Tag Archives: BC Forest & Range Practises Act

Forests, Politics

The NDP’s recent revamping of forest legislation returns stewardship of BC forests to the government and provides powerful new tools for the public to make a difference

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Originally published by the Discovery Islands Forest Conservation Project.

By David Broadland

The “unduly clauses” are gone. The public must now be notified about proposed logging before a cutting permit is issued and the public gets to voice their concern about every proposed cutblock. Now it is mandatory for a district manager to refuse to issue a cutting permit if doing so would “compromise” a government objective. Now is the time for citizens to act.

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Animals

Government protection of Species at Risk ineffective, report says

A new report commissioned by the Wilderness Committee and Sierra Club BC found that Federal and Provincial government policy gaps have rendered their protection of Species at Risk ineffective. 

“Our study looked at terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate species in BC We needed to refine the scope a little bit just because there are so many Species at Risk in BC. In order to do this analysis, we had to narrow in on a few representative species. In total, we chose 64 species. Of the 64 species, only two of them have had their critical habitat mapped by the deadlines. The remaining 97% have experienced critical habitat mapping delays anywhere from 2 to 18 years. Then there’s 16 of the 64 species that still don’t even have their critical habitat mapped,” explained Charlotte Dawe of the Wilderness Committee.

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Rivers & Oceans, Tourism

A more environmentally friendly source of employment for communities

The President of the Wilderness Tourism Association (WTA) says eco-tourism could offer communities a reliable and more environmentally friendly source of employment than either fish farms or resource extraction. 

“There are some viable alternatives, if they had a fair shake and didn’t get booted out every time a clear cut wanted to go in,” said Breanne Quesnel, who is also one of the co-owners of Spirit of the West Adventures on Quadra Island. “As rural communities, it is very important that we sit down and have discussions about what we want our communities to look like and how we’re going to get there.” 

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Forests

Poll Finds 92% of British Columbians want old growth forests protected

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A new poll, commissioned by Sierra Club BC, found that 92% of British Columbians want old growth forests protected. 842 people were asked “Do you support or oppose taking action to defend endangered old-growth forests in BC?” 69% of the respondents said it was “very important” to them; 23% replied “moderately important.”

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