Tag Archives: BC Ministry of Forests spokesperson

Forests

BC confirms Sierra Club’s findings on 2021 old-growth logging

Editor’s note: Forestry is one of Campbell River’s 3 economic pillars and this confirmation of what the environmentalists have been saying about the need to preserve old growth is very important.

By Madeline Dunnett, The Discourse, , Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The province-wide old-growth rally on Sept. 28 brought attention to the 14 recommendations the provincial government committed to implementing in 2020 to protect old-growth forests.

The recommendations came out of a multi-year independent strategic review of how B.C. forests are managed and included an immediate recommendation that the province work with First Nations to defer logging in old, at-risk forests until the new strategy was implemented.

Shortly before the rally, Sierra Club BC, a provincial environmental advocacy group, issued a review of B.C.’s old-growth logging stating it had increased between 2020 and 2021, instead of decreased, as the government had previously announced. 

The Discourse followed up with the B.C. Ministry of Forests about the number of old-growth logged, and the ministry responded with the same number released by Sierra Club. 

Continue reading BC confirms Sierra Club’s findings on 2021 old-growth logging →
Forests

Confusion around the proposed Anvil Lake logging road

Cortes Currents published a factually incorrect story about the proposed Anvil Lake logging road on Tuesday, August 30, 2022.

Few people knew this, because I pulled the story before it was broadcast on Cortes Radio.

Nick Reed, a local resident, told me, “The concern is mainly the wetlands that this road has to go through, and what effect that will have on Gunflint (and Anvil) Lakes. It is the last wetland on the southern part of Cortes.”

Mark Lombard, general manager of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership (CFGP),  responded, “The CFGP never builds roads through wetlands.”

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Forests

Mosaic defers logging of old-growth on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii

By Melissa Renwick, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

British Columbia’s largest private landowner, Mosaic Forest Management, is halting logging in nearly 100,000 acres of old-growth forest for the next 25 years.

The forestry company announced the deferral on March 16 and said it’s transitioning to a carbon credit program, which is expected to generate several hundred million dollars in revenue. 

Continue reading Mosaic defers logging of old-growth on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii →
Forests, Indigenous Nations, Justice

The Last stand: Fairy Creek

By Melissa Renwick, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Port Renfrew, BC – After over a decade of documenting B.C.’s last remaining old-growth ecosystems, TJ Watt said he hadn’t come across anything quite like the grove of red cedars hidden in the upper reaches of the Caycuse watershed, near Port Renfrew.

“It was truthfully one of the most stunning old-growth forests I’ve been in,” said the co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The sheer volume of giant cedars was mind-blowing – every direction you looked was another 10 to 12-foot-wide ancient cedar that could be 800 years old, or older.”

When he returned later that year in 2020, only their stumps remained.

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Forests, Indigenous Nations

BC will not impose a moratorium on old-growth logging

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

B.C.’s forestry minister made clear a moratorium on old-growth logging is off the table as she responded to critics of the government’s progress on a promise to overhaul its approach to forestry.

BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau pressed Minister Katrine Conroy during question period last week to outline what meaningful actions government was taking to immediately protect critical old-growth forests, suggesting instead that the NDP was employing the “old strategy of talk and log.” 

Continue reading BC will not impose a moratorium on old-growth logging →