Michelle Connolly
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Journalism: The over-exploitation of BC forests
Library: Destruction of wildlife habitat and loss of biodiversity
Journalism: Loss of forest-related employment
Journalism: The need to expedite final treaties with First Nations
Journalism: Loss of primary forest
Journalism: Loss of carbon sequestration capacity
Other notable forest-related writing and reports
Noteworthy writing and reports from the forest-industrial complex
Forest News
Library: The over-exploitation of BC forests
Library: Loss of primary forest
Library: Loss of the hydrological functions of forests
Make conservation of the hydrological function of forests a higher priority than timber extraction
Library: Loss of forest-related employment
Library: The need to expedite final treaties with First Nations
Transition from clearcut logging to selection logging
Library: Increase in forest fire hazard
Journalism: End public subsidization of BC's forest industry
Library: End public subsidization of BC's forest industry
Library: The need to reform BC forest legislation
Journalism: The need to reform BC forest legislation
Library: Creating a new vision for BC forests
Forest industry public subsidy calculator
Manufacturing and processing facilities
Forest Trends
Investigations
Community Forest Mapping Projects
Area-based calculations of carbon released from clearcut logging
Journalism: The increase in forest carbon emissions
Library: Increase in forest carbon emissions
To protect biodiversity, transition away from clearcut logging
Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance
Library: Loss of future employment resulting from exporting raw logs
Mapping old forest on Vancouver Island
Mapping old forest in Omineca Natural Resource Region
Mapping old forest in Skeena Natural Resource Region
Mapping old forest in Northeastern Natural Resource Region
Mapping old forest in Cariboo Natural Resource Region
Mapping old forest in South Coast Natural Resource Region
Mapping old forest in Thompson-Okanagan Natural Resource Region
Mapping old forest in Kootenay-Boundary Natural Resource Region
Forest Conservation Organizations
Mapping old forest on Haida Gwaii
Mapping old forest on the central coast
Library: Ecologically damaging practices
Journalism: Ecologically damaging practices
Critical Issues
Analysis
Comment
Listed species: Cascades Natural Resource District
Listed species: 100 Mile House Natural Resource District
Listed species: Campbell River Natural Resource District
Listed species: Cariboo-Chilcotin Natural Resource District
Listed species: Chilliwack River Natural Resource District
Listed species: Fort Nelson Natural Resource District
Listed species: Haida Gwaii Natural Resource District
Listed species: Mackenzie Natural Resource District
Listed species: Nadina Natural Resource District
Listed species: North Island Natural Resource District
Listed species: Peace Natural Resource District
Listed species: Prince George Natural Resource District
Listed species: Quesnel Natural Resource District
Listed species: Rocky Mountain Natural Resource District
Listed species: Sea-to-Sky Natural Resource District
Listed species: Selkirk Natural Resource District
Listed species: Skeena Natural Resource District
Listed species: South Island Natural Resource District
Listed species: Stuart-Nechako Natural Resource District
Listed species: Sunshine Coast Natural Resource District
Listed species: Thompson Rivers Natural Resource District
Listed species: Coast Mountains Natural Resource District
Action Group: Divestment from forest-removal companies
Fact-checking mindustry myths
First Nations Agreements
Monitor: BC Timber Sales Auctions
BC Timber Sales auction of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island
Monitoring of forest fires in clearcuts and plantations: 2021
Library: End public subsidization of forest industry
Examples of engaging the mindustry:
Portal: The over-exploitation of BC forests
Portal: The need to reform BC forest legislation
Portal: The need to expedite treaties with First Nations
Portal: The need to get more organized, informed and inspired for change
Portal: Develop a new relationship with forests
Portal: Destruction of wildlife habitat and loss of biodiversity
Portal: Loss of the hydrological functions of forests
Portal: Increase in forest fire hazard
Portal: Loss of carbon sequestration capacity
Portal: Increase in forest carbon emissions
Portal: Ecologically damaging forestry practices
Portal: Loss of forest-related employment
Portal: Loss of future employment resulting from raw log exports
Portal: Costs of floods, fires and clearcutting of watersheds
Portal: The economic impact on communities of boom and bust cycles
Portal: Loss of economic development by other forest-based sectors
Portal: The true cost of subsidies provided to the logging industry
Help
Loss of trust in institutions
Portal: The instability of communities dependent on forest extraction
Portal: The psychological unease caused by forest destruction
Portal: Loss of trust in institutions caused by over-exploitation of BC forests
Portal: Social division caused by over-exploitation of BC forests
Journalism: The instability of communities dependent on forest extraction
Journalism: Psychological unease caused by forest destruction
Journalism: Loss in trust of institutions as a result of over-exploitation of BC forests
Journalism: Social division caused by over-exploitation of BC forests
Library: The instability of communities dependent on forest extraction
Library: Psychological unease caused by forest destruction
Library: Loss of trust in institutions as a result of over-exploitation of BC forests
Library: Social division caused by over-exploitation of BC forests
Resources: Psychological unease caused by forest destruction
Resources: The economic impact on communities of boom-and-bust cycles
Resources: Loss of economic development potential in other forest-based sectors
Journalism: Cost of floods, fires and clearcutting of community watersheds
Journalism: The economic impact on communities of boom-and-bust cycles
Journalism: Loss of economic development potential in other forest-based sectors
Library: Cost of floods, fires and clearcutting of community watersheds
Library: The economic impact on communities of boom-and-bust cycles
Library: Loss of economic development potential in other forest-based sectors
Portal: Permanent loss of forests to logging roads
Portal: The economic costs of converting forests into sawdust and wood chips
