Most of B.C.’s massive old trees are ghosts, existing only on paper

/in

Seattle Times
June 16, 2020

A freshcut portion of an old-growth cutblock on the Upper Walbran on Vancouver Island in 2002. (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times)
1 of 3 | A freshcut portion of an old-growth cutblock on the Upper Walbran on Vancouver Island in 2002. (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times)

Most of British Columbia’s old-growth forests of big trees live only on maps, and what’s left on the ground is fast disappearing, a team of independent scientists has found.

A recent report revealed the amount of old-growth forest still standing in the province has been overestimated by more than 20% and most of the last of what’s left is at risk of being logged within the next 12 years.

In the report, the scientists revealed most of the forest counted as old growth by the province is actually small alpine or boggy forest. It’s old — but the trees are not the giants most people think of when they are referring to old growth.

Less than 1% of the forest left in the province is composed of the productive ground growing massive old trees, some more than 1,000 years old, including coastal temperate rainforests on Vancouver Island and a fast-vanishing inland old-growth temperate rainforest on the west slopes of the Rockies, unique in the world.

While the authors agree with B.C.’s official tally that 23% of the forest in the province is old growth, “that is incredibly misleading,” said Rachel Holt, an ecologist based in Nelson, B.C., and an author of the report.

“They are mixing in bog forests where the trees are no taller than me, and I am 5 feet tall, and they are mixing in high-elevation tiny trees. They are old and valuable but they are not what you, or I, or anyone else thinks of when they think of old growth.”

Most of that forest is unprotected, and unless something changes in B.C. policy, three-quarters of it will be logged within 12 years, the scientists found.

The scientists did the analysis and issued the report in part to inform a panel that has been taking public testimony about the value of old growth from First Nations conservationists and others across the province. The results of the panel’s work are intended to inform a path forward for the management of old growth.

Meanwhile, the losses are continuing and what’s really needed now is a moratorium on further cutting, the scientists stated in the report.

Change is in the works, but won’t be immediate, Doug Donaldson, minister of  Forests, Land, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development said in an email to The Seattle Times.

“We are taking seriously the challenge of managing our vital old forests […] in B.C. That’s why we launched a review and engagement process by two independent experts to examine the issue and provide recommendations,” Donaldson wrote.

“Addressing the issue of managing old growth forests while supporting workers and communities has been a challenge for more than 30 years … This is a problem many years in the making and it won’t be solved immediately. We need a science-based approach … that respects and understands the benefits of old growth to biodiversity in our forests …

“We agree that more work needs to be done… to resolve this.”

At stake are more than big trees. Orca whales also rub on beaches downstream and adjacent to some of the forests being cut. Salmon, primarily chinook, are the primary food source for the northern and southern resident populations of orca whales. Salmon depend on cool, clean water in the streams where they spawn and rear, streams that wind through forests ultimately to saltwater where hungry orcas hunt.

“Salmon connect the land to the sea,” said Andrew Trites, director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus. “All of us are hoping that there is going to be enough fish to feed the southern residents and northern residents.

“How we treat and take care of our forests ultimately determines the fate of our salmon populations. This isn’t just about controlling fishing, it is about controlling what we do on the land.”

Old-growth forests also shelter a vast suite of terrestrial life. Insects that live nowhere else thrive in the worlds within worlds of old-growth canopies. Bears den in the cavities of massive gnarly old trees, and birds, including pileated woodpeckers, nest and feed in their branches. Inland rainforests host lichen that are a primary food of mountain caribou, now pushed to the brink of extinction by loss of the forests they depend on.

The Grey Ghost herd in the south Selkirks, the only mountain caribou in the Lower 48, is already functionally extinct.

Cutting and replanting the old-growth forests that supported caribou and other wildlife will produce fiber, but not the ecological web of life that was lost, said Karen Price, another author on the report.“They are not forests, they are plantations.”

More than 25 years ago, after the so-called War in the Woods over logging in the old growth at Clayoquot Sound, some B.C. old growth remains protected. But all over the province, the losses still continue, Price said. There is no one forest, no one place at risk and most of the valley bottom old growth is already gone.

For years she taught forest ecology at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on the west side of Vancouver Island, and could take her students to see valley bottom old-growth stands minutes from the classroom, Price said. Before long the students had to take a two-hour bus ride to see old growth because so much had been cut. “We could stand our whole class on one of the stumps, 24 students.”

Old-growth forest and forests in general are under assault around the globe as climate change cranks up both the assaults on big trees, and the need to preserve them.

Bugs, wind, drought and fire are taking out big old trees disproportionately as the climate warms. Yet one of the best defenses against a roasting climate is forests and especially big old trees. Big trees hold 50% of the above ground biomass in a forest and their ability to store carbon is without equal. To moderate the effects of climate change, foresters need to retain the largest trees, and recruit more by letting forests grow, scientists have found.

Price said the team put the report out to alert the public to just how little old growth is left, and the reality that cut blocks are still being drawn by B.C. Timber Sales on what’s left for logging.

“It wasn’t a surprise to any of us,” Price said. “But we were frustrated that nobody knew this.”

Read the original article

Scientists conclude B.C.’s count of old-growth forest greatly overestimated

/in

 

 

 

Vancouver Sun
June 9, 2020

An independent report by a trio of scientists warns that the tiny amount of old-growth forest remaining in B.C. is in peril if the province doesn’t implement sweeping policies to protect it.

The report, released last month by Karen Price, Rachel Holt and Dave Daust, was done to aide the province’s Old Growth Strategic Review, a two-person expert panel expected to provide its own report soon. The scientists volunteered their time to inform the panel and submitted their own findings over the past six months.

The scientists found that the province’s count of 13.2 million hectares of old forest — about 23 per cent of forested areas in the province — is accurate but does not tell the whole story.

“We believe that (number) to be a misleading and unhelpful piece of information, so we looked at that in more detail,” said Holt, who owns Veridian Ecological Consulting and has been a contractor for First Nations, industry and the province over the past two decades.

