Cortes Island logging dispute moves to the market

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As the dispute between Cortes Island residents and Island Timberlands escalates, activists are moving the debate to where it will hurt: the market.

Earlier this month, local residents’ blockades of Island Timberlands’ logging operations resulted in a withdrawal of the crew, but as Zoe Miles from the WildStands Alliance notes, the company has yet to meet Cortes Island homeowners or make any revision to the logging plans. As a result, residents against IT’s industrial scale logging have tracked the raw logs Island Timberlands are exporting to mills in Washington State and to their retail customers and are sending letters to raise awareness about the dispute.

Below is an excerpt of the letter:

Island Timberlands is presently in conflict with the community of Cortes Island over logging of some of the very last stands of old growth forest in the region.

This is a region with extremely little primary forest remaining. In addition, Island Timberlands is in conflict with the community over logging plans in important watersheds and other issues of great concern.

[..]

Since most of the U.S. industry has already made public commitments not to trade in old growth and conflict wood products, we ask that you enforce this commitment by contacting Simpson Lumber and Island Timberlands at the earliest opportunity to advise them that you will have to stop sourcing their products if they do not resolve the conflicts.

We realize you have most likely been caught up in this conflict unwittingly and very much appreciate your positive involvement in resolving the conflicts.

“People working on this (letter-writing) campaign have had experience with similar campaigns in the past, and we’ve seen an effective way of bringing more people into the conversation an creating awareness about the controversial source of the trees,” Miles said over the phone.

“That’s where we saw that consumers and buyers are interested on knowing where their products came from. We believe that not only do [consumers] want to know, but also that they deserve to know that there is so much controversy around their product.”

Tied in with residents’ concerns about IT’s large-scale logging practices is the Chinese Investment Corporation’s 12.5 per cent buy-in bid for Island Timberlands, Miles said.

“There are more shareholders than China Investment Corporation, but 12.5 per cent is a fairly sizable chunk, and there’s going to be more pressure on Island Timberlands to increase the profit margin,” she said, adding that profit margins would be increased not by working with local communities, but by “harvesting the best wood they can and getting [to market] as quickly as possible.”

“There’s a huge concern about where the profits are going to be go, as well as the pressure to increase those profits.”

She added that because Island Timberlands is also a large landowner on Cortes, the idea of foreign ownership didn’t “sit well” with residents.

Island Timberlands did not provide a comment in time for publication.

Read more:  https://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/cortes-island-logging-dispute-moves-market

Adrian Dix’s Not-So-Secret Agenda

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In his 2011 bid for the NDP leadership, Adrian Dix promised that if he became leader he would commit to: “Developing a long-term strategy for old-growth forests, which would include protection of Avatar Grove and other specific areas subject to immediate logging.” While Avatar Grove is already off-limits to logging, there are several million hectares of endangered old-growth forests in the province that need protecting, and we need a systematic plan to protect them while ensuring sustainable, value-added second-growth forestry. Citizens must hold Dix and all NDP politicians to this promise, as so far they have not re-mentioned this promise since they first wrote it! 
~ Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance

 

A New Democratic Party government led by Adrian Dix would expand child care, reduce fees for seniors’ long-term care, ban the cosmetic use of pesticides, put a moratorium on independent power projects, stop renovictions and create disincentives for exporting raw logs.

A Dix government would start a Ministry of Women’s Equality, get rid of the foundation skills assessment (FSA) for students and allow teachers to negotiate class size and composition as part of their contract bargaining. It would reinstate a tax on financial institutions and raise corporate taxes.

Those commitments and others, all publicly available, run contrary to an assertion that has become common in Victoria that Dix won’t say what he wants to do if the NDP forms government.

With the NDP ahead in the polls, Premier Christy Clark’s talking points in the past year have included suggestions that Dix has a secret plan for the province. The Liberal Party she leads has pushed the theme, often echoed in the media, with a “Searching for Dix’s Hidden Plan” website.

In one year-end interview, Dix said people wanting to know what an NDP government would do should look at what they supported as opposition in the last year, rather than dwelling on what’s been unsaid.

More instructive is to look at what Dix said in early 2011 while he was running for the NDP leadership, a time when he stressed he was being specific about his promises in his appeal to party members to vote for him. They include proposals that would change the economy, health services, education and the environment.

Some of them Dix has repeated frequently since becoming leader, but many of them he has not. While they may not add up to a full platform and they leave policy gaps, it is worth remembering what they were.

Raw logs and women’s equality

While the website for Dix’s succesful leadership bid appears to have disappeared from the internet, The Tyee held onto copies of his announcements. In some cases they are specific about dollar amounts, in some they just indicate his intentions, and in others he identifies policy changes that would transform sectors without great expense to the government.