Journalism: Permanent loss of forests to logging roads
Library: Permanent loss of forests to logging roads
Journalism: The economic costs of converting forests into sawdust and wood chips
Library: The economic costs of converting forests into sawdust and wood chips
Resources: The economic costs of converting forests into sawdust and wood chips
Resources: Ecologically damaging forestry practices
Resources: Conversion of forests to permanent logging roads
Library: Getting organized
Journalism: Getting organized
Forest politics
Forest Stewards
Portal: Plantation failure
Library: Plantation failure
Journalism: Plantation failure
Library: Loss of carbon sequestration capacity
Portal: Soil loss and damage
Journalism: Soil loss and damage
Library: Soil loss and damage
Resources: Soil loss and damage
Journalism: Loss of employment resulting from export of raw logs
Journalism: Destruction of wildlife habitat and loss of biodiversity
Journalism: Loss of the hydrological functions of forests
Journalism: Increase in forest fire hazard
Action Group: Sunlighting professional reliance
Making the case for much greater conservation of BC forests
Science Alliance for Forestry Transformation
Bearing witness:
Economic State of the BC Forest Sector
Big tree mapping and monitoring
Reported Elsewhere
Protect more
Start a forest conservation project
Get involved
Article reference pages
Physical impacts created by logging industry
Nature Directed Stewardship at Glade and Laird watersheds
References for: How did 22 TFLs in BC evade legal old-growth management areas?
References for: BC's triangle of fire: More than just climate change
References for: Teal Cedar goes after Fairy Creek leaders
References for: Is the draft framework on biodiversity and ecosystem health something new? Or just more talk and log?
IWTF events, articles and videos
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Everything posted by Michelle Connolly
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January 31, 2024 To the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework team, We are a volunteer collective comprising academics, resource professionals, First Nations, forest industry workers, artists and the public. We recognize that communities of native species and their habitats have a right to coexist with humans. Employing both science and advocacy to improve government policies on land management, we promote natural habitat protection. BC’s Biodiversity is underpinned by primary forests (also called natural forests), which are those of any age that have never been logged [1][2]. Seventy years of industrial logging and associated road construction in primary forests have resulted in critically low levels of ecosystem health and biodiversity. Some forest ecosystems are on the brink of collapse owing to the cumulative impacts of logging, roads, and land conversion [3]. We propose the following three improvements to the Draft BC Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework: 1. A scientifically sound definition of ecosystem health enshrined in law. Over-reliance on forest professionals, whose job is to treat primary forests as sources of harvestable fiber as opposed to life-sustaining systems, has failed biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Professional forestry is about timber production not the maintenance of ecosystem health. In order to prevent discretionary decisions harmful to natural ecosystems, a strong definition of ecosystem health is needed. All primary forests owe their structure and sophistication to thousands of years of complexity-building processes like fire, insects, and disease. Primary forests with recent natural disturbance histories are persecuted by forestry under the euphemism of “forest health”, causing all manner of ecological harm [4]. To address this failing, we propose the following scientifically-defensible definition of ecosystem health [5], and ask that the legislation under development incorporate this definition: "A healthy ecosystem has the ability to sustain a living community having species composition, diversity, and functional organization comparable to natural (primary) habitats within a region. An ecological system has health/integrity when its dominant ecological characteristics occur within their natural ranges of variation (accommodating climate change responses) and can withstand and recover from most perturbations imposed by natural environmental events or human disruptions." 2. A clear stipulation that no “Ecosystem-Based Management” should occur in primary forests. Alternative forms of logging have no place in primary forests, which represent BC’s healthiest and most resilient ecosystems. While we recognize that Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) has at times the well-intentioned goal of minimizing ecological risk while permitting industrial extraction, its core assumptions are all scientifically untenable. These assumptions are that: a) there is substitution between patterns of forest harvest and natural disturbance, b) the age of dominant trees are an indicator of successional processes and the ecological structures they produce, and c) compensation rather than addition happens in relationships between natural disturbance and resource activities. For this reason we recognize that EBM ultimately degrades ecosystems, and we oppose its use in remaining primary forests. EBM belongs only in previously degraded (logged) plantations, where ecosystem health gains might be made as a result of human action. A true commitment to biodiversity and ecosystem health in BC should apply the “Half Earth” principle [6] by: a) setting aside all remaining primary forests (of any age) under a sincere form of protection (i.e. not FRPA) that prohibits industrial development; and b) removing some previously logged lands from the Timber Harvesting Land Base to allow them to recover (also known as “proforestation” [7]) to meet the Half Earth target of conserving 50% of BC’s landbase. We note that, in addition to conserving healthy functioning ecosystems by 2030, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for degraded ecosystems be restored. Restoring ecosystems takes time, and restoration investments must be protected from perverse incentives to extract precisely when those systems finally begin to function in a healthy way. 3. Forest Landscape Planning must include and actively involve civil society, not just governments, industry, and professional foresters. Many