Of the 13.2 million hectares of old-growth forest in B.C., about 80 per cent is home to small trees and only three per cent supports the large trees British Columbians picture when they are thinking about old-growth, the scientists found.

“We need to have representation of all these different ecosystem types — including the ones that have big trees — and we don’t have that in our protection,” Holt said.

The scientists said they found that more than 85 per cent of productive forest sites have less than 30 per cent of the amount of old-growth that would be expected naturally. Of those, half have less than one per cent of expected old-growth.

“This current status puts biodiversity, ecological integrity and resilience at high risk today,” they said in their report.

The scientists recommend three key actions, starting with government immediately stopping the harvesting of the “rarest of the rare” trees.

This would mean retaining all old forest in any ecosystem that has less than 10 per cent of old trees remaining, focusing on retaining higher-productivity sites and the irreplaceable older and ancient forests, and retaining productive, mature stands — smaller management units of trees used for forestry — where there is little or no old-growth left.

They recommend government develop and implement “ecologically defensible” targets for the protection of old forest, protecting at least 30 per cent of each naturally occurring ecosystem.

And they recommend government improves how it implements policy, such as closing loopholes used by the forest industry, to ensure old-forest retention protects the last remaining productive old forest, and provides functional forests for years to come.

“Without immediate action, we will lose these globally priceless values — and still have to deal with a volume-based industry that has not planned ahead for transition,” the scientists wrote.

“The provincial government must provide funding, commitment and management authority to ensure that staff can implement effective forest conservation. Little human effort is tasked with protecting old-forest values, while much is focused on harvesting.”

Minister Doug Donaldson said in an email that his ministry is aware of the report.

“Building a consensus on managing old-growth forests has been a challenge for more than 30 years, this includes trying to get all parties to agree on what is and is not old-growth and how old-growth areas are measured,” said Donaldson, who is minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development.

He said the problem is “many years in the making” and won’t be solved immediately, which his why his ministry launched a review and engagement process. Donaldson said the solution will require more work with environmental organizations, First Nations, industry and other groups.

“We’re all excited by the buzz this is creating inside and outside government,” said the independent report’s lead author, Karen Price. “We hope that our work will support the minister in his attempts to build policy focused on resilience.”

The full report is available at veridianecological.ca.

neagland@postmedia.com

Read the original article

B.C. vastly overestimates size of its old-growth forest, independent researchers say

/in

CBC News British Columbia
June 4th, 2020

Old growth cedar is pictured in Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island. (Chris Corday/CBC)

Self-published report concludes most old growth areas counted by province are small alpine or boggy forests

A team of independent researchers claim in a new report that the province’s accounting of old growth trees is vastly larger than the actual number of trees most people would consider old growth, namely coniferous giants.

The three co-authors of B.C.’s Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity write that most of what is currently considered old growth are small subalpine or bog forests.

“They don’t distinguish between all the different types of old growth,” said Rachel Holt, co-author and registered professional biologist.

The B.C. government reports that of the province’s 57.2 million hectares of forest, 23 per cent is old growth or 13.2 million hectares.

“Only about one per cent of that total forest is old growth in the way that you or I, or pretty much anybody would think of as being old forest,” said Holt.

The precise number in Holt’s report is 400,000 hectares, or 0.8 per cent of the forested area in B.C.

“We don’t get a second chance at maintaining these, and there is really such a tiny proportion that remains,” she said.

At risk of logging

The report warns that, in addition to the issue of overestimating old growth forest, many of the large stands of trees that would be considered old growth are at risk of being logged — as much as 75 per cent.

“We know that if it’s not protected, then the plan is to log it, that’s why we can do that math,” Holt said of the system of forest management used in the province.

An aerial photograph of the Nahmint Valley outside Port Alberni, B.C., shows protected old growth groves along the water and replanted hillsides that were previously logged. ((Chris Corday/CBC))

She said the main problem appears to be management of old growth areas.

“Lack of reporting and poor implementation of policy has left us with a big gap, and we’re just not doing a good job of protecting these, the legacy forest,” she said. “They’re not coming back.”

Holt says she and co-authors Karen Price and Dave Daust have years of experience working for the B.C. government on forestry issues.

They used publicly available data and sifted through it to compile what they believe is a more accurate picture of the remaining old growth forest.

Holt said they plan to submit their work to a scientific journal, but felt there was urgency behind making it public as soon as possible.

“I’m very concerned about the ongoing, kind of whittling down, the dwindling numbers of those stands,” said Holt.

Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, said he wasn’t surprised to see the numbers presented in the new report — a draft was submitted to the independent Old Growth Strategic Review Panel that was launched in July 2019.

“That is exactly one of the reasons we commissioned … the panel,” Donaldson said of the debate over old growth forests in the province. “We’re taking this issue very seriously.”

“I respect the authors of the report,” he said, adding that the panel has received about 400 published papers and reports, as well as paying visits to 45 communities.

Donaldson said the panel has wrapped up its work and the findings will now be shared with First Nations for government-to-government discussions before the panel’s work is circulated to other groups and the public.

“We want to make sure that [old growth] is being managed properly, and we recognize the importance old forests have for biodiversity in the province,” he said. “We also recognize the importance that it provides for communities and workers who depend on harvesting.”

Read the original article

Nahmint Valley, Port Alberni - Huge Tree Logging

B.C. old-growth data ‘misleading’ public on remaining ancient forest: independent report

/in

Government touts 13 million hectares of province’s forests are old growth, but ecologists found only 35,000 hectares support the largest trees

The Narwhal
June 4th, 2020

The majority of British Columbia’s productive old-growth forests are gone, and the majority of the old growth remaining is slated to be logged, says an independent study released Thursday by B.C. ecologists who previously worked for the provincial government.

The findings of the report shed new light on provincial claims that, despite intensive logging, B.C. is still home to significant amounts of old growth. 

According to the B.C. government, 23 per cent of forest in the province is old growth, about 13 million hectares. 

Yet the new study found only three per cent of B.C. is capable of supporting large trees and within that small portion of the province, the ecologists found only 2.7 per cent of the trees are actually old as “old forests on these sites have dwindled considerably due to intense harvest.”

