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.”
Avatar Grove Boardwalk Update
/in AnnouncementsHello AFA friends,
As many of you are aware, the AFA has been planning for several months to build a boardwalk in the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew. Our goal is to ensure the ecological integrity of this recently protected area, and to enhance visitor safety by building boardwalk on the more sensitive parts of the existing trail. So far we have been steadily working to complete the requisite applications and numerous studies, reviews and stakeholder consultations in order to obtain approval from the BC government for the boardwalk’s construction. We have also been working hard to secure the needed supplies, some of the needed funds, expert advisors and partners to make this happen. It has been a lot of work and there have been many hurdles to get through!
Currently we are awaiting our final approvals from several levels of government in order to begin work, which we expect could be within the next several weeks. Our original goal was to begin construction earlier this summer, so we are eager and excited commence as soon as we obtain the final permissions. We thank you for your generous support and patience as we move forward with this. Please watch for future updates regarding possible volunteer opportunities and the project’s status.
Letter to the Editor – Pine beetle claims refuted
/in News CoverageRe: 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. Even the Liberal government acknowledges that while there was a beetle infestation at Tweedsmuir, there were concurrent infestations throughout the Interior, from the Kootenays and the Chilcotin to the Central Interior. Teaching Grants For College Students
The same government scientists point out that the biggest culprit in the spread of the beetle was lack of cold winters. In other words, even clear-cutting the park — which was being advocated by some — would have had no actual impact on the overall pine beetle outbreak.
Unfortunately, the ultimate response in the face of the unstoppable outbreak was to allow the forests to degrade. Rather than be up front about the state of the forests, the B.C. Liberals stopped doing forest inventories and drastically reduced the amount of treeplanting and silviculture work necessary for long-term forest sustainability.
Only by investing in the natural infrastructure can we ensure the stability of the industry. Doing so will require us to start from a factual, scientific basis — not disproved arguments placing blame where none exists
Read more: https://www.mondaymag.com/opinion/letters/167871685.html
Long-Term Vision for Forest Management and Forest Economy Missing
/in AnnouncementsThe Special Committee on Timber Supply’s report raises questions about both the Liberals’ and the NDP’s commitment to a long-term forest strategy, says the Independent MLA for Cariboo North.
“These recommendations will not support sustainable change,” said MLA Bob Simpson. “What I see in this report are politicians on both sides passing the buck to local communities with no long-term strategy for success. They’re willing to let communities decide whether to log their protected forests, but what happens when those are gone? The politicians will have moved on, leaving affected communities holding the bag.”
Simpson says there are five areas in particular that need attention:
1. Reforestation programs must be directed at growing healthy forests that will be adaptable to climate change. “I am pleased to see the Committee highlighted silviculture as an area that needs more attention, but the focus needs to be on managing for healthy, resilient forest ecosystems, rather than simply growing more timber,” said Simpson.
2. A thorough review of the Beetle Action Coalitions (BACs) is necessary. “Before there is any more investment in these BACs, they need to be completely audited for effectiveness and restructured,” said Simpson.
3. Act on the recommendations of the Future Forest Ecosystems Scientific Council. The FFESC report recommends looking at all aspects of forestry and land use planning through the lens of climate change. “Their recommendations must be implemented immediately,” said Simpson. They include promoting resilient forests and developing hardwood management strategies.
4. Prioritize new economic opportunities. “Minister Thomson has said that utilizing bio-energy and biomass will be an important part of mitigating the upcoming economic impacts. What we really need is for the Minister, or someone in Cabinet or even in the Opposition, to lead and be a champion for an aggressive bio-economy strategy,” Simpson said. “The government has several reports sitting in front of them outlining progressive strategies, but they haven’t acted on them.”
5. Do not rebuild the Babine Forest Products mill. “From everything I’ve seen and heard, that mill cannot be rebuilt without sacrificing forest health and putting other communities at risk,” said Simpson. The report and background documents indicate that half of the fibre that Hampton needs to rebuild is not currently available and must be sourced from marginal volume stands, old growth management areas, and areas set aside for Visual Quality Objectives.