Following are commitments on some of the province’s higher profile issues:

– Using financial disincentives to discourage raw log exports. “I am calling for a major increase in the provincial fees levied on raw logs harvested on Crown lands for export, and for a new provincial sales or earnings tax on raw logs exported from private forest lands,” he said;

– “I am committed to a Ministry of Women’s Equality to ensure that all agencies and all ministries are moving forward on issues impacting equality for women, including the Premier’s Office,” announced Dix. “The Liberal decision to scrap the ministry was a step backward that I will reverse”;

– “I am also committed to expanding legal aid and supporting and financing women’s centres and centres dealing with violence against women”;

– “I am committed to expand child care, to initiate a provincial childcare system and to pressure Ottawa to play a major role in such a system”;

– Reversing the BC Liberal’s hike in fees for seniors in long-term care, which in 2011 transferred a $54 million government expense to seniors and their families;

– Stopping the smart meter program;

– Placing a moratorium on independent power producer contracts;

– Renewing the B.C. Utilities Commission process to restore public accountability, restoring moves in recent years that took things like smart meters out of the BCUC’s review;

– Enforcing employment standards and improving “the provisions for workers seeking to organize and bargain collectively”;

– Reversing B.C.’s position on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union to protect the province from “soaring” prescription drug and health care costs.

Health and education

Several proposals addressed education:

– “Changing the school funding formula to help keep schools open” and “increasing the resources and services for students”;

– Ending the current Foundation Skills Assessment program (see Sidebar) and replacing it with something more comprehensive;

– Restoring teachers’ right to negotiate class size and composition;

– Eliminating the interest on student loans;

– Creating a grant program for post-secondary students with a budget of $100 million a year, building on a plan to restore grants of $18 million a year distributed based on need, and spending $30 million towards eliminating the interest on student loans.

And the former health critic had several policies aimed at improving care and containing costs, particularly for prescription drugs:

– Requiring B.C. hospitals to buy locally grown food, a move he said would support the province’s agriculture industry and benefit patients;

– Expanding reference-based pricing where the government pays for the lowest cost option when there’s no therapeutic difference between different priced drugs;

– Increasing support for the Therapeutics Initiative (T.I.), a body at the University of British Columbia that gives independent assessments of the evidence on prescription drugs. The T.I. would be given a stronger voice in the province’s drug review process, he said;

– Increasing support for academic detailing, a program where doctors are provided “objective research” on drugs, a way of counterbalancing what they receive in promotions from drug company representatives.

No more ‘renovictions’

Several Dix policies were aimed at improving things for renters:

– “Eliminating problematic sections of the Residential Tenancy Act that permit steep rent increases and tenant harassment, and introducing new rules to end ‘renovictions’ and providing advocacy services for renters.” Dix said he would give existing tenants the right to move back into a renovated suite after a renovation at the same rent they paid previously. He also said he would end the “georgraphic market increase clause” that allows landowners to jack rents when neighbouring renters pay more;

– Landowners would no longer be allowed to ask tenants to voluntarily agree to higher rents, a clause Dix said makes tenants vulnerable to intimidation;

– A “Tenants’ Assistant” program would be available to renters to provide information and advocacy, a service that would be particularly useful to renters whose first language is other than English;

– The residential tenancy office would be required to track and publish statistics on evictions, such as how many were filed, where, whether they were disputed and whether they were overturned.

And there was a long list of environmental commitments:

– Creating a legislature standing committee on sustainability tasked with examining ways the government can integrate sustainability into government policies and monitor progress;

– Developing a long-term strategy for old-growth forests, which would include protection of Avatar Grove and other specific areas subject to immediate logging plans;

– Ending the carbon tax’s revenue neutrality where the amount collected is returned via other tax cuts, and instead using it for transit, energy-efficient infrastructure and other partnerships to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;

– Rewriting the environmental assessment laws to include “sound scientific analysis, genuine participation of the public, full consultation with First Nations and public credibility”;

– Writing long overdue endangered species laws following public hearings on the subject and broad public discussion;

– Holding “accountability reviews” on the public concerns about fracking, sour gas and GHG emissions in oil and gas production;

– Intervening against Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta’s “tar sands,” rejection of which would also prevent the growth of oil tanker traffic on the coast;

– Paying for an “energy conservation megaproject” that would see the retrofitting of public and private buildings to reduce their energy use, bills and carbon emissions. Dix did not set a budget or a target number of retrofits, but said “these investments more than pay for themselves through reduced utility and maintenance bills.” They would also generate thousands of jobs, he said;

– Expanding the province’s marine protected areas, stopping commercial development in parks and creating new parks and protected areas where more protection of natural areas is needed;

– Increasing the number of staff in parks to help the public and protect the parks;

– Establishing environmental youth teams, a move that would create summer jobs for young people and provide a pool of labour to work on environmental stewardship projects in parks or elsewhere. Dix proposed to create 1,500 positions through $14.5 million in annual funding;

– Working with First Nations, the forest industry, communities, forest trade unions and conservation groups to develop “new forest management strategies to address carbon sinks, old growth and ongoing transition to second growth utilization”;

– Accelerating the implementation of the Great Bear Rainforest agreements;

– Banning the use of pesticides for cosmetic reasons, to beautify lawns or gardens where there is no health, food protection or environmental reason to use them;

– Introducing a water protection act that would prevent unregulated water pollution, protect groundwater and require management plans for all river basins;

– Closing loopholes that allow properties in the agricultural land reserve to be developed and giving the agricultural land commission enough resources to do its job;

– Establishing an agricultural policy to support local food production, processing and procurement.