“We’re talking a tiny fraction of a fraction. We’ve basically logged it all,” said Rachel Holt, one of the authors of the study, entitled B.C.’s Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity. 

The research found most of the area the province considers old growth can’t support big trees, which store high amounts of carbon, support biodiversity and make forests resilient to wildfires. Instead, most of it is low-productivity forest, such as small trees at high elevations. 

The study concludes there are only about 35,000 hectares of forest with the largest, most productive old-growth trees remaining in B.C., meaning areas where trees are expected to grow over 25 metres tall in 50 years.

A total of 415,000 hectares of forest contain trees that are expected to grow over 20 metres tall in 50 years.

Provincial framing of old-growth data ‘very misleading’

The province regularly publishes total old-growth data. But when the researchers analyzed that data according to ecosystem type, they found it painted a very different picture than what they were seeing in government disclosures.

“There’s very, very little of the stuff that you and I and everybody think of when they think of old growth,” said Holt. She called the government’s framing of the data “very misleading.”

Karen Price, lead author of the study, said, because government policy doesn’t differentiate between productive and non-productive old-growth forests, companies can harvest big trees and leave small, unproductive trees and still meet their old-growth retention targets. 

The researchers — Price, Holt and Dave Daust — are calling on the province to implement an immediate moratorium on harvesting old and mature forest in ecosystems with less than 10 per cent of old forest remaining, even if they fall within existing cutblock permits. They are also asking the government to increase old-growth retention targets and improve old-growth management areas to “include larger areas rather than fragmented patches.”

In an emailed response, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said it could not comment on the researchers’ findings until it reviews a report from the old-growth strategic review panel, which was submitted in May. 

In January two members of the government-appointed old-growth review panel told The Narwhal they found a surprising level of consensus among British Columbians when it comes to the importance of protecting the province’s intact ancient forests.

Scientists break silence, push for more transparent data

Holt, Price and Daust have all worked with the province before. Price said she was tired of doing reports on climate change for the government and never seeing the recommendations made public. She wants to increase awareness around old growth. 

“I’m tired of speaking carefully,” she said. 

The researchers presented their report to the old-growth strategic review panel in March. The province appointed the independent panel to engage with the public on old growth and report back with recommendations to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. 

The panel began public engagement in 2019 and submitted its report in early May. But, to the dismay of Holt and Price, the province may not make the report public for six months. 

“The government needs to review the [old-growth strategic review panel’s report] thoroughly before commenting on it or speculating on how the report’s findings may affect British Columbia’s old growth strategy,” a ministry spokesperson said via email.

Price said she wants to see more government transparency, which is part of the reason they are publishing their findings now. 

“This is the time to be brave,” she said. “If we want to have resilient human populations, we need to have resilient ecosystems. And right now, our policy is trashing resilience.” 

Michelle Connolly surveys old-growth cedars in B.C.'s inland temperate rainforest
Forest ecologist Michelle Connolly surveys old-growth cedars in B.C.’s unique inland rainforest to estimate the amount of carbon the area holds. It is unusual for a rainforest like this to be scattered in moist valley bottoms stretching from the Cariboo Mountains east of Prince George to the Rocky Mountains close to the Alberta border. Much of the area, despite being important caribou habitat, is slated for clearcut logging.  Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

Old forests are ‘irreplaceable’

Holt said old-growth forests are integral to adapting to climate change and maintaining biodiversity.

Large old-growth trees sequester and store carbon, acting as carbon sinks. But carbon is released when old-growth trees are cut down and left to rot or burned in slash piles.

Old-growth forests are more resilient to wildfires and absorb water from annual snow-melt. Consequently, clearcuts can lead to floods.

But old-growth forests are also valuable timber. BC Timber Sales generated $221 million net revenue in the 2018-19 fiscal year despite financial losses due to intense wildfires in 2018. According to Sierra Club BC, old growth is cut down across the province at the rate of more than 500 soccer fields per day. 

Jim Pojar, a seasoned ecologist who used to work for the province, said new forests are unlikely to grow back in the same way due to the impacts of climate change.

He said it takes at least 250 years for “true old growth” to develop, but the climate will have changed so drastically in 200 years that forests will “inevitably” be made up of different plant species and soils. 

“The answer is not simple, but pretending that the problem doesn’t exist is not the answer.”

“It will not return to the primary condition, even given several centuries,” Pojar told The Narwhal.

“I consider these really big, productive old-growth forests to be an irreplaceable, essentially non-renewable resource.”

Pojar said experts have known for a long time that the province’s data doesn’t reflect the extent of logging productive trees, but this recent report shows in new detail just how little old-growth forest is left.

“It alarms me, but it doesn’t surprise me,” he said.

Pojar said overlogging is largely rooted in industry deregulation under Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government, which was in power from 2001 to 2011, and other threats to forests include the mountain pine beetle and increasing wildfires. He said the current NDP government has not taken substantive measures to transition the industry to more sustainable practices. Instead, he said, the administration has left things unchanged because it is “desperate for ways to keep people working.” 

Holt agrees the government is torn between the “short-term” need for jobs and “long-term” environmental sustainability but said chasing a limited amount of old growth doesn’t support either goal.

“The answer is not simple, but pretending that the problem doesn’t exist is not the answer,” said Holt. “We do not have a sustainable industry from a jobs or an environment perspective.”

Update June 4, 2020 at 5:35 p.m. PST: A previous version of this story described a study as saying that only 35,000 hectares of forest with large old-growth trees are remaining in B.C. In fact, the study concluded that there are 415,000 hectares of forest that are home to large trees, but only 35,000 hectares with the largest, most productive old-growth trees.

Read the original article

Government touts 13 million hectares of province’s forests are old growth, but ecologists found only 35,000 hectares support the largest trees

The Narwhal
June 4th, 2020

The majority of British Columbia’s productive old-growth forests are gone, and the majority of the old growth remaining is slated to be logged, says an independent study released Thursday by B.C. ecologists who previously worked for the provincial government.