governments in BC – including Provincial and First Nations – are under some form of regulatory capture by industry. The gross imbalance in direct subsidy to the forest industry relative to its contribution to BC’s overall GDP is ample evidence of this [8]. To balance industry interests with wider societal ones, such as traditional relationships with the land, civil society groups must be included in forest landscape planning. Human communities rely on primary forest for a staggering variety of ecosystem services and those communities must be involved in the spatial planning as we move towards Half Earth. Ecologists have a vital role to play in this planning process to ensure these conservation and restoration efforts meet the spatial needs of wildlife movement, climate refugia, minimum patch sizes for biodiversity, while accommodating inevitable (and necessary) natural disturbances. Sincerely, Conservation North info@conservationnorth.org References: [1] Convention on Biological Diversity definition of primary forest. www.cbd.int/forest/definitions.shtml [2] Remaining primary forests in BC are mapped here: https://consnorth.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d1620f43f9084a99a4921e5e8b9b98dd [3] DellaSala, D.A., Strittholt J.R., Degagne, R., Mackey, B., Werner, J.R., Connolly, M., Coxson, D., Couturier, A., Keith, H. 2021. Red-Listed Ecosystem Status of Interior Wetbelt and Inland Temperate Rainforest of British Columbia, Canada. Land 10:775 [4] Lindenmayer, D. B., Burton, P.J., and Franklin, J. 2012. Salvage logging and its ecological consequences. Island Press. [5] Werner, J.R. 2023. In defense of lost causes. Presentation at the University of Northern British Columbia. https://video.unbc.ca/media/NRESi%20Colloquium%20-%20February%2017th%2C%202023%20-%20Dr.%20Jeff%20Werner/0_ktcrorj5/23996 [6] Wilson, E.O. 2016. Half-Earth: our planet's fight for life. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company. [7] Moomaw, W.R., Masino, S.A., and Faison, E.K. 2019. Intact forests in the United States: Proforestation mitigates climate change and serves the greatest good. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 2: 27. [8] Broadland, D. Forestry definitely doesn't pay the bills, folks. December 7, 2021. https://www.evergreenalliance.ca/portal-the-true-cost-of-subsidies-provided-to-the-logging-industry/2/ -
The BC Ministry of Forests has done nothing to limit further destruction of wildlife habitat in the Prince George Timber Supply Area (TSA) and conservationists are wondering why. Extensive logging in the boreal rainforest north of Prince George (Photo: Conservation North) IT HAS BEEN TWO YEARS since the Forest Practices Board concluded that nature was at high-risk in the Prince George TSA because of industrial logging. Why is it taking so long for the BC government to act on the Board’s recommendations when these ecosystems are on the brink of collapse? A 2020 investigation by the Forest Practices Board was triggered by complaints from the public who observed extreme levels of logging by forestry companies in endangered old-growth spruce stands in the Parsnip drainage north of Prince George. The Board concluded that biodiversity (plants and animals) is at high risk of irreversible loss in most of the Prince George District because of industrial logging. This area includes the globally rare inland temperate and boreal rainforests. Logging in the Hart Caribou range of the northern wetbelt (Photo: Conservation North) “We are watching logging trucks fly down highway 97 with eight spruce logs because the trees are so huge that’s all that will fit in the back of the truck,” explained Asta Glembotzki of Conservation North. Confirming the Board’s findings, in 2021 a Technical Advisory Panel identified and mapped these areas as being rare and at-risk because of logging. The Forest Practices Board’s two recommendations to the BC government in the 2020 report—which have not yet been acted upon—were that they promptly map and protect old growth where it is most threatened by logging, and update the province’s anachronistic biodiversity requirements for the region to reflect the latest science. Current requirements around biodiversity for the TSA are contained in the Biodiversity Order, a document that was negotiated with industry 17 years ago. The Order is widely known to have been written to protect logging company access to the amount of old forest they want, where they want it. It specifies minimum areas to be retained that are way below what the science says must be protected to avoid ecological collapse. Conservation North notes that there are other serious problems with biodiversity protection in the Prince George TSA that were never addressed in the 2020 Board investigation report. One example is that the work of keeping track of what has been logged and how much old growth remains in the TSA is left to a group of logging companies, as opposed to an independent scientific body or BC government staff. Conservation North views this arrangement as a serious conflict of interest that needs to be rectified if there is to be any hope of protecting nature in our region. Conservation North’s Asta Glembotzki observes, “No one we talk to thinks letting forest companies make decisions about how to protect biodiversity is a good idea.” She adds that “BC has to rectify a massive problem in the Prince George TSA by following the recommendations of the Board now.” Michelle Connolly is a founding director of Conservation North. -
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Michelle Connolly spoke with three grassroots activists to learn why they are involved with a forest conservation effort. Here is her interview with Taryn Skalbania, Sarah Newton and Carole Tootill. TARYN SKALBANIA is an animal lover, farmer, grandma and activist who made Peachland (Syilx territory) her home 30 years ago. She is one of the co-founders of the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance (PWPA) and an active member. She holds a similar role in the BC Coalition for Forestry Reform and is also part of her District’s Healthy Watershed Committee. Sarah Newton is an elementary school teacher who taught in Fort St. James (Nak’azdli territory) and currently teaches grade 6 in Revelstoke, (Sinixt, Syilx, Secwepemcúl'ecw and Ktunaxa territory). She was raised and educated in Nova Scotia (Mi’kma’ki territory). Sarah loves exploring wild places with her husband and two teenage children. Carole Tootill is a mother, educator