Tree-planting plan to fight climate change, create jobs

PRINCE GEORGE — British Columbia is spending $150 million to plant tens of millions of trees, a move it said will help fight climate change and create more than 3,000 jobs in rural parts of the province.

Premier Christy Clark, who was in Prince George for the announcement, said the funding will go to the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. to advance environmental stewardship and focus on reforestation initiatives throughout the province.

She said the new trees are one plank in the province’s plan to fight climate change and over the next 10 years her government will invest $800 million in B.C.’s forests and create 20,000 jobs.

Clark said her government will also seek innovative ideas to help it meet its climate goals, but the most basic solution is Mother Nature’s solution, which is sequestering carbon in forests.

The province’s Climate Action Plan drew criticism last year from environmentalists who said planting trees would not pay off for decades, as forests need to be mature in order to capture significant amounts of carbon.

The Forest Enhancement Society is an arm’s-length organization created by the B.C. government that supports projects that aim to mitigate wildfires and rehabilitate damaged or low value forests.

Clark said the province is also working to open up new markets for British Columbia lumber in China and India, which she said will help insulate the province from events such as a softwood lumber dispute with the U.S.

Clark said current selling trends indicate that high-value lumber goes to the United States and lower-value lumber goes to Asia.

But she wants more valuable wood going to India and China as well as to increase the overall amount shipped to those countries.

“What I’d like to see in the long term is for British Columbia’s market to be so diverse that the softwood lumber agreement is a great thing to have, but it’s not the most important thing in the world anymore.”