The findings of the report shed new light on provincial claims that, despite intensive logging, B.C. is still home to significant amounts of old growth. 

According to the B.C. government, 23 per cent of forest in the province is old growth, about 13 million hectares. 

Yet the new study found only three per cent of B.C. is capable of supporting large trees and within that small portion of the province, the ecologists found only 2.7 per cent of the trees are actually old as “old forests on these sites have dwindled considerably due to intense harvest.”

“We’re talking a tiny fraction of a fraction. We’ve basically logged it all,” said Rachel Holt, one of the authors of the study, entitled B.C.’s Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity. 

The research found most of the area the province considers old growth can’t support big trees, which store high amounts of carbon, support biodiversity and make forests resilient to wildfires. Instead, most of it is low-productivity forest, such as small trees at high elevations. 

The study concludes there are only about 35,000 hectares of forest with the largest, most productive old-growth trees remaining in B.C., meaning areas where trees are expected to grow over 25 metres tall in 50 years.

A total of 415,000 hectares of forest contain trees that are expected to grow over 20 metres tall in 50 years.

Provincial framing of old-growth data ‘very misleading’

The province regularly publishes total old-growth data. But when the researchers analyzed that data according to ecosystem type, they found it painted a very different picture than what they were seeing in government disclosures.

“There’s very, very little of the stuff that you and I and everybody think of when they think of old growth,” said Holt. She called the government’s framing of the data “very misleading.”

Karen Price, lead author of the study, said, because government policy doesn’t differentiate between productive and non-productive old-growth forests, companies can harvest big trees and leave small, unproductive trees and still meet their old-growth retention targets. 

The researchers — Price, Holt and Dave Daust — are calling on the province to implement an immediate moratorium on harvesting old and mature forest in ecosystems with less than 10 per cent of old forest remaining, even if they fall within existing cutblock permits. They are also asking the government to increase old-growth retention targets and improve old-growth management areas to “include larger areas rather than fragmented patches.”

In an emailed response, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said it could not comment on the researchers’ findings until it reviews a report from the old-growth strategic review panel, which was submitted in May. 

In January two members of the government-appointed old-growth review panel told The Narwhal they found a surprising level of consensus among British Columbians when it comes to the importance of protecting the province’s intact ancient forests.

Scientists break silence, push for more transparent data

Holt, Price and Daust have all worked with the province before. Price said she was tired of doing reports on climate change for the government and never seeing the recommendations made public. She wants to increase awareness around old growth. 

“I’m tired of speaking carefully,” she said. 

The researchers presented their report to the old-growth strategic review panel in March. The province appointed the independent panel to engage with the public on old growth and report back with recommendations to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. 

The panel began public engagement in 2019 and submitted its report in early May. But, to the dismay of Holt and Price, the province may not make the report public for six months. 

“The government needs to review the [old-growth strategic review panel’s report] thoroughly before commenting on it or speculating on how the report’s findings may affect British Columbia’s old growth strategy,” a ministry spokesperson said via email.

Price said she wants to see more government transparency, which is part of the reason they are publishing their findings now. 

“This is the time to be brave,” she said. “If we want to have resilient human populations, we need to have resilient ecosystems. And right now, our policy is trashing resilience.” 

Michelle Connolly surveys old-growth cedars in B.C.'s inland temperate rainforest
Forest ecologist Michelle Connolly surveys old-growth cedars in B.C.’s unique inland rainforest to estimate the amount of carbon the area holds. It is unusual for a rainforest like this to be scattered in moist valley bottoms stretching from the Cariboo Mountains east of Prince George to the Rocky Mountains close to the Alberta border. Much of the area, despite being important caribou habitat, is slated for clearcut logging.  Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

Old forests are ‘irreplaceable’

Holt said old-growth forests are integral to adapting to climate change and maintaining biodiversity.

Large old-growth trees sequester and store carbon, acting as carbon sinks. But carbon is released when old-growth trees are cut down and left to rot or burned in slash piles.

Old-growth forests are more resilient to wildfires and absorb water from annual snow-melt. Consequently, clearcuts can lead to floods.

But old-growth forests are also valuable timber. BC Timber Sales generated $221 million net revenue in the 2018-19 fiscal year despite financial losses due to intense wildfires in 2018. According to Sierra Club BC, old growth is cut down across the province at the rate of more than 500 soccer fields per day. 

Jim Pojar, a seasoned ecologist who used to work for the province, said new forests are unlikely to grow back in the same way due to the impacts of climate change.

He said it takes at least 250 years for “true old growth” to develop, but the climate will have changed so drastically in 200 years that forests will “inevitably” be made up of different plant species and soils. 

“The answer is not simple, but pretending that the problem doesn’t exist is not the answer.”

“It will not return to the primary condition, even given several centuries,” Pojar told The Narwhal.

“I consider these really big, productive old-growth forests to be an irreplaceable, essentially non-renewable resource.”

Pojar said experts have known for a long time that the province’s data doesn’t reflect the extent of logging productive trees, but this recent report shows in new detail just how little old-growth forest is left.

“It alarms me, but it doesn’t surprise me,” he said.

Pojar said overlogging is largely rooted in industry deregulation under Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government, which was in power from 2001 to 2011, and other threats to forests include the mountain pine beetle and increasing wildfires. He said the current NDP government has not taken substantive measures to transition the industry to more sustainable practices. Instead, he said, the administration has left things unchanged because it is “desperate for ways to keep people working.” 

Holt agrees the government is torn between the “short-term” need for jobs and “long-term” environmental sustainability but said chasing a limited amount of old growth doesn’t support either goal.

“The answer is not simple, but pretending that the problem doesn’t exist is not the answer,” said Holt. “We do not have a sustainable industry from a jobs or an environment perspective.”

Update June 4, 2020 at 5:35 p.m. PST: A previous version of this story described a study as saying that only 35,000 hectares of forest with large old-growth trees are remaining in B.C. In fact, the study concluded that there are 415,000 hectares of forest that are home to large trees, but only 35,000 hectares with the largest, most productive old-growth trees.

