TJ Watt beside an enormous

Environmentalists accuse B.C. government of fudging the numbers to log some of the world’s biggest trees

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Environmentalists have accused the B.C. government of lying about the amount of majestic, centuries-old trees left standing in the province.

The National Observer reported last month that the B.C. government, through B.C. Timber Sales, had approved permits for logging that saw some of the world’s biggest red cedar and Douglas fir trees cut down in the Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island.

The government responded, by saying that more than 55 per cent of Crown old growth forests on B.C.’s coast is protected, and that on Vancouver Island more than 40 per cent of Crown forests are considered old growth, including 520,000 hectares that will never be logged.

But those numbers are “deliberately misleading,” said Vicky Husband, a B.C. environmental activist for decades who has been awarded both the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for her work.

“The forests ministry really plays with numbers, and they talk about how much old growth we’ve got left and actually, they really lie,” Husband said in an interview

“They’re trying to claim that of the coastal forest we’ve protected 55 per cent. We haven’t. That’s not true at all.”

 

 

BC old growth map - Supplied by Commons BC

Original ancient forest shown in green. Map by Vicky Husband/Commons BC, 2018

Ken Wu, executive director with the Ancient Forest Alliance, which documented the May cutting of the massive trees in the Nahmint Valley, says it makes no sense to include the forests that will never be logged — those with small, stunted trees growing in bogs or on rocky, steep slopes — when discussing the percentage of forest that has been logged.

“It’s like including your Monopoly money with your real money and then saying you’re a millionaire,” Wu said. “It’s a disingenuous approach and it’s total spin. It’s so much spin that the marbled murrelet and the deer are dizzy.”

The marbled murrelet is a small, endangered seabird that lives in the north Pacific region and that needs coastal old-growth trees for nesting, a B.C. Ministry of Environment document shows.

 

Logged areas of Vancouver Island - Map supplied by Commons BC

Remaining ancient forests shown in green, logged areas in magenta. Map by Vicky Husband/Commons BC, 2018

Wu also takes exception with the government taking private lands out of the equation, even though the government regulates what can be logged on those lands. Also, so called low-productivity forests, those that would never be logged, should not be counted in the total, he said.

“Otherwise it’s just complete spin, precisely designed to make people think there is no problem, that there is a lot there and a lot that is protected, which is total f***ing bull****,” Wu said.

“If the NDP government doesn’t want to continue the war in the woods, they have to stop the spin.”

B.C. government is masking an ‘ecological emergency’

Jens Wieting, a forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club BC, made similar arguments about how the government misrepresents the numbers.

“They are masking the problem, the ecological emergency,” Wieting said. “By allowing continuing logging in these small, intact areas, that’s like burning down libraries, because we know, based on science, that we are losing a web of life that depends on these old growth forests and that’s the responsibility of the current government.”

 

Protected areas of Vancouver Island - map supplied by Commons BC

Most ancient forest is not protected, shown here in red. Green indicates old growth under protection. Map by Vicky Husband/Commons BC, 2018

 

Ministry of Forests responds

The B.C. Ministry of Forests says there are about 55 million hectares of forests around the province, of which 25 million hectares are considered old-growth and four million hectares are protected.

When asked specifically about what definition of old growth the province uses and whether low productivity lands are included, the ministry said “old growth is consistently defined as productive forest, or forest management land base, so swamp, scrub, bog, alpine forest, etc., are all excluded from the province’s calculations.”

Even low productivity sites have larger trees, the ministry said in a written statement, adding that one such site in the Sproat Lake area has a 252-year-old, 22-metre-tall tree.

“By law, a specified amount of the forests that reflect the definition of old growth must be retained to meet biodiversity needs,” the ministry said in its statement. “Generally, the approximate age at which old growth characteristics and structure are apparent in coastal ecosystems is 250 years, whereas Interior ecosystems are 140 years.”

The Forest and Range Practices Act and its regulations are the main set of laws governing forest practices, the ministry said.

Private land covers about one-quarter of Vancouver Island and the province doesn’t include it because it says it has “very limited jurisdiction over private land harvesting.”

When asked specifically how much of the province is protected, the ministry said 15.8 per cent of the Crown land in the province is protected, including legal old growth management areas, which make up about two per cent of Crown land.

“Old growth management areas, wildlife habitat areas, ungulate winter ranges, and ecological reserves are additional areas that contain old growth protection measures in addition to parks,” the ministry said.

B.C. government may lose social license over logging, forestry dean says

It’s not just the government and the environmentalists who disagree on how to classify forests. The problem of defining exactly types of forests should be considered old growth is complicated, said John Innes, professor and dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia.

“This is actually quite a big debate that is going on internationally right now,” Innes said. “People are struggling with this and trying to work out how to talk about this and how to define these different types of forests.”

When Innes hears the term old-growth, he envisions large, old trees – like those found in Cathedral Grove, a provincial park on Vancouver Island that contains an ancient Douglas fir ecosystem. However, technically, he says, the government’s use of the term is not wrong.

“In boggy areas, the trees are so widely spaced and so thin and spindly that they’ve got no commercial value, so they’re not going to be harvested anyway, but that doesn’t mean to say they’re not old growth,” Innes said.

At the same time, he says B.C. Timber Sales should stop issuing licenses to cut down massive, old trees on Vancouver Island except in exceptional situations.

“As a general principle, on Vancouver Island, where there is now a limited supply, … we need to be careful and steward what’s left,” he said.