and concerned citizen. Born in Victoria (W̱SÁNEĆ territory) in the early 60s, she has lived as far east as Toronto (Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Anishinabewaki and Haudenosaunee territory) and as far north as Whitehorse (Kwanlin Dün territory). Moving back to the Island in 2014 came with a shock: the forests she grew up with were gone. From left: Sarah Newton, Carole Tootill and Taryn Skalbania What inspired you to become a grassroots activist? Taryn: Originally it was a selfish motivation. I found that my favorite long-distance hikes, horseback rides and fishing lakes were being wiped out by logging. Secondly, the inconsistency between how forestry is regulated compared to mining and recreation, for example, pissed me off. As I started talking to others in my community, I realized that they had no clue what was happening to the land, and they had no idea that the land was not in good hands. Forestry was on a pedestal when I grew up. At UBC, the MacMillan Bloedel building was next to the Sauder School of Business, near the Jimmy Pattison Pavillion and the Canfor Theatre. I’m angry now. So that’s my motivation right there. Sarah: I have always been involved on some level, whether that was with the North Columbia Environmental Society/Wildsight, writing politicians, sitting on committees. To stand on that road and blockade at the Bigmouth/Argonaut Creek was the last thing I wanted to do. I did it because as a parent and teacher, I couldn’t look kids in the eye anymore, knowing the flora and fauna will not be there for them if I didn’t step up. It was kind of like live on your feet or die on your knees at that point. For me, the only way to defy despair was to take action. Members of the activist community form deep connections in a very short time, feeding each other hope and inspiration. Carole: Necessity. We’re losing wildlife because of habitat loss from logging. “Fiber supply” is prioritized over the free services of intact ecosystems. Old-growth forests with big trees not only store carbon and provide clean air and water, they keep us cool and moist when it is hot and dry. The NDP created the facade that it would protect old-growth forest, won the election and has fooled the public; the NDP has increased old-growth logging and paved the way for near-complete liquidation of our grand forests. Most people have not experienced an old-growth forest, so they do not understand the direct and indirect impacts of logging. The government is killing wolves and cougars to protect caribou, but loss of old-growth habitat to logging is the real issue. Numerous First Nations’ communities have been forced to rely on forestry and sign agreements with gag clauses to keep community members quiet and disallow dissent. The NDP continues this and calls it reconciliation. Argonaut Creek forest defenders blocking the Bigmouth logging road in 2021 What are the advantages of grassroots activism? Taryn: It has no advantages; we don’t have money. [Group laughs]. The advantages are that you can speak the truth and be irreverent without anything to lose. There is nothing else other than the community voice that makes change. We must do the work ourselves; we can’t wait for ENGOs, government and industry. I don’t see that there’s any other way. There will be more civil disobedience in BC. Sarah: We have the opportunity to do the right thing at the right time. Maybe that’s blocking a road or doing other things that aren’t so polite. And of course, what’s polite changes over time and all of a sudden these things that everybody used to think were extreme aren’t any more because what’s happening to Mother Earth has become a horror show. Carole: I’ve made decades worth of monthly contributions to ENGOs to finally realize that it was a poor investment. They operate within a mandate of complete safety. This has worked well for government and industry. Government has protected very little of the most biodiverse forests because they are the most commercially desired. In the 1990s during the Clayoquot protests, more than one-third of our ancient old growth ecosystems still stood. Now we are down to about 2 percent of what we once had. Time is running out; government will continue to steal our energies through engagement surveys, false promises, and other distractions while logging continues under the protection of publicly funded police militias. Only direct action will work at this stage, but last summer’s and more recent police brutality and going through the courts has worn people out. People have been seriously physically and psychologically injured for trying to do what the NDP promised to do. We now have small pockets of big-treed old growth surrounded by a sea of clearcuts and biologically void tree plantations. A blockade of Teal Cedar Products logging in the Fairy Creek Rainforest in 2021 What have you learned since you started doing grassroots work? Taryn: We formed as a society in 2016 because we had to do the job ourselves; we are responsible for watershed and forests. We realized that industry was lying to us and the provincial government could not possibly have our best interests at heart. Also, the professional corruption among some foresters became clear because, really, to survive in that profession you have to be either morally bankrupt or bought off. Willing to serve two masters, and neither of those masters is the natural world. Many foresters are embarrassed by their profession and have spent their retirement trying to improve the system. Anthony Britneff explained in an Evergreen Alliance article last year that former premier Gordon Campbell gave the forest industry a prominent role in the writing of forest legislation. The Council of Forest Industries lawyers were actively engaged in the drafting of the Forest and Range Practices Act to replace the Forest Practices Code of B.C. Act. Not reviewing the legislation—they drafted the legislation. This law does not need to be tweaked, it needs to be shit-canned. Sarah: I’ve learned that my generation is almost invisible in the fight for conservation and climate action. When at the Bigmouth/Argonaut Creek blockade over those ten months (fighting to protect the last valley bottom old growth inland temperate rainforest in the world), it was mostly all people in their 20s; missing from these actions was a huge chunk of society. The other thing I learned was from a course on climate education at Cornell University. We can use the same psychology that’s used on us by media, and