Evergreen Alliance Staff

By Beverly E. Law et al Strategies to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions through forestry activities have been proposed, but ecosystem process-based integration of climate change, enhanced CO2, disturbance from fire, and management actions at regional scales are extremely limited. Here, we examine the relative merits of afforestation, reforestation, management changes, and harvest residue bioenergy use in the Pacific Northwest. This region represents some of the highest carbon density forests in the world, which can store carbon in trees for 800 y or more. Oregon’s net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) was equivalent to 72% of total emissions in 2011–2015. By 2100, simulations show increased net carbon uptake with little change in wildfires. Reforestation, afforestation, lengthened har- vest cycles on private lands, and restricting harvest on public lands increase NECB 56% by 2100, with the latter two actions contributing the most. Resultant co-benefits included water availability and biodiversity, primarily from increased forest area, age, and species diversity. Converting 127,000 ha of irrigated grass crops to native forests could decrease irrigation demand by 233 billion cubic metres per year. Utilizing harvest residues for bioenergy production instead of leaving them in forests to decompose increased emissions in the short- term (50 y), reducing mitigation effectiveness. Increasing forest carbon on public lands reduced emissions compared with storage in wood products because the residence time is more than twice that of wood products. Hence, temperate forests with high carbon densities and lower vulnerability to mortality have substantial potential for reducing forest sector emissions. Our analysis framework provides a template for assessments in other temperate regions. (2018) Land use strategies to mitigate climate change in carbon dense temperate forests.pdf

By Beverly E. Law et al Strategies to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions through forestry activities have been proposed, but ecosystem process-based integration of climate change, enhanced CO2, disturbance from fire, and management actions at regional scales are extremely limited. Here, we examine the relative merits of afforestation, reforestation, management changes, and harvest residue bioenergy use in the Pacific Northwest. This region represents some of the highest carbon density forests in the world, which can store carbon in trees for 800 y or more. Oregon’s net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) was equivalent to 72% of total emissions in 2011–2015. By 2100, simulations show increased net carbon uptake with little change in wildfires. Reforestation, afforestation, lengthened har- vest cycles on private lands, and restricting harvest on public lands increase NECB 56% by 2100, with the latter two actions contributing the most. Resultant co-benefits included water availability and biodiversity, primarily from increased forest area, age, and species diversity. Converting 127,000 ha of irrigated grass crops to native forests could decrease irrigation demand by 233 billion m3 per year. Utilizing harvest residues for bioenergy production instead of leaving them in forests to decompose increased emissions in the short- term (50 y), reducing mitigation effectiveness. Increasing forest carbon on public lands reduced emissions compared with storage in wood products because the residence time is more than twice that of wood products. Hence, temperate forests with high carbon densities and lower vulnerability to mortality have substantial potential for reducing forest sector emissions. Our analysis framework provides a template for assessments in other temperate regions. (2018) Land use strategies to mitigate climate change in carbon dense temperate forests.pdf

By John L. Campbell, Mark E. Harmon and Stephen R Mitchell It has been suggested that thinning trees and other fuel-reduction practices aimed at reducing the probability of high-severity forest fire are consistent with efforts to keep carbon (C) sequestered in terrestrial pools, and that such practices should therefore be rewarded rather than penalized in C-accounting schemes. By evaluating how fuel treatments, wildfire, and their interactions affect forest C stocks across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, we conclude that this is extremely unlikely. Our review reveals high C losses associated with fuel treatment, only modest differences in the combustive losses associated with high-severity fire and the low-severity fire that fuel treatment is meant to encourage, and a low likelihood that treated forests will be exposed to fire. Although fuel-reduction treatments may be necessary to restore historical functionality to fire-suppressed ecosystems, we found little credible evidence that such efforts have the added benefit of increasing terrestrial C stocks. (2012) Can fuel-reduction treatments really increase forest carbon storage in the western US by reducing future fire emissions?.pdf

By Jonathan R. Thompson et al Debate over the influence of postwildfire management on future fire severity is occurring in the absence of empirical studies. We used satellite data, government agency records, and aerial photography to examine a forest landscape in southwest Oregon that burned in 1987 and then was subject, in part, to salvage-logging and conifer planting before it reburned during the 2002 Biscuit Fire. Areas that burned severely in 1987 tended to reburn at high severity in 2002, after controlling for the influence of several topographical and biophysical covariates. Areas unaffected by the initial fire tended to burn at the lowest severities in 2002. Areas that were salvage-logged and planted after the initial fire burned more severely than comparable unmanaged areas, suggesting that fuel conditions in conifer plantations can increase fire severity despite removal of large woody fuels. (2007) Reburn severity in managed and unmanaged vegetation in a large wildfire.pdf