Innes has also heard that First Nations people now have difficulty finding trees big enough to make canoes.

Innes first learned about the big trees being cut down in the Nahmint Valley from the National Observer story and said he was surprised.

“The B.C. government is at risk of losing social license over this,” Innes said. “I do not consider it to have been a very clever move on the part of B.C. Timber Sales, but I don’t know the full situation.”

Even though the logging was legal, Innes said the move was bound to be controversial.

“I don’t think we should be cutting that size of tree down if there are alternatives,” Innes said.

 

 

The largest Douglas fir in the world, the Red Creek fir near Port Renfrew. Photo July 2016 by Ancient Forest Alliance

Besides the fact that tourists and locals alike love to visit the majestic old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, there are also scientific reasons for saving these grand old trees, Innes said.

“Every time there is some sort of a severe stress in a population, some of that population will be killed and if you’ve got trees that are 1,400 or 1,500 years old, they have survived an awful lot of those stresses, which means they must be pretty good at it,” Innes said.

“If we’re worried about the future and the future stresses on trees, those very old trees may hold the gene reservoir that we need for future forests.”

Technology is advancing so fast that soon, environmental groups may be able to count the exact numbers of large trees left in the province using drones, and track them when they are logged, Innes said.

Legislative and regulatory changes are needed now, campaigner says

The relatively new NDP government needs to make changes now, Wieting said.

“The current B.C. government is not responsible for forest management over the previous 16 years on Vancouver Island, but we have an emergency now as a result of that,” Wieting said.

“They are responsible for the losses that will happen now, because there is now so little left that species like the marbled murrelet are disappearing … and mosses, lichen and fungi that depend on old growth ecosystems. This is now getting worse as a result of climate change.

 

 

Jens Wieting from Sierra Club BC - photo supplied.

Jens Wieting, a forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club BC, says the government’s numbers mask an ‘ecological emergency.’ Handout photo

The longer the government denies a problem on Vancouver Island, the worse the ecological and cultural damage will be, Wieting says.

“This new government continues to use the same rhetoric and the same superficial information like the previous government and that’s no longer acceptable because it’s not based on science and we are now in an ecological emergency and it’s getting worse every day,” Wieting said.

Wieting would like to see interim steps put in place, based on precaution.

“The government should stop issuing permits for old growth logging in some of these areas that I refer to as precautionary areas – relatively intact areas with significant potential for ecosystems, for species habitat for cultural value, for tourism and carbon value. We have record high carbon storage in these areas,” Wieting said.

He would also like to see legislation to protect endangered rainforest by ecosystem.

“It’s not okay to have logging continuing in some of the last relatively intact old growth areas because that means that we will have foregone conclusions, we will have a situation after the fact where there are no intact old growth forests left to consider,” Wieting said.

All that’s left is a tree museum, activist says

Husband says now is the time to stop logging the ancient forests of Vancouver Island.

“This is the last flailing gasp of the dinosaur swinging his tail,” Husband said. “If you drive through Tofino and Cathedral Grove, that’s what we have to show what those Douglas fir forests used to look like. That’s all we have – it’s a tree museum.”

Wu would like to see a land acquisitions fund so that the government can buy land from private owners to protect it from logging.

“For example, the mountain side above Cathedral Grove – the most famous old-growth forest in Canada – is privately owned and slated for logging,” Wu said. “People don’t realize that the mountainside above that stand of trees that millions come to see, can actually get logged and already has a logging road punched through it.

“The company has been sitting on it for several years because of our campaign to see where this is going to go. The government could buy that old-growth forest and add it to the park with a land acquisition fund.”

In the meantime, Wu would like to see an immediate end to the B.C. government issuing permits through B.C. Timber Sales for logging of old growth forests.

“The BC NDP can end the war in the woods, that can be their legacy,” Wu said. “They just have to do what the rest of the western world has moved to now, which is moving towards a second growth forest industry. We want them to do it sustainably, and let’s keep the remnants of the old growth for endangered species, for tourism, for the climate, for clean water and wild salmon.”

Hear, hear. I couldn’t agree more.

Read the original article here.

BC's 9th widest Douglas-fir cut down in the Nahmint Valley

B.C. “legacy tree” policy under review after ancient fir logged

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B.C. Timber Sales is reviewing its best management practices for legacy trees with the intent of strengthening a policy brought into question by old-growth logging near Port Alberni.

The Crown agency (BCTS) and the B.C. government have been roundly criticized in recent weeks by conservationists and local First Nations for continuing to allow logging of ancient fir and cedar in the Nahmint Valley.

Researchers aligned with the lobby group Ancient Forest Alliance pinpointed the logging last month of what was the ninth largest Douglas fir. They maintain that it’s one of many old-growth giants still being levelled in Vancouver Island forests.

READ: Blame for felled Nahmint giant placed on NDP

“Although it should be a no-brainer to protect B.C.’s biggest trees, what we ultimately need is protection for endangered forest ecosystems, which are under siege by commercial logging. Almost 11,000 hectares of old-growth forests were cut on Vancouver Island in 2016,” said Andrea Inness, an alliance campaigner. “And where better to start protecting old-growth than at the government’s own logging agency, B.C. Timber Sales?”

Immediately west of Port Alberni, the valley contains some of the most extensive stands of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island left standing outside of Clayoquot Sound. The area lies in the territory of Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations.