that we must truly listen, be confident with what we know, and find commonality with others. Carole: It is very difficult to change laws, and there is no time to do so. Judges, crown prosecutors, and police exist to uphold the status quo—their lifestyles and pensions depend on it. The conflict of interest is obvious. Yet we have to chip away at this front or laws won’t change. We need more radical action or we lose everything. Fairy Creek Rainforest defenders confronted by RCMP in 2021 (Photo by Alex Harris) What advice would you give to others who want to start a grassroots group to protect nature and their communities? Taryn: Effective negotiations with industry and government to protect forests and change the practice of forestry will not occur without a balanced playing field. Effective negotiations require that participants have relatively equal legal and political power, backed by adequate financial resources. In the absence of this balanced negotiation structure, all that may be expected from “collaborations” are half-baked compromises that err on the side of protection of industry and government interests. This means that forest exploitation will continue to trump forest protection. Herb Hammond imparted that wisdom. Sarah: We need to support grassroots Indigenous communities. We need to be there together. We also need to join forces with the working class. When I look at forestry workers who are losing jobs or economic migrants coming to my community, we’re all trying to do our best independently, but it’s not enough. We are all fighting against the 1 percent that dominate resource extraction. The bonus for me was finding community with the other blockaders. It has really kept despair at bay. As grassroots activists we are not free to abandon this work and so we need to find others to do it with. Don’t use the language of industry and forestry because embedded within it is the belief system that created the predicament we’re in where living ecosystems are a commodity. Don’t use their own weapons to fight them, because they are more skilled at using them. We need to use our own language that speaks to peoples’ hearts. Carole: Just do it, or we lose it. Taryn Skalbania with Syilx Elders at a Water Ceremony on International Women’s Day Michelle Connolly runs Conservation North in Lheidli T’enneh territory/Prince George. -
By Mark E. Harmon, Chad T. Hanson and Dominick A. DellaSala Abstract: Biomass combustion is a major biogeochemical process, but uncertain in magnitude. We examined multiple levels of organization (twigs, branches, trees, stands, and landscapes) in large, severe forest fires to see how combustion rates for live aboveground woody parts varied with tree species, size, and fire severity in Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) and mixed conifer-dominated forests of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA. In high severity fire patches, most combustion loss was from branches < 2 cm diameter; in low to moderate severity patches, most was from bole charring. Combustion rates decreased as fire severity declined and with increasing tree size. Pinus species had little branch combustion, leading them to have ≈50% the combustion rate of other taxa. Combustion rates could be 100% for small branch segments and up to 57% for small tree aboveground woody biomass in high severity fire patches. However, combustion rates are very low overall at the stand (0.1%–3.2%) and landscape level (0.6%–1.8%), because large trees with low combustion rates comprise the majority of biomass, and high severity fire patches are less than half of the area burned. Our findings of low live wood combustion rates have important implications for policies related to wildfire emissions and forest management. (2022) Combustion of Aboveground Wood from Live Trees in Megafires, CA, USA.pdf
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By Mark E. Harmon, Chad T. Hanson and Dominick A. DellaSala Abstract: Biomass combustion is a major biogeochemical process, but uncertain in magnitude. We examined multiple levels of organization (twigs, branches, trees, stands, and landscapes) in large, severe forest fires to see how combustion rates for live aboveground woody parts varied with tree species, size, and fire severity in Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) and mixed conifer-dominated forests of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA. In high severity fire patches, most combustion loss was from branches < 2 cm diameter; in low to moderate severity patches, most was from bole charring. Combustion rates decreased as fire severity declined and with increasing tree size. Pinus species had little branch combustion, leading them to have ≈50% the combustion rate of other taxa. Combustion rates could be 100% for small branch segments and up to 57% for small tree aboveground woody biomass in high severity fire patches. However, combustion rates are very low overall at the stand (0.1%–3.2%) and landscape level (0.6%–1.8%), because large trees with low combustion rates comprise the majority of biomass, and high severity fire patches are less than half of the area burned. Our findings of low live wood combustion rates have important implications for policies related to wildfire emissions and forest management. (2022) Combustion of Aboveground Wood from Live Trees in Megafires, CA, USA.pdf
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Why I started a forest conservation project
Michelle Connolly commented on David Broadland's record in Start a forest conservation project
Hi - I love the second idea of doing a Q & A on how to start a grassroots group. It would give me a great excuse to talk to some other grassroots organizers, like the Revy people and Carol Tootil (who I know). If you can give me a month, I will develop some questions, and then ask two other people to answer them, and I will also answer them. That will give other fledgling activists several different avenues. I will initiate this with the Revy folks, Carol at Taryn. -
Hi - I love the second idea of doing a Q & A on how to start a grassroots group. It would give me a great excuse to talk to some other grassroots organizers, like the Revy people and Carol Tootil (who I know). If you can give me a month, I will develop some questions, and then ask two other people to answer them, and I will also answer them. That will give other fledgling activists several different avenues. I will initiate this with the Revy folks, Carol at Taryn.