Read the original article

Conservation group cries foul over logging old-growth forest in Caycuse River watershed

/in

Cowichan Valley Citizen
May 15, 2020

Government working on new strategy for old-growth forests

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling for the protection of old-growth forests following the logging of some of Vancouver Island’s ancient forests along Haddon Creek in the Caycuse River watershed.

The call from the conservation group coincides with the deadline for a government-appointed panel to submit recommendations to the province following a six-month-long Old Growth Strategic Review.

AFA campaigner and photographer TJ Watt recently found scores of giant trees cut down in the Caycuse watershed, including red cedar trees more than 11 feet in diameter.

“This grove has an exceptionally large number of massive, ancient cedars,” Watt said.

“Without question, it’s one of the grandest forests on the south Island, rivalling the renowned Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew or the Walbran Valley, which lies a short distance to the south. In 2020, we shouldn’t be logging globally rare ancient forests such as these and converting them to ecologically inferior tree plantations.”

Located southwest of Cowichan Lake and east of Nitinat Lake in Ditidaht First Nation territory, the grove stands within a 33.5 hectare cut block in Tree Farm Licence 46 near Haddon Creek, where logging company Teal-Jones is actively working.

Combined with several other cutblocks nearby, a total of 71.5 hectares of old-growth forest has or is planned to be logged along Haddon Creek and one of its tributaries.

According to a press release from the AFA, the Caycuse watershed was once a prime example of ancient coastal rain forest, but has been heavily logged over the past several decades.

“There is an extreme sense of urgency because we’re rapidly losing the small percentage of ‘big-tree’ forests that remains unprotected on Vancouver Island,” Watt said.

“As the province assesses the old-growth panel’s findings and decides which recommendations it may or may not implement, trees upwards of 1,000 years old are being cut at alarming rates, never to be seen again. Forest Minister Doug Donaldson needs to act quickly and decisively to ensure their protection.”

In response to growing pressure to address the over-exploitation of the province’s old-growth forests, Victoria convened an independent, two-person panel in October to conduct an Old Growth Strategic Review, which included seeking public, stakeholder, and First Nations’ feedback on how B.C. should best manage old-growth forests.

The panel’s report and recommendations have been submitted to the government, and Victoria plans to undertake further consultations with the goal of developing a new provincial Old Growth Strategy.

But the press release said the government plans to wait up to six months to publicly release the panel’s recommendations and the province’s proposed new policy direction.

“We look forward to seeing the panel’s report, which must be made public much sooner because time is of the essence as many of the forests in question are being logged right now,” said AFA campaigner Andrea Inness.

“We expect to see strong recommendations based on the scientific evidence presented to the panel, and are looking to the government to quickly implement sweeping changes to protect ancient forests before the next election.”

A statement from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resources and Rural Development acknowledged that the panel’s report was received by the ministry on April 30 and committed to publicly respond within six months.

“The primary objective of the Old Growth Strategic Review, announced in July, 2019, is to inform policy and a new old-growth strategy for British Columbia; one that provides more clarity on the land base and with consideration to employment and economic benefits, and social, cultural and environmental values, and the need to address climate change,” the ministry statement said.

Read the original article

Explore Magazine: Speak for the Trees

/in

See this article in Explore Magazine which features an interview with AFA’s TJ Watt and covers the history of the Avatar Grove campaign, the economic value of standing old-growth forests, and debunks the BC government’s claim that these forests are not endangered. Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce President, Dan Hager, and Spirit of the West co-owner, Rick Snowdon, share their personal experiences as tourism operators as well.

Read here on page 46.

Cathedral Grove at risk from old growth logging uphill from popular site, say conservationists

/in

CBC News British Columbia
March 8th, 2020

Ancient Forest Alliance demands province set aside money to buy private lands near MacMillan Provincial Park

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness stands close to a stream on Mt. Horne, the hillside above the world-famous Cathedral Grove, which she says is being encroached on by old growth logging in the area. (TJ Watt/Ancient Forest Alliance)

Conservationists on Vancouver Island have renewed a demand that the province set aside money to buy private lands to stop the logging of old growth trees.

The call came this week after the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance drew attention to logging happening close to one of the most-visited stands of protected old growth trees in the province — Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park.

Since late 2019 Mosaic Forest Management has been logging on Mt. Horne, which is uphill from the park known for its ancient Douglas firs, some of which are up to 800 years old. 

Conservationists say that old growth trees in dense forests support biodiversity and are important areas to protect in the fight against climate change. They are also prized by loggers for their value.

Campaigners against the logging on Mt. Horne argue that that by cutting close to the park, and deforesting the hillside above it, Cathedral Grove will become more at risk to windstorms, erosion and the loss of habitat.

In 1997, a severe windstorm toppled hundreds of trees and destroyed sections of the trail in Cathedral Grove. 

“Its ecological integrity continues to be undermined as the B.C. government allows clear cut logging to encroach closer and closer to the MacMillan Provincial Park boundary,” said TJ Watt, with the AFA in a release.

An old growth area logged by Mosaic Forest Management on Mt. Horne, the hillside above the world-famous Cathedral Grove. Second-growth forests are in the foreground. (TJ Watt/Ancient Forest Alliance)

Watt and others have, for years, asked that the province create a natural lands acquisition fund to identify critical areas for biodiversity or with First Nations cultural value and purchase them from private owners.

Vancouver Island’s Capital Regional District has a Land Acquisition Fund, which collects a $20 a year levy from households. Since its creation in 2000, it has purchased and protected around 5,000 hectares of land on southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

Conservationists argue, in this case of Mt. Horne, acquiring land near the park through a similar provincial fund would allow it to expand and protect more old growth areas.

The province says there is no plan to do so however. Its latest budget, with a surplus of more than $200 million, set aside $13 million to help revitalize the forestry sector in lock-step with First Nations, but that does not include money for buying private lands.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD) says the area being logged on Mt. Horne is managed by the Private Managed Forests Lands Act and is subject to dozens of regulations including provisions for protecting critical fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, soil conservation and reforestation.