The Crown agency is overseen by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which confirmed that the old-growth Douglas fir cited by Ancient Forest Alliance was part of Crown lands auctioned off before new policy was in place.

“With regard to the specific tree mentioned in the (Ancient Forest Alliance) news release, BCTS’ best management practices on legacy trees came into effect after that specific timber sale was laid out,” the ministry stated. “BCTS is also reviewing this policy to make it stronger.”

In its current form, policy requires any Douglas fir wider than 2.1 metres and any cedar wider than three metres to be left standing. The felled Nahmint fir was three metres in diameter.

Since August 2016, BCTS has awarded five timber sales totalling 319 hectares in the valley. The ministry noted, however, that there are 2,760 hectares of old growth protected in the “Nahmint landscape unit.”

BCTS has identified 250 old-growth cedar trees to be spared from logging in the Nahmint, the ministry said. As well, the ministry maintains that old growth forest is not far from a rare commodity on the Island, representing 43 percent of 1.9 million hectares of Crown forest on the Island. A large proportion of that old growth — 520,000 hectares — is protected.

Despite reassurances, conservation groups insist that government is exaggerating the extent of highly productive old growth, specifically trees ranging from 500 to 1,000 years old. Cut blocks in the Nahmint Valley auctioned by BCTS extend into areas where those oldest trees are found and don’t provide enough buffer to retain old-growth ecosystems, the alliance says.

Mike Stini of the Port Alberni Watershed Alliance was among those who identified the fir when it was still standing this spring.

“To see it lying on the ground two weeks later was devastating, especially since these big, old Douglas firs are now endangered after a century of commercial logging,” Stini said. “There are less than one percent of the old-growth Douglas-firs on the coast remaining. It’s like finding a huge black rhino or Siberian tiger that’s been shot. There are simply too few today and logging the last of these giants shouldn’t be allowed to happen anymore in B.C.”

Link to original article: www.vicnews.com/news/b-c-legacy-tree-policy-under-review-after-ancient-fir-logged/

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness walks beside an enormous

The fall of giants: irreplaceable trees logged

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“These are some of the biggest, oldest living creatures that have ever existed in Earth’s history. It’s ethically wrong, it’s ecologically destructive”, Ken Wu, executive director, Ancient Forest Alliance

After decades of campaigning to save old growth forest giants on the west coast, activists are shocked that it’s still happening.

Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance and other environmental groups discovered several giant trees felled this month in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island.

The provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) government is being blamed for the action through its agency B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS). The agency auctioned off a 300 hectare section (cutblock) which includes some of the biggest old-growth Douglas Fir and western red cedar trees in the province.

Among them was the ninth widest tree in all of British Columbia (3 m/10ft), and one of the tallest(66m/216ft) according to the “B.C. Big Tree Registry”

“There are fewer than 1% of the old-growth Douglas-firs on the coast remaining. It’s like finding a huge black rhino or Siberian tiger that’s been shot. There are simply too few today and logging the last of these giants shouldn’t be allowed to happen anymore in BC” – Mike Stini of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance

Environmentalist Mike Stini said he spoke to the mill owner responsible for the cut block as was told the contractor was advised to leave that specific tree alone.

There is a provincial policy to protect such ancient trees, but activists say it’s not being enforced. In a statement by the Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner T.J. Watt said, “According to BCTS’ policy, Douglas-fir trees over 2.1 meters (7 feet) wide and western red cedars over 3 metres (10 feet) wide located within BCTS-issued cutblocks should be left standing, In spite of this policy, they still cut down Canada’s 9th widest Douglas-fir tree that was 3 meters (10 feet) wide – far larger than their minimum protection size – and we saw several fresh cedar stumps wider than 3 metres. In addition to it being a weak policy to begin with, with plenty of loopholes and lacking buffer zones for the biggest trees, they aren’t even implementing it in the Nahmint Valley. BCTS’ ‘best practices’ didn’t even save the ninth-widest Douglas-fir in Canada”.

Environmentalists are also upset because as they say there is plenty of second growth trees available for logging and therefore no need to cut down the ancient trees.

People are angry with the NDP government which had made election promises to protect old growth forests. Forestry Minister Doug Donaldson says there are 3,000 hectares of protected old growth forest in the valley, “so it’s a balancing act…and we’re working on addressing those concerns”.

Read the original article here.

The AFA's Ken Wu and local Port Alberni conservationists stand atop Canada's 9th-widest Douglas-fir tree

NDP blamed for failing to save Vancouver Island old-growth giants from logging

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Environmentalists on Vancouver Island are calling on the NDP government to deliver on an election promise to protect old-growth forests.

The demand follows the recent felling of huge, ancient trees in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni.

The Ancient Forest Alliance says in late May trees up to 70 metres tall and as wide as three metres in diameter were cut down as part of logging on Crown land made possible by the government agency B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS).

“These are some of the biggest, oldest living creatures that have ever existed in Earth’s history,” said Ken Wu, executive director for the alliance. “It’s ethically wrong, it’s ecologically destructive.”

The organization says the Nahmint Valley, which lies in the territory of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations, has extensive stands of old-growth forests similar to those in Clayoquot Sound.

Hupacasath member Brenda Sayers says she was dismayed upon learning that trees that big were being logged.

“I was horrified,” said Sayers, a former federal Green Party candidate.

She often visits the area and describes it as magnificent and magical. She also says it has cultural significance as a sacred site for her nation.