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Hi - I love the second idea of doing a Q & A on how to start a grassroots group. It would give me a great excuse to talk to some other grassroots organizers, like the Revy people and Carol Tootil (who I know). If you can give me a month, I will develop some questions, and then ask two other people to answer them, and I will also answer them. That will give other fledgling activists several different avenues. I will initiate this with the Revy folks, Carol at Taryn.
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Hi - I love the second idea of doing a Q & A on how to start a grassroots group. It would give me a great excuse to talk to some other grassroots organizers, like the Revy people and Carol Tootil (who I know). If you can give me a month, I will develop some questions, and then ask two other people to answer them, and I will also answer them. That will give other fledgling activists several different avenues. I will initiate this with the Revy folks, Carol at Taryn.
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Why I started a forest conservation project
Michelle Connolly commented on David Broadland's record in Protect more
Hi - I love the second idea of doing a Q & A on how to start a grassroots group. It would give me a great excuse to talk to some other grassroots organizers, like the Revy people and Carol Tootil (who I know). If you can give me a month, I will develop some questions, and then ask two other people to answer them, and I will also answer them. That will give other fledgling activists several different avenues. I will initiate this with the Revy folks, Carol at Taryn. -
Why I started a forest conservation project
Michelle Connolly commented on David Broadland's record in Protect more
Hi David - yes I clicked on the link to the portal. Works great. -
Why I started a forest conservation project
Michelle Connolly commented on David Broadland's record in Start a forest conservation project
Hi David - yes I clicked on the link to the portal. Works great. -
Hi David - yes I clicked on the link to the portal. Works great.
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Hi David - yes I clicked on the link to the portal. Works great.
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Hi David - yes I clicked on the link to the portal. Works great.
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Why I started a forest conservation project
Michelle Connolly commented on David Broadland's record in Start a forest conservation project
'How to form your own grassroots group'. Fledgling grassroots organizers need guidance. Perhaps we need to simplify the menu? Should there be two or three headings for two or three different audience types? Say professionals and grassroots organizers? -
Why I started a forest conservation project
Michelle Connolly commented on David Broadland's record in Protect more
'How to form your own grassroots group'. Fledgling grassroots organizers need guidance. Perhaps we need to simplify the menu? Should there be two or three headings for two or three different audience types? Say professionals and grassroots organizers? -
'How to form your own grassroots group'. Fledgling grassroots organizers need guidance. Perhaps we need to simplify the menu? Should there be two or three headings for two or three different audience types? Say professionals and grassroots organizers?
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'How to form your own grassroots group'. Fledgling grassroots organizers need guidance. Perhaps we need to simplify the menu? Should there be two or three headings for two or three different audience types? Say professionals and grassroots organizers?
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'How to form your own grassroots group'. Fledgling grassroots organizers need guidance. Perhaps we need to simplify the menu? Should there be two or three headings for two or three different audience types? Say professionals and grassroots organizers?