Reserve areas set aside

Mosaic said in 2019, prior to cutting trees in the area, registered professional biologists surveyed the area and did not identify any species at risk or endangered ecosystems.

It also said that, in the past, it has donated or sold more than 44,000 hectares of private land for conservation on Vancouver Island.

“Most of this area represents the highest ecological quality forest areas in our land base,” said Karen Brandt, director of  government relations and strategic engagement with Mosaic.

“In our working forest, registered professional biologists identify and set aside additional reserve areas for high-quality habitat for ungulates [deer] and threatened species like marbled murrelet.”

The province is currently undergoing an old growth strategic review. Many groups, including the AFA, recommended during public engagement that a land acquisition fund be included in future policies.

Legislative amendments based on that feedback is expected this spring, with regulations in force by 2021.

The red ticker shows the approximate location of Mt. Horne, where old growth logging takes place near MacMillan Provincial Park and Cathedral Grove, a protected area for old growth trees since 1947. (Google Maps)

Read the original article

NOTE:
The BC government’s weak regulations on private managed forest lands and sales of Mosaic private lands for conservation are inadequate measures and have failed to stem the large-scale destruction of BC’s globally rare, coastal old-growth forests.

According to BC government data and satellite imagery, only 8% of original productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old Growth Management Areas on BC’s south coast.

Logging concerns around Vancouver Island’s famous old-growth forest

/in

Global News
March 5th, 2020

Environmental groups are calling for government action to protect the forests surrounding one of B.C.’s most famous old-growth forests, Cathedral Grove. Linda Aylesworth reports.

Watch the original news piece 

Old Growth Forests Are Vital to Indigenous Cultures. We Need to Protect What’s Left

/in

The BC government wants to hear from the public as it reviews old growth logging policies.

The Tyee, OPINION- Joe Martin
January 28, 2020

Joe Martin is a master canoe carver and artist from the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, a tribe of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth First Nations, located in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island.

Eden Grove Port Renfrew
The unprotected Eden Grove Ancient Forest, located on Edinburgh Mountain near Port Renfrew, BC, in Pacheedaht First Nation territory. Photo by TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance.

The B.C. government is reviewing its policies to manage the province’s old growth forests and seeking public input.

This should be the opportunity for the government to start righting the mistakes of the past.

This new approach must obey the law of nature, under which we all live. This means we must understand Earth’s ecological limits and learn to respect them and live within them.

In Nuu-chah-nulth culture, the teachings of responsibility and respect for the land are passed down by our Elders as soon as our lives are conceived, and they continue until we die. These teachings are cornerstones of our culture, but they are foreign concepts to the provincial government and industry, who view our old growth forests as limitless resources to be plundered.

In my 12 years as a logger in Clayoquot Sound, I witnessed the destruction of some of the biggest trees and finest old growth forests I had ever seen. I witnessed the decimation of salmon streams, once teeming with steelhead, chum and coho, due to the clearcutting of entire valleys and landslides on the steep mountain slopes.

Although there have been significant conservation achievements in Clayoquot Sound through Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks, the destruction of old growth forests continues throughout much of B.C., and the province has continually failed to acknowledge how much has already been lost.

I was eventually fired from my job as a logger for refusing to haul two big logs across a salmon-bearing stream, knowing the logs would destroy key salmon habitat. I felt as though a weight had been lifted. I had become increasingly bothered by how horrible it was, what was happening to the land, so I joined in the effort to save the forest ecosystems I had once been paid to log.

I also took up fishing with my father, who worked as a fisherman, hunter, trapper and canoe builder. Throughout my life he taught me those skills and about how to respect the land, how to avoid disturbing the creeks in the forest to protect the coho, and the protocol to follow when selecting a cedar to cut for our cultural items — spending time in the forest, observing the birds and wildlife and avoiding trees with eagle’s nests or bear or cougar dens close by.

Our people practised for abundance rather than “sustainability.” To me, sustainability means keeping our natural resources on a lifeline until they’re eventually gone or until industry has finally had enough and moved on. Practising for abundance is making sure that your grandchildren won’t have to work as hard as you did. It’s ensuring that when we leave this garden for them, they will have everything they need.

This abundance is what allowed the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples to develop such a rich culture, which depends heavily on the availability of old growth red cedar in particular. We use cedar bark and wood for many cultural items such as woven hats, dugout canoes, totems, bentwood boxes and regalia. Our relationship and respect for these trees, the land and wildlife is represented and reinforced when we create and use these items, and we continue to rely on healthy forest ecosystems to maintain our culture.

Klanawa-Valley-Creek-Logged.jpg
Old-growth logging on steep slopes can impact rivers and streams, potentially damaging sensitive salmon habitat. Photo by TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance.

The destruction of old growth forests, for Nuu-chah-nulth peoples, equates to a loss of identity. The loss of connection to the land and of our languages threatens our survival and is the cause of many of the social problems in our communities.

Many communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, are struggling due to the destruction of forests caused by provincial government mismanagement. On Vancouver Island, about 80 per cent of big-tree forests have been cut and replaced with tree plantations. Much of what remains are bogs or scrub.

Yet companies are still clearcut logging across most of B.C., destroying rivers and streams and harming salmon and other wildlife. Jobs have been lost due to the failure of the province to stop industry from cleaning out the best old growth in the valleys and support slower, careful forestry and processing second-growth timber instead. With so little old growth forest remaining, now is the time for the province to act.

We must listen to what Indigenous wisdom and science tells us, which is that we need to protect more forests to ensure their integrity and our own survival. The B.C. government needs to heed this wisdom and science in its old growth strategy. That means deciding what must be protected before deciding what can or can’t be logged. It means prioritizing biodiversity, fisheries, monumental trees, carbon storage, Indigenous culture, recreation and clean water over timber.

This must be coupled with support for Indigenous communities and economies. Without economic alternatives, many nations do not have the option of refusing logging in their territories.

Joe-Martin-Workshop-with-Canoe.jpg
The author Joe Martin, photographed in his workshop in Tofino, BC, next to a traditional dugout canoe made of old growth red cedar. Photo by TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance.