“We are caretakers of the land,” she said. “It’s our responsibility to safeguard what is there for future generations.”

Sparing legacy trees

In January, the BCTS implemented a best practices management plan for coastal legacy trees, which it describes as exceptionally large and old trees.

The document says the specimens are a unique feature of B.C.’s coastal forests that help with habitat conservation and support ecotourism.

It sets guidelines for loggers to spare yellow cedar, coastal Douglas fir, sitka spruce and western red cedar. For example, a Douglas fir with a diameter of at least 2.1 metres must be preserved.

The alliance says a Douglas fir felled in the Nahmint Valley was larger than this and is surprised it wasn’t saved — but the BCTS document also includes operational factors, such as safety hazards, that allow legacy trees to be felled.

“Right now it’s generally legal to log these old-growth forests. It doesn’t make it right,” said Wu.

Focus on second-growth

Environmentalists on Vancouver Island have for years campaigned to have B.C. stop the practice of logging old-growth forests and focus solely on second-growth instead.

As part of its 2017 election platform, the NDP promised to partner with First Nations to modernize land-use planning.

That included using the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.

In 2016 an agreement was struck to protect 85 per cent of the forest — 3.1 million hectares — from industrial logging.

Wu says that, so far, the NDP has not committed to its election promise.

“I think they’re trying to figure out their position as we continue to push and as there’s a massive old-growth logging industry lobby that is also pushing them,” he said.

Old growth protections

A statement from the Ministry of Forests said BCTS has awarded five timber sales worth 319 hectares since August 2016 in the Nahmint Valley, and that logging continues to support jobs in places like Port Alberni.

The ministry says there are 2,760 hectares of old growth protected in the valley and that there are 520,000 hectares of old-growth forests that will never be logged on Vancouver Island.

“Government is continuously reviewing practices to ensure healthy ecosystems and that logging is sustainable,” said Forests Minister Doug Donaldson in the statement.

The NDP committed $16 million over three years in its latest budget to modernize land-use planning. It says there will be an update on progress in the fall.

Read the original article here.

AFA executive director Ken Wu stands beside the Alberni Giant

Blame for felled Nahmint giant placed on NDP

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Logging underway in the Nahmint Valley threatens one of the last prime spots of B.C. old-growth habitat and points to the NDP government’s failure to honour its election promise, says an Island-based conservation group.


Ancient Forest Alliance led a media tour on Wednesday, May 23 to examine a freshly felled Douglas fir estimated to be 800 years old.

“This is a monumental screwup,” said Ken Wu, alliance executive director. “They’ve just cut down the ninth largest Douglas fir.”

Group researchers identified the living tree earlier this month as chainsaws buzzed with logging activity on surrounding mountainsides. They assumed the big fir was protected and were astonished to find it felled a couple of weeks later.

Wu said their concerns relate not only to the felled fir but to the area as a whole. Nahmint Valley, 40 km west of Port Alberni, is known as an all-too-rare “hot spot” of old-growth in the province.

He holds the NDP government directly responsible because the logging is administered by its own agency, B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS). BCTS has auctioned cut blocks that overlap areas of ancient old growth, the group contends. Extensive logging in the area began this spring.

Mike Stini, a Port Alberni conservationist, said he spoke with the mill owner responsible for the cut block and was told the contractor was specifically told not to fall the big Douglas fir in question.

“There are so few of the giant first left,” Stini said. “We’ve got to do something.”

Giant fir and cedar are the crux of Nahmint habitat critical to species such as Roosevelt elk, marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. The picturesque valley is also a popular destination for recreationalists. Wu compared the felling of the fir to the slaughter of endangered elephants or the last of a species.

“It really is like blowing away the last remaining black rhinos,” he said. “The crazy thing is, most of the region is second growth.”

The Nahmint Valley is largely virgin forest yet there is plenty of second- and even third-generation forest available for harvest, he noted. In comparison, highly productive old-growth represents less than 10 percent of Island forests.

Not far from the site of the downed fir stands another that has been labelled the “Alberni Giant,” an even larger Douglas fir believed to be 800-900 years old. That tree remains protected in a zone designated for ungulate winter range. Other old growth is not similarly protected.

“This is not isolated,” said TJ Watt, a photographer who uses satellite imagery and provincial mapping to identify surviving old-growth trees. His work led him to the Douglas fir and others in the Nahmint.

“It’s happening all over the Island all of the time,” Watt said. “Old-growth logging is not a thing of the past.”

Trees several hundred years old, larger than those in Cathedral Grove, are still coming down in the face of the B.C. government’s new “big tree policy” established in January, the group said. They were told by regional staff of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations that the Nahmint cut blocks were laid out five years ago.

Forest Alliance posted photos of the felled tree on Facebook last week, triggering widespread condemnation unlike any the decade-old lobby group has seen.

“What has changed is not government policy,” Wu said. “The NDP government has exactly the same policy as the Liberal government. The change is in the moment because there are so many log exports and because there are second-growth alternatives. Businesses and people in general realize that we shouldn’t be logging the last of the remaining old growth forest. We can have all the jobs and keep all the old growth, too.”

They’ve met with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson on the issue and want to take the old-growth issue straight to Premier John Horgan since cutting contradicts the NDP pledge to adhere to an ancient growth model.

“We have raised the issue that the Nahmint really is a hot spot area and that they have to instruct B.C. Timber to stop auctioning old-growth cut blocks,” Wu said. “Certainly don’t place cut blocks in old-growth stands where logging is allowed. They don’t mandate a buffer zone and as a result they’re still logging 12-foot cedars.

