Sonia Furstenau: The Island’s old growth is under attack

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Times Colonist
May 13, 2019

Falling-boundary tape in one of the seven old-growth cutblocks that were proposed by B.C. Timber Sales near Juan de Fuca Provincial Park. Photograph By TJ WATT

Vancouver Island marches ever closer to losing its last remaining productive old-growth forests, and yet government after government continues to advance the same policies. So far, the B.C. NDP government has maintained that same status quo.

Let me be clear: Logging productive old growth is not in any way sustainable. It’s a finite resource on Vancouver Island, and most of it is already gone. That’s a critical threat — not only for species and habitats, but for jobs. There are mills that are fitted to process only old growth. What are those workers going to do when we run out?

It’s time we took a different approach that protects our old-growth forests and gives a real future to the communities that rely on them.

Our B.C. Green offices have received more than 20,000 emails from concerned British Columbians asking why the province continues to eradicate its old growth.

And not just any old growth. These are some of the most pristine, intact and biodiverse habitats in the world. They support not just flora and fauna, but entire industries and communities.

This month, in a review of B.C. Timber Sales’ sales schedule, environmental organizations Elphinstone Logging Focus and Sierra Club B.C. revealed that the B.C. government plans to auction more than 1,300 hectares of cutblocks in old-growth forests across Vancouver Island in 2019.

More than 100 hectares of this old-growth forest scheduled to be clearcut is adjacent to Juan de Fuca Provincial Park located northeast of Botanical Beach and south of Port Renfrew. After immense public outcry, the political repercussions were enough to spur the province’s timber agency to “postpone” the auction pending consultation with a stakeholder they had apparently overlooked.

Let’s crunch the numbers. At present, 79 per cent of the original productive old-growth forests on B.C.’s southern coast have been logged, including 90 per cent of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only eight per cent of Vancouver Island’s original productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and old-growth management areas.

But you might not see these same numbers from government. Why?

By deliberately choosing how old growth is defined, measured and valued, the B.C. NDP government is continuing the same policy approach we saw under the B.C. Liberals that will log most of our old-growth forests.

One tactic government uses is to re-define “old growth” — to treat a sub-alpine ancient forest, where the trees might never grow more than a few dozen feet high, the same as a valley bottom, where the centuries-old giants ascend into the heavens. These sub-alpine forests aren’t valuable for logging, so it’s convenient to “protect” them. This inflates how much old-growth is “protected” from being logged.

B.C. Greens have been an invaluable contributor to the Clean B.C. economic plan and on other files on which our values align with government. On old growth, however, we are deeply concerned that this government simply won’t do what is necessary to protect our old growth forests and the communities that rely on them. That’s why we three Green MLAs are speaking out: To hold government accountable. British Columbians deserve better.

We must change how land-use decisions are made in this province, to create healthy, sustainable, resilient communities as the impacts of climate change increase and intensify.

We need to ensure that the people who live on the land, who depend on the water and soil, are participating in decisions about that land. First Nations, local community representatives and local governments need to be at the table. Port Renfrew has re-defined itself as the “Tall Tree Capital of Canada,” generating a sustainable ecotourism-based economy. Remove the tall trees and this burgeoning economy, along with its ecosystem, falters.

We also must immediately begin the transition to second-growth forestry. That means investing in mill retrofits and incentivizing value-added manufacturing. It is possible to create a second-growth industry that moves us away from the boom-and-bust cycle that workers have been perpetually trapped in.

We must protect the last of the old growth on Vancouver Island for future generations, because we recognize that ultimately it belongs to them, not us. We demand government start making decisions that our grandchildren won’t have to forgive us for.

Sonia Furstenau is the Green Party MLA for Cowichan Valley.

Read the original op ed


B.C. Greens call for immediate moratorium on logging of VI old-growth, support sustainable second-growth industry

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May 13, 2019

VICTORIA, B.C. — Today at the Legislature, forestry and community stakeholders joined the B.C. Greens in calling for a moratorium to protect Vancouver Island’s vital old-growth ecosystems and to develop more sustainable forest practices that B.C. can depend on for generations to come.

