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News Coverage
Apr 9 2021

‘War in the woods’: activists blockade Vancouver Island in bid to save ancient trees

Apr 9 2021/News Coverage

The Guardian
April 8, 2021

Activists block a logging road to oppose the cutting of old growth trees in the Caycuse watershed on southern Vancouver Island.
Activists block a logging road to oppose the cutting of old growth trees in the Caycuse watershed on southern Vancouver Island. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian

Loggers say blockades threaten their livelihoods as activists build fortifications and vow to remain

Hundreds of activists are digging in at logging road blockades across a swath of southern Vancouver Island, vowing to stay as long as it takes to pressure the provincial government to immediately halt cutting of what they say is the last 3% of giant old growth trees left in the province.

The situation echoes the 1993 “war in the woods” in nearby Clayoquot Sound, which saw nearly 1,000 people arrested at similar logging blockades in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.

Giant old growth trees stand in a small protected area called Avatar Grove, near the Fairy Creek watershed on southern Vancouver Island.
Giant old growth trees stand in a small protected area called Avatar Grove, near the Fairy Creek watershed on southern Vancouver Island. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian

Tensions are rising. Just this weekend, the activists stopped a team of old growth tree cutters – called fallers – from entering a logging area in the Caycuse watershed.

“You know this is illegal?” said Trevor Simpson, a logger, who told the Guardian he’s been a faller contractor for 29 years and relies on cutting old-growth trees. “This is my livelihood at stake.

A blockader named Owen, one of about two dozen on the scene, told the loggers through the window of their pickup truck: “The fact is, if we want our planet to be sustainable, we have to protect these ecosystems.”

Members of the Rainforest Flying Squad speak with logging contractors after refusing to let them cross a bridge to an active cut block.
Members of the Rainforest Flying Squad speak with logging contractors after refusing to let them cross a bridge to an active cut block. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian
Trevor Simpson makes a satellite phone call after being refused access to a cut block by members of the Rainforest Flying Squad.
Trevor Simpson makes a satellite phone call after being refused access to a cut block by members of the Rainforest Flying Squad. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian

Another logger said: “We have to work. Are they [the blockaders] going to pay our wages today? If we don’t work, we don’t get paid.”

The blockaders refused to let Simpson’s team pass, and eventually the frustrated crew left. They returned on Tuesday to hand-deliver a court injunction ordering the blockades taken down and setting the stage for arrests. Similar scenes are playing out at strategic blockades across the area.

A forest defender drives though an old cut block near the Fairy Creek watershed.
A forest defender drives though an old cut block near the Fairy Creek watershed. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian

After the loggers left the Caycuse blockade, activists went to work building fortifications, a giant kitchen tent, and even an outhouse made entirely of discarded old-growth cedar.

The movement started more than eight months ago, when an impromptu blockade of 12 people sprang up to stop road building into the headwaters of the Fairy Creek watershed, one of the last untouched watersheds in the region.

But what started as a campaign to stop logging in a single watershed has grown thanks to widespread frustration with the British Columbia government’s broader approach to old-growth logging.

A blockader counts the rings in a recently cut old-growth cedar tree in the mountains above the Caycuse watershed.
A blockader counts the rings in a recently cut old-growth cedar tree in the mountains above the Caycuse watershed. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian
Blockaders hold a meeting around a fire after turning away an old-growth logging crew.
Blockaders hold a meeting around a fire after turning away an old-growth logging crew. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian

Activists and forestry experts say a tiny fraction of the province’s giant old-growth trees are left standing, and an immediate moratorium on cutting them is needed. Meanwhile, forestry companies and the government say the cut must continue in order to protect jobs in an industry that has experienced steep job losses and mill closures in recent years.

The logging company Teal Jones Group says its plans for cutting in Fairy Creek have been mischaracterized, and the trees it wants to cut are critical for supporting hundreds of jobs.

“Most of Fairy Creek is a protected forest reserve or unstable terrain and not available for harvesting,” said Gerrie Kotze, the company’s vice-president.

Kotze said Teal Jones’ planned cut was a small area at the head of the watershed. The company would harvest the trees with care “and mill every log we cut right here in BC,” he said.

The government is caught between its election promises to protect old-growth forests and what it says is an undue risk to jobs in the forestry industry.

“We want to make sure people can appreciate old-growth trees for years to come, while supporting a sustainable forest sector for workers and communities,” said the forestry minister, Katrine Conroy, in a statement.

Activists erect a structure at logging road blockade on southern Vancouver Island.
Activists erect a structure at logging road blockade on southern Vancouver Island. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian
Activists build wooden walkways in a stand of ancient old growth forest that is set to be logged in the near future.
Activists build wooden walkways in a stand of ancient old growth forest that is set to be logged in the near future. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian

In September, the government released a long-awaited old growth strategic review. Citing the “high risk to loss of biodiversity” and “widespread lack of confidence in the system of managing forests”, the report’s authors made 14 recommendations, including immediately deferring all old-growth logging in at-risk ecosystems, all of which were accepted by government.

But critics say after more than six months, the government is not moving fast enough while chainsaws continue to snarl and ancient trees continue to fall.

Rachel Holt, an independent ecologist, argues that the government is drastically overstating how much giant old growth still exists. The latest government reports say just over 13m hectares of total primary forest considered very old, or ancient, is still standing. Holt and her colleagues agree.

“But the vast majority of that – about 80% – consists of small or very small trees,” Holt said.

Members of the Rainforest Flying Squad blocking a logging road stay warm around a fire after setting up a new blockade.
Members of the Rainforest Flying Squad blocking a logging road stay warm around a fire after setting up a new blockade. Illustration: Jesse Winter/The Guardian

Giant, ancient trees are the bones of coastal temperate rainforests. Whole ecosystems can reside within their vast, moss-covered branches. To think of them as just pretty things to look at missed the point, Holt said.

The new blockades are international. On his computer in Washington state, 17-year-old Joshua Wright has followed the developments closely. Despite working remotely, the young film-maker is a key organizer with the movement, which calls itself the Rainforest Flying Squad.

Wright, who grew up on Vancouver Island, said it took moving to the US to realize how rare British Columbia’s remaining old growth is.

“If we don’t stop logging now, in three to five years there’s not going to be any old growth left,” said Wright.

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Ancient Forest Alliance

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is a registered charitable organization working to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry.

AFA’s office is located on the territories of the Lekwungen Peoples, also known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.
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