“Hopefully there is some movement on the government’s part to change from the status quo,” he added. “They can’t take for granted the support of the environmental movement.”

A call to MLA Scott Fraser’s office was referred to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which hadn’t responded by press time.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness walks beside an enormous

NDP under fire for allowing old growth logging near Port Alberni

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WATCH THE CHEK NEWS STORY HERE

They're the giants of the forest — massive, old-growth western red cedars and Douglas firs — and images of these towering trees being cut down have sparked outrage.

“The visuals that we're starting to see come out the latest cutting of old growth forest is really devastating,” says B.C. Green Party forestry critic Adam Olsen. “It's important we're protecting the old stands, especially on Vancouver Island where we have so little old growth left”

Olsen says he's shocked the B.C. NDP government is letting it happen.

“What we're seeing right now is the liquidation of our forests!” says Olsen. “Frankly, this government has continued the exact same policy as the Liberal government did. That's not what my expectation was. My expectation was for them to re-invigorate the forestry industry and make sure we're not liquidating our forests.”

The logging is taking place in Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni.

B.C. Timber Sales, an agency of the provincial government, auctioned off more than 300 hectares of old growth forest to logging companies. Trees hundreds of years old are being cut down, including a tree considered the tenth widest Douglas fir in the province, according to the B.C. BigTree registry, and one of the largest in Canada.

“This Douglas fir is 10 feet in diameter,” says Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder TJ Watt. “There's less than one per cent of the old growth Douglas fir trees remaining today on B.C.'s coast and this is just unacceptable.”

There are guidelines for the protection of 'legacy trees' — defined as exceptionally old or unique stands, like nearby Cathedral Grove, but these trees weren't protected.

“There's over 3,000 hectares in that valley alone of protected old growth forest so it's a balancing act and we acknowledge that people have been waiting for change around that,” says forestry minister Doug Donaldson. “We've inherited a lot of this from the previous government and we're working on addressing those concerns.”

The province says it's working on modernizing the land use plan.

As it stands now, only about 55 per cent of old growth forests on crown land are protected.

See the original story here. 

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness stands atop Canada's 9th-widest Douglas-fir tree

Old growth logging intensifies in Nahmint Valley

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Nahmint Valley, BC — Some of the largest trees in Canada are being cut west of Port Alberni as part of old-growth logging currently underway in the Nahmint Valley.

Recent harvesting includes a massive Douglas fir that was cut down earlier in May. This tree measured 31 feet in circumference and 10 feet wide, dimensions that would rank it among the country’s top 10 largest Douglas firs in the BC Big Tree registry, a public record managed by the University of British Columbia.

This discovery was reported to the Ancient Forest Alliance, an organization that works to protect old-growth forests and promote sustainable second-growth forestry practices.

AFA Executive Director Ken Wu said that an estimated one per cent of Vancouver Island’s old-growth Douglas fir trees are still standing, and compared the forestry practices in Nahmint to hunting endangered animals.

“It’s sort of like coming across a herd of elephants and slaughtering them all, they’re so rare these days, these monumental stands,” he said.

The AFA has identified two trees in the valley with dimensions that rank them among the largest of their species in Canada. These include the three-metre-wide Douglas fir that was recently cut down and what the AFA is calling “the Alberni Giant,” a Douglas fir growing deep in the Nahmint forest with a diameter of 3.7 metres (12 feet). They also found a 4.3-metre-wide (14-foot) western red cedar standing in Nahmint.

Some of these trees are thicker than those found in Cathedral Grove, which are provincially protected from harvesting. The grove’s largest tree is an 800-year-old Douglas fir measuring 2.8 metres in diameter, bringing the possibility that the Alberni Giant could be as old as 1,000 years.

“They are vitally important for endangered species and wildlife that need old-growth forest,” said Wu of the giant trees. “They provide clean water for steelhead and salmon in the Nahmint River, they store more carbon per hectare than any other type of forest on earth.”

The Nahmint trees are in 300-hectares of cutblocks that were auctioned for harvest by BC Timber Sales, a provincial agency that manages Crown land for the forestry industry. Nahmint’s largest old-growth fir trees each bring tens of thousands of dollars in marketable wood, according to information provided by the forestry contractor currently working on the cutblocks.

According to the province’s Vancouver Island Land Use Plan, the Nahmint Valley is not an area that should be seeing intensified old-growth logging. The valley falls under the Special Management category, which prioritizes “environmental, recreational and cultural/heritage values.”

“In the Nahmint landscape unit, there are 2,760 hectares of old growth management areas, ungulate winter ranges and wildlife habitat areas that protect old-growth forests,” said the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development in an email to the Ha-Shilth-Sa. “In addition, BCTS conducted a cedar assessment and specifically identified old growth cedar trees to retain from logging.”

The ministry emphasized that there are 520,000 hectares of Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests that will never be logged, comprising 55 per cent of the Island’s old growth forest that lies on Crown land.

But TJ Watt of the AFA believes that Nahmint’s largest trees are being targeted for logging. He said that the cutblocks designated for harvesting are the same parts of the Nahmint Valley that hold the largest old-growth trees.

“We looking to protect the same areas that the logging industry is looking to take,” said Watt. “It’s happening all over the Island, all of the time. Old-growth logging is not a thing of the past, it just often happens in areas that are mostly out of sight and out of mind.”