Dr. Suzanne Simard and Dr. Teresa (Sm’hayetsk) Ryan wrote the following letter in 2020 as part of the public engagement process for updating the Haida Gwaii Timber Supply Area's allowable annual cut (AAC). The letter contains many of the elements of a new vision for BC forests, and it is interesting to see these being applied to a traditional timber supply review (TSR). A TSR is the fundamental process by which BC's chief forester decides how much forest can be cut each year in a timber supply area. Haida Gwaii Management Council PO Box 589 Masset, Haida Gwaii, BC V0T 1M0 January 14, 2020 Dear Council Members; Re: Haida Gwaii Timber Supply Review Public Discussion Paper Thank-you for the opportunity to provide input on the Haida Gwaii Timber Supply Review Public Discussion Paper as it pertains to the HGMC’s Haida Gwaii AAC determination as well as the Chief Forester’s AAC determinations for the TSA and TFLs. This TSR represents an important opportunity to make critical changes to help confront multiple aspects of the global change crisis, and it comes as the IPCC warns us of runaway climate change in the absence of transformational mitigation measures aimed at fossil fuels and land use strategies. We are providing this input as Canadian citizens and scientists, but the viewpoints expressed herein are our own, and do not represent that of our employer, The University of British Columbia. The Timber Supply Review discussed in the Public Discussion Paper, and implications for the AAC, is focused on a base case for timber supply, as has been traditionally the case for the Provincial government. The base case for timber supply is subject to errors associated with growth and yield modeling, as well as uncertainties and an unpredictable future climate. Even more importantly, however, the range of eco-sociological goods and services provided by the forests of Haida Gwaii for mitigating climate change and increasing resilience of the ecosystems and human populations, particularly the Haida people, have not been fully considered in this review. The time when forests are managed primarily on the basis of even-flow long-run sustained yield, even under the umbrella of ecosystem based management, has long passed given the global change crisis. To that end, we have four main concerns with the Timber Supply Review, including: (1) Loss of carbon stocks and contribution to climate change, (2) Unaccounted sources of variation in the base case, (3) Loss of biodiversity and endangered species, and (4) Inadequate consideration of the rights and well-being of the Haida people at present and in the future. In this letter, we are commenting only on the first three, particularly (1), as the Haida people will express their own concerns over the harvesting of forests on Haida Gwaii. We follow these comments with two recommendations. (1) Loss of carbon stocks and climate change: British Columbia has committed to a 40% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 and 80% by 2050 as part of Canada’s commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. So far, however, we are moving in the opposite direction, with our emissions increasing annually, and more coming from forestry than all other sectors combined. In 2017, BC reported that annual emissions from fossil fuels had increased to 65 million tonnes of carbon (C). By comparison, 2017 emissions from logging (removal of trees and woody debris, plus accelerated decomposition of forest floor and soil) were estimated as 42 million tonnes C, and foregone carbon capture an additional 26.5 million tonnes C, for a total of 68.5 million tonnes C added to the atmosphere annually from forestry practices alone. This has skyrocketed to 203 million tonnes C with wildfires in recent years. While drastically reducing fossil fuel emissions to decarbonize the energy sector is essential, Canada cannot meet its commitments for carbon emission reductions without the provinces protecting carbon stocks in existing forests, or increasing sequestration capacity of managed forests. While emissions from forestry are not included in official carbon budgets, there is sufficient science for us to know that ignoring them is abrogating our responsibility to current and future generations. Missing our targets are already starting to destabilize the Earth’s climate, terrestrial, and aquatic systems, and continuing to do so will quickly have catastrophic consequences for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and humans. Effective forest management has an essential role in helping meet global targets, especially where large existing carbon stocks can be protected through forest preservation, and carbon sequestration can be increased through sustainable forest management, particularly in high density C ecosystems such as Haida Gwaii. Scientists estimate that forest preservation, reduced logging and improved management of second growth forests could provide 37% of the mitigation needed to stabilize global warming below 2oC by 2039. The forests and interconnected bog ecosystems of Haida Gwaii fall within the Pacific Coastal temperate ecosystem, which contains among the world’s largest carbon pools, has among the highest carbon sequestration potential, and has the lowest vulnerability to disturbance by future fire and drought. These Pacific Maritime ecosystems are considered by scientists to be a top priority for forest set-asides as carbon preserves. Individual temperate rainforests and peatlands in BC’s Pacific Maritime store up to 1,300 tonnes C/ha depending on site quality. This is 3-5 times greater than BC’s interior temperate forests, which store 220-500 tonnes C/ha and are also highly vulnerable to disturbance by fire, bark beetles, and pathogens. Buotte et al. (2019) write that “preserving high- carbon-priority forests (such as Haida Gwaii) avoids future CO2 emissions from harvesting and mitigates existing emissions through carbon sequestration.” The Haida Gwaii TSR presents a base case for a future even-flow annual harvest level of 842,782 m3/yr over a 147,746 ha timber harvesting landbase. With an average yield of 432 m3/ha for Canada’s west coast forests (three times the national average of 136 m3/ha), this would amount to an estimated 2,000 hectares being clearcut on Haida Gwaii annually. Our detailed carbon accounting in the Mother Tree project has found an average loss of 61% of the carbon within one year of clearcut harvesting, and it is safe to assume that this represents the low end of loss on Haida Gwaii given the large debris piles and buried logs that have been observed and documented. These clearcuts are projected to remain carbon sources for 1-3 decades, and it is therefore realistic to expect that continuing soil decomposition will result in a loss of three-quarters of the site carbon before carbon neutrality is achieved. Given these loss estimates, along with the large original carbon stocks of Haida Gwaii forests, we expect the proposed AAC of 842,782 m3/yr to contribute approximately 2 million tonnes C emissions annually. Projecting these values over the next decade, when global carbon drawdown will be most crucial for avoiding catastrophic climate change, clearcutting on Haida Gwaii would contribute an estimated 20 million tonnes C in emissions. Given the foregone carbon sequestration of the forests and the cumulative effects of clearcutting over the island archipelago over time, the 20 million tonnes C emissions from logging on Haida Gwaii is an underestimate of total emissions from forestry. The additional opportunity cost associated with lost sequestration capacity, estimated at 2 tonnes C/ha/yr, would add about 2,400 tonnes C/yr, or 24,000 tonnes C by 2030. In Canada’s 2018 progress report to the UN, a 100 million tonne C gap has already been identified for meeting 2030 commitments, and these emissions from clearcutting on Haida Gwaii will make meeting this gap far more difficult. Moreover, clearcutting of the upland forests and eskers will affect the hydrology of the surrounding bog network, and it is reasonable to expect reduced water levels and increased decomposition of the peatlands, raising emissions even further. The forest hydrology on Haida Gwaii has been severely disrupted as a result of careless logging practices and relentless clearcutting causing detrimental impacts to habitats for mammals, fish and birds. The minimum harvestable age of the base case is 94 years for old-growth forests and 77 years for managed stands, or a minimum diameter of 30 cm, but current market value lumber grades are only realized when trees reach 150 years (and much larger diameters). The TSR sensitivity analysis shows that increasing the rotation age even to 150 years to maximize timber revenues would reduce the timber supply by 79%. But old growth forests continue to sequester carbon for centuries, and the longevity of cedars on Haida Gwaii can be 1000 years or more, and the size of Sitka spruce upwards of 4 meters in diameter. Scientists studying these types of ancient forests worldwide have shown that the carbon pools continue to increase even as they experience gap phase disturbances. The largest 1% of the world’s trees are thought to store 50% of the forest carbon globally, and old growth temperate rainforests are estimated to contribute 10% of global net ecosystem productivity. Given this, maximizing carbon pools would reduce the timber supply even further; indeed, a clear-minded analysis indicates that clearcutting on Haida Gwaii makes no sense from a climate change perspective. Given that cedars