SECRET GOVERNMENT DEAL WOULD LOG OLD-GROWTH FOREST CRUCIAL TO OUR PROTECTION FROM GLOBAL WARMING
Old-growth forests play a critical role in reducing climate change and protecting biodiversity. Scientists urge that, to fight climate change, we must save our remaining old-growth and mature forests. At a time when wildfires exacerbated by climate change have caused massive destruction and tragedy in BC, and the province has over 2,000 species at risk, this has become crucially important. Unfortunately, very little of BC’s big trees have survived decades of Profit-First logging. In 2021 the government created a Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) to identify old-growth forests where logging should be temporarily deferred while decisions are made whether to protect them. The Panel put a high priority on big-treed oldgrowth that is at risk of being logged. This is important because the biggest trees provide the most protection from climate change, and they are more resistant to fire and drought. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Forests (MOF) has removed over half of the deferrals recommended by the Panel with rich big-treed old-growth, and substituted old forest growing on poor sites that have trees of little commercial value. If this had not been leaked and made public, our original old-growth deferrals could have been logged without warning or public consultation.
RHETORIC VERSUS REALITY
Logging in British Columbia has long meant “take the best and leave the rest” for quick and easy profits. The process is called “high-grading” and it targets rich, old valley-bottom forests. Because these low-elevation forests tend to have the highest biodiversity, the clearcuts have decimated many species, from lichens to mountain caribou.
High-grading is one of the reasons why the forest industry has eliminated 40,000 jobs, by overcutting and depleting the best forest, and replacing workers with automation such as feller bunchers that mechanically cut and stack trees. Now, recognizing they are running out of the lucrative big trees, many mills in BC have closed and the major logging companies have been investing in mills in the southern US.
Today, according to the TAP panel, many forest ecosystems that produce big trees have less than 10%, and some less than 1% of their historic amount of oldgrowth. TAP recommended 2.6 million hectares of big-treed old-growth for deferrals, emphasizing that they are “rare, at-risk and irreplaceable”.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT HAD PROMISED
June 24, 2021: “The Government of British Columbia has brought together an independent Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel to support its next steps in its sciencebased approach to transforming old growth management, This new technical panel will ensure we’re using the best science and data available to identify at-risk old growth ecosystems and prioritize areas for deferral. We are committed to a science-based approach to old growth management.” — Minister of Forests Katrine Conroy.
HOW THE PROMISE WAS BETRAYED
In reality, many of the old-growth logging deferrals now on the government’s map were not the work of an independent scientific panel, but of the industry-biased Ministry of Forest in backroom deals with logging interests. Some of the deferrals originally recommended by the Panel have been logged; others now cover forest not wanted for logging, while many of the rare forests most critical to environmental health are left to be logged.
Forests Minister Bruce Ralston has blamed some First Nations for rejecting the Panel’s deferrals. But if First Nations were consulted, why wasn’t the general public? While removing our highest biodiversity forests from deferrals, the Ministry was claliming biodiversity concern by announcing its new “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework”. The draft report claimed:
“The British Columbia Government commits to the conservation and management of Ecosystem Health and Biodiversity as an overarching priority.”
But the TAP panel did prioritize ecosystem health and biodiverity, now 55% of its deferrals are gone. BC governments have a long history of making grand promises of forestry reform, then allowing MOF to claw back for logging companies a major part of what was promised. Less than 30% of BC’s Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) have old-growth forest. Large areas of semi-protected habitat for mountain caribou were stuffed with poor forest of little use to caribou.
BIG TALK AND LITTLE PROTECTION
The government claims it has now deferred logging on 2.4 million hectares. But deferrals only postpone logging. Almost three years after the deferral process began, the only significant real protection has been the Incomappleux Conservancy. As much as the Valhalla Wilderness Society appreciates having part of its park proposal protected, much more is needed. Deferrals are of little worth unless they become permanent protection on the ground. If half the Panel’s deferrals have been accepted, why haven’t they been protected in three years? What good are deferrals that don’t bring actual protection on the ground?
We have to repeatedly ask ourselves why our forests and unique animal populations, as well as our hope of enlarged mitigation of climate change, have to be endangered and most often lost or destroyed to feed the multi-million dollar salaries of corporate executives? Many logging, mining and oil & gas companies have reaped huge wealth for the past 50 years, and made sure they contributed large sums to the election campaigns of officials who support them. During that time these same corporations have spread disinformation and doubt about climate change, and our governments have complied with their demands.
BIG-TREED OLD-GROWTH CRUCIAL IN MODERATING CLIMATE
According to the BC Wildfire Service, the 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive in BC’s recorded history: more than 2.84 million hectares of forest and land burned; tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate their homes; hundreds of homes and buildings were destroyed. The astounding number and ferocity of fires across Canada, combined with other extreme weather events, indicate climate change is a major factor.
Scientists estimate that forests remove about 28% of the CO2 humans add to the atmosphere. Big trees absorb far more carbon than small or mediumsized trees, and store it in their wood and soil. According to one study, a big tree might take in as much carbon in one year as a medium-sized tree has stored over its whole life. Clearcutting sets carbon absorption back to zero and it takes decades for it to recover.
Worse, when a tree dies, the carbon it has stored is released back into the atmosphere.. According to retired BC forest ecologist, Dr. Jim Pojar, “Logging primary, mature and old forests for wood products and converting them into intensively managed plantations releases large and essentially unrecoverable amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. These emissions cannot be simply offset by planting more trees because it takes a long time for trees and forests to establish, grow and mature.”
While there is grave concern about the CO2 emissions when forest burns, research in the US has concluded that logging emits three times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per acre as wildfires. (Hanson and Dorsey, New York Times, 2022)
Old forests are more resistant to wildfires due to the size and moisture content of the dead wood, whereas clearcuts increase the number of fires, accelerate their spread, and increase their intensity.