A map of the remaining productive old-growth forests left on Vancouver Island and the SW Mainland as of 2012.

Maps show impact of overcutting old-growth forests, conservation groups say

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New maps of B.C.’s forests put together by conservation groups using provincial government data show 74 per cent of productive old-growth forests has been logged and much of the remaining old growth is made up of small, stunted trees.

On the valley bottoms, where the largest old-growth trees grow, 91 per cent has been logged, leaving only nine per cent of the classic old forest with iconic trees, the maps show.

Victoria conservationist Vicky Husband said it’s an ecological crisis due to a century of overcutting the biggest and best trees.

“[It] has resulted in the increasing collapse of ecosystems and rural communities,” Husband said.

Even 20 years ago, there were intact watersheds and whole valleys to save, but now they are all gone, except in Clayoquot Sound, Husband said.

With ancient forests mostly tattered and fragmented, she said, B.C. needs a government that would “have the wisdom” to implement a science-based old-growth protection plan immediately to save what remains. They also need to ensure a sustainable value-added second-growth forest industry, she added.

The maps are based on last year’s inventory data from the Forests Ministry.

The analysis is based on conservative calculations, said Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The actual amount of logging is probably much higher,” he said.

The depletion of larger trees has left the industry in a financial crunch as the trees get smaller, since they’re worth less but more expensive to reach, Wu said.

The government counters that large swaths of old-growth are protected in park and old-growth management areas.

On Vancouver Island, 46 per cent of the forest on Crown land is old-growth, says a ministry statement: “Of the 862,125 hectares of old-growth forest, it is estimated that over 520,000 hectares will never be harvested.”

But Wu said those figures do not present the real picture. “The B.C. government, for the past decade, has been spinning a tale that all is well in the woods and that old-growth forests are not disappearing, by their promotion of totally misleading statistics,” Wu said.

Much of the old-growth included in the government’s estimates are “bonsai” forests in bogs or at high altitudes, where the stunted trees have little commercial value, he said.

“It’s like combining your Monopoly money with your real money and then claiming to be a millionaire, so why curtail spending?”

Read More: https://www.timescolonist.com/maps-show-impact-of-overcutting-old-growth-forests-conservation-groups-say-1.177503

The unprotected Castle Giant in the Upper Walbran Valley

Whoever wins election needs to take early action on environment

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Whatever happens in the election this week, it is clear the newly elected premier, whether it is Adrian Dix or Christy Clark, will have to put the environment high on the agenda for early action.

Pipelines and liquefied natural gas development emerged as key, perhaps even defining, issues during the campaign, but there are more problems out there.

Here are 10 things the premier has to act on if he, or she, wants credibility on the green file.

No. 1: Withdraw from the Environmental Assessment Equivalency Agreement that the province signed with the federal government. There is an exit clause in the deal, which essentially gives the National Energy Board the power to do environmental assessments for B.C. By opting out, the province will have a lot more say over pipeline proposals, natural gas processing plants and off-shore oil or gas facilities. The NDP has said it will get out within 30 days. A Liberal government should do the same.

No. 2: Scrap Site C. The province shouldn’t drown valuable farm land that can produce food for thousands of years to provide power to LNG plants that will be relatively short-lived.

No. 3: Bring the rapidly expanding number of independent power projects under tighter environmental scrutiny. Under the Liberals, 55 private hydro projects have been built and another 35 are proposed. But the government has done a poor job of monitoring them, allowing fish kills and other damaging impacts.

No. 4: Bring in legislation to make it illegal to cut any more giant, old-growth trees. The Ancient Forest Alliance alerted the public to plans to log the Avatar Grove, near Port Renfrew, saving it just in time. But the group is now warning the last of B.C.’s ancient trees will soon be lost unless something is done.

Vicky Husband, one of B.C.’s leading conservationists, says the group’s new maps “clearly show the ecological crisis in B.C.’s forests due to a century of overcutting.”

No. 5: Modernize the 150-year-old Mineral Tenure Act, which was drafted during the gold-rush and has given mining companies “free entry” for far too long. The law allows miners to stake claims virtually anywhere they want to in B.C., without consulting the government or First Nations. Should mining companies really be allowed to stake claims over places such as the Gulf Islands? They are now, under an antiquated law that should have been revised when miners stopped using mules.

No. 6: Don’t allow coal mining to expand in the Elk Valley until the companies working there have demonstrated they can stop polluting streams with selenium. The water in some areas is already so toxic it can deform fish eggs and kill aquatic insects. Do we really need to see a two-headed trout before bringing this issue under control?