become suitable for totem poles or canoes when they reach 300 to 1000 years of age, the loss of old cedar indicates significant opportunity costs for cultural uses as well. It is clear from the TSR that these monumental trees will no longer exist in the TSA under TSR assumptions, unless there are specific allowances for their preservation within natural conditions of their life history. Because old trees become monumental in size as a result of whole ecosystem health, this means that forests, not just trees, would require protection. As mentioned above, scientists expect that when these old forests are logged, much of the carbon, even soil carbon, will move back to the atmosphere. Likewise, with the loss of old cedar, the Haida culture will be irrevocably affected, in direct contradiction of Canada and BC’s Truth and Reconciliation principals. With BC’s carbon price increasing to $50 per tonne in 202129, the opportunity cost of emitting 20 million tonnes C with timber harvesting will amount to a value of $100 million over the next decade, assuming no further increases in the price of carbon and discounting foregone sequestration potential. In comparison, the processing of only 0.6% of the harvest on Haida Gwaii amounts to only 285 person years of local employment from 2015 to 201716, or approximately 100 person years annually. Assuming average annual earnings of $50,000 per person, this amounts to approximately $5 million in collective wages earned by local Haida Gwaii residents annually. These earnings pale in comparison to the value of carbon in the forests if they were preserved. They also pale in comparison to the person years it takes to carve canoes and poles from monumental cedars, not to mention the immeasurable cultural losses that clearcutting and industrial forestry represent to the Haida people. In addition, the harvest rate at the suggested AAC would preclude future employment in a sector doomed for failure. (2) Unaccounted variation in the base case. Timber supply projections are subject to measurement, sampling and modeling errors that have been documented in the literature by growth and yield specialists. These errors, when propagated through long term projections, can amplify errors of estimates substantially. For these reasons, it is reasonable to expect considerable error in the long-run even-flow projection in the TSR. In addition, changing criteria and indicators from the base case of even-flow harvest derived from culmination of mean annual increment to include, for example, longer rotation ages, cultural preserves, or increased ecological resilience through maintenance of biodiversity, will result in large changes in annual yields. For example, the TSR estimates a 79% reduction by increasing the rotation age to 150 years alone. The TSR analysis is based on the assumption that growth and yield of future forests will be the same as past growth and yield that has produced what is remaining in the current forests. Climate change projections have already shown these assumptions to be false, and changing climate will likely reduce yield in the coming decades. Already we are seeing maladaptation of certain species in Pacific Coastal ecosystems, including diebacks of cedar, salal and sword fern. Such diebacks are projected to increase as temperatures warm and precipitation patterns shift and reductions in free-to-grow stocking by half due to a range of climate-related damaging agents has already been documented in plantations elsewhere in British Columbia. Reforestation practices for clearcuts of Haida Gwai, based on personal observations, have followed the industrial model of planting nursery-grown plug stock of cedar, spruce and lodgepole pine. In primary forests of Haida Gwaii, cedar naturally reproduces primarily by layering, where gap phase disturbances facilitate regeneration of cedar around parent trees. These saplings grow up in the neighborhood of their elders, where they are protected and their growth facilitated. The industrial approach of planting cedar plugs in clearcuts does not emulate these natural processes. Moreover, the planting of lodgepole pine in the clearcuts of Haida Gwai appears to be geared at achieving early free-growing, and we should expect these trees to decline with age past free-to-grow age even more so than has been observed in the interior rainforests. Furthermore, the changes clearcutting brings to the hydrology of forests will cause a redistribution of water in the soil profile, likely with saturation at depth and surface drying, and this could serve to amplify drought-related diebacks among planted stock. For these reasons, the industrial approach of clearcutting and planting does not emulate natural disturbance regimes and regeneration dynamics on Haida Gwaii. With climate change, the second growth forests will likely severely underperform relative to primary forests as measured in permanent sample plots. (3) Loss of biodiversity and endangered species Haida Gwaii hosts a number of endemic and endangered species that are discussed in the TSR. How well this list represents the full biodiversity in the TSA is not clear. It is notable that conservation of northern goshawk habitat alone, where all 67 northern goshawk territories are managed for nesting and foraging, an 18.2% reduction in the base case yield would result. Further reductions needed for conserving the habitat of all at-risk species in the Haida Gwaii forests is unknown. The effect of clearcutting on dwindling salmon populations, for example, is not well understood except as observed by the pronounced absence of salmon stocks. A full risk analysis of potential losses of biodiversity is needed before there is further clearcutting on Haida Gwaii. Canada has made commitments to maintain biodiversity in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (Earth Summit in Rio, signed by Canada in 1993). Notably, the convention is “based on the precautionary principle which demands that where there is a threat of significant reduction or loss of biological diversity, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to avoid or minimize such a threat.” The forests of Haida Gwaii are high-productivity, low-vulnerability forests that have high above- and belowground carbon stocks10, as detailed above. Researchers have found that carbon rich forests, including forests in British Columbia, are also among those with the highest tree species richness and highest proportion of critical habitat for endangered species. Scientists have identified forests with the greatest potential to sequester carbon during this century to also provide multiple ecological co- benefits, including greater biodiversity and reduced vulnerability to disturbance. Buotte et al. (2019) have suggested that preservation of high carbon density Pacific Northwest forests “serves the greatest public good by maximizing co-benefits such as biological carbon sequestration and unparalleled ecosystem services including biodiversity enhancement, water and air quality, flood and erosion control, and low impact recreation. The development of governance programs to promote preservation” of these high priority forests will be critical as global climate changes. Summary and Recommendations: Forests are the core of the BC carbon budget, home for many indigenous people, sources of biodiversity and clean water, and they provide the ecological goods and services that underlie economic resilience if properly conserved. The forests of the Pacific Maritime region, including Haida Gwaii, stand out as among the most productive, carbon rich and biodiverse of the world, and there is a global expectation that Canada is committed to protecting these ecosystems to mitigate global change now and for the future. To that end, Canada has made global commitments to protect carbon stocks, biodiversity and the rights of indigenous people by signing these United Nations conventions and declarations: (1) the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Paris Agreement, signed by Canada in 2016); (2) the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (Earth Summit in Rio, signed by Canada in 1993); and (3) the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (supported by Canada in 2010). In reviewing the TSR, we have low confidence that the proposed base case will meet any targets or goals of these interrelated commitments. Therefore, we recommend: (1) Upon review of the Public Discussion Paper, and given the weight of current scientific understanding of the crucial role Maritime forest ecosystems play in mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and infringement of Aboriginal and indigenous rights, it is our professional opinion that a moratorium ought to be placed on further clearcutting of Haida Gwaii. This moratorium should be implemented to allow quantification of the full ecological and socio- economic impacts of the harvesting. (2) Considering the cultural and ecological importance of Haida Gwaii globally, we further recommend that Haida Gwaii be proposed as a UNESCO Biosphere Protected Area Reserve. We would be happy to discuss this letter and provide further expert advice. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Haida Gwaii Timber Supply Review Public Discussion Paper. Sincerely, Dr. Suzanne Simard, RPF 1924 Professor of Forest Ecology, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia And Dr. Teresa (Sm’hayetsk) Ryan Research Associate/Sessional Lecturer, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences University of British Columbia

