Tag Archives: sustainable forestry

Forests

Cortes Island’s Quest For Sustainable Logging

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By Roy L Hales

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Most of the great forests that once covered the West Coast are gone. Though there is still an extensive canopy, the trees are scraggly compared to the stumps and historical photographs left from decades ago. The clear cutting in British Columbia is so extensive that, since 2003, the forests have been emitting rather than storing carbon. Some call for a more environmentally sensitive industry and an example of Cortes Islands quest for sustainable logging is about a mile from my home.

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Forests

Why The Walbran Is Important

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By Roy L Hales

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British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests said the first cutback the in the Walbran Valley is only 3.2 hectares large. It is to be  heli-logged,  not clearcut. The province is protecting over 30,300 hectares in old growth management areas in the South Island Natural Resource District. The map on the top of this page shows what they did not say, why the Walbran is important.

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Forests

An Old Growth Forest Grove In Cutblock 4424

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By Roy L Hales

British Columbia’s environmental community has been calling upon the provincial government to set aside plans to log in the Walbran Valley for months. The city of Victoria joined the chorus in July, passing a motion against this project. Everyone appears to have believed the Walbran was an old growth forest.  Yet on September 18th, BC  gave Teal Jones approval to start logging the first cutblock. Now, as the Surrey based logging company prepares to commence operations, the existence of an old growth forest grove in cutblock 4424 has been documented.

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Politics

The Liberal Candidate For North Island-Powell River

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By Roy L Hales

Having spent 30 years with Environment Canada, Peter Schwarzhoff is often called upon to speak about Climate Change and the nation’s emissions. He also talks about the need to develop jobs,  forest related industries, the growing Clean Tech sector and the need to respect Canada’s veterans. The Liberal Candidate For North Island-Powell River covers all of those topics in the attached podcast, as well as the need for Canada to have a government it can trust.

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Forests

Global Forest Watch Shows The Loss of US & Canadian Forests

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There have been 150,000 visits to the Global Forest Watch website since it went online Thursday and for good reason. The interactive map is an an  online forest monitoring system, created by the World Resources Institute and more than 40 partners, that allows you to examine changes in the forest cover anywhere in the World. They drew upon many databases, including Google Maps , data from the University of Maryland and satellite imagery. Global Forest Watch has already shown that the World lost 2.3 million kilometres of tree covering between 2000 and 2012. My concerns were more specific, I wanted to know if the forests in Canada and the US are presently emitting, or storing, carbon.

“We don’t have that data yet,” said Forests Communication Officer James Anderson, who then proceeded to show me some of the data the site does have.

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