BC Floods and Clearcut Logging

The discussion following record-breaking rains and floods in British Columbia include speculation about the effects of fires.

We should also be wondering about the effects of unprecedented levels of damaging logging practices.

In the future, will logging companies be sued for their negligence?

Water Logged | new ending from Ramshackle Pictures on Vimeo.

Trembling Aspen

A small grove of trembling aspen.

Trembling aspen are the most widely distributed trees in North America. They live up to their name. Even the slightest breeze makes them do their thing. They tremble.

This aspen tree has my favourite scientific designation that reflects this behaviour - Populus tremuloides.

I think the leaves are susceptible to moving and shaking because the "petiole is distally flattened at right angle to plane of blade".

That makes sense to me.

Older trees sport distinctive bark patterns like hard won woody tattoos.

Trembling aspen grow to 35 meters, but height is not their most spectacular feature. What makes these trees special is that they can form large groves through root suckers, making them clones and therefore a single, huge organism.

There is an aspen grove in Utah that has a root system estimated to be 80,000 years old, and some say that is a conservative number. While none of the trees in the grove is overly tall, the entire clone is 106 acres in size.

The Utah grove is known as Pando, or The Trembling Giant.

The grove I photographed in central British Columbia along the Crowsnest Highway is considerably smaller, but just as amazing and beautiful.

New on VIBT - Tree Identification

I have added a new button at the top of this blog underneath the title banner. Clicking on the "Tree Identification" button will take the curious forest adventurer to a page with tree identification information. A link is provided that will lead the extra-curious to even more information about the British Columbia's amazing trees.

Learning more about the unique forests of Vancouver Island could consist of vacationing among the trees and identifying a few. Or, it could mean spending a lifetime getting to know the neon green forests of wrinkly, moss covered giants. Unlike the ancient trees around you, your fascination will never grow old.

The information on the id page was selectively harvested from the forest of information that has been
compiled by the government of British Columbia.

The Tree Book, one such government publication, is a basic introduction to the major tree species in the province. Of these, most grow on Vancouver Island, and of those I have selected a few of the more obvious and sought after tree species to share.

Enjoy learning more about Vancouver Island's big beautiful trees, and next time you are out in the forest you can put your tree knowledge to the test.

The more you learn about these trees, the more you will want to protect them and the special places that they grow.


Click on the Tree Identification page button above, or click here to connect directly.

Vancouver's Urban Streams See Biggest Salmon Returns In 80 Years

After decades of use and abuse, many former salmon streams in the Vancouver, BC area are again teeming with life. In one stream the returns are the biggest seen in 80 years as Chum return to rehabilitated waterways once again.

Stream rehabilitation projects since the 1990's are starting to pay off and salmon are being seen in waters previously degraded and suffering the effects of insensitive development and pollution.

Many projects, often run by volunteers, have improved gravel spawning beds, restored stream bank vegetation to prevent erosion, and added ladder improvements and Large Woody Debris to expand available habitat. Culverts are often a barrier to fish movement, and projects also remediate these blockages.

How much money do developers and logging companies add to these restoration projects that clean up the messes made as a result of their environmental exploitation? I would expect the answer is "little to none". As usual, the private sector gets the profits, and the public sector (the rest of us) pays to repair the damage.

But it sure is good to see that we can atone for their sins, and bring the salmon back.

Read more here.

Nanaimo Mill Workers Lose To WFP

The  first sawmill in BC, 1848. Sawmill is on the right,
and a grist mill is shown on the other side of Millstream, near Victoria.

British Columbia's old growth forests are not the only victims of years of mayhem in the woods - forestry workers are suffering as well.

Based on data from the BC Ministry of Forests and Range, from 1991 - 2000, the average rate of closure was 3 mills per year. From 2001 - 2009 it rose to 6 mill closures per year. The closures account for the loss of thousands of jobs, and takes millions of dollars out of forestry-based communities.

The following article is a recent example of how forestry workers are suffering from bad policies and corporations looking out for #1 and the bottom line.

Mill workers lose court battle

Labour arbitrator sides with WFP in longstanding fight

By Robert Barron, Daily News April 16, 2012

Hundreds of laid-off workers at Nanaimo's two Western Forest products' sawmills won't receive severance packages after labour arbitrator David McPhillips recently ruled in favour in the forest company in a longstanding dispute.

Darrel Wong, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 which represents workers at the two mills, said the union sees no point in appealing McPhillips' decision even though it feels many of its arguments in the case are still valid.