Making a mandate

Finally, there were a couple measures aimed at raising revenue, making taxation fairer and paying for some of the commitments Dix made:

– Rolling back corporate taxes to 2008 levels, a reverse of the tax cuts associated with the carbon tax, which would raise government revenue by $385 million;

– Returning the minimum tax on financial institutions to where it was in January 2008, which would bring in $100 million a year.

Dix has since also said he’s open to raising personal income taxes, but only for people with incomes over $150,000.

At least some observers made note of Dix’s promises on the way to the leader’s office. For example, Ken Wu, founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, was particularly interested in the commitment to develop a strategy for managing the province’s old growth forests.

“There’s no details and he hasn’t repeated it since he became the leader, but we’re going to hold him to it, and all his MLAs and candidates,” said Wu.

The MLA from Cariboo North, Bob Simpson, who parted with the party in 2010 to sit as an independent, has long raised concerns that an NDP government will be elected without any mandate to do anything if they fail to articulate a vision for the province.

“They’ve committed to proving to people they are not the socialist hordes, (so) they’re not being very creative on the revenue side,” Simpson said. “I would like to see more creative thinking around how they’re going to realign the revenue side so they can adress some of the things that need to be addressed on the spending side.”

He questioned the goal of having B.C. be the lowest taxed jurisdiction in Canada. “I think there’s no reason we couldn’t be in the middle,” he said.

The provincial legislature is scheduled to return on Feb. 12 for the speech from the throne, followed by a budget on Feb. 19. It won’t be long after that until all the parties release their platforms with the provincial election set for May 14.

When the NDP releases its platform, it will be interesting to see how well it reflects what Dix committed to during his run for the party leadership.

Read more:  https://thetyee.ca/News/2013/01/09/Adrian-Dix-Agenda/

Red-legged frog.

Give trees (and frogs) a break

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As I walked the trails on Cortes Island in British Columbia this summer, beady eyes watched me from the puddles. Sometimes, when I put my foot down, three or four red-legged frogs would leap up and splay in all directions. Now that it is winter, the puddles of summer have expanded into sheets of water. I imagine that the frogs are dozing there, in the slow moving water beneath the canopy of giant trees.

Cortes is very lucky to have forests like this because they are rare and quickly disappearing. Red legged frogs are rare too. They are provincially listed and declining in numbers. On Cortes Island, those rare forests are about to be logged, and the little frogs may be facing their last winter.

Island Timberlands, a privately owned logging company, owns the forest. They plan to start logging any day. They would have started already, except for a band of islanders who created a blockade on the road. As I write this, they are standing guard over the entrance to the forest, willing to risk arrest for the trees.

Cortes Island is not the only place where a community is in a faceoff with IT. People in Port Alberni oppose IT’s industrial logging of McLaughlin Ridge and Cameron Valley Firebreak. In Roberts Creek, it’s Day Road Forest and in Powell River, its Stillwater Bluffs. IT’s logging of the magnificent Cathedral Grove has sparked years of protest and controversy. If IT sells these controversial lands to another timber company, it will probably be for a price that ensures ecosystems, species and jobs still leave B.C.

The province of B.C. is responsible for this broken system. The B.C. Liberals repealed the Forest Land Reserve Act in 2002, and replaced it with the highly flexible, industry-friendly Private Managed Forest Land Act in 2004. Nearly a decade later, we can see the result of this market-based approach.

According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, forests are being logged at more than twice the rate that forest auditors say can be sustained; trees are logged at younger and younger ages; more trees get exported as raw logs; and tens of thousands of hectares are being readied for conversion to residential development. Island Timberlands will liquidate all of its Douglas fir forests within 25 years, mostly for export as raw logs. Threatened and endangered species can’t stop the logging: there is no provincial legislation that requires their protection. Tough luck, frogs.