“Our coastal old-growth is not a renewable resource – and there’s not much left,” said MLA Sonia Furstenau, deputy leader of the B.C. Greens. “Stakeholders and experts are clear that the government is inflating the amount of productive old-growth that’s protected from logging. These globally rare ecosystems support threatened species – including wild salmon – and keep our water and air clean.

“We are demanding that the provincial government immediately halt logging in old-growth hotspots on Vancouver Island and invest in transitioning to a sustainable second-growth economy.”

The B.C. Green caucus is calling on government to protect “hotspots”- the few remaining intact, pristine old-growth forests – on Vancouver Island and the people, species, and businesses that depend on them.

“Last year, hundreds of scientists from around the world wrote the NDP government and asked them to protect our rainforests,” Furstenau said. “Last fall, a petition with hundreds of thousands of signatures calling for the same was delivered to the Legislature. Our B.C. Green offices have received more than 20,000 emails from concerned British Columbians asking why the province continues to eradicate its old-growth. We need to take action now.”

At present, 79 per cent of the original productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, including 90 per cent of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Yet according to multiple reviews of their sales schedule, the provincial timber agency is actively auctioning off the remaining old-growth for logging. Despite its 2017 campaign rhetoric, the NDP government is continuing to pursue the Liberal government’s old- growth logging legacy. 

“Forestry jobs are of critical importance to B.C., but thousands have been lost over the last few decades. That’s because we haven’t been managing our forests sustainably or promoting value-added manufacturing,” said B.C. Green MLA Adam Olsen, who shares the role of forestry spokesperson. “We want high-paying jobs that are not vulnerable to boom-bust economics. There are mills on Vancouver Island that can only process old-growth. But old-growth is a finite resource, and most of it is already gone. That means those forestry jobs are at risk.

“There are so many solutions available,” Olsen continued. “We can invest in value-added manufacturing and refit our mills. We can sustainably harvest using practices informed by scientific evidence and traditional knowledge. We can collaborate with local communities and Indigenous people who have an intimate knowledge of their landbase.”

“Logging old-growth is short-sighted,” added Furstenau. “It jeopardizes the job stability, local economies, and ecosystem health. The government cannot continue to talk about a future strategy while actively logging these endangered forests. They must act now, or British Columbians and future generations will suffer consequences.”

Quotes:

Andrea Inness, Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner –

“Old-growth hotspots represent the very best of what remains of B.C.’s unprotected and endangered ancient forests. But thanks to B.C.’s destructive forest policies, they’re disappearing before our eyes. Although we desperately need long-term, science-based solutions for all of B.C. old-growth forests, it is imperative the B.C. government immediately halt logging in hotspots to ensure those areas with the highest conservation value receive the protection they deserve.”

Josie Osborne, Mayor of Tofino –

“We can have healthy, vibrant forest-based economies in Vancouver Island communities while conserving intact, high-productivity hotspots if we have strong leadership, a bold vision, and a plan for a fair transition to a new way of conducting forestry. I believe that industry, First Nations, and communities share the right values to make this transition successfully.”

Lisa Helps, Mayor of Victoria –

“I’d like to add my voice to the chorus of municipal and business leaders on the island calling for the protection of some of the island’s most precious ecological assets and for the preservation of biodiversity. As serious climate leaders, we must protect Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth forests for generations to come.”

Andy MacKinnon, Forest Ecologist –

“For millennia B.C.’s magnificent coastal old-growth forests have provided us with a wealth of social, economic and ecological benefits. Logging old-growth forests is not renewable resource management – once these old-growth forests are gone, they’re gone forever. And if we’re logging 10,000 hectares of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island every year, we’re certainly the last generation that will have a chance to save these forests for our children.”

