Category: Forestry

Forest protection, a vital climate action

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The Province can unleash a squad of public relations staff and announce BC is on track to meet its climate targets. Like other provinces, BC has no independent method for accountability. Claims made about greenhouse gas reductions, clean energy, and forest protection are not fully supported by trustworthy science.

A BC industry in decline

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I have been reading about the history of British Columbia’s forest industry. I lack thorough expertise, but I think it is fair to say that short-term thinking by self-interested industrialists and politicians has caused serious damage to public assets that were vital building blocks of this province…

Accuracy of information act?

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An article by Ben Parfitt was published in Policy Note, a blog by the BC Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Parfitt reports that while the BC Government is promising protection of ancient forests, senior bureaucrats are instead protecting low-value scrub and permitting logging of high-value old-growth trees. While British Columbia has the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, we need an Accuracy of Information Act. There should be sanctions when Ministers and Ministries make promises to the public while they work in secret to achieve the opposite.

Spending $130 billion in BC to accelerate oil & gas production

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More than $130 billion dollars has been or will be spent in British Columbia to increase consumption of oil and gas. NDP and BCUP politicians make empty promises about dealing with climate change, but at the same time welcome photo ops at large scale fossil fuel projects. Conservatives cling to unscientific ideas that climate change is either not real or not caused by human activities…

Wildfire warnings ignored by government

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I began to distrust the province’s wildfire statistics after noticing the reported size of the Donnie Creek fire — the province’s largest ever — was not altered from mid-July to mid-September. Yet throughout this time, BC Wildfire Service stated that Donnie Creek was out of control. Now at the end of September, the fire is still uncontrolled and the government agency said it may burn until winter. Today, my distrust seems proven. On September 29, BC Wildfire Service added 533,409 hectares (5,334 square kilometres) to the total area burned in the province. That is 93 percent of the amount reported in the preceding four weeks and almost one-fifth of the total for 2023…

Wildfires

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Wildfires are clearly a major problem for Canadians in 2023. Primary causes are known but solutions conflict with policies of governments. Canadian politicians prefer to promote fossil fuel production and eliminate forest diversity without regard for long-term costs to the planet. Failure to change forest management practices and moderate greenhouse gas emissions will result in greater fire disasters in the future.

Record setting wildfire burns – updated

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As of July 30, BC Wildfire Service is calling 2023 the worst year for land damaged by fire. In fact, with months to go in fire season, 15 percent more land has burned than in 2018, the second worst year BC has recorded. Three hundred and fifty-seven wildfires are burning on July 30, 188 of them out-of-control.

Early forests in southwest BC

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While clearing files from an old computer, I rediscovered one involving my maternal grandfather, long-time Chilliwack resident Jim Mahood (1885-1976). He recalled his career in the forests of southwest British Columbia in words published by the Forest History Association of British Columbia in 2006. When this was first written is unclear but I suspect it was done with assistance of his eldest son Ian Mahood (1915-2002). Like his three brothers, Ian spent his life working in the forest industry…

Paving paradise

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Forests provide Canadians a wealth of benefits that go beyond providing jobs and income. Forests provide habitat for living things, fight flooding, keep us cool, feed us, heal us and provide sanctuaries of spiritual meaning for many Canadians and Indigenous people. Old growth forest should be icons of the province. Having survived hundreds of years, they must not be destroyed for the convenience and profit of a few, or for political debts owed to unions that funded John Horgan’s rise to power…

Comfortable

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The first part of this article was written in November 2009 and the addendum was added April 2016 and subsequently updated. I repeat this item because it demonstrates that, while applying austerity to the province’s most needy citizens, the Clark/Campbell Liberals have treated a favoured few quite differently.

Log exports updated

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BC is exporting substantially more unprocessed raw lags by volume but recording – per exporters’ reports, at least – little more than half the unit value realized in the 1990s. The volume of exported raw logs during Christy Clark’s tenure is 567% of what was experienced in ten years of NDP administration. BC jobs in forestry and support activities have declined by nearly one-half.