• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Horgan Favours Lumber Access as B.C. Old-Growth Forests Fall

June 4, 2021
Reading time: 4 minutes
Primary Author: Compiled by Gaye Taylor

Miles Green/Flickr

Miles Green/Flickr

 

As the British Columbia government moves to overhaul the province’s forestry sector, the Sierra Club of BC is decrying the decision to prioritize access to wood fibre over old-growth forest protections.

In a June 1 announcement, Premier John Horgan’s government “released a series of goals, plans, and an initial year-long timeline as it works to ‘modernize’ its regulation of the forest sector,” reports The Canadian Press.

A key element of the new plan is to ensure greater access to forest tenures by Indigenous peoples and smaller operators, who have historically been shut out of an application process that favours big companies like Canadian Forest Products, West Fraser Timber, International Forest Products, Tolko Industries, and Western Forest Products. Together, these five heavyweights own roughly 50% of the province’s active forest tenures.

Proposed changes include improving “access to wood fibre for value-added domestic manufacturers” and conducting an audit of the fee-in-lieu charged to companies for the export of unprocessed logs.

“We very much want the major players to continue to participate,” Horgan told media. “But they have to understand that the old chasing volume is no longer viable in a time of climate change.”

Over the next two years, according to a paper released by the province, the new plan is to address the recommendations of an independent review of B.C.’s old-growth forest management issued last year, “including the deferral of logging in ecosystems at risk of irreversible loss.” 

CP notes that, last September, the province announced it would temporarily defer harvesting in 1,960 square kilometres of old-growth forests in nine different areas, while further work was under way to protect up to 1,500 exceptionally large trees.”

CBC News says Horgan also addressed questions over why his government has not moved to prevent old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek watershed, currently a site of significant protest. 

“If we were to arbitrarily put deferrals in place there, that would be a return to the colonialism that we have so graphically been brought back to this week by the discovery in Kamloops,” he said.

But the Sierra Club issued a rebuke of Horgan’s priorities, describing its claims of old-growth protection as “outrageous”.

“Preparing to redistribute forest tenure without first taking action to ensure that the most endangered old-growth forests have at least interim protection will only make it harder to save any of these forests later,” wrote senior forest and climate campaigner Jens Wieting. “People in B.C. who care about the web of life should be deeply worried about this government’s ongoing denial of the severity of the old-growth and biodiversity crisis.”

As a solution, the Sierra Club recommended “immediate short-term funding for First Nations and forestry workers seeking an alternative to logging the last old-growth.” In a separate report last month, the group detailed research by forester Dave Daust and forest ecologists Rachel Holt and Karen Price that mapped the 1.3 million hectares of old-growth forest (some 2.6% of B.C.’s total forest area) most in need of immediate deferrals.

“The B.C.-based experts used the criteria from the independent old-growth panel recommendations that the provincial government promised to implement last fall but has so far failed to enact,” the Club wrote. 

“We don’t have time to wait for the province any longer,” said Kwakwaka’wakw Chief Rande Cook. Adding that provincial inaction has “forced the hand of Indigenous leadership” as old-growth forests fall “by the day.” 

While Horgan positions himself as a champion of Indigenous peoples and calls any assignment of deferrals as “arbitrary,” Sierra Club’s Wieting says the measures are needed “to ensure sufficient time for a sincere process with Indigenous governments to identify what support is needed for communities and Nations that seek to protect the last old-growth forests instead of logging it for short-term relief.”

Mark Worthing, Sierra Club BC’s coastal projects lead, said the deferrals “are what make space for a safe conversation to cultivate public trust and free, prior, and informed consent for the future of old-growth forests and biodiversity.” Without such Indigenous consent and science-based deferrals in place, he said, “all we’re left with is an outcome designed to please greedy logging corporations above all else.”



in Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Climate & Society, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Climate Impacts & Adaptation, First Peoples, Forests & Deforestation, Jobs & Training, Jurisdictions, Legal & Regulatory, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Steve Jurvetson/flickr
International Security & War

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
/Pikist
United States

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
437
/Pikist

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
157
UK Black Tech/wikimedia commons

U.S. Tech Workers Leaving High-Paying Jobs to Focus on Climate Crisis

August 15, 2022
122
United States Marine Core/Wikimedia Commons

Distributed Energy Gains Ground With Mobile Microgrids, Vehicle-to-Grid Technology

August 15, 2022
114

Recent Posts

Steve Jurvetson/flickr

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Arctic Warms 4 Times Faster than Global Average, Surpassing Estimates 

August 15, 2022
73
rawpixel

Common Medications Foil Body’s Ability to Cope with Hot Weather

August 15, 2022
92
Max Pixel

Slashing Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Can Improve Crop Yields, Study Finds

August 15, 2022
50
David Hawgood/Geograph

E-Bikes a ‘Faster and Fairer’ Emissions Solution than Electric Cars

August 15, 2022
103
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region/wikimedia commons

Researchers Study Carbon Loss, Forest Impacts of Northwest Territories ‘Zombie Fires’

August 15, 2022
23
Next Post
kpgolfpro/Pixabay

Canada, G7 Fall Short on Green Strings for COVID Recovery Funds

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}