Simpson noted there were some positives in the report, including a clear synopsis of the concerns heard throughout the consultation process, and a commitment to re-inventory BC’s forests.
The Independent MLA for Cariboo North noted that John Rustad, Chair of the Committee, has acknowledged that a 20 per cent drop in mature timber over the next few years will potentially mean supply shortages for eight other mills in the region.
“The bottom line, and the Committee report confirms this, is that we’re going to see a dramatic timber reduction in the near term,” said Simpson. “Up to this point the government’s mountain pine beetle strategy has been to log as much as possible. This report essentially recommends continuing on that path in order to support the status quo. What we need instead is a bold, long-term provincial forest strategy that takes into account climate change and a changing economy. Unfortunately, you won’t find it in this report.”
The FFESC’s report is available here: https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/ftp/HFP/external/!publish/Web/FFESC/reports/FFESCsynthesisJune7.docx
The Bio-Economy Committee report is available here: https://www.gov.bc.ca/jti/down/bio_economy_report_final.pdf
Media Release: Canada’s Finest Cedar Grove Marked for Logging
/in Media ReleaseThe 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.
Markers stir fears of Walbran logging
/in News CoverageThe 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.
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.
“Castle Grove is ground zero for the ancient forest movement on southern Vancouver Island, both historically and today,” said Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “To try and log it is insanity — it will only escalate the war in the woods to a whole new level,” he said.
The logging tape, marked “falling boundary,” is less than 50 metres from the Castle Giant, said Alliance campaigner TJ Watt who discovered the tape.
However, the Forests Ministry said in an emailed response to questions that no activity is planned in Castle Grove, although some logging is planned in the area further south.
“The area in question could be partly protected by the park, an old-growth management area and ungulate winter range,” the email said. “Ministry staff were not able to confirm without better mapping information from AFA.”
Teal Jones Group of Surrey holds the licence for the area, but spokesman John Pichugin said that he could not say whether the company has applied for a cutting licence in the area until he has seen a map.
Wu, who took part in the 1991 protests that resulted in the lower half of the Walbran Valley and the Upper Carmanah Valley being added to Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park in 1995, said it is time the province came up with its promised “legal tool” to protect B.C.’s largest trees and monumental groves.
“Of all places, Castle Grove is the place where such a legal designation would make most sense. Otherwise the B.C. Liberals’ rhetoric has been as empty as a clearcut,” Wu said.
The e-mailed response from the ministry said there are legal mechanisms to provide protection to unique or special trees and all British Columbians finding special trees are encouraged to register them on the Big Trees Registry.
“The ministry continues to look at other ways that may provide stronger pro-active protection,” it said.
After the lower half of the Walbran, consisting of about 5,500 hectares, was included in the park, environmentalist continued to push for protection of the valley’s remaining 7,500 hectares.
In 2003 more protests erupted over logging in the area that resulted in the arrest of elderly environmental activist Betty Krawczyk.
Read more: https://www.canada.com/news/Markers+stir+fears+Walbran+logging/7158575/story.html
Survey tape sparks logging concerns in Vancouver Island old-growth forest
/in News CoverageThe 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.
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 measuring five metres in diameter. The tree is listed in the provincial big tree registry as one of the widest in Canada.
“Castle Grove is ground zero for the ancient forest movement on southern Vancouver Island, both historically and today,” said Ken Wu, AFA executive director.
“To try and log it is insanity — it will only escalate the war in the woods to a whole new level,” he said.
The logging tape, marked “falling boundary,” is less than 50 metres from the Castle Giant, said AFA campaigner TJ Watt, who discovered the tape.
In an email response to questions, however, the Forests Ministry said no activity is planned in Castle Grove, although some logging is planned in the area farther south.
Teal Jones Group of Surrey holds the licence for the area, but spokesman John Pichugin said he could not say whether the company has applied for a cutting licence in the area until he has seen a map.
