Battle for the Trees; Old Growth Rainforest on Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island alone has lost more than one million hectares of productive old growth rainforest.

by Delores Broten

Cortes Island old growth appears to be the next in a series of controver­sial logging disputes to plague the BC coast in 2011. The unrest is forecast to continue in2012.

Most, but not all, of the trouble stems from logging of rare old growth pockets still standing, and/or the un­regulated logging of the private for­est land created with the two million acre E & N railway land grant of the 1870s. (See “Vancouver Island’s Great E & N Railway Land Grab,” Water­shed Sentinel, November-Decem­ber 2008, or The Great Land Grab in Hul’qumi’num Territory, www.hulquminum.bc.ca). All of it is aggra­vated by the remote foreign owner­ship of access to most of BC’s forests (see page 13).

Sierra Club BC analysis (Restor­ing the Balance, January 2011) shows that logging of old-growth rainforest ecosystems has seriously compro­mised species habitat and carbon stor­age capacity. More than two million hectares of rainforest ecosystems on BC’s coast, mostly on Vancouver Is­land and on the South Coast, have less than 30 per cent old growth remaining and are considered to be at high risk of species extinction. Vancouver Is­land alone has lost more than one mil­lion hectares of productive old growth rainforest, representing the loss of approximately 100 million tonnes of carbon storage.

District Lot 33

A year of passionate argument and heartfelt pleas has failed to save District Lot 33 at Nanoose, which was given to the Snaw’naw’as First Nation as a woodlot. The move was condemned by the Forest Practises Board, which agreed with conserva­tion activists that the forest was such rare Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem that it should be preserved. Less than 1% of the CDF ecosystem remains intact. Aside from the plant commu­nities which are ranked as “globally critically imperilled” or red-listed, there are numerous creatures which will be displaced, such as Roosevelt Elk which use the 64-hectare forest for winter habitat.

The DL 33 logs are being pur­chased by TimberWest, causing ac­tivists to question TimberWest’s SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certi­fication. On their website, ForestEth­ics says the ‘Sustainable’ Forestry Initiative (SFI) = Selling False Infor­mation: “The phony SFI certification program – developed and funded by some of the biggest forest destroyers in North America – is a marketing tool for selling environmentally harmful products by falsely describing them as ‘green.’ This scam threatens our forests, communities, fresh water and wildlife.” (forestethics.org)

Local activists have mounted a petition to timber product purchas­ers, Don’t Buy BC’s TimberWest Hot Endangered CDF Wood Products. “TimberWest Forest Corp is buying the wood from this controversial red-listed forest, in spite of their SFI cer­tification re: biodiversity and sustain­ability. They say conventional logging practices are being followed, ignoring the fact this forest is red-listed and there should be no logging at all.” (www.nanoosebayforest.com)

Avatar Grove

The Avatar Grove and “Canada’s Gnarliest Tree” were discovered by Ancient Forest Alliance activists in December, 2009. It is home to some of the largest and strangest shaped an­cient red cedars on the Island, as well as rare large Douglas fir. It has the potential to be the “Cathedral Grove of Port Renfrew” due to its ease of ac­cessibility and giant trees. However, most of the Avatar Grove is currently under threat of logging and road de­velopment, with flagging tape strung up and paint on the biggest trees! No cutting permits have been issued yet by the Ministry of Forests and Range but the BC Government continues to state that it is not interested in protect­ing the grove. (www.ancientforestalli­ance.org)

McLaughlin Ridge

Now under logging by Island Timberlands, McLaughlin Ridge had been previously protected old growth forest near Port Alberni. It was clas­sified as critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks until 2004, when the prov­ince allowed it to be removed from a tree farm licence.

Flores Island

Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS) continue to sound the alarm about the logging of Flores Island where Iisaak Forest Resources is road building in preparation for a cut. FOCS reports that the cut in Clayo­quot Sound is now as high as it was in 1995 while the forests remain as un­protected as they were during the days of the great 1993 blockade.

Cortes Island

The old MacMillan Bloedel pri­vate forest lands on Cortes Island have been the source of controversy since the 1980s, and all during the land flips which have resulted in Brookfield As­sets ownership. The community and Klahoose First Nation are close to achieving a woodlot for the Crown land, which is 80% of the forest. How­ever, grief continues to be generated due to the 20% private forest land which rings the island.

The Wildstands Alliance has been working for four years on a va­riety of initiatives, from negotiation about sensitive areas with the corpo­rate owners, to a Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island, but have now launched the Forest Witness campaign for 2012. The group Island Stance describes their activity as “to encourage civic responsibility prior to industrial logging by Island Timber­lands on their private managed forest lands holdings on Cortes Island.”

Residents also have mounted a petition, Protect Cortes Island Forests, to Island Timberlands and Brookfield Assets, at: www.petitiononline.com/petitions/PCIFores/signatures

The petition contains the same concerns which have been enumer­ated by the islanders for decades: “We the undersigned are greatly con­cerned about the future of the forests of Cortes Island. Island Timberlands’ proposed industrial logging opera­tions will have long term impacts on this threatened forest type and we therefore demand that Island Timber­lands:

1) Retain all remnants of old growth forest;

2) Protect all watersheds and sal­monid habitat and maintain natural water flow and quality;

3) Respect all the principles and goals of the BC Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory; and

4) Ban use of clearcut logging methods.”

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[From WS January/February 2012]