We must all make a living, and if there are few employment alternatives to destructive resource extraction, what choice is there? None. And so our lands and our culture are sacrificed. The government must provide funding for First Nations’ economic diversification to create jobs while allowing remaining old-growth forests and culturally important areas to be protected.

The Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks in Clayoquot Sound are a good example. Tourism and recreation are big economic drivers here, and there is much work to be done in the tribal parks like building and maintaining infrastructure, which could lead a lot of our people away from jobs in logging and fish farming. I believe this would make the whole community much happier and it would be a great investment for future generations.

The province must recognize the cultural significance of the old growth forests that play such an important role in our lives. They must legally recognize and support Indigenous protected areas like tribal parks, starting in Clayoquot Sound, but also across B.C., and work with nations to support Indigenous-led land-use planning. It’s an important part of our peoples governing ourselves.

We have a responsibility to our future generations, and to uphold the teachings of our ancestors. We have to learn how to live together, how to listen to each other, and how to manage our remaining old-growth forests for abundance for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

The B.C. government is accepting public feedback on its proposed provincial Old Growth Strategy until Friday. For more details and to provide input, go here. 

Original opinion piece here

For Vancouver Island’s old-growth explorers, naming trees is a delight – but saving them is a challenge

/in

Conservationist Ken Wu has chronicled B.C.’s ancient trees and given them catchy names, hoping it will build support to keep them standing. Now, the province faces crucial choices about logging, biodiversity, Indigenous rights and the fate of the forests.

The Globe and Mail
January 7th, 2020
San Juan Valley, Vancouver Island

Graduate student Ian Thomas and conservationist Ken Wu marvel at an old-growth Sitka spruce, dubbed ‘Gaston,’ in Vancouver Island’s San Juan Valley floodplain.PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELISSA RENWICK/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

On a foggy day in November in the heart of a primeval forest, conservationist Ken Wu and biology graduate student Ian Thomas were standing at the base of a Sitka spruce, looking way up.

“Gaston!” Mr. Wu pronounced, pointing out the thick branches in the upper reaches of the 500-year-old tree, in which he sees the bicep-flexing character of his young daughter’s favourite Disney animation, Beauty and the Beast.

More than 80 years ago, in his collection of poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot provided exacting instructions for the naming of cats. The conventions around the naming of ancient trees is a less complicated affair.

Mr. Wu, who heads the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, hunts big trees and gives them nicknames, hoping to build public support for protecting some of the last remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island. His nicknames aim to be as catchy as an advertising jingle. “We don’t have the luxury to be boring,” he explains.

“It’s just a fun way to draw attention – in a viral way, hopefully – to a magnificent, endangered grove.” He named Big Lonely Doug, a Douglas fir that has been identified as the second-largest in Canada, which stands alone in the middle of a clear-cut. He helped win protection for nearby Avatar Grove so its trees would be spared the same fate.

A fern brushes against a tree branch in Eden Grove, one of the old-growth forest regions Mr. Wu has explored.

These groves, spread out over roughly 500 hectares of the San Juan Valley floodplain, are largely unprotected. Two-thirds of the known old-growth forests here are on private forestry land, and one-third are on Crown land, within the operating area of BC Timber Sales.

The province has approved sections of land in the valley for logging, and Mr. Wu and Mr. Thomas are racing to catalog what they hope to save before the logging trucks roll in.

Forestry remains a major economic driver in British Columbia for many communities, and the provincial government is under pressure to protect the industry, which depends on a steady supply of both old- and second-growth logs to feed the province’s sawmills.

The tree Mr. Wu dubbed Gaston stands in a rugged section of Vancouver Island’s west coast. Sitka spruce are the largest in the world, and have been found reaching close to 100 metres in height next door in the Carmanah Valley. In these wet valleys on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the trees thrive in a foggy, boggy micro-climate that incites fast growth.

Together, the pair have charted 22 similar groves on this floodplain that features trees no less than 250 years of age. Mr. Thomas, who ought to be finishing his thesis on bird song, has been distracted for weeks, scouring hectares of the valley bottom.

Port Renfrew, B.C., calls itself the Tall Tree Capital of Canada.

To visit some of these groves, we drive past the town of Port Renfrew (which bills itself as the Tall Tree Capital of Canada), eventually turning onto a rough and narrow gravel road. Then, on foot, we pick our way through a forest floor thick with giant sword ferns and lichen-draped salmonberries.

“I love these ecosystems, but it’s a hellish sort of bushwhack through a lot of it,” Mr. Wu warns.

This is what Mr. Wu refers to as the Serengeti of Vancouver Island’s rainforest: It is home to Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, wolves, cougars and black bears.

The easiest part of the hike is where the elk have broken a trail; their fresh hoofprints after the recent rain suggest we are following a busy thoroughfare.

The forest understory is quite unlike what is found in the region’s second-growth forests – there is a luscious disorder here, with branches draped in solid curtains of moss, trees growing out of the decay of fallen nurse logs. In one grove, a young hemlock tree grows up and into the side of a massive spruce. Perhaps one day it will take over the space.

It is not a wilderness – the Pacheedaht First Nation people have occupied these lands for thousands of years, and their ancient villages and campsites have been recorded up and down the San Juan river, an important spawning ground for chinook salmon and green sturgeon.

Mr. Thomas climbs ‘Gaston’ to take a closer look.

“Gaston” is growing about two kilometres east of a former summer fish camp near Fairy Lake. In these forests, the Pacheedaht have harvested red cedar to make long-houses, masks and canoes. Spruce roots were used to make rope, fishing line and thread.

Yet as we hack our way further into the forest, any hint of human intervention disappears. The vibe is very lost-in-time.

“This feels like a dinosaur should be stomping around,” Mr. Wu says.

These floodplains that nurture both old-growth Sitka spruce and salmonberries are rare, classified by the Ministry of Environment as “red-listed” ecosystems – endangered or threatened.

However, these trees could be up on the auction block at any moment. A large cedar here can be worth $50,000 to a logging company. The old giant Gaston would likely be destined for two-by-fours, if it ends up in a sawmill.