Barry Gates, Ecoforestry Institute Society Co-Chair –

“Wildwood Ecoforest serves an example of what forests on Vancouver Island might have looked like had government not engaged in a management policy of old-growth elimination and the replacement of these magnificent forests by short rotation, mono-species stands. In the face of climate change, this decision will have devastating consequences.”

See the original media release

Plan to log near Juan de Fuca park on hold again for consultation with nearby lodge

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Falling boundary tape in one of the seven old-growth cutblocks that were proposed by BC Timber Sales near the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.

Times Colonist
May 9, 2019

A controversial plan to log old-growth forests near Juan de Fuca Provincial Park has been postponed for a second time.

The Ministry of Forests confirmed Wednesday that B.C. Timber Sales has pulled its advertisements for the auction of 109 hectares of forest in seven cutblocks — including two that come within 50 metres of the park.

It’s the second time the government agency has delayed the sale following a public outcry from conservationists, businesses and others.

Forests Minister Doug Donaldson initially said the auction deadline was being pushed back two weeks to May 10 to give officials time to investigate concerns raised by environmental groups.

This time, the ministry said B.C. Timber Sales “is no longer advertising the timber sale in order to engage with a local stakeholder who was inadvertently missed during the initial referral process.”

Donaldson was unavailable for an interview Wednesday and the ministry did not identify the stakeholder.

But Jon Cash, co-owner of Soule Creek Lodge, said he received an email from B.C. Timber Sales Wednesday morning saying the sale had been “postponed/removed to allow for additional engagement with Soule Creek Lodge.”

The lodge is located near the proposed clearcuts and Cash has complained that noise from chainsaws and road blasting will devastate his business.

B.C. Timber Sales said in the email that it hopes “to find reasonable grounds to move forward with this timber sale in the near future with refinements that hopefully meet your interests.”

Cash called the response “not terribly encouraging” and urged the government to clarify its plans.

“I think the political blowback has been significant enough that they’re trying to defuse it a bit until they can figure out how to deal with it,” he said.

Cash added that it’s unfair of the government to blame the delay on him when thousands of others oppose logging in the area.

“It’s hardly me that’s standing in the way,” he said.

Environmental groups have launched a campaign to protect the forests, arguing that the massive trees represent a major tourist attraction and a buffer against the impacts of climate change and species loss.

The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce says clear-cutting the forests would do irreparable harm to tourism in a region that has branded itself Canada’s Tall Tree Capital.

Chamber president Dan Hager took it as positive sign that B.C. Timber Sales appears to have delayed the sale indefinitely. “At the very worst, what we’ve done is we’ve bought some time.”

Now, groups can bolster their economic and environmental arguments for saving the trees in case the government tries to revive its plans, he said.

“I mean, the arguments we can make that this is a dumb idea just go on.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance attributed the latest delay to the ongoing public backlash.

“I can’t speak to the length of the postponement, but it would seem that with the amount of people who are paying attention to this topic and [who] are staunchly opposed to it, it would be hard to see it going forward,” said TJ Watt, an alliance campaigner and photographer.

“I would say at least the battle has been won, but we’ll see where it goes from here.

“Ideally, we would see those regions protected, either through an old-growth management area or, in a perfect world, the expansion of the provincial park.”

lkines@timescolonist.com

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Port Renfrew chamber decries logging plan

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Times Colonist
May 4, 2019

An aerial photo of the old-growth forests where B.C. Timber Sales has seven pending cutblocks totalling 109 hectares. Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is along the coast and the town of Port Renfrew in the background. Photograph By TJ WATT

Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has joined a growing outcry against B.C. government plans to log old-growth forests near Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.

President Dan Hager said Friday that clearcutting the ancient trees will hurt tourism and damage a regional economy already hard hit by chinook fishing restrictions.

“Right now, we tell everybody that Port Renfrew is Canada’s tall tree capital,” he said in an interview. “It’s on our website. It works.

“I’m in the accommodation business in Renfrew. People ask about it. I’m the one that responds to all the inquiries that come in off the chamber email and people are asking about the trees.”