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Words hide truth
Michelle Connolly posted a record in Journalism: The over-exploitation of BC forests
BC's minister of forests refers to forests as "feedstock." Why does he use an agricultural term to describe a forest? A new logging road under construction in the Inland Rainforest (Photo by Taylor Roades) IN Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell describes a dystopian society in which language is used to control people. In Orwell’s fictional world, vocabulary is constrained and new words are created in order to simplify and manipulate people’s understanding of the world around them. Orwell suggested that the well-known connection between language and worldview could also be used to manage human behaviour. Not having worked in industrial forestry, it was only three years ago that I started hearing the word “fibre” used instead of “forest” with confusing frequency. This word appears on industry and government websites and it is used regularly by timber company representatives. Last week, BC Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson described the lands he is in charge of as “feedstock” in my community newspaper. One could be forgiven for thinking that the timber industry, with the Province’s help, is attempting to replace the notion of a forest—and everything that word means —with vague abstractions. The term fibre conjures up Metamucil, while feedstock summons the mental image of food for livestock. Why are government and industry employing these euphemisms, rather than just saying forest? The purpose is two-fold: to change how we view these complex living systems and to prevent us from acting to defend them. If forests can be rebranded as stands of consumable objects (which the terms fibre and feedstock achieve), then the work of obtaining social license to destroy them has already been done. If an ecosystem is merely feedstock for a pellet plant, what on Earth else would you do with it? If a tree falls in a fibre, no one will hear it because it doesn’t exist. Natural forests, including those that have burned or are full of decay fungi, provide food and medicines and mitigate floods. Forests also store and sequester carbon in soil and plant tissues, and old forests are particularly good at this. Beetle-killed forests provide critical structures for wildlife. The founding belief of modern forest management—that natural forests are a commodity—is among the root causes of declining ecosystem health in B.C. Under this belief system, old growth is in the way of plantations that can provide a predictable flow of wood and revenue. Burned or beetle-killed forests are waste. Paired with corporate control over public lands, the conceit that people can and should manage complex ecosystems has led us to where we are today. Emerging research confirms that BC’s productive old-growth forest is all but gone. Companies are being awarded licenses to cut down remaining primary forests to feed pellet plants. The Council of Forest Industries, whose member companies have levelled most of the economically valuable old growth on the coast and in the interior, are demanding that the province set aside the remainder in a “working forest landbase” (read: make available for logging), according to their Smart Future report. As a part of their ongoing efforts to ensure continued access to BC’s last primary forests, those in power are trying to reduce these ecosystems to objects so that the public won’t fight for them. We will not abide lies of omission that obscure the truth of what natural forests are and we won’t stop defending them. Natural forests will always be more than fibre or feedstock; and in nature, there is no such thing as waste. Michelle Connolly, MSc, Conservation North, Prince George Michelle Connolly surveys a clearcut in the Inland Rainforest. Old growth cedars in the interior are often considered “waste” by the forestry sector. (Photo by Mary Booth) -
Widely circulated new map depicting BC's disappearing primary forests raises thorny questions about the state of BC's forests. The creators clarify what it shows. Part of the Seeing Red Map showing remaining primary forest (in green) and the part of BC that has been industrially logged (red). Click on the map to enlarge, or see a live scalar version which allows you to examine specific areas of the province in finer detail. AT CONSERVATION NORTH, we are pleased with the widespread viewing of our primary forests map called “Seeing Red” and with so many favourable comments. “Seeing Red” is the first freely-available map of its kind. Its veracity is only as good and complete as the publicly available provincial government information underlying it. The matter of definition of “primary forest,” which the map depicts in the colour green, is tricky and, in response to some comments from the public, needs further clarification. “Primary forest” is a commonly used and scientifically accepted term for forests having composition and structure that largely reflect natural processes. Primary forests have never been industrially logged. Sometimes primary forests are referred to as “original,” or “natural,” or “intact” forests. Primary forests are important because they are the best habitat for wildlife, support the largest stores of forest carbon, and contain the last old-growth forests. If readers were to view some selected red areas of the map on Google Earth, they may appear green and forested. It is important to understand that Google Earth imagery is blended and often years behind reality. Also, on this imagery one cannot distinguish between primary forest and replanted cutblocks—they both look green. The scientific community disagrees with claims that “greenness” as inferred from Google Earth is a credible indicator of ecological integrity. Even-aged monoculture plantations in cutblocks do, in fact, contain chlorophyll and are indeed green, but they are simplified, fragmented, degraded, and ecologically impoverished. Some areas of the “Seeing Red” map are light grey. Light grey is clearly defined in the map legend as places where there is no forest or for which no forest information exists (See the map legend). These areas with “no data” simply represent gaps in the government’s forest inventory available to the public or urban areas where the government does not conduct a forest inventory (e.g., the UVic campus). One reason that gaps exist over some areas the reader may know to be forested is that some industry holders of tree farm licences either refuse to share their forest inventory with the government, or will not allow the government to share their forest inventory information on Crown land with the public. The forests ministry would be doing a badly needed public service if it were to make all forest information on Crown lands freely available to the public so that we may make an even better map. Michelle Connolly MSc is a director of Conservation North. For more information about the Seeing Red Map, read Sarah Cox’s report at the narwhal.ca