By Solomon Z. Dobrowski et al Expanding the global protected area network is critical for addressing biodiversity declines and the climate crisis. However, how climate change will affect ecosystem representation within the protected area network remains unclear. Here we use spatial climate analogs to examine potential climate-driven shifts in terrestrial ecoregions and biomes under a +2 °C warming scenario and associated implications for achieving 30% area-based protection targets. We find that roughly half of land area will experience climate conditions that correspond with different ecoregions and nearly a quarter will experience climates from a different biome. Of the area projected to remain climatically stable, 46% is currently intact (low human modification). The area required to achieve protection targets in 87% of ecoregions exceeds the area that is intact, not protected, and projected to remain climatically stable within those ecoregions. Therefore, we propose that prioritization schemes will need to explicitly consider climate-driven changes in patterns of biodiversity. (2021) Protected-area targets could be undermined by climate change-driven shifts in ecoregions and biomes.pdf

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This film about Sweden’s forest industry shows why its claims of being “sustainable” are considered bogus by many Swedish forest scientists. What BC is doing—industrial scale conversion of primary forests into clearcuts and plantations—is very similar to what’s happening in Sweden. The points made in this video are broadly applicable to BC. The film was produced by Greenpeace Nordic and Protect the Forest, Sweden.

A report by Natural Resources Defense Council, Nature Canada, Environmental Defence Canada and Nature Québec Protecting the world’s forests, just like a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, is essential to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. Forests, in addition to their importance in maintaining biodiversity, play an irreplaceable role in global carbon regulation, absorbing one-third of human-caused carbon emissions from the atmosphere annually and storing this carbon long-term in their soil and vegetation. This is why forest protection and restoration are key pillars of international efforts to advance natural climate solutions (i.e., actions that preserve and enhance ecosystems’ role in absorbing and storing carbon). Preserving primary forests, which are forests that have never been impacted by significant human disturbance, is particularly critical. These forests, which are rapidly disappearing, hold unique value for the climate and biodiversity. Once gone, they are irreplaceable on any meaningful human timescale. (2021) How carbon loopholes for logging hinder Canada's climate leadership.pdf

By Peter Wood for Sierra Club BC BC’s Strategic Climate Risk Assessment identifies 15 climate risks, several of which have the potential to create catastrophic impacts for BC's communities. Overall, the assessment found that the greatest climate-related risks were severe wildfire, seasonal water shortage, and heat wave events. It also found that events such as severe river flooding were of “high consequence,” though less likely to occur. There is a large body of scientific literature that documents the impact that industrial logging has on the severity and frequency of many of these events, yet the Assessment did not consider this information. This presents a major blind spot that could undermine the assessment’s findings and the effectiveness of the Province’s response in defending communities from worsening climate impacts. This report attempts to address this gap in order to understand the role that forests in B.C. can play in either mitigating or exacerbating those risks, depending on how we manage them. It finds that nine of these risks are substantially affected by forest management, some of which could have catastrophic consequences for the health and safety of local communities. (2021) Intact Forests, Safe Communities.pdf

A letter by 200 of the top US forest and climate scientists In 2020, as multiple legislative proposals attempted to shoehorn measures that would increase logging, or increase funding for logging, into COVID-19 stimulus packages, over 200 top U.S. climate and forest scientists asked Congressional leaders to avoid using the pandemic emergency as a means for stripping away forest protections and promoting logging. In a historic and unprecedented letter sent to Congress, the scientists concluded that, in order to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, moving beyond fossil fuel consumption is not enough, and we must also increase forest protections and shift away from energy-intensive and greenhouse-gas polluting wood consumption. (2020) Over 200 Top U.S. Climate and Forest Scientists Urge Congress: Protect Forests to Mitigate Climate Crisis.pdf

By William R. Moomaw et al Climate change and loss of biodiversity are widely recognized as the foremost environmental challenges of our time. Forests annually sequester large quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), and store carbon above and below ground for long periods of time. Intact forests—largely free from human intervention except primarily for trails and hazard removals—are the most carbon-dense and biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems, with additional benefits to society and the economy. Internationally, focus has been on preventing loss of tropical forests, yet U.S. temperate and boreal forests remove sufficient atmospheric CO2 to reduce national annual net emissions by 11%. U.S. forests have the potential for much more rapid atmospheric CO2 removal rates and biological carbon sequestration by intact and/or older forests. The recent 1.5 Degree Warming Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identifies reforestation and afforestation as important strategies to increase negative emissions, but they face significant challenges: afforestation requires an enormous amount of additional land, and neither strategy can remove sufficient carbon by growing young trees during the critical next decade(s). In contrast, growing existing forests intact to their ecological potential—termed proforestation—is a more effective, immediate, and low-cost approach that could be mobilized across suitable forests of all types. Proforestation serves the greatest public good by maximizing co-benefits such as nature-based biological carbon sequestration and unparalleled ecosystem services such as biodiversity enhancement, water and air quality, flood and erosion control, public health benefits, low impact recreation, and scenic beauty. (2019) Intact Forests in the United States- Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good.pdf

By Don Heppner, Alex Woods, Jennifer Burleigh, Harry Kope and Lorraine Maclauchlan The current, historically unprecedented outbreaks of mountain pine beetle and Dothistroma needle blight in British Columbia are strong indicators that relationships between pests, hosts and climate are being altered as climate changes. Numerous recent pest epidemics elsewhere in North America provide further strong evidence of the impact of changing climate on forest ecosystems. The interactions between pests, hosts and climate are complex, have co-evolved over centuries, and in many instances, are not well understood. This, together with the uncertainty associated with how regional climates will change, makes it difficult to predict the responses of specific pests to climate change. However, as climate changes, the environmental parameters under which present forests were established will change. When these changes result in increasingly sub-optimal conditions, trees will become physiologically stressed. Stressed trees are generally more attractive, more nutritious, and less resistant to many forest pests. Changes in thermal and moisture environments, combined with changes to host plant conditions, will interact synergistically facilitating the development of insect and pathogen outbreaks. The incidence of forest decline syndromes is also likely to increase as a result of general reductions in forest health. Large scale, pest-caused forest decline and mortality will have long-term ecological, social and economic consequences. Timber supplies, water resources as well as other forest resources will be impacted. We anticipate increasing levels of mortality in the standing inventory in many Timber Supply Areas in the province as a result of forest pest activity. Much of the immature growing stock will also be affected by increasing levels of pest-caused mortality, growth losses and regeneration delays. Although the mountain pine beetle epidemic represents a current extreme, in many Timber Supply Areas it is possible that the combined impacts of multiple pests under the influence of climate change could approach a similar magnitude of impact on the remaining timber resource. Although there is still much uncertainty regarding the severity and extent of climate change, there are strategies, which could be implemented to mitigate the impacts on forest health. We provide concise recommendations that would better track changing forest health conditions, increase our ability to forecast pest related impacts of climate change, increase the effectiveness of forest planning by proactively incorporating forest health issues and improve our abilities to prevent, mitigate and adapt to changing forest pest conditions. The unprecedented and concurrent outbreaks of insects and diseases in BC emphasize the need to expedite an action plan on the following nine recommendations of equal importance: 1. Mandate expanded forest health monitoring for forest health agents at the landscape, watershed and stand level, as a component of ministry responsibility; 2. Build a forest health research section; 3. Implement modelling projects to predict future forest health impacts; 4. Maintain forest health strategies and develop climate change risk assessments for each Timber Supply Area; 5. Review and revise legislation and policy to identify forest health risks and strategies within forest stewardship plans; 6. Institute landscape-level planning for forest health, as well as for other values; 7. Develop and implement hazard- and risk-rating systems for forest insects and diseases; 8. Implement changes to tree species selection and stocking standards to enable facilitated migration; 9. Enable the research and development of products and tactics for the treatment of forest insects and diseases. The management of forest lands has clearly become more challenging as a result of climate change. We believe that our current forest management paradigm, which assumes stable climates and stable forest conditions, could be improved to better cope with highly uncertain future forest conditions. Forest management needs to respond and adapt to accommodate the diverse and innovative practices we will require to manage our forests into the future. (2009) The Implications of Climate Change to Forest Health in British Columbia-A Report to the Chief Forester.pdf

