Daily Archives: April 24, 2019

In one month, one of the region’s most popular heavy equipment trade shows is making its return to the CN Centre. Taking place May 24 and 25, the Canada North Resources Expo is a showcase of the leading companies and products that are part of Northern Canada’s resources sectors. This massive biennial event focuses … features four acres of indoor and outdoor space with tons of big iron, including equipment, machinery, products and technology geared to forestry, heavy construction, and major resources infrastructure. …Attendees can also plan to take in the 2019 Interior Safety Conference, in partnership with BC Forest Safe. This year’s theme is “Safety Responsibilities – Everyone’s Role” and the conference will include topics which include managing fatigue, marijuana in the workplace, human factors and workplace injury prevention using physiotherapy.

The deadline for public input on B.C.’s caribou recovery plan is May 31. The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) says that’s not enough time to hear feedback and wants the deadline extended, stating the plan could affect a wide range of user groups. …The CSRD said it has “serious concerns” with the consultation process, as the plan has the “potential to result in backcountry closures.” It added that directors “voted unanimously to request the province conduct more extensive consultation.” As to why it’s seeking the extension, the CSRD said the proposal “plans for an increase in undisturbed habitat for the endangered Mountain Caribou species, as well as a review of logging practices, heli-skiing and road rehabilitation in caribou habitat areas. It also considers predator control programs and additional caribou captive breeding programs.”

Virginia Thompson

The last Caribou Recovery Plan of 2007 was undertaken as most herds were declining, although 40 per cent of core habitat was already protected in our Revelstoke Shuswap Planning Unit. …There are three aspects to recovery actions for caribou: recreation i.e. snowmobiling, skiing and heli-cat skiing, predator/prey control, and habitat protection/restoration. The last is the most foundational without which the other two will not work. …However, in the absence of habitat protection, this culling of moose, wolves, white tailed deer and now cougar will have to continue indefinitely and will not succeed in the long term. A Section 80 Application was undertaken under the Federal Species at Risk Act by environmentalists requesting a stop order on logging in mountain caribou critical habitat, particularly old growth critical habitat which is essential for this endangered species. Neither caribou nor old growth forest can be brought back once they’re gone.

Ian Cobb

Sometime last week I was mindlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed, sneering at the haters and scoffing at the simps who quiver behind pseudonyms, when I saw a story about old growth logging on Vancouver Island. …The right loves to plunder nature and the left values it over revenue, so the story goes. While that tends to be more of a truism than not, I cannot help but call “BS” on the BC NDP. Who remembers Clayoquot Sound? …When the NDP took power in 1991 logging continued, as did protests. Did the NDP rush to Clayoquot Sound’s defence? Nope. …What is shocking is an apparent NDP government fail in the Port Renfrew area of Vancouver Island. “Plans to log old-growth forests near Port Renfrew have conservationists accusing the B.C. Ministry of Forests of endangering tourism in the area.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent Easter weekend with his family in Tofino. …Prior to a publicized visit to the West Coast last July, Tofino-based environmental group Friends of Clayoquot Sound released a statement encouraging businesses to deny service to the Prime Minister due, in part, to the government’s Trans Mountain Pipeline purchase. …Friends of Clayoquot Sound campaigner Jeh Custerra told the Westerly News that he had heard Trudeau was returning to Tofino over the weekend and hoped for an opportunity “to hold him accountable.” …Custerra had attended the 35th anniversary celebration of the Meares Island Tribal Park declaration on April 21 and said he ran into the Prime Minister outside a local restaurant after the ceremony. …“When the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation prevented clear-cut logging on Meares Island, they safeguarded clean water and healthy habitat for everyone who lives in and visits Tofino.”

Kevin Kriese

An audit of BC Timber Sales and timber sale licence holders in the Arrow Field Unit of the Kootenay Business Area found general compliance with B.C.’s forestry legislation, according to a report. “BCTS complied with requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act; however, auditors found that the TSL holders did not conduct required fire hazard assessments after logging,” said Kevin Kriese, Forest Practices Board chair. “They did remove slash that could pose a fire hazard as a standard operating practice, and so the lack of hazard assessments is an area of improvement for the future. “Unfortunately, lack of documented fire hazard assessments has been a recurring issue in our audits. We have previously published information for licensees on hazard assessment requirements.