Mr. Wu, right, and T.J. Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance walk down a logging road on Edinburgh Mountain near Port Renfrew. The forest was recently logged by the forestry company Teal-Jones.
Mr. Wu sits on one of the felled Douglas fir stumps. He has spent eight years documenting the ancient trees of the San Juan Valley, which he thinks of as the Serengeti of Vancouver Island.

Today, B.C.’s provincial government, the New Democratic Party, is poised to make some critical decisions about the future of old growth.

Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, appointed an independent panel last summer to consult with British Columbians about how to manage old-growth forests.

The deadline for public response to a questionnaire is Jan. 31, and the panel’s recommendations are due back in the spring of 2020. When he announced the panel, Mr. Donaldson said in a statement that he is “committed to developing a new thoughtful and measured approach to managing this resource for the benefit of all British Columbians.”

Mr. Donaldson has also promised what he describes as significant amendments to the Forest and Range Practices Act, after his initial consultations showed strong public support to protect old growth forests.

But B.C. has yet to say how it will assist Canada in its commitment to meet its targets in a global effort to stem the tide of biodiversity loss.

The government is under intense pressure to keep logging. The B.C. forest sector is in crisis. Mills are closing as the timber supply shrinks and trade disputes drive up costs. The labour-friendly provincial government, now 2½ years into its current mandate, is wary of measures to curb logging and to date has offered few, and small, victories to conservationists.

Moss grows on Douglas maple trees near Port Renfrew. B.C.’s government is under increasing pressure to continue logging in old-growth forests like these.

In December, forest industry workers gathered on the front steps of the B.C. Legislature in Victoria to demand the government intervene in a months-long strike by 3,000 Western Forest Products employees on Vancouver Island.

Ron Tucker was among the protesters. A second generation logger who now owns his own small logging outfit, Mr. Tucker represents the dilemma for the government.

These workers come from NDP-held ridings. While ecologists such as Mr. Wu say the industry needs help to adapt to second-growth logging and more secondary manufacturing, the protesters say B.C. has already created enough protected areas.

“It would shut the forest industry down if you took old-growth logging out of the program,” Mr. Tucker said in an interview. He works in a tree farm licence on the north end of Vancouver Island where the harvest is one-fifth second growth, and four-fifths old growth.

“This industry is far too important for this province to lose. It is still the biggest economic driver in B.C. I mean, they’ve got new hospitals planned, and new schools planned, and all these big expenditures,” he said. “Without forestry, there’s no way that they can can do what they say they’re gonna do.”

The image of Big Lonely Doug does not sway Mr. Tucker and his colleagues, who just want to get back to work and meet their mortgage payments.

“I’m not gonna deny clearcuts are ugly. They are. And [conservationists] take pictures of this ugly clearcut and then basically go back to the general public and say this is what logging is. It’s so far from the truth. I’ve been in logging my whole life. I’m actually almost falling timber that was planted when I first started hauling logs.”

Just outside Port Renfrew stands Big Lonely Doug, which was saved from clear-cutting in 2011.

Mr. Wu argues there is far more to be gained by leaving these forests intact. Old-growth forests can foster tourism and recreation jobs, while supporting endangered species, clean water, wild salmon and carbon sequestration to contribute to the battle against climate change.

His Endangered Ecosystems Alliance has called for a moratorium on logging of the most intact old-growth tracts. They want funding to establish Indigenous Protected Areas – tribal parks – that would allow local First Nations to manage the lands. And they want government to offer incentives and regulations to encourage the development of a value-added, second-growth forest industry so that people such as Mr. Tucker can still make a living, without threatening the biodiversity that depends on old-growth forests.

The Indigenous component would be critical to this, as many First Nations communities rely on forestry partnerships to build their own economies. That includes the Pacheedaht First Nation. In September, B.C.’s chief forester increased the amount of timber available to be harvested in this region, through Tree Farm Licence 61, because the forests are growing faster than estimated in the previous timber supply review. The Pacheedaht First Nation has a joint venture to log in TFL61, which includes 2,900 hectares of forests that are older than 240 years. Any new protected areas here will have to provide for the human well-being of the people who have traditionally occupied these lands.

Mr. Watt looks up at a western red cedar in Jurassic Grove, an unprotected stretch of old-growth forest along the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. For generations, these forests have been home to the Pacheedaht people, who build longhouses and carve masks from red cedar wood.
‘I love these ecosystems, but it’s a hellish sort of bushwhack through a lot of it,’ Mr. Wu says.

Mr. Wu’s quest for big trees along the San Juan river started eight years ago, when he was running the Avatar Grove campaign in the next valley over. He suspected there were some stands of old growth hidden in the mature second-growth forests, but he didn’t have time to explore.

It was Mr. Thomas, who happened to take a tour of old growth with Mr. Wu, who sparked the hunt. “I was blown away. It’s incredible this still exists,” Mr. Thomas said as we explored the valley. He started studying satellite maps of the San Juan Valley bottom to plan his next visit. “I wanted to check out all these groves when I should have been writing my thesis.”

For a biologist, the San Juan Valley floodplain is a gold mine of eco-diversity. Standing at the base of a 300-year-old tree, Mr. Thomas sees a natural sculpture that is impossible to replicate in a second-growth tree plantation. He points out where bats can roost, and how the massive roots that grew over a long-decayed nurse log have left an opening for a black bear’s den. A pine marten has retreated up the trunk to safety while we invade its turf. The diversity of form and function makes space for them all.

“We hit the big-tree jackpot here,” Mr. Wu says.

This year, the provincial government will decide whether it is a jackpot to be protected, or harvested.

Overview: Where B.C.’s old forests grow

Some of Vancouver Island’s last old-growth forests can be found in the San Juan Valley floodplain, the traditional territory of the Pacheedaht people. Sitka spruce can grow to gigantic size there. But two-thirds of these forests are on private forestry land, and the rest on Crown land. Across B.C., Old Growth Management Areas protect ancient forests from development, but the province’s plan for safeguarding old-growth trees is now under review by an independent panel.

Read the original article