A report from the IVEY Foundation and the Canadian Boreal Initiative Canada is a country of forests. We have the world’s largest intact forest area in our northern boreal and our temperate and mountain forests contain biodiversity, climate control and economic values that are globally significant. Climate change will, and is, having a profound impact on these forest ecosystems. Many impacts, such as increases in average temperature and seasonal shifts, are happening in a more compressed timeframe than originally projected by climate scientists. Insect outbreaks, such as the mountain pine beetle, are occurring at a scale that was unimagined ten years ago and some scientists are beginning to warn that many ecosystems may have a “tipping point” beyond which their resilience will be overcome and completely new ecosystems will replace them. Clearly climate strategies in Canada must include those that address the role of this massive and globally significant forest asset. In parallel to these changes in the natural world, society is rapidly accelerating its discussions concerning how to mitigate against rising carbon emissions and climate change impacts. As a result governments, business and civil society are accelerating discussions concerning how to develop an effective mechanism to reduce carbon emissions. Strategies under development include an abundance of voluntary, and a few regulatory, frameworks. While none are identical, many of them contain carbon trading measures that would enable transfers of money from emitters to entities that could sequester or reduce the net rate of carbon emissions. Most of these systems include forests. In Canada there is a need to grapple with this emerging market and determine how it can be influenced and directed in a manner that supports the carbon storage and sequestration capacity of forests and conserves forest biodiversity, while helping to reduces our total country-wide carbon emissions (not just those of forests). How to do this involves a strategic discussion among leading advocates for policy reform. It is only in this way that we can arrive at a consensus on the key elements of a carbon reduction strategy that includes forests and a plan to secure the outcomes we seek. (2007) Forest Carbon sequestration and avoided emissions.pdf

By Suzanne W. Simard et al Temperate forests provide crucial ecosystems services as living sinks for atmospheric carbon (C) and repositories of biodiversity. Applying harvesting at intensities that minimize losses offers one means for mitigating global change. However, little is known of overstory retention levels that best conserve ecosystem services in different regional climates, and likewise as climate changes. To quantify the effect of harvest intensity on C stocks and biodiversity, we compared five harvesting intensities (clearcutting, seedtree retention, 30% patch retention, 60% patch retention, and uncut controls) across a climatic aridity gradient that ranged from humid to semi-arid in the Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests of British Columbia. We found that increased harvesting intensity reduced total ecosystem, aboveground, and live tree C stocks 1 year post- harvest, and the magnitude of these losses were negatively correlated with climatic aridity. In humid forests, total ecosystem C ranged from 50% loss following clearcut harvest, to 30% loss following large patch retention harvest. In arid forests this range was 60 to 8% loss, respectively. Where lower retention harvests are sought, the small patch retention treatment protected both C stocks and biodiversity in the arid forests, whereas the seedtree method performed as well or better in the humid forests. Below-ground C stocks declined by an average of 29% after harvesting, with almost all of the loss from the forest floor and none from the mineral soil. Of the secondary pools, standing and coarse deadwood declined in all harvesting treatments regardless of cutting intensity or aridity, while C stocks in fine fuels and stumps increased. The understory plant C pool declined across all harvesting intensities in the humid forests, but increased in arid forests. Shannon’s diversity and richness of tree and bryoid species declined with harvesting intensity, where tree species losses were greatest in the humid forests and bryoid losses greatest in arid forests. Shrub and herb species were unaffected. This study showed that the highest retention level was best at reducing losses in C stocks and biodiversity, and clearcutting the poorest, and while partial retention of canopy trees can reduce losses in these ecosystem services, outcomes will vary with climatic aridity. (2020) Harvest Intensity Effects on Carbon Stocks and Biodiversity Are Dependent on Regional Climate in Douglas-Fir Forests of British Columbia.pdf

By the Science Alliance for Forestry Transformation We ask for a moratorium on forest harvesting for biomass until science-based policy has been developed to regulate the industry. The emerging wood pellet industry increases harvesting pressure on B.C.’s forest ecosystems. Inadequate regulation, combined with economic opportunity based on flawed carbon accounting, threatens to increase short-term carbon emissions, decrease carbon storage and undermine biodiversity conservation. A bioenergy-driven harvest spike would challenge B.C.’s emission targets. (2021) B.C. Forest Bioenergy Policy Suggestions.pdf

By Bradley J. Cardinale et al In the past 20 years remarkable progress has been made towards understanding how the loss of biodiversity affects the functioning of ecosystems and thus affects society. Soon after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, interest in understanding how biodiversity loss might affect the dynamics and functioning of ecosystems, and the supply of goods and services, grew dramatically. Major international research initiatives formed; hundreds of experiments were performed in ecosystems all over the globe; new ecological theories were developed and tested against experimental results. Here we review two decades of research that has examined how biodiversity loss influences ecosystem functions, and the impacts that this can have on the goods and services ecosystems provide (Box 1). We begin with a brief historical introduction. We then summarize the major results from research that has provided increasingly rigorous answers to the question of how and why the Earth’s biological diversity influences the functioning of ecosystems. After this, we consider the closely related issue of how biodiversity provides specific ecosystem services of value to humanity. We close by considering how the next generation of bio- diversity science can reduce our uncertainties and better serve policy and management initiatives. (2012) Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity.pdf

By Dominick A. Dellasala, et al Scientists are increasingly alarmed by the accelerating climate and biodiversity crises, as, for example, Ripple and colleagues (2020), recently published in BioScience and signed by three of us (DAD, BM, BR) during the initiating letter. However, decision-makers rarely recognize the inextricable link between biodiversity and climate change. We cannot solve one without the other. Earth’s biosphere contains enormous carbon stocks that have the potential to fundamentally alter the trajectory of climate change. Biodiversity is crucial for stabilizing these carbon stocks and keeping them out of the atmosphere. The climate change mitigation benefit of forests in general is to store large amounts of carbon in a stable, self-regenerating and long-term reservoir. Therefore, even if we eliminate fossil fuels, continued deforestation and forest degradation will generate severe climate disruptions: the carbon stocks in the living biomass of primary (unlogged) tropical forests alone is approximately 114 petagrams of carbon, equivalent to the estimated global carbon budget for a 66% probability of meeting the 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming target. While most climate policy is aimed at fossil fuels, it is critically important to also protect forest carbon. The mitigation potential of forests is recognized by Ripple and colleagues (2020) and others (Griscom et al. 2017) but the significance of protecting forests, especially primary forests, is not sufficiently promoted. Primary forests represent roughly one-third of remaining forests globally (Mackey et al. 2014). They contain irreplaceable biodiversity intertwined with critical ecosystem services that help regulate the global climate and maintain stable carbon pools. Carbon-dense primary forests are found in every major forest biome and they typically support higher levels of biodiversity than logged forests, especially imperiled and endemic species. These forests store approximately 30%–50% more carbon than logged ones, with the largest trees accounting for most of the above ground living stores. Some of the densest terrestrial carbon pools are in primary boreal forests in the peatlands of Canada and Russia, Pacific coastal temperate rainforests, wet temperate eucalypt forests in southeast Australia, and west coast temperate rainforests in Chile and New Zealand. Despite claims that tree planting is essential to stabilize the global climate, the mitigation potential of planting trees is trivial if we do not prioritize primary forest protection followed by proforestation of logged forests (Moomaw et al. 2019). Ceasing deforestation and degradation of primary forests has an immediate mitigation benefit, whereas carbon stored in newly planted trees will take many decades to make a significant contribution to reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Proforestation that buffers and reconnects even small areas of primary forests would improve ecosystem integrity, stability, and long-term carbon storage. We applaud scientists who sound the alarm about the climate and biodiversity crises. We now need to prioritize the most effective nature-based climate solutions, led by primary forests protections and proforestation, and supported by much needed forest-climate policies and greatly expanded financial investments (Mackey et al. 2014). (2020) Primary Forests Are Undervalued in the Climate Emergency.pdf

