Monthly Archives: October 2017

While I am certainly no expert on logging practices I feel my questions arising from the article are valid. …1. Why are logging corporations allowed to externalize the costs onto the taxpayer for the environmental damage that they might cause? …2. Why are logging corporations being allowed to cut in forest reserves? …3. If logging corporations need to pick the lowest hanging fruit for larger profit then why are they being allowed to ship raw logs to foreign customers where foreign workers will turn those logs into lumber? …4. Why in Heaven’s name is the Kalesnikoff website the repository for documents and comments in advance of their logging in the Selous Creek watershed?

Nelson — By January, forestry consultants John Cathro and Erik Leslie will have decided, in detail, what will it take to reduce the risk of wildfire in five specific areas of West Arm Provincial Park. B.C. Parks’ Amanda Weber-Roy, who will act once she has received Cathro and Leslie’s plans, said the prescriptions for wildfire fuel treatments will have measurable goals that will differ in different parts of the landscape. “The prescriptions will show what the forest stand looks like now, and what we want it to look like after,” said Weber-Roy during a public meeting about the West Arm Park fire plan on Tuesday. The unadvertised meeting was sparsely attended.

Dianne Watts (center)

Re-connecting with communities and coming up with a province-wide forestry strategy were two key points in BC Liberal leadership candidate Dianne Watts’ speech to party members in Port Alberni, Saturday night. …Chris Duncan, a board member of the Alberni Valley Community Forest, said the BC Liberals need to educate themselves on forestry issues such as the difficulty smaller contractors are having in dealing with larger forestry companies. “…Contractors are going broke,” while larger companies are making 18-percent profits, he said. Another retired forester said access to private lands now locked behind gates is an issue any potential leader needs to take seriously. Watts was critical of the present-day government for their lack of an overall forestry plan for B.C. that deals with not only wildfire management but the closure of small mills and access to private lands as well.

The results are in from the public survey, conducted in September, asking residents how they felt about the operations of the Bella Coola Community Forest (BCCFL). 130 submissions were received, answering seven questions, with an additional 80 comments on how forest operations could be improved. …The survey confirms that there is a need for more and better communications between the community forest and valley residents. This survey and the resulting data is a step in that direction. There was response from a good cross section of the local communities, displaying various interests. Most people had some knowledge of the community forest but preferred to get more through the BCCFL website, the local newspaper or Facebook. Some people suggested the use of an occasional newsletter, email or public presentations as a way to get information. There was also interest in educational programs, operations tours and school field trips.

Mike Larock

Megan Hanacek

…The state of old growth forests on Vancouver Island resurfaced in the news recently with the announcement that a pair of environmental activist groups plan to reprise a tour of Vancouver Island communities to talk about preserving the Island’s old growth forests. The difficulty with any conversation about old growth forests begins with the definition. As anyone who attended the same environmental group’s meetings in March quickly discovered, definitions of what constitutes “old growth” were mushy and malleable depending on who was speaking. This lack of a clear definition of what constitutes “old growth” then leads to incorrect numbers and assumptions about the amount of old growth forests on Vancouver Island that are just plain wrong.

The caribou heads on Cariboo cans have been counted. The numbers are in and more than 18,000 trees will be planted in the local region next year based on beer sales. Pacific Western Brewing has for years attached the sales of their Cariboo line of beers to reforestation. This past summer the local manufacturer focused on replanting the areas devastated by the season’s wildfires. For each purchase of a six-pack under the Cariboo title (Genuine Draft, Blonde, Honey, Light and Malt) in the month of September, PWB earmarked 25 cents for buying seedlings. Sales of the Cariboo line went up 20 per cent this year over last, largely attributed to the silviculture campaign, said a PWB representative.

The Cariboo Regional District will kick off a series of wildfire community consultation meetings this Sunday in Forest Grove to look back and learn from this summer’s destructive wildfire season. “We’ve got 17 meetings to do and we’ll have to do some other follow-up meetings in some other communities that weren’t as directly impacted,” says CRD Board Chair Al Richmond. “We’re going to be having the various agencies for the most part that were part of the operation. So, we’re hoping to have the RCMP there, the Cariboo Fire Centre, the Emergency Social Service folks.” He says the meetings will allow residents to ask questions or express any concerns they may have.

Last March, we travelled to northern Vancouver Island and hosted four public meetings about logging in the span of five days. …In a few weeks, we’re going back to do it again. The vast majority of Vancouver Island’s original forest has been logged. One way or another, the end of old-growth logging is coming. We have to talk about what this means. We have to talk about how communities adjust so that the trend of shuttered businesses and shrinking logging towns doesn’t continue to grow. We have to talk about what the consequences of cutting down the last remaining old-growth will be – for Indigenous cultures, ecosystems and endangered species, water and the climate, and local jobs in a diverse economy including tourism. These are really hard things to talk about, but we have to talk about them anyways.

Jim Eglinski

Yellowhead Member of Parliament Jim Eglinski took aim at the Trudeau government for its response — or lack thereof — to the devastating effects on the Yellowhead region, specifically, Jasper National Park. On Thursday Oct. 19, Eglinski took part in debate over a Conservative motion. The motion calls for federal support of the Yellowhead’s forestry industry and workers, largely based in Hinton. The topic is closely tied to the current and potential future effects of the pine beetle in the Yellowhead riding. “I have been working for two years with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to take some serious action with respect to the pine beetle in Jasper National Park,” Eglinski said to Parliament. “It has destroyed the forest there. It has now moved into the province of Alberta and, in one year — if the members across would listen — it has increased tenfold.”

Paul Whittaker

It’s been a terrible year for forest fires in North America. As I write this, 31 lives have been lost to a massive blaze in northern California. We’ve also seen unprecedented destruction in British Columbia, with some devastating spillover into Waterton National Park. It all brings back painful memories of last year’s Fort McMurray tragedy. There’s an important lesson in all of this destruction, though. We can’t let our guard down on forest management. We need to actively identify areas that could burn and take steps to prevent the next catastrophe. …If you ask a professional forester where the next devastating fire might happen, they’d probably point to Hinton and Jasper. That’s because a massive pine beetle epidemic has killed much of the pine in Jasper National Park and is surging towards Hinton.