WFP spokeswoman MacKenzie Leine said she's not surprised by the arbitrator's decision.

The union began court action against WFP over their concerns that the forest company may have reopened its two sawmills in Nanaimo with skeleton crews in 2010 to avoid having to pay severance packages, totalling more than $6 million, that the company would be mandated to pay if the mills remained closed.

Read full article here.

With old growth forests being rapidly depleted, raw log shipments, lack of government oversight in the woods, and logging companies using questionable business practices to avoid their responsibility to workers, it is hard to see how the citizens of this province are benefiting from the harvesting of our forestry resources.

Save The Great Bear Rainforest

Chief Qwatsinas of the Nuxalk Nation with friend visiting Great Bear Rainforest giant cedar
near Bella Coola, photo: Cristina Mittermeier

The Great Bear Rainforest, on the BC mainland across from northern Vancouver Island, is once again in the international spotlight. In 2006 various stakeholders agreed to work together to protect this precious resource, home of the Spirit Bear, old growth cedars, endangered animals, and numerous indigenous communities. The collaboration was unprecedented, and hopes ran high.

4.4 million acres, 50% of the forest, was protected. Additionally, another 11.6 million acres is managed under an ecosystem management plan. However, in spite of initial successes in moving toward sustainability, a less rosy picture is starting to emerge.

The website savethegreatbear.org reports:

"Overall, the agreements amounted to an ambitious and much-celebrated plan that’s yielded some notable success. Sustainable economic development is starting to take root in communities within the Great Bear Rainforest, which is now better protected from logging than it was before.

But these efforts have also been beset by delays that call into question whether the full vision of the agreements will be realized in time to safe-guard the forest as we know it."

The Great Bear Rainforest encompasses one of the largest areas of intact coastal temperate rainforest left on the planet, and is therefore of global significance. In order to maintain the environmental integrity of this ecosystem, scientists using ecosystem based management, say that at least 70% of the natural old growth areas must be protected.

TimberWest clear cuts in the southern Great Bear in 2011, photo: Garth Lenz

50% is good, 70% is better, but 100% is what our goal should be. Logging old growth, regardless of where it is, is not sustainable or in the best interests of humanity.

The BC government and other stakeholders set new ground with the 2006 Great Bear Rainforest agreement. It is time to honour those agreements, and set the stage for further protection.

See government contacts here. Let officials know how you feel about saving old growth, white bears, salmon-bearing streams, and keeping the Great Bear as an intact global treasure.

Get more information about the "Take It Taller" Campaign at  savethegreatbear.org.

Celebrate Earth Day - End Deforestation

 

Trees give generously and have, since the Wood Age began. But they get little respect in our current cut and run, fibre for profit world.

Trees are necessary for many things. I pause on Earth Day to acknowledge the thousands of ways we benefit from our forests. I am grateful for everything made possible by the amazing properties of trees.

I thank the people that bring wood products to me. Having said that, we must come up with a sustainable manner of managing our forest resources.

Global deforestation is a problem that will come to haunt us, and probably sooner than later. More than 80% of the planet's original forests have been destroyed. With erosion and soil depletion, many forests will never regrow.

Canada, and British Columbia are among the worst offenders. The destruction in our forests must end, or we will. We need trees, and Mother Earth is only a good source of timber when we treat her with respect.

BC Ministry of Forests and Range Research Branch Disbanded After 80 Years of Service

Pipestone Inlet near Ucluelet, from BC Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands

Barbara Hawkins is a professor in the University of Victoria Centre for Forest Biology and a registered professional forester. She has been involved in forest research in B.C., New Zealand and Thailand for 25 years. The following is an article she published in Victoria's Times Colonist newspaper November 26, 2010:

Unnoted last week amid the political confusion, British Columbians lost a venerable institution. After a proud, 80-year history, the research branch of the Ministry of Forests and Range was disbanded. It is ironic, in the government's self-declared Year of Science, that it should dismantle such an internationally respected scientific institution.

B.C. is a world leader in many areas of forest research. Our excellent reforestation record, forest genetics program, long-term growth and yield experiments, forest growth models and ecologically based biogeoclimatic classification system were founded on sound science and are the envy of many countries.

The research was conducted collaboratively by provincial, federal, university, industrial and community institutions. Scientists from each of these institutions have distinct priorities and capabilities, and one cannot replace the other. University and industry scientists cannot provide the continuity and long-term commitment needed for some types of forest research.

