Sierra Club of B.C., the Western Wilderness Committee, the Dogwood Initiative, Ancient Forest Alliance, the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team, the B.C. Land Conservancy/TLC, Wild Arc, RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs), Oases Conservation Society, Peace Valley Environment Association, Child and Nature Alliance, Habitat for Humanity Victoria and YES B.C.

“These charities, now more than ever, need our support if we are going to maintain the lifestyle that we want,” said Litman.

“We have to start taking it on ourselves to give more support to the people who are fighting for this.”

Local environmental charities will be present to build awareness and answer questions. A CRD information booth will also have information about regional sustainable initiatives.

Litman said not to expect a “tree hugger” event.

“This isn’t hippie; this is hip,” she said.

She also promises a “good news” festival. “It’s not about scaring people,” she said. “It’s about, OK, let’s all join together and have a great time over this three-day event.”

Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com/news/todays-paper/Artists+unite+protect+planet/6256946/story.html

Ken Wu and Jason Addy at a press conference at the Sooke Potholes on Mar. 1.

Park acquisition fund wanted

Different conservationist groups, at the Sooke Potholes on March 1, called on the B.C. government to form a land acquisition fund that would be dedicated to protecting park land.

Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, said the B.C. government had been negligent in protecting old-growth forests in the southern part of the province.

“One of the most important planks in a conservation platform that the B.C. Liberal government must commit to before a provincial election before 2013, is to commit to a B.C. park acquisition fund,” Wu told reporters.

The environmental groups are calling for a provincial acquisition fund of $40 million a year, over 10 years, amounting to $400 million. The fund would be used to purchase valuable private land at risk of logging and deforestation.

According to Wu, the acquisition fund could provide continued protection of the Muir Creek watershed, which is located12 km west of Sooke.

The Ancient Forest Alliance had a recent victory over the protection of old-growth cedars in Avatar Grove, near Port Renfrew, on Feb. 16. The provincial government protected 59.4 hectares of Crown land in the area from harvesting, which Wu called a start, but he added much more action was needed from the provincial government.

The conservationists also requested Island Timberlands, the second largest private land owner in B.C., to halt any plans for logging in contentious areas until funds can be acquired to purchase the private lands.

Joining Wu, in representation of different conservationist groups along the southern B.C. Coast, was Jason Addy, of the Friends of Stillwater Bluffs from Powell River.

Addy said the 48 hectares of private land that comprises Stillwater Bluffs has been listed as a protection priority for the Powell River Regional District. The Friends of Stillwater Bluffs is currently asking Island Timberlands for a five-year moratorium to stop future logging until the appropriate funds can be accumulated to purchase the land.

Other old-growth forests and sensitive ecosystems at risk of being logged by Island Timberlands are: Cortes Island near Campbell River, Cathedral Grove Canyon in MacMillan Park, and Cameron Valley Firebreak and McLaughlin Ridge near Port Alberni.

Island Timberlands did not return calls by press time.

Read article in the Sooke News Mirror:  https://www.sookenewsmirror.com/news/141606583.html