Wu said it’s time the province came up with its promised “legal tool” to protect B.C.’s largest trees and monumental groves.
“Of all places, Castle Grove is the place where such a legal designation would make most sense. Otherwise, the B.C. Liberals’ rhetoric has been as empty as a clearcut,” Wu said.
The ministry statement said there are legal mechanisms to provide protection to unique or special trees and all British Columbians who find special trees are encouraged to register them on the Big Trees Registry.
“The ministry continues to look at other ways that may provide stronger proactive protection,” it said.
Read more: https://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Survey+tape+sparks+logging+concerns+Vancouver+Island+oldgrowth/7158428/story.html
Ben Parfitt and Anthony Britneff: B.C. MLAs take wrong approach to timber supply crisis
/in News CoverageEver since mid May, when a special committee of the provincial legislature was appointed to address a looming “timber supply” crisis, questions have arisen about what the committee would say about one community in particular.
That community is Burns Lake where, in January, a violent explosion and fire leveled the local sawmill—the village’s major employer—killing two mill workers and doing another 250 out of their jobs.
Well the wait is over, and if the unanimous recommendations of the committee’s Liberal and NDP MLAs are an indication, our forests and many rural communities are headed for even harder times than previously thought.
Here’s why. Rather than focusing on the core issue (how many trees are left, and what the future holds for our forests) committee members allowed themselves to be swayed by dramatic yet unrelated events.
The evidence is overwhelmingly clear. We are on the cusp of a monumental shift in our interior forests. After a decade-plus attack by mountain pine beetles and other pests, a spate of intense wildfires and years of unsustainable logging, our forests are largely depleted of commercially desirable trees.
To their credit, members of the Special Committee on Timber Supply acknowledge this. They conclude that the projected drop in logging rates places eight sawmills in danger. This is probably an underestimate. Either way, when mill capacity outstrips what our forests can provide, mills must close. There are only so many trees to go around.
Yet having acknowledged that existing sawmills have an appetite for wood that grossly exceeds what our forests can provide, committee members then turn around and suggest that we should build another mill first and find the timber later.
To entice the owner of the destroyed Burns Lake mill to do so, the committee chooses to go down the same tired road that gave rise to the present timber supply crisis: push the boundaries of what can be harvested to the extreme. This is essentially the approach applied in the East Coast cod fishery and we all know how that worked out.
The committee astonishingly suggested that there are actually twice as many trees to log in the forests around Burns Lake than what senior forest professionals in government estimated just last year (one million instead of 500,000 cubic metres of wood a year).
How did the committee magically double timber supply? With three key recommendations. First, that more “marginally economic” forests be logged. Second, that the government underwrite a massive fertilization program to boost tree growth. And third—here committee members use weasel words to mask the true intent of what they propose—to increase the logging of remnant old-growth forests that were previously ruled off-limits to logging.
It is far from clear that this will produce enough wood to supply a rebuilt mill.
First, “marginal” forests are marginal for a reason. They are generally of inferior quality, further from mills, and more costly to log. And they are often found in places where trees grow less vigorously, for example at higher elevations. Hence, they are risky to log, both economically and environmentally.
Second, with government having drastically curtailed its investments in growing trees, no one should assume there is appetite for big spending increases on fertilization. Never mind the ecological impacts of repeated applications of tree fertilizers on shallow soils and on our waterways, fish populations and other plant life in our forests.
And third, perceived increases in old-growth logging could prove a nightmare in international markets where the B.C. government and forest companies alike have worked judiciously to have forestry operations independently certified as sustainably managed.
But if the government embraces the committee’s recommendations for Burns Lake, expect the same unsustainable logging practices to be applied provincewide, and with devastating consequences.
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.
Anthony Britneff recently retired from a 40-year career as a professional forester with the B.C. Forest Service where he held senior positions in inventory, silviculture and forest health. Ben Parfitt is a resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Environmentalist bristles over report urging more logging
/in News CoverageA 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.