The loss of a united, cohesive research branch is a loss to us all.

At a time when the need for forest research is pressing, the government's lack of support is baffling. In the past two years, the Forest Investment Account forest science program has been cut, eliminating competitive funding for forest researchers in all institutions, and the research branch suffered layoffs of approximately 25 per cent of its staff. Last week, the final blow was to disperse the remaining staff in the research branch to four separate ministries.

Climate change is already having dramatic impacts on our forests, with more likely to come and the forest industry is in an obvious state of change. B.C. needs to position itself to maintain healthy, productive forests providing sustainable ecosystems and raw materials for a diversified forest industry. This can only be achieved through sound basic and applied research and monitoring built on long-term vision.

No rationale has been given for the drastic changes within the Ministry of Forests and Range. Doubtless, government ministries, like trees, are improved by judicious pruning. A tree cut off at its roots, however, does not bear fruit.

Province Announces Protection Of Old Growth On Vancouver Island

I came across a couple of press releases today in which B.C. Forestry and Range Minister Pat Bell announced the protection of almost 39,000 hectares of old growth forest on Vancouver Island. Old growth forests were identified by trees older than 250 years. Is the government finally seeing the light?

Or is it some sort of green washing? I wonder about the quality of the areas identified. Is it protect a bit here, decimate everything else? Will there be a shift from sustainable yield to ecosystem management, and from old growth to second growth logging?

Ken Wu looked at the data concerning the island's old growth inventory in 2008, and reported it in Pacific Free Press:

"Analysis of satellite photos of Vancouver Island in 2004 revealed that of an original 2.3 million hectares of productive old-growth forests, only about 600,000 hectares remained - one-fourth of what was originally here. Of this, only about 140,000 hectares are protected in our parks, or about 6% of the original big trees. In addition, only one-tenth of the original, productive old-growth forests on the valley bottoms - the areas with the largest trees, richest soils, greatest biodiversity, and all of the fish-bearing streams - still remained."

It is hard to say anything bad about the further protection of old growth forests, unless they are too small to maintain ecological integrity. But saving the big trees is what it is all about.

The protected areas announced today are in the northern and north-central part of the island and include: Tsitika, Naka, Adam-Eve, Salmon and White (all north of Campbell River and Sayward) within the Campbell River forest district – and Nahwitti, Tsulquate and Marble (located west of Port Hardy and Port McNeill) within the North Island-Central Coast forest district.

What about the south island district where the old growth forest first began to be affected by industrial logging? The south coast where a whopping 80% of the land is privately owned. The Wilderness Committee estimates only about 13 per cent of the original old-growth forest remains on southern Vancouver Island, and less – only about 10 per cent – is on valley bottoms where the biggest trees grow. Only one per cent of the original old-growth coastal Douglas-fir zone is protected.

The province also announced today the protection of bits of this Coastal Douglas-fir forest zone, which is obviously needed. 1598 hectares of coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem, mostly on private and municipal land, will go under a new land use order protecting the areas from resource extraction and logging. The majority of new areas selected for protection are on the east coast of Vancouver Island, between Courtenay and Nanaimo.

Press Releases From Ministry of Forests and Range, July 30, 2010

VICTORIA – The Province has identified an additional 38,779 hectares on Vancouver Island to protect old-growth forests, Minister Responsible for the Integrated Land Management Bureau Pat Bell announced today.

“British Columbia’s old growth forests are known and admired by people from around the world,” said Bell. “Adding another 39,000 hectares nearly doubles the old-growth management areas on Vancouver Island and demonstrates B.C.’s leadership in sustainable forest management.”

On the Coast, old-growth trees are those 250 years or older. The 38,779 hectares of old-growth management areas identified in the coastal temperate rainforest of northern and north-central Vancouver Island will be managed to help sustain old-growth forests for the benefit of many plants and animals that need old growth forest conditions to survive. These include species-at-risk such as the marbled murrelet, a seabird that builds its nests on large branches of old-growth trees near the ocean.

Setting aside old-growth management areas also provides certainty for forest companies, who are required to identify such areas in their forest stewardship plans. By designating areas that cannot be logged, forest companies can plan their timber harvesting and other operations in the remaining forested areas. Many of the areas now set aside were identified jointly by government, company foresters and biologists, a collaborative effort that will benefit British Columbia for generations to come.