SAFT is an informed group of BC’s top forest ecology scientists and forest practitioners that have joined forces to bring better data, information, debunk myths, and provide ecologically sound alternatives to current forest harvest practices and policy. SAFT members include: Jim Pojar, Suzanne Simard, Rachel Holt, Karen Price, Dave Daust, Len Vanderstar, Phil Burton, Frank Doyle, Dave Coates, and Andy McKinnon. Website: saftforestry.com Facebook Instagram

By the Ancient Forest Alliance BACKGROUND While the vast majority of industrialized nations, including the USA, Europe, Japan, and the rest of Canada, are logging 50- to 100-year-old stands, including second and third-growth forests, the status quo of old-growth liquidation is still underway across large parts of British Columbia. BC must also complete the transition to a second-growth forest industry for environmental and economic reasons. If the BC government were to promote policies that support greater processing and value-added manufacturing of second-growth logs in the province, the total number of forestry jobs could be sustained and even increased while old-growth logging is quickly phased out. Over the past century, the overcutting of the biggest, best, and most accessible stands of old-growth redcedars, Douglas-firs, and Sitka spruce in the lowlands that historically built the wealth of the forest industry – and for which coastal sawmills were originally built to process – has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, lower in value, different in species profile, and harder to reach higher up the mountainsides and in the valley headwaters. Today, according to BC Forest Service data, 75% of the productive old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast have been logged, including well over 90% of the most productive old-growth stands in the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. In the last two decades, more than 100 major BC mills have closed and employment levels in BC’s forestry sector have declined dramatically, from 99,000 jobs in 2000 to 65,000 in 2015, constituting a loss of one-third of all forestry jobs in that time.[1] As old-growth stands are depleted and harvesting shifts to the second-growth stands which now dominate most of the province, B.C.’s coastal forestry jobs are being exported as raw logs to foreign mills due to a lack of government incentives and regulations to ensure the retooling of old-growth mills to handle the smaller second-growth logs and to facilitate new investments in related manufacturing facilities. At a critical juncture in 2003, the BC Liberal government removed the local milling requirements (through the misnamed “Forestry Revitalization Act”), known as appurtenancy, thus allowing tenured logging companies to shut down their old-growth mills instead of being forced to retool them to handle the changing forest profile of second-growth trees (and smaller old-growth species, such as hemlock and amabilis fir). At the same time, the BC Liberal government failed to enact any major incentives or regulations in lieu of appurtenancy to attract new manufacturing investments. With the closure of many BC mills, most logs became surplus to the domestic milling capacity, thus paving the path for BC’s logging companies to undertake the mass export of raw logs to foreign mills in nations willing to pay higher prices for BC logs. That being said, in many cases, existing BC mills continue to need domestic logs that are intended for export. Unfortunately, independent mills are typically hesitant to bid on the logs for fear of being excluded from future, long-term direct sales agreements with the same logging companies that have tenure or land, as most mills require a secure log supply through direct sales contracts. Bidding on raw logs (or “blocking”) is therefore a secondary source of logs in relation to direct sales contracts and is potentially risky, as it could jeopardize their relationship with one of the few major companies with logging rights. The resulting inaccessibility and uncertainty of wood fibre for many mills helps to continue the marginalization and decline of BC’s coastal wood manufacturing sector. Forestry unions and conservationists are calling on the BC government to enact the needed regulations and incentives to instead bolster the secondary, second-growth wood manufacturing sector. The Private and Public Workers of Canada (PPWC) and Unifor, two major forestry unions representing thousands of BC forestry workers, have been working closely with environmental groups to upgrade environmental standards and forestry employment. In 2017, the PPWC passed a resolution calling on the BC government to end the logging of Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests, while ensuring a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry, an end to raw log exports, and support for First Nations sustainable economic development. The following set of policy recommendations is designed to help the provincial government fulfill these commitments. They involve applying a system of incentives and regulations to support a vibrant forest industry, ensuring good paying jobs for working families through the sustainable harvesting and value-added manufacturing of second-growth stands. Note: As our agenda calls for an industry-wide shift to second-growth forestry before the province’s old-growth resource is completely depleted, an important first step is to create a distinction between old-growth and second-growth forests in the province’s Annual Allowable Cut. This will ensure the following second-growth forestry and value-added manufacturing policies are geared toward the right wood source and will allow the BC government to more effectively manage the rate of old-growth logging. The set of policy recommendations is as follows: Provide fiscal incentives, such as eliminating the PST for new second-growth milling equipment, reducing property taxes on private managed forest lands and reducing tenure licencing fees on Crown lands for companies that invest in second-growth manufacturing. Conversely, increasing stumpage fees or the fee in lieu (log exports tax) can generate a pool of funds that can be used to offset new manufacturing investment costs. Curb raw log exports through regulations and by increasing the fee in lieu (log exports tax). Expand the geographic scope of log export regulations and the fee in lieu (log exports tax) to include private managed forest lands that were previously encompassed within Tree Farm Licences managed by the province. Help market sustainable, value-added second-growth forest products using proceeds from stumpage fees or other sources. Support First Nations to engage in sustainable, second-growth forestry through conservation financing and skills training. Support high-end, value-added wood working training in post-secondary institutions, including apprenticeships. Undertake structural changes, such as tenure diversification (Community Forests and First Nations tenures) and establishing regional log sorts. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 1) Facilitate Value-Added Manufacturing through Fiscal Incentives The province should implement financial instruments as powerful incentives for companies to retool old-growth mills to process second-growth logs and to develop new value-added facilities. Such incentives could include allowing companies to forgo the PST on new second-growth milling equipment (which is part of the Green Party platform), reducing property taxes on private managed forest lands, or reducing stumpage fees and/or tenure licencing fees (e.g. for TFLs and FLs) on Crown lands for companies that invest in second-growth mills and value-added facilities. As stumpage fees are tied to BC Timber Sales prices and reductions in stumpage fees may result in further challenges by the US softwood lumber industry, conversely, an increase in stumpage fees could instead be implemented, with the surplus fees collected from the increase to be used as a funding source to offset the cost for companies investing in second-growth manufacturing facilities. Similarly, an increase in the “fee in lieu of manufacture” or log exports tax will not only dissuade log exports, but the funds collected from the increase can also be redirected to help offset the cost for companies investing in second-growth manufacturing facilities. We recommend the BC government also incentivize the development of second-growth engineered wood products, including laminated veneer and gluelam products and thermally treated second-growth, through 1) similar fee incentives as mentioned above, 2) increased financing for R&D, and 3) increased markets development for engineered second-growth wood products, which match old-growth wood products in strength, stability, durability, and aesthetics and are largely at a lower price point today. 