FORESTRY ISSUES

FORESTRY ISSUES

fORESTRY ISSUES

Along with farming and settlements, forestry has had and continues to have a serious negative impact on the Shuswap environment and the entire province. Logging roads have been built into nearly every valley and clearcuts and young plantations permeate the landscape. SEAS has had an active role in monitoring and critiquing forest management planning and forestry activities since 1990. As well, SEAS president, Jim Cooperman, has been active in the provincial environmental movement to reform forest management.

Consequently, this section of the SEAS website contains information on both provincial issues and local issues

B.C.'s FOREST UNDER CORPORATE CONTROL

The Gordon Campbell Liberal government enshrined in law forestry policies that have virtually handed over the management of our public forests to the timber corporations. As well, government staffing has been reduced to the point that there is nearly no one left to enforce what few rules remain. The situation is further compromised by the corporate-friendly media, which rarely covers environmental criticism and protests. Below is a summary of the current situation, followed by some suggestions for dealing with the issues.

No end in sight for the forestry downturn

Despite corporation friendly government forestry policies, the industry is in a tailspin due to the lack of demand for lumber in the U.S. and lumber prices that are below the cost of production. Many sawmills and pulp mills are shut down throughout the province, as well as here in the Shuswap. The current economic crisis is exacerbating an already grim situation and there is no end in sight.

Biodiversity protection in your dreams

The biodiversity guidebook, a maze of compromises, half-truths and contradictions, was introduced in 1995, but implementation was stalled as old growth forests continued to be logged at unsustainable rates. In 2004, the Forest Practices Board released a critical report that reveals only a few forest districts have the minimal biodiversity protection measures in place and that the new forestry legislation omits any requirements to protect biodiversity. As well, the province lacks any monitoring of biodiversity implementation.. In some areas industry has convinced government to utilize by the non-spatial old growth designation order recently passed in Victoria. For more information, read the full report at www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/publications.aspx?id=2590&terms=Biodiversity.

Softwood War now history

After four years of court cases, failed negotiations and significant duties; the forest industry and both levels of Canadian government reached an agreement with the Americans. Many forest companies continued to make profits despite the duties, which indicated that perhaps the U.S. was correct to claim that Canada subsidies its forest industry, despite the decisions made by many NAFTA tribunals.

These companies received back four of the five billion dollars, including the interest, which became windfall profits for them. Thankfully, some of these profits will feed back to the public owners of the forest resources as taxes. Some companies, like Canfor, have already used their profits to invest in new sawmills in the U.S. and they plan to invest more south of the border.

The new seven-year agreement sets restrictions of Canadian lumber imports based on the price of lumber. If the price falls below $355 (U.S.), a combination of export duties and/or quotas will control B.C. lumber exports. The advantage to this system for the public owners of the forests is that this time the duties will end up in provincial coffers.

The provincial government is hoping its Forestry Revitalization Plan will result in revisions to the softwood agreement to reduce or eliminate the export restrictions. However, this plan only reallocates 20 percent of timber tenure from large companies over to B.C. Timber Sales and first nations and a pittance to communities. The tenure take-back was intended to make stumpage determination more accurate, yet the opposite has occurred.

The take-back on the coast resulted in lower instead of higher stumpage rates. It is likely that the increased concentration of companies has allowed them to work together to ensure their auction bids are minimized. Even more absurd is that this 'taken back: timber is still available to the companies at an even lower cost than prior to the take-back. As well, under the $200-million allocated for compensation, these companies were paid 25 cents a cubic metre when the timber they never owned but merely had to right to log was 'taken back.'

Beetlemania

As if unsustainable rates of clearcutting and the fires of 2003 are not enough of a problem, B.C.'s forests are rapidly succumbing to voracious, climate-change induced beetle populations that show no signs of slowing down now that they have made it past the Rocky Mountains. The projection for the beetle epidemic shows 80 percent of the province's lodgepole pine forests will be dead or dying by 2016.

