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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Ancient Forest News - MEDIA RELEASE: Massive Cutting of Canada’s Grandest Old-Growth Forests Coordinated by BC Government’s Logging Agency - Near Record-Sized Douglas-firs Found in Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island
  • Date: Tue, 22 May 2018 14:17:32 -0400

Ancient Forest News - MEDIA RELEASE: Massive Cutting of Canada’s Grandest
Old-Growth Forests Coordinated by BC Government’s Logging Agency - Near
Record-Sized Douglas-firs Found in Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island
http://ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1189

MEDIA RELEASE: Massive Cutting of Canada’s Grandest Old-Growth Forests
Coordinated by BC Government’s Logging Agency - Near Record-Sized
Douglas-firs Found in Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island

*Ancient Forest Alliance, May 18, 2018*


*Hundreds of hectares of the grandest old-growth forests in Canada are
being logged at breakneck speeds right now in the Nahmint Valley near Port
Alberni, including thousands of old-growth western redcedars - some 4.3
meters (14 feet) in diameter - and exceptionally large Douglas-firs. BC's
5th and 9th widest Douglas-fir trees, according to the BC Big Tree
Registry, were found on the expedition to the area.*

Port Alberni - Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) were
dismayed last week to discover that the BC government's logging agency, BC
Timber Sales (BCTS), has auctioned off at least 300 hectares of some of the
world’s grandest old-growth forests in the Nahmint Valley for logging, with
thousands of old-growth trees already having been cut down this spring. AFA
campaigners TJ Watt and Andrea Inness, arborist-conservationist Matthew
Beatty, and local Port Alberni conservationists Mike Stini and Ariane
Telishewsky, came across the new clearcuts and road-building operations
with enormous, 12-foot-wide, freshly cut logs of ancient cedars on May 6.

The campaigners also identified an enormous Douglas-fir tree, which they
dubbed the “Alberni Giant”, that is wider than the fifth widest Douglas-fir
tree listed in the BC Big Tree Registry at almost 11.5 metres (38 feet) in
circumference or 3.7 metres (12 feet) in diameter. In addition, they found
a Douglas-fir tree 3 metres (9.9 feet) in diameter, making it wider than
even the widest Douglas-fir in Cathedral Grove, which is 2.8 metres (9.2
feet) in diameter, as well as a massive 4.3-metre or 14-foot-wide western
redcedar.

The cutblocks targeting prime ancient forests were identified by the AFA
and are on BCTS-controlled Crown lands and total over 300 hectares in the
Nahmint Valley, with some cutlbocks being 30 hectares - or about 30
football fields - in size. The Nahmint Valley is in the territory of the
Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations bands.

"The BC NDP government is fully in charge of BC Timber Sales' mandate. For
them to let their own logging agency auction off logging rights to some of
the largest and oldest endangered trees on Earth is like enabling the
slaughter of elephant herds or the harpooning of blue whales. It’s the very
opposite of sustainable forest management. The new NDP government needs a
serious wake-up call. They need to end the status quo of old-growth
liquidation - for starters, BCTS must stop issuing old-growth cutblocks -
and instead ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry," stated AFA
forest campaigner Andrea Inness.

"It's brutal, what’s happening out there. In advance of our trip I
researched where the finest old-growth stands might be located based on
Google Earth satellite maps and each one turned out to have a logging
cutblock placed on it – cutblocks planned and issued by the BC government's
own logging agency. We visited many spectacular trees on the day we arrived
– some trees bigger than even those found in Cathedral Grove – and, by the
second day, many of them were already on the ground. It’s a full-on
assault. All day long the sounds of chainsaws, drilling machines, and huge
trees crashing down boomed throughout the valley," stated TJ Watt.