As taxpayers, we should expect the province to protect the lands of B.C. for uses that benefit the citizens of B.C. – especially when the forest companies like Island Timberlands pay such low property tax rates on private land. On Cortes Island, I paid about $62 in taxes in 2011 for each of my 20 inland acres. Island Timberlands paid between $5 and $6 for each of its inland acres near Squirrel Cove. What does the province require from timber companies in exchange for this 90-per-cent reduced tax rate? Sustainable forestry jobs that can support a small community over time? Nope. Value-added manufacturing jobs for the province? Sorry, no. Intact ecosystems for the tourist industry (about $4 million in direct wages for our island)? Again, no.

How, in the face of all this, do we stand up for ourselves, for the forest, and even for the frogs?

Perhaps our best leverage at this point is our voices as voters. If we want healthy forests and our community values that depend on them, then we all need to write to the B.C. provincial government and tell them that it isn’t fair for corporations to benefit from low property tax rates and then manage their land with no benefit to B.C.

Tell them that destroying ecosystems and exporting raw logs is not a reasonable trade-off for low tax rates. We need regulations that protect jobs and ecosystems, including protection for the habitat of declining species like the red legged frog. While you are at it, ask that funds be allocated for places like Cortes Island. Cortes residents seek a mix of park land and ecosystem-based logging that will support the local economy. Other communities have different needs. Roberts Creek, for example, seeks expansion of the Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park.

If enough people raise their voices, we could act as the stewards the forests need. This holiday season, you and I could give a lasting gift to the trees, and the frogs and countless other animals and plants that are sustained by them.

As for me, I’ve seen the magic of old forests and I want my grandchildren to see it – and yours as well. So I’m going to push the province for a fair approach to private forest lands and support those blockaders on Cortes Island.

After all, I’ve got those beady little eyes watching me.

Carrie Saxifrage is a writer with a background in law. She lived on Cortes Island for 15 years and will return to the island when her son graduates from high school.

Old-growth Douglas-fir trees on Cortes Island.

Province forsaken its role on Cortes

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The War in the Woods has changed complexion since I first started covering hostilities more than 20 years ago as an environmental war correspondent in the Clayoquot Sound combat zone.

For me, the fight in those days was defined by brazen environmental opportunists like MP Svend (White Swan) Robinson who was most dangerous if you happened to be standing between him and a TV camera. This news just in — I was not a friend of the environment movement.

Jump ahead two decades and we find a much different contest being waged on the forest floor and in the boardrooms. While the spoils of war are still the remaining stands of old growth and the ecosystems that support them, the field of battle has shifted and the combatants’ tactics have evolved.

A good example of changing times is the current environment-versus-logging impasse on Cortes Island. It is more a war of words and diplomacy than the bitter blockade combat that defined the Clayoquot. The land in question is not public, it is private. And the gulf island ecosystem in question is not just sensitive, it is hyper-sensitive.

On Cortes, at least, the face of the environment movement has changed. The patchouli anarchy that defined it 20 years ago has mellowed and matured. The career enviros are still there, but their ranks have filled out with an eclectic gathering of regular folks — from kids to their grandparents to more than a few retired loggers.

Currently, an unofficial time out is being observed in the standoff between Cortes Island’s environmental activists and Island Timberlands, a subsidiary of Wall Street giant Brookfield Asset Management.

It should be noted that while this drama plays out on tiny Cortes, the Brookfield boardroom is in a state of high anxiety because of China Investment Corp. (CIC) is considering purchasing a sizeable chunk of Island Timberlands. CIC is the investment arm of the People’s Republic of China with $200 billion of China’s foreign exchange reserves to play with. No pressure there.

On Cortes, three things are remarkable. First, the resident environmentalists and Timberlands have been debating the company’s logging plans for about four years without coming to serious blows.

Second, the environmentalists are not trying to ban logging altogether. They are asking for Timberlands to adopt an ecosystem-based approach — eco-code for selective logging that spares old growth.

Third, Timberlands has exercised a measure of restraint and has not immediately sought an injunction. Efforts are being made to bring the two sides together for what the environmentalists call “an informed discussion about the best use of the resource.”

Back in the early 1990s, the provincial government was fully engaged attempting to referee such conflicts even though there was precious little common ground. Twenty years later, with dialogue increasingly in vogue, the question is: Where is the provincial government?

A big issue in the Cortes dispute is the extent to which our government regulates activity on private land. The private foresters claim they are governed by more than 30 acts and regulations. However, the environmentalists say companies like Timberlands are allowed to apply a model of “professional reliance” which means that there is little meaningful regulatory oversight.

It’s a pity the current administration has all but forsaken its role as steward and peacekeeper in the woods. A measure of leadership would go a long way right about now.

[Monday Mag article no longer available]

OUR VIEW: Provincial oversight missing in Cortes logging dispute

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The current impasse over logging on private land on Cortes Island is unique by B.C. standards. In a province where wars in the woods have often been bitterly waged, the Cortes standoff stands apart.