“There’s different ways to do more with less, to be more efficient. Instead they’re looking at opening up our last protected areas and that’s totally the wrong approach. Rewarding unsustainable behaviour with more unsustainable behaviour is what has pushed this whole planet to the ecological brink.”
Wu says these protected areas include old growth forest, wildlife habitats, scenery, and recreational spots. Grants For College
Link to article: https://www.cknw.com/news/vancouver/story.aspx/Story.aspx?ID=1757152
Media Release: Timber Committee Opens Back Door for Potential Logging of Protected Forests
/in Media ReleaseFor 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.”
Lift on logging restraints would be ill-advised
/in News CoverageAs 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.
Thanks to the bravery of an unnamed public servant who decided in April to leak a provincial cabinet briefing document that outlined the contentious plan, the provincial government was forced to appoint the committee, consisting of both Liberal and NDP MLAs, and to hold public hearings.
A whirlwind tour of 16 communities in less than a month followed, with the committee, wrapping up its public consultations with back-to-back meetings in Merritt and Kamloops on July 12. As a result, members of the “special committee on timber supply” are now wading through the transcripts of nearly 200 people to appear before them as well as nearly 500 written submissions, before making their recommendations, which are expected in mid-August.
A consistent theme running through many of those submissions is that it would be highly unwise for commit-tee members to side with the government’s proposal to lift limited constraints on logging remnant patches of old-growth forests among others, in an effort to buy a few more years worth of logging for an industry that simply has too much milling horse-power given what forest remains.
The reason why is simple. For more than a decade, the provincial Forest Service – guardian of the public’s forests – has been hammered with deep funding and staff cuts. That, coupled with the ravages visited upon our forests by the climate-change-fuelled mountain pine beetle attack and all of the escalated logging activities in response to it, means that no one in government can credibly claim to know what, exactly, is going on in our forests.
In Kamloops, committee members heard such from Sean Curry, a veteran forest professional. Curry noted that most of us have at least an idea of what’s in our bank accounts. Checking our forest bank account is even more critical given withdrawals in the form of logging, insect attacks and fires, and because interest rates in the form of growing trees are so highly variable. Trees may be healthy one year, dead the next.
Curry’s choice of the banking analogy was obvious. If you don’t check, you risk over-drawing. In other words, we’re relying on younger trees that were planted or that naturally re-seeded following logging to be there in future years. The trouble is we’re not checking up on them nearly enough, despite compelling evidence that that is precisely what we need to do.
The recent work of two Forest Ser-vice scientists tells us why. In 2008, Alex Woods and Wendy Bergerud reported on field studies they did in the Lakes Timber Supply Area. The team found trouble in nearly one out of every five previously declared healthy or “free-growing” plots of trees that they looked at. Significantly, their report was based on fieldwork done in 2005 – before the mountain pine beetle completely overran the region near the community of Burns Lake, where a sawmill burned to the ground at the beginning of this year and that has become a focal point for commit-tee members as they weigh the merits of lifting logging constraints.
By 2007, Woods and Bergerud noted, many of the sample plots they had looked at had subsequently been attacked by the beetle – proof, they said, of the need to do even more assessments, particularly in light of climate change.
This July, a report by Tom Ethier, assistant deputy minister in the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, noted that the problems identified by Woods and Bergerud are more widespread. Of 266 allegedly “free-growing” forest patches in five timber supply areas, “the majority” had experienced tree losses in the decade after they were declared healthy.
The good news, Curry says, is that for modest increases in Forest Service funding and a bit of patience – waiting a couple of years while the field-work is done – we could have a far better idea of what’s in our forests.
This, then, is not the time for the committee to endorse logging increases, a decision that in the absence of good data would be at best irresponsible and at worst highly dangerous.
Ben Parfitt is resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of many forestry reports, including Making the Case for a Carbon Focus and Green Jobs in B.C.’s Forest Industry.
Read more: https://www.vancouversun.com/Lift+logging+restraints+would+advised/7050666/story.html