No. 7: Strike an all-party committee to come up with a plan to take over the duties of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. DFO has been so badly managed that our salmon stocks are in peril. It’s time to stop managing B.C.’s fish from Ottawa.

No. 8: Take meaningful steps to protect endangered species. B.C.’s spotted owl population has fallen from 1,000 breeding pairs to less than a dozen birds. Marbled murrelets are in decline and so are mountain caribou. Extinction should not be acceptable to any government, anywhere.

No. 9: Form an elders council to provide the government with advice on how to best manage the environment. This approach has worked for First Nations for about 10,000 years.

N0. 10: Listen to the Greens. Whether or not the party gets any seats, it has a lot of smart things to say about the environment.

Link to Globe & Mail online article: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/whoever-wins-election-needs-to-take-early-action-on-environment/article11881474/

The stump of a 14ft diameter old-growth redcedar freshly cut in 2010 found along the Gordon River near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

Your election, your choice

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Environment
“In many ecosystems of B.C., old-growth forest is incredibly scarce — 91 per cent of valley bottom ancient forest growth on the southern coast has been logged of the classic monumental trees. Are you willing to commit to fully ending old-growth logging in any regions or ecosystems of B.C.?”
Ken Wu , Executive Director, Ancient Forest Alliance

Jane Sterk, Green: Yes. It is a policy of BC Greens that we stop all old-growth logging in B.C.

Carole James, NDP: The BC NDP is committed to protecting our province’s environment and coasts and will take measures to protect significant ecological areas including wetlands, estuaries and valuable old-growth forests.

Karen Bill, Liberal: Old-growth forests are not disappearing. There are more than 25 million hectares of old-growth forests in B.C. About 4.5 million hectares are fully protected, representing an area larger than Vancouver Island. Conserving old growth is an important part of long-term resource management. By law, forests that reflect the working definition of old growth must be retained in ecological units to meet biodiversity needs.

John Shaw, BC Communist Party: Yes, all regions of the province containing old-growth forests should be protected and maintained. The provincial government must ban raw log exports, and legislate the processing of timber locally for export as lumber or value-added products under public ownership and control.

Forestry workers and the Ancient Forest Alliance

Union joins environmentalists in call for stricter controls on raw log exports

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The volume of raw logs exported from B.C. more than tripled between 2002 and 2012, prompting forestry workers to join with the Ancient Forest Alliance to push for more stringent log-export restrictions.

During the last decade, 30,000 forest workers lost their jobs and more than 70 mills shut down, said Arnold Bercov, Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada forestry officer.

“The B.C. Liberals have decimated the province’s forestry workforce through massive raw-log exports, industry deregulation and unsustainable jobs,” he said. “We lost both our forests and our jobs. It’s nuts.”

However, Forests Minister Steve Thomson said it was necessary to increase raw-log exports to protect jobs during an economic downturn.

“The increased value available from the export of logs helped keep harvest rates up and that kept people employed and kept coastal communities going,” Thomson said.

“I think we would all agree that we would rather add value here and have those logs manufactured here, but we recognize that, in the economics of the coastal industry, we need exports to keep the level of harvest up. That services mills and keeps additional jobs going.”

Overall exports for the province are about 10 per cent of the total harvest, which makes it important in the economics of the coastal industry, Thomson said.

The union and the Ancient Forest Alliance, a conservation group, want policy changes to protect remaining stands of old growth and to push the industry into retooling coastal mills to process second growth.

Over the last decade, more than 47 million cubic metres of raw logs were exported from Crown and private lands.

The province issues permits for exports from Crown land when logs are declared surplus to the needs of local mills, but the federal government is responsible for export permits from private land.

The figures show that the equivalent of almost three million loaded logging trucks of raw logs were exported from B.C. between 2002 and 2012, said Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

In 2002, according to provincial government figures, 1.5 million cubic metres of logs were exported from Crown lands and 2.3 million cubic metres from private lands.

Last year, four million cubic metres were exported from Crown lands and 2.4 million from private lands.

The lowest years for exports from Crown lands were 2007, with 900,000 cubic metres, and 2008, with one million cubic metres going to China, Japan, South Korea and the U.S.

Wu also blames the province for much of the increase in exports from private lands, since, in 2004 and 2007, Island Timberlands and Western Forest Products were allowed to remove huge swaths of land from tree farm licences.

If that hadn’t happened, jurisdiction would have remained with the province.

Modern mills in the interior of the province are designed to handle smaller trees, but on the coast, most mills have not retooled to process second growth.

That can largely be explained by the government removing local milling requirements in 2003, Wu said. Prior to the change, companies were required to mill logs at specified local mills, but after 2003, many simply shipped them to Vancouver or overseas.