Hager said that will be put in jeopardy if B.C. Timber Sales proceeds with plans to sell off 109 hectares of the region’s old-growth forest in seven cutblocks — including two that come within 50 metres of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.

“If I was an editor of a newspaper, I would say: ‘Canada’s tall tree capital is now Canada’s clearcut capital,’ ” Hager said.

“What kind of damage is that going to do our reputation in the long term?”

Forests Minister Doug Donaldson said this week that B.C. Timber Sales, which is a government agency, was not aware of any direct impacts from logging on ecotourism in the area.

But he said the timber auction has been delayed two weeks so officials can investigate concerns raised by conservationists and others.

Environmental groups have launched a campaign to protect the trees, arguing that they’re more valuable as a tourist attraction and a buffer against climate change and the loss of endangered species.

The Port Renfrew chamber, meanwhile, has appealed directly to the office of Premier John Horgan, who represents the Langford-Juan de Fuca constituency.

“He’s familiar with Renfrew,” Hager said. “He knows that it’s a community recovering and that our economy revolves around trees and revolves around the fish.

“So we’re optimistic that we’re going to get good results here.”

Horgan was unavailable for comment Friday, but Hager said the chamber was encouraged that the government has delayed the timber sale and hopes it eventually will decide to protect the ancient trees.

Hager said the main message the chamber hopes to get across is that the trees are worth more standing — as demonstrated by the global appeal of Avatar Grove about 20 minutes from Port Renfrew.

“We know from the Avatar experience that old-growth forests attract tourists — not just locally but from all over the world,” he said. “And those tourists have money. They bring money and the more of it that we have in the immediate driving area of Renfrew, the better it is for our local economy.

“It’s a lot better than cutting them down, because you cut them down once, you run them through the sawmill, they build somebody’s deck and that’s it. But, if you leave them standing, people come over and over again to look.”

Al Jones, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail in the 1990s, said he, too, contacted Horgan’s office to complain about the logging plans.

“Yesterday, I was on the phone all day, phoning people that I don’t even know to help us out and speak out against it,” he said Friday. “It’s just a beautiful spot. Renfrew’s a beautiful area and I just think the logging should be over with.”

Jones said he’d like to see the old growth preserved for future generations, as opposed to clearcutting the trees to turn a quick profit.

“Mostly, that cedar is going to be sent to China,” he said. “There’s not going to be the jobs that they say that there is.

“I have been a logging superintendent and they could go in there for three or four months and log the whole thing and be in and out of there. So it’s a short-term [gain] for a big expense on such a beautiful spot.”

lkines@timescolonist.com

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B.C. delays timber auction near Juan de Fuca park

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Times Colonist
May 3, 2019

New deadline is May 10 after environmental groups’ concerns prompt reassessment

View of the old-growth forest slated for logging by B.C. Timber Sales adjacent to a section of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. Photograph By TJ WATT

 

A backlash against plans to log old-growth forests near Port Renfrew has prompted the B.C. government to push back the timber sale by two weeks.

Forests Minister Doug Donaldson said the delay will allow the government to investigate concerns raised by environmental groups.

The groups reacted angrily after B.C. Timber Sales advertised plans to auction 109 hectares of old-growth forest in seven cutblocks — two of which come within 50 metres of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.

The Ancient Forest Alliance says logging will damage forests that buffer the park and harm ecotourism in an area that has branded itself Canada’s Big Tree Capital.

The group adds that the proposed cutblocks contain large “legacy trees” that qualify for protection under provincial rules.

Donaldson said B.C. Timber Sales has extended the auction deadline to May 10 in response to the outcry.

“It gives us more time to investigate the information that’s been provided by environmental organizations about legacy trees being in some of the areas that [are] planned for logging,” he said, adding: “It’s part of best practices under B.C. Timber Sales to provide protection for those legacy trees.”

Donaldson said the government agency, which auctions off about 20 per cent of the provincial allowable cut each year, has already made adjustments for rare plant species in the area.