The Nahmint Valley is in the Hah=uu>i of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations. The old-growth harvesting has sparked concern from some in these First Nations, including Brenda Sayers, a Hupacasath member who has taken family members to Nahmint in the past.

“I travelled out there quite often when I first moved home. I brought my nieces and nephews to get them acquainted with different parts of our traditional territory,” she said. “I haven’t been out there in a while actually, because it breaks my heart. I don’t know that I could handle seeing the state of the way things are.”

Sayers believes the practice goes against a pledge the NDP government made during the last provincial election.

“In partnership with First Nations and communities, we will modernize land-use planning to effectively and sustainably manage B.C.’s ecosystems, rivers, lakes, watersheds, forests and old growth, while accounting for cumulative effects,” stated the NDP platform in 2017. “We will take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.”

“The province has once again failed our Indigenous people,” said Sayers. “Some people think reconciliation means renaming a street or having cross-cultural workshops to minimise racism. To me, reconciliation is the land, and the government needs to recognize First Nations as the original right holders to the land.”

Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson responded to say that working with First Nations is the first thing the province plans to do as it revises its forestry management.

“The new government is committed to modernizing the land use planning process and protecting old-growth forests is a vital component of that,” he said. “As part of Budget 2018, we committed $16 million over three years to modernizing the land use planning process and work has already begun. The first step is collaborating with Indigenous Peoples. More information about land use planning will be coming in the fall.”

In a document dated Sept. 11, 2017, BC Timber Sales listed best management practices for “legacy trees,” which are exceptionally old and unique stands in the province’s forests.

“BC Timber sales recognizes that legacy trees are often attributed with having important cultural, aesthetic and ecological value,” stated the document. “These trees, when retained, can play an important role in habitat conservation by bridging old-growth characteristics into second-growth stands. In addition, large trees are increasingly supporting the growing ecotourism economy as valuable destinations in and of themselves.”

The BCTS guidelines for the protection of legacy trees cite a minimum diameter of three metres for western red cedars and 2.1 metres for Douglas fir, well under the width of the largest old-growth trees identified by the Ancient Forest Alliance in the Nahmint Valley.

But the BCTS document noted that all legacy trees might not be protected.

“Legacy trees may need to be felled during or after primary harvesting operations if they constitute a safety hazard (or are affected by other operational factors) that cannot be addressed through pother means,” stated the document.

These other operational factors could include “impacts to cutblock design, in particular in cutblocks that rely on overhead cable harvest systems,” “known First Nations interest,” and the “local abundance of legacy trees,” according to the BCTS document.

Wu believes that what’s going on in the Nahmint Valley shows that these guidelines are not serving their conservationist purpose.

“It has enough loopholes to drive a logging truck through,” he said.

Sayers noted that logging Nahmint’s old-growth trees threatens a “sensitive and valuable ecosystem” that provides protection for elk and deer during the winter.

“I think it’s really a crime against nature,” she said. “Every tree is an individual ecosystem. We believe that they have a spirit and as old as they are, they’ve witnessed to the things that took place in our traditional territory. They have a history, they hold knowledge and they’re sacred to us.”

“I feel bad for the loggers whose job it is to mow these trees down, because they have to live with that,” added Sayers. “They’re removing something that’s been gifted to us, they’re removing that right for their children and grandchildren and future generations.” 

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Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness walks beside an enormous

People are furious about the destruction of these old growth giants. And you won’t believe who’s approving it.

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Andrea Inness, a forest campaigner with Ancient Forest Alliance, and several other people went on an expedition on May 6, to the Nahmint Valley, which is about an hour outside of Port Alberni on logging roads. Once there, they were horrified to find massive, centuries-old red cedar and Douglas fir trees being cut down.

“We expected to see some logging, but we were all astonished to see how much had taken place. There were near record-breaking trees that we found that were being cut,” Inness said in an interview. “We were shocked at the scale of the logging and so dismayed to see these cedars lying on the ground.”

The B.C. government promises progress by the fall. Let’s hope that includes a move to make it a crime to cut down these majestic, centuries-old trees.

Adam Olsen, the B.C. Green Party critic for forests, said this issue could become a big problem for the government, if they don’t change their policy. More on that further down.

Inness says the group found a tree equivalent to the fifth widest Douglas Fir tree in the country and another that was equivalent to the ninth widest.

“We were just back there (on May 23) and it had been logged,” Inness said. “It was heartbreaking. It’s an absolute failure on the B.C. government’s part to protect these rare and endangered trees.”

Although size isn’t necessarily indicative of the exact age of a tree, Inness said those big trees are between 500 and 1,000 years old. And irreplaceable.

“It’s almost as if the government itself was condoning the slaughtering of white rhinos or the harpooning of blue whales. It’s unbelievable,” Inness said.

The government freely admits that logging is still going on in old-growth forests on Crown land in B.C., but says it is continuously reviewing practices to ensure that logging is sustainable and ecosystems are healthy.

In its election platform, the NDP promised to work with First Nations and communities to “modernize land-use planning to effectively and sustainably manage BC’s ecosystems, rivers, lakes, watersheds, forests and old growth, while accounting for cumulative effects. We will take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.”

The 6.4-million-hectare Great Bear Rainforest was created by a 2016 agreement between the B.C. government and Coastal First Nations to conserve 85 per cent of the forest and 70 per cent of the old growth.