With today’s announcement, the amount of old-growth management areas established on Vancouver Island increases to 83,687 hectares. As well, there are about 438,000 hectares of parks and protected areas on Vancouver Island. Province wide, there are approximately 25 million hectares of old-growth forests with around 3.7 million hectares fully protected – an area larger than Vancouver Island.

The old growth management areas are within the following eight landscape units: Tsitika, Naka, Adam-Eve, Salmon and White (all north of Campbell River and Sayward) within the Campbell River forest district – and Nahwitti, Tsulquate and Marble (located west of Port Hardy and Port McNeill) within the North Island-Central Coast forest district.

1,598 HECTARES OF COASTAL DOUGLAS-FIR TO BE PROTECTED

VICTORIA – Under a new land use order, British Columbia will increase the protection of the Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem on provincial Crown land to almost 40 per cent, Pat Bell, Minister Responsible for the Integrated Land Management Bureau announced today.

“Protecting an additional 1,598 hectares is an important step in our ongoing effort to preserve B.C.’s Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem,” said Bell. “Most of the ecosystem lies on private and municipal land, so even with the Province's significant contribution to conservation, only six per cent of the Coastal Douglas-fir Zone is protected. We will continue to work with local governments and private landowners to ensure everyone is doing what they can to be part of the solution.”

The Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem is ranked both globally and provincially as high-priority for preservation, and is home to 29 endangered plant communities. Eighty per cent of the global range of Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem occurs in the southern Strait of Georgia area. Of the 256,800 hectares in British Columbia, only nine per cent, or 23,500 hectares, is provincially owned.

The additional 1,598 hectares will increase the amount of provincial Coastal Douglas-fir Crown land protected from logging and other resource development activities to 9,197 hectares.

The majority of new areas selected for protection are on the east coast of Vancouver Island, between Courtenay and Nanaimo. A copy of the land use order and map is available online at:

http://www.ilmb.gov.bc.ca/content/news/2010/07/29/1598-hectares-coastal-douglas-fir-be-protected

Ecologists considered a number of criteria when deciding which parcels to include for protection. These included land parcel size, adjacency to already protected areas, risk of being disturbed, landscape context and ecological diversity.

In addition, social and economic considerations, as well as existing commitments for First Nations treaty settlements, were also factors in parcel selection. During the public review and comment period that closed in February, more than 1,000 individual submissions were received.

Establishing the areas for protection under the Land Act is the first phase of government’s conservation strategy for Coastal Douglas-fir. The next phase involves informing local governments and private landowners on actions they can take.

Eleven per cent of Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem is owned by other levels of government and 80 per cent is in private ownership.

B.C.'s Biggest Trees Not Protected

British Columbia holds record breaking trees, both in the books, and out in the forest waiting to be discovered. In order to increase awareness and protection of these tree Titans and old growth areas, Randy Stoltmann single-handedly started B.C.'s Big Tree Registry in the 1980's.

Modeled after registries in eastern Canada and the U.S., it has grown from just 18 trees of 13 species, to 190 trees of 37 species in 2006. With Stoltmann's death in 1994 the Big Tree Registry passed through a variety of homes, and now is hosted by the provincial government in the Ministry of Forests and Range.

The B.C. Big Tree Registry records the 10 biggest trees for each species, but affords the outstanding listed trees no protection. The Victoria chapter of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee is recommending that the registry list the 100 biggest trees of each species, as well as legislating protection for them.

It seems unlikely that someone would cut down a record-breaking tree, and that is probably what Forests Minister Pat Bell meant when he said that big trees on the registry are not usually harvested. He added that he is not contemplating any changes to the registry or to old growth logging practices in the province.

Robert Van Pelt, author of Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast, insists that ancient giants still exist in little explored areas of our province. Particularily, he fingers Vancouver Island as a potential source of record-breaking sized trees yet to be found. Record-breakers usually gain some notoriety (the registries intended purpose) that gives them unofficial protection-like status. These valuable resources deserve full protection.

And what of Van Pelt's potential record-breaking trees yet to be discovered? Will we ever know about them, let alone protect them, before they become big stumps? WCWC has ample evidence that trees exactly like the ones we worship in our parks are being logged. Is there a record-breaking stump out there?


Let's protect these magnificent trees and remaining ancient groves. Let's do it for all those forward-thinking timber workers that have identified significant trees and groves in the forest and saved them. Or for the Red-backed vole that lives its life in single giant Douglas firs, like the Red Creek Fir (itself a Big Tree Registry champion). Let's do it for Randy Stoltmann.