Cortes environmentalists and Island Timberlands have been debating the company’s logging plans for about four years without coming to serious blows. The islanders are not trying to ban logging altogether, they are asking for Timberlands to adopt an ecosystem-based, selective logging harvesting plan that spares old growth.

And, Timberlands, which is owned by Wall Street giant Brookfield Asset Management, has exercised a measure of restraint and has not immediately sought an injunction to gain access to the property.

As encouraging as this is, there is something glaringly absent in the debate – provincial government stewardship. There can be no lasting resolution of the Cortes Island conflict unless it can be demonstrated that logging on the company’s private land is subject to diligent regulatory oversight. Private land logging companies claim they are subject to more than 30 provincial acts and regulations.

But, the environmentalists counter-claim that the industry uses a model of professional reliance which means that there is no real government oversight and private land foresters ultimately get to decide what constitutes compliance.

Further complicating the Cortes Island impasse are global investment forces over which Cortes has no control. China Investment Corp.(CIC), the state-owned investment arm of the People’s Republic of China, is interested in purchasing a significant percentage of Island Timberlands. CIC is an investment powerhouse with approximately $200 billion of China’s foreign exchange reserves to play with.

The notion that the fate of old growth stands on tiny Cortes Island will be debated and determined in part by faceless Communist Party plutocrats in Beijing is kind of scary. The scenario is made more scary by the fact that our provincial government seems to have abandoned all caring for commercial logging on private land.

Read article:  https://www.campbellrivermirror.com/opinion/183084691.html

Ancient Forest Alliance

Global TV News – Echo Lake & Bald Eagles

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Direct link to YouTube clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJcMg48bT10

Please SIGN our PETITION at: staging.ancientforestalliance.org/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/

Echo Lake is a spectacular, unprotected, lowland ancient forest near Agassiz, BC on the east side of the Lower Fraser Valley. It is in the unceded territory of the Sts’ailes First Nations band (formerly the Chehalis Indian Band). The area is home to perhaps the largest concentration of bald eagles on Earth, where thousands of eagles come each fall to eat spawning salmon in the Harrison and Chehalis Rivers and hundreds roost in the old-growth trees at night around Echo Lake. It is also home to bears, cougars, deer, mountain goats, and osprey, and was historically populated by the critically endangered northern spotted owl.

The vigilance of local landowners on the east side of Echo Lake, whose private lands restrict access to the old-growth forests on the Crown lands on the west side of the lake, have held-off industrial logging of the lake’s old-growth forests for decades. Local conservationists are interested in increased protections for eagles in the Harrison/Chehalis area and the protection of the Echo Lake Ancient Forest where the eagles roost at night.

Giant Douglas-fir trees tower between boulders on Island Timberlands' private lands at Stillwater Bluffs near Powel River

China Investment Corporation Eyes BC Forests, Spells FIPA Danger

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The China Investment Corporation (ICI), one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, is set to become a powerful landowner in British Columbia if a $100 million deal with Island Timberlands, the second-largest owner of private forests in the province, goes through. The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is concerned that closure of the deal, especially in light of Canada’s pending ratification of the Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (FIPA), could have negative consequences for protection of BC’s treasured old-growth forests, forestry jobs, and the rights of First Nations, according to an AFA press release.