Protecting old growth forests is a vital component of modernizing the land-use planning process, said Doug Donaldson, B.C.’s Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Minister.

“As part of Budget 2018, we committed $16 million over three years to modernizing the land use planning process and work has already begun,” Donaldson said in a statement. “The first step is collaborating with Indigenous Peoples. More information about land use planning will be coming this fall.”

Donaldson said more than 55 per cent of Crown old growth forests on B.C.’s coast is protected and that on Vancouver Island more than 40 per cent of Crown forests are considered old growth, including 520,000 hectares that will never be logged, but that the land-use plan on the island allows for logging in certain areas and logging supports jobs in rural communities.

But still, felling these giant trees is completely legal, even on Crown land, with permits issued by BC Timber Sales, a government agency that provides the cost and price benchmarks for timber harvested from public land in British Columbia.

 

Arborist-conservationist Matthew Beatty atop a newly fallen western red cedar in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni. Photo by TJ Watt.

Arborist-conservationist Matthew Beatty atop a newly fallen western red cedar in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni. Photo by TJ Watt

People are furious about the loss of these trees, MLA says

“People are furious about what’s been going on,” Olsen, the B.C. Green Party critic for forests, told National Observer. “People have not responded to any other campaign more abrasively and angrily than they are this one. We’ve received over 4,000 emails on this issue all within a few days.”

Olsen said the Greens would like to see the government stop auctioning off the right to log these trees and to work on developing a sustainable second-growth logging industry. He doesn’t believe the government is getting the highest value possible for these trees and that it needs to look beyond the immediate short-term economic gains of cutting them down.

“With so much of the old growth already cut, … certainly it would be our desire to see the B.C. government taking a different approach,” Olsen said. “It is essentially extending the same unsustainable practices that the former government took to devastating habitat.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance and other B.C. environmental groups are also calling for an end to logging ancient trees.

“We are calling on the B.C. government to implement a comprehensive, science-based law to protect endangered old growth forests,” Inness said. “We want not only a policy that protects the largest trees on the coast, of which these would absolutely qualify, with buffer zones around them, but also, beyond just protecting big trees, we need to protect entire forest ecosystems.”

The environmental groups aren’t alone. The BC Chamber of Commerce said in 2016 that “many local communities economically would stand to receive a greater net benefit in revenues and jobs over the ensuing decades from the protection of key old-growth forests in their region.”

Also in 2016, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) passed a motion calling for the protection of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island because of its “significant economic, social and environmental value as wildlife habitat, tourism resource, carbon sink and much more.”

Even the Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC) has called for the protection of old-growth rainforest on Vancouver Island, for forestry companies to transition to second-growth logging and for an end to raw-log exports.

 

Ariane Telishewsky of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance sits on top of a massive red cedar stump in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni. Photo by TJ Watt.

Ariane Telishewsky of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance sits on top of a massive red cedar stump in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni. Photo by TJ Watt

Ancient trees play a vital role in climate change, survival of species

These ancient trees play a vital role in climate change – they can store two to three times more carbon than second-growth forests, Inness said. They are also very important for endangered and threatened species.

The Nahmint Valley is home to Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, cougars, wolves, and black bears, as well as species that live only in old-growth forests, like the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. Olsen also emphasized that old-growth forests provide productive spawning areas for salmon.

The AFA would like to see B.C. protect all old-growth forests and make the transition to a second-growth forest industry now, rather than when all of the non-protected old-growth forests are gone.

“We need incentives for companies to retool their mills and we also need more incentive to add value to the wood here in B.C. and at the same time, curbing raw log exports,” Inness said. “That would not only sustain the amount of forestry jobs in B.C., but possibly even increase forestry employment in the province.”

A future in which BC’s rare and beautiful old-growth forests remain intact, but with jobs to spare in its economy is a future worth fighting for. This future must include a flourishing second-growth forestry industry and a sustainable transition for First Nations. The B.C. government promises progress by the fall. Let’s hope that includes a move to make it a crime to cut down these majestic, centuries-old trees.

Link to original article: www.nationalobserver.com/2018/05/28/opinion/people-are-furious-about-destruction-these-ancient-old-growth-giants

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt next to Canada's 9th-widest Douglas-fir tree

Ancient Forest Alliance calls for end to old-growth logging in Nahmint Valley

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WATCH VIDEO NEWS COVERAGE HERE

The Nahmint Valley south of Sproat Lake near Port Alberni is a spectacular piece of Vancouver Island. The mountains are tall and so are the trees, but the conservation group Ancient Forest Alliance says too many of the tallest and oldest trees are being cut down.

The group recently became aware of logging in the area and on a recent trip saw an orange ribbon with “Falling Boundary” written it.

It was near a Douglas fir that was over three metres wide and was the 10th widest Douglas fir tree in B.C. according to the BC BigTree registry.

On a return trip a few days later, it had been cut down.

“We're standing here right beside a Douglas fir tree that was cut down just this past week, larger than the largest one at Cathedral Grove,” said TJ Watt, co-founder of Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), on Friday. “This Douglas fir is 10 feet in diameter, there's less than one per cent of the old growth Douglas fir trees remaining today on BC's coast and this is just unacceptable.”

The group says it is not against logging at all but insists that remaining old growth trees in B.C. need to be saved.