“That allowed tenured logging companies to shut down their mills instead of being forced to retool them to handle the changing forest profile,” he said.

Thomson said that if the Liberals are re-elected, they will work to make the industry as competitive as possible through low tax rates and regulatory costs.

“We have put in over $900 million in investment in the industry, despite the downturn. I would expect, as the market improves, to see investment in the mills,” he said.

Changes in January to the log-export system saw government fees reduced for companies cutting low and mid-grade logs in an effort to increase harvesting while curtailing exports.

The NDP has pledged to limit log exports and reinstate a jobs-protection commissioner.

Read More:https://www.timescolonist.com/union-joins-environmentalists-in-call-for-stricter-controls-on-raw-log-exports-1.174157
 

Old-Growth Coastal Douglas Fir forest in Metchosin

Lawsuit aims to save endangered Douglas fir ecosystems on Vancouver Island

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Environmental groups are suing the provincial government in hopes of saving the last remaining pockets of coastal Douglas fir forests on Vancouver Island.

The Wilderness Committee, ForestEthics Solutions and Ecojustice filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a court order preventing the province from allowing logging on Crown land in the coastal Douglas fir biogeoclimatic zone.

The groups are claiming that the province is violating its own laws, which are supposed to protect ecosystems from destruction.

“This is a greenwash test case,” said Valerie Langer, ForestEthics Solutions forest conservation director.

“The province brags that it has world-leading environmental laws. Clearly this is misleading and it’s about time that the province put some teeth into environmental protection.”

Coastal Douglas fir forests were recognized by the province as endangered ecosystems in 2006. But, since then, it has been logging as usual, said Torrance Coste, Wilderness Committee Vancouver Island campaigner.

“This forest type is listed under B.C.’s forest laws as being at risk, but instead of being protected, the entire forest is being wiped out,” he said.

The issue came to a head with the province giving the go-ahead in 2011 for the logging of DL 33, a patch of coastal Douglas fir near Nanoose Bay, Coste said.

A fraction of the remaining ecosystem is on provincial Crown land, and only a few hectares of that is prime old-growth, which should make it vital for the province to enforce full protection, Coste said.

A Forests Ministry statement said it would be inappropriate to comment on the lawsuit.

There are 256,800 hectares of coastal Douglas fir remaining on southern Vancouver Island and parts of the Fraser Valley and Sunshine Coast, but only 23,500 hectares are on provincial Crown land. Of that, 39 per cent is fully protected, including 1,600 hectares protected under the Land Act in July 2010, the ministry statement said.

About 80 per cent, or 205,800 hectares, is privately owned. The remaining 11 per cent, or 27,400 hectares, is on federal and municipal land.

“The major threat to coastal Douglas fir ecosystems is continued urbanization, not logging,” a ministry spokeswoman said.

Last year, the province formed a partnership with local governments and conservation groups to further protect ecosystems and educate private landowners, she said.

Coste said the record of private owners, mainly large logging companies, is “appalling” and he has little hope the patches of endangered forest will be protected.

The aim of the court case, expected to be heard this year, is to protect what is left of coastal Douglas fir on Crown land, said Devon Page, executive director of Ecojustice, whose lawyers are leading the case.

“Do our laws say ‘protect the environment’ in one clause, but, in the next, provide a loophole to legally destroy it, or is the province legally required to protect these endangered forests and species,” Page said.

“If the government is breaking its own law, then we want the courts to make the province take action to protect the last of these endangered forests.”

Read More:https://www.timescolonist.com/lawsuit-aims-to-save-endangered-douglas-fir-ecosystems-on-vancouver-island-1.145148

Ancient Forest Alliance

Editorial: NDP unclear on environment

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When provincial NDP leader Adrian Dix announced his party’s green policy last Monday, Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance was less than impressed: “The NDP’s environment platform is like a blurry moving sasquatch video in regards to potential old-growth forest protections and park creations. You can’t discern if it’s real and significant, or if it’s just Dix in a fake gorilla costume.”

That’s scarcely a ringing endorsement from a group Dix must be hoping to recruit. If the NDP are to win next month’s election, they’ll need support from environmentalists.

Remember what happened last time. In the 2009 election, the NDP lost the popular vote by a fairly narrow margin, trailing the Liberals 42.2 per cent to 45.8.

Yet the Green party garnered eight per cent of the ballots that year. If the NDP had done better among this group of voters, they might have won. The same was true of the 2005 election. Vote-splitting on the left has cost dearly in the past.

But there’s a problem. Dix can’t match the Greens promise for promise. That would take him too far from the political centre where most of the votes lie.