2) Curb Raw Log Exports through Regulations and by Increasing the Fee in Lieu of Manufacture (i.e. log exports tax) Between 2013 and 2016, nearly 26 million cubic metres of raw logs valued at more than $3 billion were shipped from B.C to foreign mills in China, the USA, Japan, Korea, and other nations. The nearly 6.3 million cubic metres exported from B.C. in 2016 is enough wood to build 134,000 houses – roughly half of Vancouver’s standing detached housing stock. [2] Using a conservative estimate, more than 3,600 B.C. workers could have been employed processing that wood. The massive export of raw logs has been driven by a combination of the BC government’s deregulation of the forest industry and by the industry’s unsustainable depletion of the biggest, best old-growth trees at lower elevations. The depletion has caused a shift in the profile of the forest, which increasingly features smaller second-growth trees and old-growth “hem-bal” (hemlock and amabilis fir) stands that coastal mills generally have not been retooled to handle. The previous BC Liberal government facilitated log exports via numerous policies, including the removal of the local milling requirements in 2003, which allowed tenured logging companies to shut down their mills and export raw logs. They also issued vast numbers of log export permits throughout the coast, provided a general exemption from log export restrictions for companies on the North Coast, and removed Tree Farm Licences from vast areas of coastal private managed forest lands (which removed the Crown restrictions on log exports from them). These destructive policies must be remedied with corrective policies by the NDP government. In 2018, a group of environmental organizations and unions, including the Ancient Forest Alliance, Wilderness Committee, Sierra Club of BC, Public and Private Workers of Canada, and Unifor, together with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, proposed a ban on all old-growth raw log exports and an increase in the fee in lieu of manufacture (i.e. the log export tax) for second-growth raw logs to curb their export and to encourage domestic processing. It is therefore recommended the BC government phase in an increase in the fee in lieu to match the price differential for international log sales to dissuade log exports, and as mentioned in point #1, redirect the extra funds to help offset the expenses for companies investing in new second-growth manufacturing equipment. 3) Expand Log Exports Regulations and the Fee in Lieu to Include Private Managed Forest Lands previously within TFLs In 1998 the NDP government allowed TimberWest to remove over 300,000 hectares of private managed forest lands from their Tree Farm Licences, while the BC Liberal government did the same in 2004 for over 90,000 hectares of Weyerhaeuser’s lands (now owned by Mosaic) and in 2006 for 28,000 hectares of Western Forest Products’ private lands. All told, this massive deregulation, which removed both the general prohibition against log exports that existed in the former TFL lands and the application of the fee in lieu (log exports tax), has resulted in the greatest exodus of raw logs from the province from these private managed forest lands. Given the province has had a long history of regulating these private lands – and continues to do so through property taxation and by regulating the lands under the Private Managed Forest Lands Act – it is well within the legal right of the province to re-extend other regulations to these lands to restrict raw log exports. This is particularly true for the Island Timberlands (now Mosaic) and Western Forest Products lands, as those companies weren’t required to compensate the province despite receiving a windfall increase in the financial value of their lands through the removal of the environmental regulations and log export restrictions via the TFL removal. 4) Help Market Sustainable, Value-Added Second-Growth Forest Products Just as the BC government has spent major funds from stumpage fees on repeated, high-profile trade missions since 2008 to establish markets in China for BC old-growth lumber and raw logs, the NDP government could instead use stumpage fees to expand markets for sustainable, value-added, credibly certified (i.e. Forest Stewardship Council) second-growth forest products in various international jurisdictions, such as the US, Japan, Western Europe, and other parts of Canada, while discontinuing the marketing of old-growth and raw logs. 5) Support First Nations to Develop Sustainable, Second-Growth Forestry Almost all of BC’s forests are located in the unceded territories of BC’s First Nations peoples. In the last several years, logging rights to old-growth forests across the province were allocated to numerous First Nations communities, who had been largely excluded from reaping the economic benefits of BC’s forest industry previously. As a result, today most First Nations communities now generate significant employment and revenues from old-growth logging – either directly through their own forestry operations or through employment and revenue sharing agreements with forestry companies operating within their territories. Many of these communities lack a range of alternative sustainable development opportunities that would support their local economies into the future and allow them to transition away from old-growth logging, should they wish to. Therefore, as part of the transition to a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest sector in BC, the provincial government should commit adequate funds to help support sustainable economic opportunities of First Nations communities, a model known as “conservation financing”. Conservation financing includes a variety of innovative financing mechanisms designed to protect ecosystem values for the long term, while also providing a financial return. This might include financing for ecologically sustainable business ventures (including value-added second-growth forestry, sustainable seafood harvesting, non-timber forest products, and tourism), ecosystem services (for example, carbon storage), funding for environmental research projects, or a combination of initiatives. Funding for First Nations conservation financing solutions in BC (not including the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii, where such solutions are already being implemented) could be made available through carbon related revenues, funding recently set aside for the Forest Enhancement Society by the previous government, increasing/redirecting stumpage fees, or through other resource taxes. The BC government should also support First Nations to acquire training for high-end, value-added wood manufacturing at post-secondary educational institutes and associated apprenticeships in order for their communities to reap the full benefits of their logging tenures by creating jobs and commanding higher prices via value-added forest products. 6) Increase support for High-End Wood Working in Post-Secondary Institutions and for Apprenticeships In many northern European economies, governments play a more active role in matching and supporting post-secondary skills training in educational institutions to the economic sectors that require a skilled work force. If the BC government wants to develop a high-end, value-added wood manufacturing sector, it can also play a more active role in providing financial support for the development of value-added wood products technical training and foster subsequent apprenticeships through post-secondary institutions. Combined with the aforementioned policies to help develop a value-added wood manufacturing sector, support for post-secondary skills training and apprenticeships for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous men and women will help build both the skilled labour force and a generation of entrepreneurs in BC to develop a higher-end, value-added wood manufacturing sector that can employ far more workers per volume of wood harvested. 7) Enact Structural Changes These can include: Establishing Regional Log Sorts Many smaller mills and value-added facilities have complained about a lack of access to BC logs, as most logs are sold on a large scale to large mills, or as raw logs at a higher price in international markets. Mandating that BC logging companies with tenures must sell a significant portion of their logs on the open market through regional log sorts (where logs are sorted by species, grade, and in different-sized bundles, from one log to thousands of logs) will help to make wood available to enhance the diversity of BC wood manufacturers, from small to large, from specialized artisans to conventional sawmills. The BC Forest Service ran a regional log sort in Lumby and Vernon in the 1990s, and the BC NDP government could establish similar log sorts across the province. Diversifying Tenures to Include More Community Forests and First Nations Tenures Community Forests are run partly to provide revenues for municipal services, such as libraries and community centres, but also to provide local jobs, and are not driven by a mandate to enrich shareholders, unlike most of the corporate logging in BC. Hence, there can be a greater emphasis on supporting local manufacturing jobs associated with the logs harvested from Community Forests. Similarly, First Nations communities typically have a significant interest in expanding employment opportunities for band members, and therefore may also have an interest in developing wood manufacturing opportunities. Moving from corporate to greater community control over second-growth forestry resources, in general, can facilitate the expansion of a value-added industry due to community interests in maximizing local employment, and should be combined with old-growth forest protection and more sustainable forestry practices. It is recommended the BC Government expand the issuance of community forest licenses and various replaceable First Nations forest licenses.