“They’re not aware of impacts directly for ecotourism operations within this licence area,” he said.

But environmentalists and local businesses say logging intact old-growth forests in the region will deal another blow to Port Renfrew’s economy, which is already reeling from new federal restrictions on chinook fishing.

“Today, the vast majority of business is related to tourism and leaving trees standing,” said TJ Watt, a campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“They’re moving into a more modern and sustainable economy based on big-tree tourism, and the Juan de Fuca trail draws thousands of visitors in every year.”

He noted that one section of the trail is already closed for repairs. “If logging were to proceed, at the north end you could be hiking the trail and hear the sound of chainsaws and road-blasting all day long.”
Randal Pickelein, whose Mystic Beach Adventures company leads hikes on the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, said logging near park boundaries detracts from the beauty that draws people to a region in the first place.

“I think it’s just an embarrassment,” he said. “[Logging] should be not be more important than all of the tourism industries that are employing more people. “And for future generations, it’s horrible what we’re leaving them.”

Environmental groups welcomed the government’s decision to extend the sale deadline, but they want the auction cancelled outright and the forests protected.

“They should be dropped indefinitely because of their very high ecological value,” said Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club B.C.

“Overall, southern Vancouver Island has very little old growth left and we have to understand that climate change means even greater pressure on the unique plants and animals that depend on old growth.”

Donaldson said the government values the biodiversity provided by old-growth forests. “That’s why there’s 520,000 hectares of old growth already that won’t be logged on Vancouver Island.”

But he said the government also has to consider the impact on communities and forest workers of shifting away from old-growth logging.

“There has to be consideration of a fair transition for workers, as well,” he said.

To that end, Donaldson said the government is working on a “new old-growth strategy” for the province and expects to announce a public engagement process in the coming weeks.

Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee said conservationists recognize that it will take time to phase out old-growth logging.

“We realize that it’s not going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “But we argue that it needs to be phased out rapidly.”

And he said government could start by reining in its own agency.

“We’ve said that’s a place to start — start with B.C. Timber Sales,” he said. “And since this government’s been in, they’ve just ramped up, really, the amount of cutting that’s happening under BCTS. So that’s a huge concern.”

Coste said the government should put a halt to logging old-growth forests until it has a strategy in place.

“We need to see a proper plan from this government that lays out the adequate management and the survival of some of these ecosystems before we’re going to be OK with a government agency clear-cutting some of what we think is the last of it,” he said.

lkines@timescolonist.com

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‘They’re going to have a fight’: local businesses and activists promise to stand against old-growth logging near Juan de Fuca park

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There is a call from conservationists tonight to halt plans to log an old-growth forest near Port Renfrew. The province says ecology and aesthetics are taken into consideration when crown-owned timber is auctioned off. But critics say the damage outweighs the benefits, Kori Sidaway reports.

WATCH the CHEK News story here.

These gentle giants have stood for millennia.

But the towering trees are becoming increasingly rare.

“This is what makes Port Renfrew unique!” said TJ Watt, a campaigner with Ancient Forest Alliance.

“People will travel from across the world to see these ancient cathedrals, but once they’re gone they’re gone.”

And that’s just what’s set to happen.

One hundred and nine hectares of old growth forests, sitting on crown land on the border of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, is up for auction off to logging companies at the end of the month.

“This would result in giant clear cuts, and actually the wood volume is equivalent to about 1300 logging trucks worth of old growth,” said Watt.

Old growth forests aren’t fully protected in B.C., and activists say that’s endangering tourism in the area.

“Port Renfrew has successfully rebranded itself as the tall tree capital of Canada in recent years and they’re seeing a boom because of that,” said Watt.

“They’re adapting a more sustainable economy based in the 21st century whereas the B.C. government is trying to hold it in the past.”

It’s something places like Soule Creek Lodge, with its 270-degree views of the rainforest, agree with.

“They’re worth much more standing than lying down,” said Jon Cash who owns Soule Creek Lodge.