The environmental platform he laid out testifies to that reality. It’s more remarkable for what it doesn’t contain than for what it does.

The only significant new commitment is a plan to dissolve the Pacific Carbon Trust. More on that in a moment.

Dix reiterated his party’s opposition to a proposed pipeline that would move crude oil from Alberta to Kitimat. He also promised a ban on cosmetic pesticides, and money for park infrastructure.

These are either measures the party must adopt to retain its core vote (opposing the pipeline), or they’re minimalist gestures (the ban on pesticides) calculated to appeal outside the green community. Rather than a streaking sasquatch, the picture they bring to mind is Dix tiptoeing through a minefield.

No mention was made about B.C. Hydro’s proposal to build the Site C hydroelectric dam on the Peace River. Likewise, nothing about old-growth logging, or iron-dumping at sea to improve salmon habitat.

Fish farming or genetically modified crops weren’t mentioned. There was no discussion of grizzly bear hunting, although grizzlies are already “blue-listed,” meaning the species is vulnerable to further predation.

Of course, it’s possible the NDP is keeping quiet about such controversial topics until after the election. Parties often campaign in the centre, then govern closer to their base.

But Dix, like his mentor, former premier Glen Clark, comes from the blue-collar side of the party. Environmental restrictions that put jobs at risk in forestry or the fishery might be a bridge too far for him.

There is, however, a huge area of uncertainty. As noted, the New Democrats are planning to dissolve the Pacific Carbon Trust, a Crown corporation that helps public- and private-sector agencies reduce their carbon “footprint” by selling them “offsets” that reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.

Last month, provincial auditor general John Doyle published a scathing review. Doyle found that some of the alleged offsets were far less effective than claimed. Dix used this report as justification for killing the trust.

There are indeed very real problems with carbon trading. The same difficulties have cropped up in other countries. But does that mean cap-and-trade is now dead in B.C.?

Who knows? Dix said only that some of the trust’s functions would be assumed by the Climate Action Secretariat. That is hardy a full or convincing answer.

It appears, on this central issue, that the NDP are unwilling to take a clear stance for now.

Perhaps the blurry sasquatch isn’t such a bad metaphor after all.

Read More: https://www.timescolonist.com/editorial-ndp-unclear-on-environment-1.140177

Canada's Gnarliest Tree found in Avatar Grove

West Jet’s Going Coastal in Avatar Grove

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WestJet Magazine's “Up!” includes a photo and write-up of the Avatar Grove on Page 27 in their “Going Coastal” article of Southern Vancouver Island destinations.

Check it out here: 

https://cdn1.upmagazine.com/up-digital-issues/upapril-2013/index.html

Calvin Sandborn

Ancient Forest Alliance pushes parties to protect old growth

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The Ancient Forest Alliance is taking provincial political parties to task this election in terms of committing to preserve B.C.’s remaining old growth forests.

The Victoria-based environmental organization that caught international attention with its advocacy for old growth near Port Renfrew coined “Avatar Grove,” says the province is running out of its oldest forests, and has little legislation in place to protect what’s left.

“Industry still logs thousands of hectares of old growth every year,” said Ken Wu, executive directior of the AFA. “We can and must develop a sustainable second growth industry.

“Without handcuffs on industry, this is going to be the end of this resource. It’s up to government, be it the Liberals or the NDP, to make a commitment.”

Last week, the AFA and the University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre issued proposed legislation to protect old growth forests. Part of that plan involves engaging an independent scientific council to assess the ecological risk associated with varying levels of remaining old growth forests.

“While some legal mechanisms are available today under various statutes, we feel there is a need for new legislation and planning that is based on science, governed by timelines, and plugs existing loopholes or inconsistencies,” said Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the UVic Environmental Law Centre.

This week, the AFA criticized the B.C. NDP’s platform as continuing the “unsustainable status quo of old-growth forest liquidation and over-cutting.” It said the B.C. Liberals remain convinced the forests aren’t endangered, and the party has left a legacy of forestry job losses, raw log exports and unsustainable harvests.

Wu noted the B.C. Green party has committed to key parts of the proposed legislation.

NDP Leader Adrian Dix

A provincial NDP government would kill Pacific Carbon Trust

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The Pacific Carbon Trust would be scrapped if the NDP forms B.C.’s next government, leader Adrian Dix said Monday as he unveiled the party’s environmental platform.

The Climate Action Secretariat would take over from the trust, with carbon-tax revenues used to fund transit and other green projects, he said. Levies paid by hospitals, Crown corporations and post-secondary schools would fund energy-efficiency upgrades for those institutions.