The Nahmint Valley is considered a “hotspot" of high-conservation value
old-growth forest by conservation groups and is home to Roosevelt elk,
black-tailed deer, cougars, wolves, and black bears, as well as old-growth
associated species like the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. The area
also supports significant salmon and steelhead spawning runs. The Nahmint
is considered by many people to be one of the most scenic areas in BC, with
its ancient forests, rugged peaks, gorgeous turquoise canyons and swimming
holes, and large and small lakes, and is heavily used by hikers, campers,
anglers, and hunters.

“Only about 1% of the original old-growth Douglas-fir stands still remain
on BC’s coast, and just about the finest stands are here in the Nahmint
Valley. The area is also prime wildlife habitat for so many species. Having
explored the forests around Port Alberni for decades, I can say with
confidence that the remaining old-growth forests in the Nahmint are a
first-rate conservation priority,” said wildlife expert Mike Stini of the
Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance.

The NDP’s 2017 election platform states that “In partnership with First
Nations and communities, we will modernize land-use planning to effectively
and sustainably manage BC’s ecosystems, rivers, lakes, watersheds, forests
and old growth, while accounting for cumulative effects. We will take an
evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management
of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.” (see page 61 of their platform
at: https://action.bcndp.ca/page/-/bcndp/docs/BC-NDP-Platform-2017.pdf). If
taken literally and seriously, this would almost certainly result in the
protection of the remaining endangered old-growth forest on BC’s southern
coast and in the BC Interior, where old-growth forests are far scarcer and
more endangered than in the Central and Northern Coast (Great Bear
Rainforest) where 85% of the forests (including the vast majority of the
old-growth) were set aside in protected areas and under the ecosystem-based
management reserve networks.

Several environmental groups, including the Ancient Forest Alliance, Sierra
Club BC, and Wilderness Committee, are calling on the BC government to
implement a series of policy changes that can be rolled out over both
short- and longer-term timelines. This includes a comprehensive,
science-based law to protect old-growth forests and financial support for
sustainable economic development and diversification of First Nations
communities, known as “conservation financing,” while supporting First
Nations land use plans. While these longer-term solutions are being
developed, an interim halt to logging in old-growth “hotspots” - areas of
high conservation value - must be implemented to ensure the largest and
best stands of remaining old-growth forests are kept intact while a larger
plan is developed.

There are also a number of policies that can be readily implemented more
quickly. For example, the NDP government should direct BCTS to discontinue
issuance of old-growth cut blocks and support the implementation of
conservation solutions in such rare and endangered forests. In addition,
there needs to be an effective big tree protection order with buffer zones
and forest reserves such as many Old-Growth Management Areas that currently
exist only on paper should be made legally binding and the system should be
quickly expanded to protect additional endangered old-growth forests.
Finally, annual funding needs to be directed to establish a park
acquisition fund, which would allow the BC government to purchase and
protect private lands of high conservation, cultural or recreational value.

“So far, the new NDP government has, disappointingly, supported the
destructive status quo of high-grade old-growth forest liquidation, raw log
exports, mill closures, and unsustainable forestry in general. They need to
break away from the old unsustainable mindset that has driven the
increasing collapse of both ecosystems and rural communities in this
province. When it comes to forestry, the NDP have not distinguished
themselves from the BC Liberals in terms of any new laws or regulations,
and it’s very unwise for them to think they can take the environmental
movement for granted and test its patience with excuses, heel-dragging, and
PR spin while the destructive status quo rages on. Today there is a viable,
potentially sustainable, second-growth forestry alternative that the
government can foster, while protecting endangered old-growth forests and
supporting the economic diversification of First Nations and rural
communities,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu.


*More Background Info*

Old-growth forests are vital to sustaining unique endangered species,
climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of
many First Nations. On BC’s southern coast, satellite photos show that at
least 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged,
including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.
Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests
are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Old-growth forests
– with trees that can be 2000 years old – are a non-renewable resource
under BC’s system of forestry, where second-growth forests are re-logged
every 50 to 100 years, never to become old-growth again.