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(Video produced by James Steidle) Conservation North: why we formed and what we’re about Nature is in deep trouble in northern BC due in large part to commercial logging of primary forests. Conservation North was formed to address this problem. We are volunteers; as a registered society as opposed to a charity, we are not subject to the limitations that charitable status places on the activities of environmental non-governmental organizations. We are free to educate, advocate, and resist. This freedom is a core value for us. In speaking with hundreds of people in Prince George and the Robson Valley, we learned three important things: 1) what’s left of nature needs to be protected now; 2) the protection of nature is being undermined by the political influence of forestry companies on the BC government; and 3) the activities of those forestry companies are enabled by professional practice and its culture of exploitation. When coalescing as a group, we determined what we did and did not want to be. We witnessed other groups being ineffectual at protecting nature. The following four things Conservation North does not do: 1. We do not use the language of forestry. Language has power. Beliefs and values are embedded in the words we choose to use. Primary forests are neither ‘fiber’ nor ‘feedstock’. Nature is not a ‘resource’ to be exploited. Primary forests are not ‘waste’ waiting to be turned into commodities for short-term profit. ‘Maintaining forest health’ is code for logging after important natural disturbances. We use language grounded in ecology and in an understanding of and respect for the intrinsic value of nature, as opposed to language invented by people intent on converting nature into products for sale. 2. We do not consult with licensees (forest companies) on how industrial logging should be improved. Weighing in on how the last primary forests are logged is not something we’re interested in. Though consulting with a forestry company about how to cut a primary forest might result in changes to short-term plans for that area, it will not address the larger problem. The best a forest company will ever do is tweak their management, e.g. switching from clearcutting to partial harvest, causing major ecological damage either way. 3. We do not heed forest professionals on matters of ecology. Forest professionals are taught that it’s possible to manage natural ecosystem for all things. This is untrue, and forty-five years of ecological research has taught us otherwise. Collapsing fish and wildlife populations, disappearing bird communities, and the many endangered plants and animals in BC are telling us otherwise. This destruction happened on the watch of professional foresters, who have immense power over land management. Their lies are an attempt to maintain status quo. 4. We do not view government consultation processes as genuine attempts to prevent ecological collapse nor to foster sustainable communities. The questions posed by government consultations, whether public or invite-only, are most often the wrong ones. Questions like “how do we sustain this industry” must be “what is best for our communities and nature over the long term”. The invite-only Interior Forestry Renewal meetings include participants invested in industrial forestry and exclude those with broader interests and knowledge. These processes are designed to manufacture consent, rather than sustain happy and healthy human and natural relationships. Motivations of the extractive sector prevail over the interests of people and the rights of nature. It is time for communities to set the agenda. This is what Conservation North does do: 1. A vision of the future. We articulate a regional vision for the future. This vision and our goals are based on science and ethics, and stem from our love of nature and our human community. 2. We speak truth about what’s happening on the ground. Our responsibility is to provide information about how and why ecological collapse is taking place in northern BC. We document, through spatial analyses, photos, video and experience, the impacts of roads and industrial logging. Most of these ecosystems are globally endangered. 3. We interact with community members face to face. Online engagement is great and necessary but building a movement requires meeting with others in person. We hold educational events, rallies, and video screenings. We table at farmers markets, concerts, and public events. We do field trips and banner drops. We spend time with those on the land to build solidarity and to foster an emotional connection to place. Organizing is simply getting one person to agree on a goal and working together. If you love wild places and you want to defend them, start collecting other people who feel the same way. Set goals together, start working towards those goals, hang out your sign, and start building your networking power for the land and your community. Visit Conservation North
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Widely circulated new map depicting BC's disappearing primary forests raises thorny questions about the state of BC's forests. The creators clarify what it shows. February 16, 2021 Part of the Seeing Red Map showing remaining primary forest (in green) and the part of BC that has been industrially logged (red). Click on the map to enlarge, or see a live scalar version which allows you to examine specific areas of the province in finer detail. AT CONSERVATION NORTH, we are pleased with the widespread viewing of our primary forests map called “Seeing Red” and with so many favourable comments. “Seeing Red” is the first freely-available map of its kind. Its veracity is only as good and complete as the publicly available provincial government information underlying it. The matter of definition of “primary forest,” which the map depicts in the colour green, is tricky and, in response to some comments from the public, needs further clarification. “Primary forest” is a commonly used and scientifically accepted term for forests having composition and structure that largely reflect natural processes. Primary forests have never been industrially logged. Sometimes primary forests are referred to as “original,” or “natural,” or “intact” forests. Primary forests are important because they are the best habitat for wildlife, support the largest stores of forest carbon, and contain the last old-growth forests. If readers were to view some selected red areas of the map on Google Earth, they may appear green and forested. It is important to understand that Google Earth imagery is blended and often years behind reality. Also, on this imagery one cannot distinguish between primary forest and replanted cutblocks—they both look green. The scientific community disagrees with claims that “greenness” as inferred from Google Earth is a credible indicator of ecological integrity. Even-aged monoculture plantations in cutblocks do, in fact, contain chlorophyll and are indeed green, but they are simplified, fragmented, degraded, and ecologically impoverished. Some areas of the “Seeing Red” map are light grey. Light grey is clearly defined in the map legend as places where there is no forest or for which no forest information exists (See the map legend). These areas with “no data” simply represent gaps in the government’s forest inventory available to the public or urban areas where the government does not conduct a forest inventory (e.g., the UVic campus). One reason that gaps exist over some areas the reader may know to be forested is that some industry holders of tree farm licences either refuse to share their forest inventory with the government, or will not allow the government to share their forest inventory information on Crown land with the public. The forests ministry would be doing a badly needed public service if it were to make all forest information on Crown lands freely available to the public so that we may make an even better map. Michelle Connolly MSc is a director of Conservation North. For more information about the Seeing Red Map, read Sarah Cox’s report at the narwhal.ca
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