“The Communist Party of China is about to become one of the biggest landowners in British Columbia if this deal goes through,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the AFA.
“In light of the proposed Canada-China investment treaty, this could be at the expense of BC’s environment, forestry workers and First Nations,” said Wu, adding, “Chairman Mao’s spirit is seemingly being channelled by Chairman Harper these days, as it’s hard to see how this proposed agreement will be a net benefit to Canadians.”
Chinese investment in Canadian resources has taken on a new significance since the Harper government announced the possibility of entering into a strict trade agreement with China. The deal, an investment treaty with a 31 year lifespan, would strongly dissuade municipal, provincial and federal governments from making any decisions that might affect the profit margin of Chinese investors.
“The China-Canada FIPA would allow Chinese investors in Canada to sue the federal government for lost profits due to new regulations, taxes, and environmental laws enacted federally or provincially. This would undercut the ability of future federal and provincial governments to enact new regulations or policies that might result in a lawsuit by Chinese companies which are accountable to the Chinese government,” says the press release.
The Harper government has yet to ratify FIPA, but the consequences of the trade deal have gained new significance after the rushed approval of China’s takeover of Canadian oil-producer Nexen. Although Harper promised the sell-out of Canadian resources to foreign state-owned enterprises signals the ‘end of a trend and not the beginning,’ he did not mention that such acquisitions will continue and that all such sales occurring under a $330 million mark will receive no federal review.
If Island Timberland successfully deals with China, the CIC will own a  12.5 percent in Island Timberland’s 254,000 hectares of private forest land on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
Under the banner of FIPA the deal between the CIC and Island Timberlands could have significant consequences for how those forests are managed. The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the government to establish a $40 million annual “park acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.” BC has not had an acquisition fund of this kind since 2008.
“While private land trusts are vital for conservation, they simply don’t have the capacity to quickly raise the tens of millions of dollars needed each year to protect most endangered private lands before they are logged or developed —only governments have such funds,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “More than ever, considering the potential future difficulties to strengthen environmental laws on private lands under FIPA, the BC government must fund the purchase of the last endangered old-growth forests on private lands before they are logged.”
According to the Ancient Forest Alliance, the combination of FIPA with Chinese investment in BC forests could prove disastrous for the conservation measures needed to ensure responsibly stewardship of the land.
Among other possible concerns, the AFA says the Island Timberlands sale, when considered in tandem with FIPA, raises these immediate concerns:
– The future obstruction of “new regulations or taxes to curtail unprocessed ‘raw’ logs from being exported from BC to sawmills in China and abroad.”
– The undermining of “stronger Forest Protection regulations on private forest lands.”
– The move away from the establishment of a “Forest Land Reserve” which mirrors other popular conservations strategies such as the “Agricultural Land Reserve.”
– The obstruction of “implementation of First Nations land-use plans and shared decision making measures that may require legally-binding orders from the BC government to protect sacred sites, important cultural use sites, and natural resource areas.”
Communities across Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, where Island Timberlands holdings are located, are fighting the company’s plans to harvest in the region, suggesting the area’s unique and highly-prized ecosystems should warrant the land a no-go zone. Island Timberlands should forego logging in these “forest hotspots” and practice “community, ecosystem-based forestry standards” elsewhere.
The company temporarily halted logging plans earlier this month on Cortes Island after protestors blocked operations. The island’s community members are currently raising funds for the purchase of a 250 hectare “Children’s Forest” that will be protected from future logging.
In a recent interview with trade investment lawyer Gus Van Harten, he told DeSmog that FIPA is preparing Canada “to play the role of the supplier of raw resources to feed the Chinese industrial machine. We will have difficulty competing with Chinese manufacturing because of the extremely low cost of labour in China.”
He added, “The real economic benefits is not taking the resources out of the ground, it’s adding value by manufacturing the resources and then exporting the manufactures.”
Flagging tape marked "Falling Boundary" in a threatened area of mature forest of Cortes Island.

Chinese seek stake in BC forestry company as FIPA decision looms

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Potential impacts of a  $100 million dollar deal between China Investment Corporation (CIC) and Brookfield Asset Management Inc, the majority shareholder in Island Timberlands (IT), have made headlines internationally and alarmed activists in British Columbia. The story was first reported in early November by the Wall Street Journal.

South China Morning Post reported upon it more recently,  quoting activist Zoe Miles.

Island Timberlands intends to clear cut a forest Cortes Island residents say they cherish, but so far the community has stopped IT from proceeding.

The industrial scale forestry  IT proposes for Cortes Island “gives the corporation all of the profit at the expense of the community,” Miles said.

Because IT is exporting raw logs to the Chinese market, as opposed to finished products, Miles said residents will be left with a “devastated ecosystem” and no long-term benefits for locals.

“What we see is that they appear to be far more interested in making a deal with China than they do with the local community, and so, to all appearances, their priority is profit over local benefit,” Miles said.

Islanders want to work with the forestry company to “create a new model that everyone can benefit from and that creates local jobs as well as preserve the integrity of the ecosystem and that they can still make a profit from.”

Neither the CIC sale nor the Canada-China FIPA agreement have gone through yet, Kenneth Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance said.

“And in fact, I think the ratification of FIPA has been stalled by a massive public outcry, including among the Conservative voting base,” he said.

“Many of the activists are pushing for stronger forest practice regulations… to ensure essentially that eco-forestry standards and community standards are implemented on those lands. They’re not anti-logging. They want to see sustainable logging. But the ability to get new laws to strengthen the forest practices standards could be jeopardized,” Wu said.

If FIPA is  ratified by the federal government, he cautioned, the trade agreement will protect Chinese investors, and allow them to sue for the potential lost profits as a result of new environmental laws, such as a tax for exporting raw logs to Chinese or American mills.

He said such a move would  make it difficult to create policies that would respond to the vision of “sustainable forestry” articulated for Cortes Island and other sites.

Relations with First Nations

Weakened regulatory abilities and local resource control aside, the AFA  also cautions that the Canada-China FIPA and CIC’s Island Timberlands buy-in could hinder negotiations with First Nations over land-use planning. It could also destabalize joint decision-making, as well as the push to create a “Forest Land Reserve” designation that would protect specific forest areas from development.

For some Cortes Island residents, these possibilities are part of a longer struggle over forest resources. Rick Bockner, himself a professional woodworker, moved to Cortes Island 21 years ago with his two daughters. He was on the island in 1991 when islanders fought Macmillan-Bloedel over what he notes are many of the same trees.