On BC’s southern coast (Vancouver Island and the southwest mainland), 75%
of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged,
including over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. 3.3
million hectares of productive old-growth forests once stood on the
southern coast (with an additional 2.2 million hectares of bog, subalpine
forests, and other low productivity old-growth forests of low to no
commercial value with stunted trees), and today only 860,000 hectares
remain, while only 260,000 hectares are protected in parks and Old-Growth
Management Areas. Second-growth forests now dominate 75% of the southern
coast’s productive forest lands, including 90% of southern Vancouver
Island, and can be sustainably logged to support the forest industry. See
“before and after” maps and stats of the southern coast’s old-growth
forests at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php

In order to placate public fears about the loss of BC’s endangered
old-growth forests, the government’s PR-spin typically over-inflates the
amount of remaining old-growth forests by including hundreds of thousands
of hectares of marginal, low productivity forests growing in bogs and at
high elevations with small, stunted trees, together with the productive
old-growth forests where the large trees grow (and where most logging takes
place). They also leave out vast areas of largely overcut private managed
forest lands – previously managed as if they were Crown lands for decades
and still managed by the province under weaker Private Managed Forest Lands
regulations – in order to reduce the basal area for calculating how much
old-growth forest remains, thereby increasing the fraction of remaining
old-growth forests. See a rebuttal to some of the BC government’s PR-spin
and stats about old-growth forests towards the BOTTOM of the webpage:
https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1052

In recent times in BC, the voices for old-growth protection have been
quickly expanding, including numerous Chambers of Commerce, mayors and city
councils, forestry unions, and conservation groups across BC who have been
calling on the provincial government to expand protection for BC’s
remaining old-growth forests.

BC’s premier business lobby, the BC Chamber of Commerce, representing
36,000 businesses, passed a resolution in May of 2016 calling on the
province to expand protection for BC’s old-growth forests to support the
economy, after a series of similar resolutions passed by the Port Renfrew,
Sooke, and WestShore Chambers of Commerce. See:
http://www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1010

Both the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), representing the mayors, city
and town councils, and regional districts across BC, and Association of
Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC), representing Vancouver
Island local governments, passed a resolution in 2016 calling on the
province to protect the Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth forests by
amending the 1994 land use plan. See:
http://www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1057

The Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC), formerly the Pulp, Paper,
and Woodworkers of Canada, representing thousands of sawmill and pulp mill
workers across BC, passed a resolution in 2017 calling for an end to
old-growth logging on Vancouver Island. See:
http://ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1100

Each year, a significant portion of the provincial timber harvest is
carried out on BC Timber Sales (BCTS) controlled land through its timber
sales program. BCTS, a division of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural
Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRO), is the BC government’s
logging agency that plans and directly issues logging permits for about 20
percent of the province’s merchantable timber on Crown lands, which fall
outside of forestry tenures. Under this system, logging rights are granted
through competitive auction to the highest bidding company for each timber
sale, which provides benchmark costs and prices from the harvest of Crown
timber in BC in order to set stumpage rates for tenure holders. The
remaining 80 per cent of the province’s annual timber harvest occurs under
the timber tenure system through tree farm or forest licences within Timber
Supply Areas, woodlot licences, First Nations woodland licences, community
forest agreements, or other tenures.

As the BC government retains full control over which cut blocks are
auctioned each year through BCTS, the new government should use this
control to quickly phase out issuing timber sales in old-growth forests and
support implementation of conservation steps. The government should also
review alternative ways to set benchmarks, considering broader
socio-economic and ecological criteria, and consider how BC Timber Sales
can be used to enable solutions for conservation and forestry that support
communities.



  • [permaculture] Ancient Forest News - MEDIA RELEASE: Massive Cutting of Canada’s Grandest Old-Growth Forests Coordinated by BC Government’s Logging Agency - Near Record-Sized Douglas-firs Found in Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island, Lawrence London, 05/22/2018

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