In December 2005, B.C.'s chief forester organized a one-day symposium and a follow-up workshop in Prince George called 'The Future Forest Ecosystems of BC, Exploring the Opportunities: which promoted the government to revise forestry policies. See: 'Climate Change is Turning Forestry on its Head.: Subsequently, the chief forester released a report, "Preparing for Climate Change: Adapting to Impacts on British Columbia's Forest and Range Resources," for public review and comment. See Climate_Change/' target='link'>www.for.gov.bc.ca/mof/Climate_Change/

Results biased under FRPA

Corporate forestry's dream legislation that virtually ends government oversight is now the law. The (de)-regulations, which guides the province's Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), became effective on January 31, 2004. Under this new 'Results-Biased: Code, companies are now drafting new plans every five years instead of every year that are devoid of any specific information. They even have the option of devising their own environmental objectives if they think the existing ones are too restrictive. The government now has extraordinary restrictions on when and how they could reject these plans and even then any action must not 'unduly reduce the supply of timber.: For a more comprehensive critique, see www.wcel.org/issues/deregulation/#Forestry

Endangered forest-dependent species

The future looks bleak for B.C.'s forest-dependent species and the ecosystems they inhabit. On the coast, the establishment of wildlife habitat areas (WHAs) for marbled murrelets is already constrained by the rule that WHAs can only impact the timber supply by one percent. In the lower mainland, logging of remaining spotted owl habitat continues with the blessing of the provincial government, while the federal government sees no need to utilize its Species at Risk Act. Fewer than 1,600 mountain caribou now remain in B.C., while logging continues to eat up critical habitat and ever-expanding motorized recreation impacts many of the herds. See www.mountaincaribou.org/ for more information.

Profits before jobs and communities

There is no room anymore for the small outfit in B.C.'s forests. Under the Campbell Liberals, big is beautiful and value-added opportunities are no longer achievable. B.C. Timber Sales has replaced the small business program and only large sales are available, which has put horseloggers out to pasture and other small operators out of business. Meanwhile, now that forest licences are no longer linked to mills; the five-percent take-back when tenures are sold is gone; and tenure sell-off is allowed without government oversight; corporate mergers and take-overs are increasing and fewer companies control greater amounts of forestlands. Canfor's absorption of Slocan gives it control of 19 percent of the provincial cut. Smaller mills are being shut down as mega-mills where fewer workers are needed take over most of the production.

All is not lost, yet

These are tough times to be a sustainable forestry advocate in this province. While many environmental activists soundly criticized the union friendly NDP government, they were ill prepared to deal with the Campbell government's complete assault on environmental values and its virtual handover of our forests to the corporations. At this point in time the only opportunity left to maintain some semblance of environmental protection of non-timber forest values is to maintain vigilance of the existing, however insufficient, land use plans and work to ensure that implementation continues including full establishment of all old growth management areas. Since forest companies now have the keys to the forests, it will be necessary to hold back nausea and maintain communication with them to monitor their plans and push for changes if and when wildlife, watersheds and recreational opportunities are threatened.

As traditional forms of protest becomes increasingly ineffective, the best way to deal with the growing number of problems is to support those groups (such as Forest Ethics, www.forestethics.org) that work on market campaigns and provide them with information about specific concerns.

To keep up-to-date on current issues see www.sierraclub.bc.ca/forests-and-wilderness and to learn about sustainable alternatives and sustainable tenure reform see www.forestsolutions.ca/. The only real clout remaining for B.C. activists is to raise awareness provincially and internationally of how B.C.'s forestry policies further subsidize corporations at the expense of workers, communities and the environment.

LOCAL FORESTRY ISSUES:

For over a decade, SEAS has monitored forest practices and reviewed forest development and timber supply plans for much of the northern half of the Shuswap watershed, which includes the Adams Lake watershed and the watersheds that flow into Shuswap Lake. The southern portion of the Shuswap watershed is east of Vernon and includes Mabel and Sugar Lakes. Now that forest companies are no longer required to produce detailed plans every year (see above), SEAS has gained assurance from local company foresters to provide detailed plans when they are prepared.