“The difference is that in 1991 those logs probably would have been processed locally. And these days with the provincial government aiding and abetting the corporations in exporting raw logs to foreign markets, we’re finding that there’s no benefit locally from any of this activity, and it’s a sticking point for us,” he said.

Island Timberlands was contacted but did not provide a comment before deadline.

Ancient Forest Alliance

Big Trees of Vancouver featured in major Chinese-language newspaper.

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Here are a series of articles in the Sing Tao Daily News, a major Chinese-language newspaper in Vancouver, about the biggest trees of Vancouver that also features the Ancient Forest Alliance and our campaign to protect them!

愛樹團體籲省府保育

[2012-11-28]

本報記者王露報道

卑詩省古樹聯盟（Ancient Forest Alliance）20個支持者，上周六到省長簡蕙芝（Christy Clark）於溫西格雷岬（Point Grey）選區辦公室外示威，促請省府保護本省珍貴古樹。
聯 盟發起人吳俊諺說，他與支持者計劃去格雷岬約2,000個家庭，向他們解說保護古樹的重要，並邀請他們簽署請願信，呼籲省府成立一個卑詩古老森林保護計 劃，阻止砍伐溫哥華島及低陸平原等地區的珍貴古樹。他們還希望省府能確保本省伐木業者不要砍伐古樹，選擇5至50年樹齡的年輕樹木砍伐。
吳俊諺指出，卑詩低陸平原地區約有2萬公頃的古樹森林，需要保護。而距離下屆省選不到7個月時間，簡蕙芝仍有機會推動改變。他說，聖誕將至，簡蕙芝應該送給卑詩省一份可持續受惠的聖誕禮物。他們稍後會把收集到的請願信交到簡蕙芝選區辦公室。

 

溫市樹木也有新移民

[2012-11-28]

本報記者王露報道

人均擁樹2.6棵不負最綠城市美譽
除了人和建築物外，溫哥華市最常見到就是樹木。據統計，溫市共有160萬棵樹，當中有「原住民」──西部紅柏與道格拉斯冷杉，也有「新移民」──源自上世紀日本的櫻花樹。目前全市居民平均每人有2.6棵樹。溫市府計劃未來8年增種15萬棵樹，延續溫哥華最綠色城市的美譽。
由 香港移民溫市30多年的溫市府社區發展及社會政策部規劃師黃永安稱，上世紀80年中期至90年代初，大批香港人湧入，當時有建築商為吸引新移民買家，在翻 新舊屋或建新屋時，砍掉院子內原有樹木。由於入住這些屋苑多數是香港移民，本地居民誤以為華裔移民不懂珍惜樹木因而衍生反感，經華社領袖出面解釋，雙方誤 會才告化解(詳另文)。
160萬棵樹 擬8年增1成
根據市府資料，溫市現在約有160萬棵樹，包括約14萬棵街樹，並計劃在未來年再種植5萬棵，增幅約一成（見附表）。
百多年前溫市開埠初期，木材是本地的主要經濟命脈，不少街名也以樹命名。最普遍的是西部紅柏（Western Red Cedar）和道格拉斯冷杉樹（Douglas Fir），史丹利公園（Stanley Park）及市面仍可見到它們的蹤影。
溫哥華綠色文化俱樂部會長林聖哲說，溫市街樹很有特色，例如樹葉變化最多的楓樹，最常見的榆樹等；為保護街樹，市府還立例，砍樹須申請及種下新樹苗。
相對於「原住樹」，源自上世紀30年代日本的櫻花樹就是溫市的「新移民」，陪伴日裔移民融入本地生活，對他們有特別意義。
櫻花樹是「新移民」
據 溫市府樹木修剪師斯蒂芬（Bill Stephen）憶述，1967年，日本政府代表昭和天皇送給溫市幾百株櫻花樹，作為象徵加日友誼的禮物，它們被分種在溫市不同區域。1977年，本地日 裔為慶祝第一代日裔抵埠百年，在奧本海默公園（Oppenheimer Park）種下21棵櫻花樹。其後，更有日裔團體發起櫻花節，現已成為每年城中盛事。
但四年前，公園局計劃在奧本海默公園增建運動場館，打算移走部分櫻花樹，遭日裔社區反對。斯蒂芬指，起初公園局並不知這些櫻花樹對日裔有重要歷史意義，後經溝通，公園局放棄原計劃，櫻花樹保留。
古 樹保護聯盟（Ancient Forest Alliance）發起人之一吳俊諺說，小時候父母曾帶他去公園垂釣，令他愛上樹木及自然環境。長大後，他報讀卑詩大學（UBC）生態學系，想要更加瞭解 周圍的綠色環境。他記得讀書時，有一次學校要砍伐校園大片森林，為保護這片森林，他曾堅持在樹上靜坐一星期示威。