“Whichever private forestry company is successful in getting this bid, they’re going to have a fight.”

Both businesses and activists are calling on the government to end the auction and to stop issuing permits for old-growth forests throughout the province.

Something, the government isn’t prepared to do.

“Immediately ending logging in old-growth forests would affect over 24,000 people employed in the coastal forest sector,” said the Ministry of Forestry in a statement.

The ministry does say, however working on a new old-growth strategy, and those discussions are ongoing with stakeholders.

The auction for the land ends on April 27th.

See the original story here.

Plans to clear-cut old-growth near Port Renfrew causes an environmental outcry

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Sooke News Mirror
April 18, 2019

Note: Two of the seven proposed cutblocks fall within 50 metres of the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park boundary, not 37 metres as stated in the article.

Groups call logging a provincial government ‘blind spot’

A map depicting the old-growth cutblocks adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park and town of Port Renfrew that are currently up for auction by BC Timber Sales

Plans to auction off 109 hectares of old-growth forest adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park have outraged conservationists and tourism operators.

The seven planned cutblocks, two of which come to within 37 metres of the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park boundary near Port Renfrew, would see an estimated 55,346 cubic metres of old-growth – the equivalent of over 1,300 loaded logging trucks – leave the region known as the Tall Tree Capital of Canada.

Opponents charge the B.C. government and Forests Minister Doug Donaldson have demonstrated a lack of political will to preserve the endangered forests.

“The provincial government has a blind spot that they are not willing to address,” said Andrea Inness, a representative of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“They won’t even acknowledge that there’s a problem and keep hiding behind misleading statistics that paint a very rosy, and very false, picture for old-growth forests. But if you dig down you can see they just don’t get it.”

Inness said the government will say that 55 per cent of the old growth on Vancouver Island is protected, but they fail to acknowledge that some forest types have already been devastated by logging.

“If you look at the coastal Douglas-fir forests, for example, less than one per cent of those forests remain,” she said.

Inness added that the 55 per cent figure is also misleading as it includes already protected areas like the Great Bear Rainforest and other forest types like the sub-alpine and bog forests that have no commercial value and were never threatened.

The government’s move to auction off the current cutblocks came with no public consultation, said Inness and were discovered when environmental groups studied the 2019 schedule of work published by the B.C. government’s logging agency, B.C. Timber Sales.

B.C. Timber Sales is the B.C. government logging agency that manages 20 per cent of the province’s allowable annual cut. It recently came under fire from a host of environmental agencies for what Jens Weiling of the Sierra Club has described as “flying blind into terminating the old-growth web of life.”

In a review of B.C. Timber Sales’ sales schedule, environmental organizations Elphinstone Logging Focus and Sierra Club B.C. found the provincial government agency is proposing 2019 cutblocks across the last intact old-growth rainforest areas on Vancouver Island adding up to more than 1,300 hectares–an area equivalent to the size of more than three Stanley Parks.

The move to cut down old-growth forests is also of concern to tourist business operators in the region who contend that the standing trees have a far greater value than the clear cut lumber they will provide.

“Port Renfrew, a former logging town, has successfully re-branded itself in recent years as the Tall Tree Capital of Canada and is seeing a huge increase in eco-tourism, greatly benefiting local businesses,” said TJ Watt, a photographer and advocate for old growth forests.

“This logging will impact Port Renfrew’s reputation as an eco-tourism destination, not to mention the impacts on the environment.”

Soule Creek Lodge owner John Cash said he is deeply concerned and disappointed with the planned logging in an area adjacent to his tourist attraction.

“My business relies on tourists who come to admire the big trees and old-growth forests. My business doubled after Avatar Grove was discovered,” he said.

“Instead of old-growth clearcutting right up to a provincial park boundary, the B.C. government should be helping rural communities like Port Renfrew transition to more diverse and sustainable economies. People don’t come here from all around the world to hear the sounds of old-growth being cut down.”