“Since 2008, our public institutions have been paying tens of millions of dollars in levies to the Pacific Carbon Trust,” Dix said. “Instead of using those funds to invest in energy-efficiency initiatives in schools and hospitals, the bulk of the money has been gifted to profitable corporations.”

Read more election coverage HERE

The Pacific Carbon Trust was formed in 2008 to help reduce carbon emissions. Businesses and institutions pay $25 a tonne to the trust for emissions and the trust then buys carbon offsets. However, that meant cash-strapped schools and hospitals had to come up with funds that often then went to for-profit companies offering offsets. Auditor general John Doyle recently found the trust was investing in projects that would have gone ahead anyway.

Environment critic Rob Fleming, who is seeking re-election in Victoria-Swan Lake, said the aim is to make the fund work better.

“It will enable us to expand transit service. Literally more buses on the road. The big flaw is that since 2008, the Liberals haven’t invested a dime into public-transit service.”

But Environment Minister Terry Lake said Dix apparently doesn’t understand the concept of carbon neutrality.

“Turning it over to the Climate Action Secretariat doesn’t change anything and we’ve made some really good improvements, so I’m not sure how he intends to maintain carbon neutrality in the public sector, or maybe he doesn’t think that’s important,” he said.

The Liberals invested $75 million in making public buildings more energy efficient, saving institutions millions of dollars in energy costs, and another $5 million has gone into the carbon-neutral capital program for school districts for energy-efficiency projects that lower their carbon emissions, Lake said.

The NDP also pledged to ban cosmetic pesticides as part of its environmental platform. But a sparse announcement that the NDP will protect endangered species and habitats and reinvest in B.C.'s parks system, with few specifics, drew criticism from Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The NDP’s environment platform is like a blurry moving sasquatch video in regards to potential old-growth forest protections and park creations,” he said. “You can’t discern if it’s real and significant or if it’s just Dix in a fake gorilla costume.”

The cost of the NDP’s environmental commitments is estimated at $36 million in 2013-14, $47 million in 2014-15 and $60 million in 2015-16.

The NDP also announced its agriculture platform, including a program to promote local food in hospitals and resurrection of a cancelled food-marketing program called Buy B.C.

Link to Times Colonist online article: www.timescolonist.com/sports/a-provincial-ndp-government-would-kill-pacific-carbon-trust-1.116909

 

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada
 
Flagging tape marked "Falling Boundary" in the lower Avatar Grove when the forest was initially surveyed for logging.

5 Canadians to salute on Earth Day

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1. TJ Watt, Victoria, British Columbia

Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island is a protected forest of towering trees that have survived on the planet for centuries, and in some cases millennia. TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance has been integral in promoting sustainable practices that will ensure Avatar Grove’s existence. An activist and photographer, Watt has so far managed to help preserve 59 hectares of forest near Port Renfrew from logging.

2. Marc Kielburger, Toronto, Ontario

Along with his younger brother, Craig, and his wife, Roxanne Joyal, Kielburger has launched Me to We Trips, promoting volunteer tourism vacations that help improve the lives of children in the developing world. The Me to We Trips are eco-travel journeys that have less impact on the environment than similar excursions by other companies to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Half of the profits of the company go to Free the Children, the charitable organization founded by the Kielburgers and Joyal that has done tremendous work fighting against the exploitation of children around the world.

3. Katie Hayes, Bonavista, Newfoundland & Labrador

The owner of the Bonavista Social Club, a bakery and pizzeria overlooking the gorgeous northern coast of Newfoundland, Hayes has opted for an entirely organic menu. She relies on ingredients from the Bonavista Social Club’s garden, makes her own bread and pizzas in a wood-fired oven, and hopes to one day produce cheese from the goats on the restaurant’s grounds.

4. Hugo Germain, Montreal, Quebec

As the director of development of ALT Hotels, Germain has overseen the implementation of industry-leading green initiatives, including a geothermal heating system in the Toronto Pearson Airport franchise location that reduces its energy usage dramatically, says Germain, who is also the nephew of acclaimed hotelier Christiane Germain.

5. Cliff Speer, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

One of the most well-regarded tour operators in Saskatchewan, Speer is devoted to exploring Canada’s natural wonders with his clients. With his company, CanoeSki Discovery, Speer educates visitors on how to see his part of Canada in ways that have little impact on the environment. Whether it’s canoeing through Saskatoon on the South Saskatchewan River or cross-country skiing in one of the province’s parks, Speer gives you a thorough understanding of the ecology in the region and how urbanization threatens it.

Link to VayCay.ca online article: https://vacay.ca/2013/04/5-canadians-to-salute-on-earth-day/