 

違例砍樹 可罰千元

[2012-11-28]

本報記者王露報道

根據溫市樹木保護附例，業主如要砍伐自己物業內的樹木，必須事先申請砍樹許可（tree permit）。
一般業主只可在12個月內，申請砍一棵樹，該樹樹圍必須在64釐米以上，樹輪直徑20釐米以上，離地至少1.4米高，才能被砍。
此外，業主在砍樹後必須種下一棵新樹苗。如有人違法砍樹，市府將對違法者罰款，每棵樹500至1,000元。
溫市府表示，市府平均每年發出1,500至1,600個砍樹許可。市府在近年曾有過兩個較嚴重的違法砍樹案例，其中一個業主無許可而砍下25棵樹，被罰3.1萬元。
另一宗發生在西南海旁大道（SW Marine Dr.），業主和承建商沒有許可砍下14棵樹，分別被罰3.2萬元和2.1萬元。

 

溫市中部Heather St. 首條以樹命名街道

[2012-11-28]

本報記者

溫市在1867年開埠，早期居民主要在煤氣鎮一帶，從事伐木和鋸木工作，時至今日，這個城市樹木密度，仍然遠高於人口密度。
事實上，從溫市許多街道都以樹種命名，就可知本地和樹木有不解之緣。
在1874年，溫市中部出現第一條以樹種命名的街道，即意為石南樹街的希瑟街 (Heather St.)，而命名者是卑詩省伐木先驅麥基(William Mackie)。
繼石南樹街由市中部延至南部之後，溫市西區陸續有更多街道以樹命名，例如意為野草莓樹街的阿布特斯街(Arbutus St.)、意指橡樹街的渥街(Oak St.)，以及白蠟樹街的阿什街(Ash St.)等。

[Original article no longer available]

Political leadership needed to resolve Cortes Island’s "War in the Woods"

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The conflict over the past week between local Cortes Island residents and Island Timberlands over the company’s contentious plans to log endangered forests has conservationists renewing their call for political leadership in BC to resolve the “War in the Woods”.

Last week, local residents on Cortes Island repeatedly blocked Island Timberlands’ attempts to begin logging. Earlier this week the company withdrew its workers from the island and have postponed pursuing a court injunction against the protesters for one week while negotiations resume with Cortes residents.

“What is needed now is leadership from the BC Liberal government to help resolve the War in the Woods by committing funds to purchase endangered ecosystems on private lands, including old-growth forests on Cortes Island and throughout the southern coast where communities are fighting Island Timberlands’ old-growth logging plans,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director.“The province hasn’t had a dedicated annual fund to purchase and protect private lands in years, despite that fact that for every $1 invested in new parks in BC, another $9 is generated in revenues in the provincial economy, according to studies. Island Timberlands also has an obligation to log according to community, ecosystem-based forestry standards on Cortes Island.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling for a $40 million annual BC park acquisition fund, which would amount to about 0.1 per cent or 1/1000th of the province’s $40 billion annual budget.Over 10 years, $400 million would be available for purchasing critical habitats on private lands throughout the province. The last time the provincial government had a dedicated land acquisition fund was in the 2008 budget. A similar battle on Salt Spring Island over a decade ago between local residents and a logging/development company was resolved through funding from the provincial, federal and regional governments and local citizens to purchase the endangered lands around Burgoyne Bay and on Mount Maxwell.

Park acquisition funds already exist in several Regional Districts in BC, including the Capital Regional District (CRD) in the Greater Victoria region, which has a Land Acquisition Fund of about $3.5 million each year. The CRD has spent over $34 million dollars since the year 2000 to purchase over 4500 hectares, including lands at Jordan River, the Sooke Hills, the Sooke Potholes, Thetis Lake, Mount Work, and Mount Maxwell on Salt Spring Island, to expand their system of Regional Parks.
“While private land trusts are vital for conservation, they simply don’t have the capacity to quickly raise the tens of millions of dollars needed each year to protect most endangered lands before they are logged or developed —only governments have such funds,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.
Logging giant Island Timberlands, which owns about 260,000 hectares of private forest lands on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, is entangled in battles with communities throughout the region. The company is also one of the largest exporter of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign mills in the USA and Asia. Currently, the Chinese government is looking to buy a major stake of Island Timberlands through the China Investment Corporation, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, and is expected to close a $100 million deal with the company soon.
Contentious old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems owned by Island Timberlands include (see beautiful photos in the following links):

Old-growth forests are vital for supporting endangered species, tourism, recreation, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures. On Vancouver Island, 75 per cent of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including 90 per cent of the most productive old-growth forests in the lowlands where the largest trees grow. Well over 90 per cent of the old-growth “Dry Maritime” and Coastal Douglas-fir forests on BC’s southern coast have already been logged.