Cash said despite the NDP’s promise that they would make forest conservation a priority, their actions have not reflected that commitment.

“It’s business as usual,” said Cash.

Both Cash and Inness have called upon Forests Minister Doug Donaldson to cancel the old-growth timber sales before the closing date for bids on April 26. They say that, instead, the minister should move to protect the area and consider incorporating it into the boundaries of the provincial park.

A spokesman for the Forest Ministry responded with a statement that confirmed the sale of the cutblocks, reiterated the government position that 55 per cent of old growth forests are protected and said that ending logging in old growth forests would affect people engaged in the logging industry.

See the original article here

Eco-activists urge halt to logging plans near Juan de Fuca park

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Times Colonist
April 18, 2019

NOTE: While old-growth logging would not occur within Juan de Fuca Provincial Park boundaries, the old-growth forests adjacent to the park that are slated for logging provide a valuable buffer that protects the park’s outstanding ecological and recreational values. Clearcutting the proposed cutblocks would fragment and degrade this important buffer and compromise the park’s tourism and recreational values. Additionally, while the BC government states that ‘55% of coastal old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast, have already been protected’, the vast majority of these protected forests are located in the Great Bear Rainforest, not on Vancouver Island. That figure also excludes largely cut-over private lands and includes vast areas of low productivity forest with little to no commercial value. In actual fact, only about 6% of Vancouver Island and 8% of the Southwest Mainland’s productive forests are protected in parks.

Finally, it’s important to remember that BC’s forest industry will be forced to shift to second-growth eventually, when all the unprotected old-growth is gone. In order to maintain forestry jobs and protect BC’s endangered ancient forests, the BC government must facilitate this shift sooner rather than later by curbing raw log exports and encouraging value-added second-growth manufacturing.

An aerial photo of the old-growth forests where B.C. Timber Sales has seven pending cutblocks totalling 109 hectares. Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is along the coast and the town of Port Renfrew in the background. Photograph By TJ WATT

Plans to log old-growth forests near Port Renfrew have conservationists accusing the B.C. Ministry of Forests of endangering tourism in the area.

The Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance says government-run B.C. Timber Sales is preparing to auction 109 hectares of forest in seven cutblocks. Two of those planned cutblocks will see trees falling within 37 metres and 50 metres of the boundary of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, known as a gentler, more accessible version of the West Coast Trail.

“Port Renfrew is changing toward a more sustainable economy based on leaving trees standing rather than cutting them down,” said T.J. Watt, campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “We are calling on B.C. Timber Sales to cancel these auctions.”

A spokeswoman for the B.C. Forests Ministry confirmed B.C. Timber Sales has advertised the timber sale identified by Ancient Forest Alliance. The sale closes on April 26. The successful buyer will have 2 1/2 years to conduct the logging.

But the spokeswoman also said when cutblocks are surveyed and positioned, considerations are always made for the ecology of the site and the esthetics of nearby views. And logging is not occurring in the park.

Meanwhile, significant areas, 55 per cent of coastal old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast, have already been protected, the spokeswoman said.

B.C. Timber Sales was formed in 2003 to inject market-based pricing to Crown-owned timber as opposed to other land-based tenure systems.

The provincial agency monitors economic conditions to determine an appropriate price for the timber. About 20 per cent of the province’s total, annual allowable cut is now sold through auction.

The Ancient Forest Alliance’s objections to the B.C. Timber Sales auction received little enthusiasm from Mike Hicks, Capital Regional District director for the Juan de Fuca district.

Hicks, the closest thing the unincorporated community of Port Renfrew has to an elected local government, agreed that tourism, including environmental tourism, has taken off in recent years. But he said that logging, while diminished, remains a significant economic generator and shouldn’t be frozen out.

Hicks said Port Renfrew is reeling from Tuesday’s federal announcement of tough restrictions on fishing for chinook salmon: a catch-and-release fishery until mid-July, followed by catch limits of one to two per day depending on time of year and location.

