Helena Kreowska
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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 Helena Kreowska
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Helena Kreowska THE FAIRY CREEK AREA, with its old growth and unique ecosystems, needs our protection. Thousands of people, not just from BC, but from all over the World know about old-growth logging in BC, and we want that logging to be stopped. There is only three percent of old-growth forests left in BC and this is a shame for all governments which allowed it. I am an independent 69-year-old professional, who has devoted all my life to respect and protect nature in every country, every place I lived. I am a Landscape Architect with great 6 years of European University education about role of nature in our lives. I have 2 years of plant physiology courses, which taught me about the biochemistry of plant cells. I know how they produce oxygen, without which no life on our planet can exist. Trees, shrubs and flowers are not only for esthetic purposes in our life, they give us Life, for free. I am also a nature interpreter for schools and the general public at Nanaimo’s Morrell Nature Sanctuary. As an independent citizen of Canada, I chose to start a hunger strike on June 2, 2021 without definite end. I devote this hunger strike to draw even more attention of the media, governments and public to the mindless devastation of the best gifts nature could give us: our forests, and particularly, old growth. On June 13, another group of concerned citizens will start their hunger strike in Vancouver. I hope we can make a difference. As is made clear by renowned scientists, among them our own Suzanne Simard (recent book: Finding the Mother Tree) and Germany’s Peter Wohlleben (book: Secret Life of Trees), trees create their own environment, ecosystems which allow millions of species, including humans, to live on our planet. Thousands or hundreds year-old trees are even more valuable for that ecosystem, but only when they are standing, growing, doing their job for the rest of nature. Young trees can’t survive very well without these Mother Trees. All these trees interact and connect through mycelium, a fungi connection that supports all forests’ life. We only started to learn about this recently. If old growth at Fairy Creek is destroyed, logged within a few months, there will be no return, no possibility to learn about it, to support our lives, to continue BC’s economy based on natural resources. Old growth is worth much more standing than cut down and changed to pellets or chips to send to Sweden—so they can pretend that they are reducing their climate pollution by burning them to produce electricity. Why are there so many trees in BC, yet so few businesses producing value-added wood products? Why do we export raw lumber ignoring the income to be earned and jobs to be generated by turning lumber to high quality products? Someone in the BC Ministry of Raw Log Exports needs to give their head a shake and craft whatever policies or tax regimes are needed to build a much stronger value-added wood products sector. Now, not in 100 years. We need a new framework to support a new sustainable economy. The old framework based on free market economics is one of the causes of our many problems. It ignores nature, ignores homelessness, poverty and the realities of power. The free market in housing has created spiralling housing price inflation alongside homelessness, lack of proper mental health care, and unaffordable rents. That has to be changed. We need a socially responsible market economy, not a selfish market economy, in which the only assumed purpose of business is to make money, regardless of the social and ecological costs. A vibrant, green economy should be constantly generating new businesses, both private and cooperative. The failure rate for new businesses is high, but when start-ups are supported by community economic organizations that provide training and peer-support, the survival rate increases. At the same time, government at all levels should encourage new businesses to become part of a circular economy of reusing, generating zero landfill waste and recycling wastes into new materials for reuse in the economy. That includes sustainable forest management like selective logging. There is a great place near Nanaimo to learn about it from professionals: Wildwood Ecoforest. So there is no excuse for governments and logging companies: there they could learn and transfer to sustainable logging, creating even more jobs. Kate Raworth is a British economist, whose book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a Twenty-First Century Economist is well known already, causing a stir around the World. Her framework for economic development is like a doughnut, where the outer edge is the ecological ceiling, beyond which lie all sorts of ecological dangers, and the inner edge is the social boundary, beyond which people live in a world of poverty and injustice. “The safe and just space for humanity” lies within the doughnut. The City of Nanaimo has recently adopted this framework to guide all its development, joining Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Brussels, Portland, Philadelphia and many other fantastic cities. City of Nanaimo and City of Lantzville bravely joined recently the protest against logging old growth in the Fairy Creek area by voting yes to Councillor Ben Geselbracht's motion to formally oppose logging of at-risk old growth forest. The motion calls on the BC government to defer logging “in all high-productivity, rare, oldest and most intact” old growth forest including at Fairy Creek, to fund an “economically just” transition from unsustainable logging, and forward the resolution for debate at the next Union of BC Municipalities convention. “This is an unacceptable level of protection for the little that is left of such a globally valuable natural asset,” Geselbracht said. He said that his motion “is not against logging in general, but a request to preserve a small percentage of BC forests”. Now is the time for change, for shifting to sustainable, green economies, to protect as much precious land and old growth, so future generations can have a healthy living. Please note: I didn’t even mention “ornamental, esthetic” value of preserved forests for the touristic economy, which is also great in BC. People from over the world come here to enjoy pristine forests, old growth, waterfalls, and wildlife of our land and ocean. Because we professionals and scientists see the real value of standing old growth: for ecosystem, for diversity, for life-giving forces. This planet and nature do not belong to us. We humans belong to the planet and to nature. It is time to change our thinking and respect our nature. See Dispatches for more information on Helena Kreowska's hunger strike.