In 2001, when the Campbell Liberal eliminated 29 forest service offices and laid off 35 percent of its forest service staff, forest districts were combined to reduce costs. At that time the Salmon Arm district was amalgamated with the Vernon and Penticton districts into the Okanagan Shuswap Forest District. See www.for.gov.bc.ca/dos/dist_qik_facts.htm

Beetles wiping out Shuswap forests too

Wherever lodgepole pine forests grow, especially both the Chase Creek and Salmon River watersheds, most of the trees have been killed by the mountain pine beetles. Ponderosa pine trees, although not a commercial species, have also been killed primarily in the drier, western parts of the Shuswap. Many plantations have also been impacted, because lodgepole pine has long been one of the key species planted in clearcuts for decades. The decision whether or not to log the dead pine has been contentious, as the dead trees can still provide some ecosystem functions. See 'The pine beetle conundrum.'

In 2008, Bill Grainger, a Salmon Arm based geoscientist, released a study of the Chase Creek watershed that shows how extensive logging of dead pine in watershed can lead to major problems, including erosion, landslides, floods and late summer water shortages and that logging these stands will not substantially decrease the risk of fires. See 'Chase Creek Hydrological Assessment.'

Landslide Destruction

Logging and road building has caused and continues to cause (albeit at a reduced levels) environmental damage, including loss of biodiversity; loss of wildlife habitat; loss of recreation and tourism values; and damage to watersheds. In 1990, SEAS alerted the public to a massive slide that occurred below a logging road built on unstable ground above a creek that flows into the Anstey River. The slide dumped tons of silt into the river, which then impacted salmon spawning in the lower reach of the river, and problems persist to this day.

Heavy snow and rains contributed in 1997 to massive slides in Anglemont and in Hummingbird Creek above Mara Lake below poorly designed cutblocks and roads. These slides cost one life, caused millions of dollars of damage to private land and buildings and continue to cause problems for landowners today.

EAS notified the media about the Hummingbird Creek slide that led to a National CBC News broadcast that revealed how government staff tried to cover-up the cause of the disaster. When ministry staff continued to deny that the logging caused the slide, SEAS contracted a well-known U.S. hydrologist, Al Isaacson to study the area and prepare a report. On September 15, 1997, the SEAS press release explained how its independent hydrological investigation of Hummingbird Creek Slide revealed serious mistakes in logging and road design.

Based on this research, SEAS made these recommendations:
1. Review the existing cutblocks and roads in the District to determine where similar events could occur because of inadequate design of drainage systems;
2. Remove and/or re-route roads that could result in problems;
3. Re-examine plans for future logging and road building to determine if similar problems could occur to inadequate design;
4. Disallow clearcutting on steep slopes in community and domestic-use watersheds or where soil instability will result in slides;
5. Ensure that culverts do not pour vast amounts of water on to steep, unstable slopes.

Since 1997, the provinces Forest Practices Code was changed to include the need to assess the impact of cutblock designed above unstable land and the Salmon Arm forest district office and local forestry companies have improved forestry planning to avoid causing landslides. Despite these improvements, the future remains uncertain, as the much of the forest that is left to log is on or near steep, unstable hillsides.
On May 23, 2002 during a heavy rainstorm, a giant landslide swept down Long Ridge blocking a small fish-bearing stream and wiping out 7 hectares of young plantation forest and 8 hectares of older forest. Concerns in the Seymour Arm community about more proposed logging on the steep Long Ridge hillside led to an investigation by SEAS and a press release.

Overcutting

Every five years, the government's chief forester reviews timber supply analysis for each TSA and input from the companies and the public to designate a new Allowable Annual Cut (AAC). SEAS has always maintained that logging rates are too high. In 1994, SEAS undertook its own spatial timber supply analysis that projected future logging onto a series of maps that clearly showed logging rates needed to be lowered. Also, SEAS provided the chief forester with a critique of the TSA economic analysis that showed how it over-estimated the socio-economic impacts of AAC reductions and under-estimated the environmental impacts of continued overcutting and offered minimal information on socio-economic trends. In November 1995, the chief forester announced his decision to maintain the existing rate of overcutting, despite our efforts.

Subsequently timber supply reviews have continued to maintain and in some cases increase the unsustainable rate of logging. In 2005, the timber supply was increased a whopping 38 percent to address the many stands of lodgepole pine dying from mountain pine beetles. SEAS prepared detailed comments to the TSR review that called for maintaining or reducing the existing cut level by focusing most logging on the dead and dying pine, see Okg. TSR comments. When the new overcutting level was announced, SEAS responded with a press release. See TSR review PR.

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