“It's kind of like shooting the tigers in India right? They used to shoot a lot of tigers now we don't anymore,” said local Port Alberni conservationist Mike Stini. “It's about saving something that's rare and endangered.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance says it is hypocritical that Premier John Horgan who when in opposition visited Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew in efforts to save old growth trees there but now as premier, he is allowing the government agency BC Timber Sales to auction off 300 hectares of old growth forests in the Nahmint Valley to logging companies.

“And B.C. Timber Sales is meant to be implementing what they call best management practices for legacy trees. Legacy trees being those that meet certain criteria in terms of size. This would absolutely fall within that category.” said Ancient Forest Alliance's Andrea Inness.

A statement to CHEK News from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development reads: “There are 2,760 hectares of old growth protected in the Nahmint landscape unit. Since August 2016, BCTS has awarded five timber sales totalling 319 hectares. On Vancouver Island’s public lands, there are about 520,000 hectares of old growth forests that will never be logged. Government is continuously reviewing practices to ensure healthy ecosystems and that logging is sustainable.”

Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson said: “The new government is committed to modernizing the land use planning process, and protecting old growth forests is a vital component of that. As part of Budget 2018, we committed $16 million over three years to modernizing the land use planning process and work has begun. The first step is collaborating with Indigenous Peoples. More information about land use planning will be coming this fall.”

“Over 55 per centof Crown old growth forests on B.C.’s coast are protected. On Vancouver Island, over 40 per cent of Crown forests are considered old growth, with 520,000 hectares that will never be logged. The Vancouver Island Land Use Plan designated areas for protection and areas suitable for resource development, including logging. Logging continues to support jobs in communities such as Port Alberni.” added Donaldson.

But the Ancient Forest Alliance doesn't agree.

“The B.C. government is deceptively playing with numbers by including vast areas of much smaller trees growing on high rocky mountainsides to inflate their old-growth statistics, in order to mask their logging of the very rare monumental stands of the biggest trees in the valley bottoms and low elevations – where over 90 per cent have been logged, including 99 per cent of the old-growth Douglas-firs on the coast.” said TJ Watt.

Forestry Union President Calls on NDP to Protect BC Forests & Forestry Jobs

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Doug Donaldson understands better than most how neglected B.C.’s forests are, and how that neglect is mirrored in troubling job losses and missed employment opportunities in rural towns and First Nations communities.

As B.C.’s forests minister, he is also the MLA for the vast Stikine riding where Highway 37 is a gateway to old-growth forests that have been logged for decades with one goal in mind: to strip them of their trees and send virtually every log out of the province, in raw, unprocessed form.

Donaldson’s riding is also home to a mothballed pulp mill, idled sawmills and troublingly few value-added mills, including one — Kyahwood Forest Products — that is First Nation-owned, employs mostly First Nation people from the small community of Moricetown and that ought to be the norm in B.C., not the exception.

Donaldson knows all of this. He also knows that just 10 days after Premier John Horgan named him to cabinet, the Somass sawmill in Port Alberni closed, ending good-paying jobs for 80 people at a mill whose history traces to the 1930s.

Western Forest Products, which put those people out of work, is B.C.’s biggest coastal forest company and a major exporter of raw, unprocessed, old-growth logs.

Donaldson and his NDP colleagues were silent on Somass’s closure. In contrast, just months earlier, Horgan travelled to a recently closed sawmill in Merritt, where against a backdrop of a large sign reading, Closed by Christy Clark, he lashed out at the Liberals for failing to help a “community in distress.”

Well the time for posturing is over. Horgan is premier. He and his forests minister, whose file now includes “rural development,” must act. It’s up to them to lead on the forestry and rural-revitalization files.

Were it not for the efforts of my union, at least one other sawmill in the same riding that includes Port Alberni would be down by now. We see no signs of action from the government. What is its plan, if any?

During the last term of the Liberal government, more raw logs left B.C. than at any other four-year span in the province’s history. In 2016 alone, enough unprocessed logs left the province to frame 134,000 homes. More troubling, we see that de facto log exports are regularly occurring in the Interior of the province, where “have” regions become the sources of logs for the “have-nots.” The Merritt mill closure was partly caught up in that ugly reality.

Perpetuating the status quo translates into a wholesale assault on our coast’s diminished forests, rural communities and First Nations, a reality that Scott Fraser, Port Alberni’s MLA and Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation, understands better than most.

Donaldson, Fraser and all their cabinet colleagues have signed mandate letters that explicitly commit them to implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

I’ve read that document. I see what’s happening on First Nation lands. I know that we can and we must do better as an industry and as a society by bringing First Nations into true partnerships with resource industries. But I’m starting to seriously wonder whether the same can be said of this government.

It’s time for bold action by government, driven by a vision of what is socially, economically and ecologically just. Here’s what my union believes is possible and that’ll have the ultimate support of many First Nations, environmental organizations and some forest companies:

More old-growth forests protected. An end to raw-log exports. Increased forest-industry employment based on getting greater value from every log we cut, rather than shipping it off in unprocessed form. New, First Nation-area-based tenures that anchor new joint ventures where First Nations are majority partners.

By staying silent on mill closures and allowing raw-log exports to continue unchecked, our government is allowing our pockets to be fleeced.

Last year, Horgan tried to exploit the Merritt mill closure to his political advantage. Today, the buck stops with him, Donaldson, Fraser and the rest of the NDP cabinet.

Staying silent in the face of more mill closures, more forest depletion and continued failure to reconcile with First Nations isn’t an option.

Arnold Bercov is president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada.

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