Backgrounder for the new Forest and Range Practices Act by West Coast Environmental Law. With the release of new forest practices regulations effective January 31, 2004, the BC provincial government has now finalized its “results-based” forest management regime. In November 2002, it passed the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), but the legislation did not contain enough details to give a clear indication of what the overall regime would look like. The government claims to have reduced regulatory requirements by 55% by eliminating unnecessary red tape and paperwork. But in the process, measures designed to protect the environment have been cut. Examples include: • Industry writes the environmental results that they are legally required to achieve; • Elimination of longstanding requirements for logging plan approvals at the cut block or site level, removing a key method by which government and the public can ensure protection of critical habitat; • Extraordinary restrictions on when government can reject a plan for failure to adequately protect resource values; • Extraordinary restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles to government taking action to protect environmental values such as wildlife habitat, water quality for community watersheds, and endangered species; • Elimination of requirements to undertake precautionary assessments aimed at preventing landslides on steep slopes; • Reduced likelihood of forest industry liability for landslides and other environmental consequences; • Provision for industry to ‘opt out’ of many of the standards from the previous Code; • Greater opportunity for political interference in decision-making; • Reduced opportunity for successful enforcement action now that more defences are available for administrative penalties; • Reduced accountability for forest companies due to narrow definitions for terms such as “damage to the environment”. The Forest and Range Practices Act and regulations bring in a new era of forestry deregulation which places an unprecedented degree of control over public resources in the hands of forest companies. There are inadequate checks and balances in the regulations. The impact of these changes, especially when coupled with major cutbacks to Ministry of Forests staff and budgets, is to reduce public control over forest industry operations on public land. (2004) Deregulation Backgrounder — Forest & Range Practices Act.pdf

This idea came from Margaret Steele, who wanted to know who the forester was that approved the layout of cutblock 4 for Licence A93593. This was a BC Timber Sales cutblock; BCTS accounts for about 20 percent of the volume of forest logged each year in BC, and this method of sunlighting professional reliance applies only to BCTS. It allows a community to determine which professional forester signed off on a particular cutblock. Using the cumbersome and lengthy FOI process is unnecessary in these cases. Here's how to do it. Information about recent BCTS sales can be found on the BC Bid website. Here's how you access specific site plans, maps, and other information: 1. The site is at: https://www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca/open.dll/welcome?language=En 2. Click on "Browse for Bid Opportunities or Bid Results" 3. Click on "Browse Using the Advanced Search" From this page you can search current open BCTS offerings or closed ones from the past. If you want to look for A93593: 1. Click/select the radio button for ‘Closed’ 2. Type in A93593 in the ‘Title Search Word’ box 3. In the ‘Issued Dates between (yyyy/mm/dd)’ , change the year in the ‘From’ date to 2019 4. Click the ‘Search’ button. 5. You will have another window pop up showing the BC Timber Sales – Timber Auctions. Click on the little folder icon near the top right called ‘Supplier Attachments Exist’ 6. This will open another window where you find all of the TSL information that was posted for the TSL. There will be a list of documents that you can download. Some of these will contain the name of the Registered Professional Forester who approved the cutblock. In this case, the foresters name was Michael Drinkwater (see attachment below). The group of citizens Margaret was working with then contacted Drinkwater and explained why they were concerned about the cutblock. Margaret's email is below: Michael Drinkwater, I have recently become aware of a BCTS sale at Waterspout Creek, approximately 35 km up the North Fork Road in Grand Forks. I see from the Site Plan on the BC Bid site that you are the RPF that stamped and certified the site plan for this block. I also see your comment that you didn’t actually visit the site yourself but you certified that “this work has been done to standards acceptable of a Registered Professional Forester”. I live 10 km south of the Waterspout and visited the site last week along with several others to observe the logging operation. As you may or may not know, water has been running from the piped waterspout since the early 1900s when workers at the Union Mine stopped there to fill their canteens with drinking water. People continue to access water from the waterspout to this day. I am told the water is widely considered some of the best drinking water in the area. But that won’t be the case for long. I thought you might be interested in viewing the video just released by the Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society (a volunteer organization in the Boundary) showing the impact of logging on this site: https://youtu.be/1H4i8NLmjDM The video clearly outlines the damage being done and the justifiable alarm that these wetlands are being clearcut logged, especially in these times of climate chaos. It is painfully ironic to discover this logging in our wetlands in the very same week that the Federal Environment Minister has announced funding for “nature-based solutions” to climate change such as restoring wetlands and preserving carbon-rich natural areas. We wouldn’t have to restore the Waterspout wetlands if they had been left as they were two weeks ago, prior to logging. It is heartbreaking to see logging so close to streams, even though I am told it is allowed under existing regulations. But I have to wonder about the ethics of logging and road-building on a site such as this. I don’t know what else to say other than someone must be held accountable for the decision to log this area. Surely, based on all we know, we must acknowledge it is well past time to align ourselves with nature and stop this continued destruction of our life support system. As David Suzuki often says, nature can surprise us in her ability to recover if we meet her halfway. But we all have to do our part. It is truly unconscionable for the damage to continue. I think all of us are complicit if we stand by and do nothing. I look forward to your reply, Margaret Steele North Fork Resident Grand Forks, BC Drinkwater replied: Hello Margaret, Thank you for your email and sharing your concerns. Thank you for sharing the video link, I have watched it and shared it with our local crew. Our local forestry crew completed the layout on this cutblock in 2017 and we also had concerns with this cutblock that we expressed at the time. BCTS decided to go ahead with developing this cutblock so we completed the work under our contractual obligations. First Nations reviewed this cutblock and did not ask for any changes as far as I know. Seems like the local concerns somehow got missed during the advertisement process and the opportunity to address locals' concerns was lost. I believe there may be some good learning outcomes for everyone involved with the development of this cutblock. Please feel free to call anytime to discuss, however, as the contractor I don't have authority. All the best, Michael Michael Drinkwater is now aware that his work is being monitored by the local group. She is hopeful this will have an impact on the design, location and size of future cutblocks. A93593_i4_map_HP_Blk4.pdf

By Alex Woods et al Dothistroma needle blight, caused by the fungus Dothistroma septosporum, is a major pest of pine plantations in the Southern Hemisphere, where both the host and the pathogen have been introduced. In northern temperate forests where the pest and host trees are native, damage levels have historically been low; however, Dothistroma is currently causing extensive defoliation and mortality in plantations of lodgepole pine in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The severity of the disease is such that mature lodgepole pine trees in the area are succumbing, which is an unprecedented occurrence. This raises the question of whether climate change might enable the spread of the disease by surpassing an environmental threshold that has previously restricted the pathogen’s development in northern temperate regions. Establishing a causal relationship between climate change and local biological trends is usually difficult, but we found a clear mechanistic relationship between an observed climate trend and the host–pathogen interaction. A local increase in summer precipitation, not climate warming, appears to be responsible. We examine whether the recently observed climate change trend exceeds natural fluctuations in the local climate. (2005) Is an Unprecedented Dothistroma Needle Blight Epidemic Related to Climate Change?.pdf