He said he thinks the fishing closures have made economics in Port Renfrew, including its tourism, too fragile to put more obstacles in the path of business.

“Logging is a very important part of our economic survival and so is eco-tourism,” Hicks said. “They should both be able to get along.”

But John Cash, owner and founder of Soule Creek Lodge near Port Renfrew, operating wilderness huts and cabins near the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, is concerned about the effects of nearby logging.

The noise of blasting during the building of logging roads along with chainsaws and other machinery during falling will only take away from the wilderness experience, he said. “It would be pretty unpleasant. It’s not what you want to hear when you are camping or hiking, the blasting and tree-falling.”

rwatts@timescolonist.com

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Plan to allow logging of old growth forests draws criticism

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Check out this Global News piece about conservationists’ disappointment with the BC NDP and their plans to auction off 1,300 hectares of old-growth on Vancouver Island, featuring Sierra Club BC’s Jens Wieting, and footage by AFA’s TJ Watt.

Keep in mind the statistics stated by the government are misleading. The BC government is combining the old-growth stats from Vancouver Island/South Coast – where very little has been protected (about 6% of Vancouver Island and 8% of the SW Mainland’s productive forests are in parks) with the Great Bear Rainforest, the northern rainforest where 85% of all the forests are off-limits due to a massive campaign of boycotts, protests, and negotiations for over two decades. To lump together the northern rainforest where regulations are strong (and where the trees are smaller and the forests are different) with the southern rainforest where the old-growth protections are sparse (and where the trees are much larger and the forests are generally more diverse) is disingenuous. When they say ‘55% of the old-growth forests on the coast are protected’ – the vast majority of that is in the Great Bear Rainforest, not on Vancouver Island where the conflict rages and old-growth logging occurs at a scale of about 11,000 hectares a year (in 2016) and where the forests are more highly endangered.

See the original clip here

Canada’s ‘most magnificent old-growth forest’ near Port Renfrew

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Watch video news coverage here 

CHEK News: Conservationists are asking the provincial government to protect what they are calling Canada’s “most magnificent” old-growth forest near Port Renfrew. Ceilidh Millar reports.

It may remind some of a prehistoric-creature, but even Hollywood would be hard-pressed to re-create a sight as spectacular as “Mossome Grove.”

“It’s the most magnificent and beautiful forest in the country,” said Ken Wu with the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance.

Short for “mossy and awesome” Mossome Grove is a 13-hectare old-growth grove located along the San Juan River near Port Renfrew.

The conservation group recently identified the area, and say it is home to some of the top ten widest trees in the province including a Sitka spruce with a diameter of 3.1 metres.

There is also a giant Bigleaf maple, nicknamed the “Woolly Giant,” which has produced a branch measuring 76-feet in length.

Wu says it could the longest horizontal branch on any tree in B.C.

“They are also very old,” Wu explained. “I would estimate the spruce are as young as 300 or 400-years-old and maybe as old as 800-years-old.”

They aren’t revealing its exact location, for fear it will be logged as the grove is on mostly unprotected land.

The grove is situated on Crown land in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation band.

“It’s a mishmash of different jurisdictions but most of it could be logged,” Wu said.

Conservationists say the province needs a more protective old-growth policy.

“They are logging about 10,000 hectares which is over 10,000 football fields of old-growth every year on Vancouver Island alone,” explained Wu.

The B.C. Ministry of Forests said in a statement that the grove is contained in a woodlot operated by Pacheedaht Forestry Ltd., and there is no imminent logging planned.

“The Ancient Forest Alliance supplied the ministry with an updated map of the grove area yesterday, so ministry staff are currently reviewing the map to determine what protections exist in the area,” it said.

Under the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan, more than 13 per cent of Vancouver Island will never be logged, including 520,000 hectares of old growth forests, the statement said.

However, a proper protection policy can’t come soon enough for those fighting to save our forests.

“Let’s leave these ancient trees,” explained Wu. “Especially these magnificent valley bottom giants like this for future generations of all creatures.”