Property owners have the right to log their property. They have the right to raze entire ecosystems. In spite of decades of evidence showing the devastating effects of clear cut logging, unfortunately it’s still legal for people to strip their property to the skin.
Most of the Saanich Peninsula is already bare. But, there are still some beautiful forests on the Southern Gulf Islands. I first understood the vulnerability of these important forest lands few months ago, when a private property owner began clear cutting on Saltspring Island.
After some digging, I found out that currently there seems to be very little that can be done about it. It’s a frustrating response to give to people concerned about the loss of habitat.
Then I began receiving calls from Tsawout First Nation members notifying me that their First Nation was clear cutting reserve lands on Saturna Island.
Stop clear cutting
I cannot support either of these logging operations.
This situation deeply saddens me. It is frustrating that there is so little protection for these lands.
I understand private property rights. And, I am well aware of the economic burden First Nations face and the scarce resources they have to deal with their challenges.
It has been, and will continue to be, a focus of my work with the provincial government and First Nations leaders to address the systemic, legislated poverty and inequity. It’s one of the driving forces that inspired me to run for provincial office.
I am also committed to putting an end to poor resource management practices, no matter who is responsible.
In the end, it comes down to decision making. There are so few of these critical ecosystems still in tact. We are going to have to make different decisions than we have made in the past. That includes the province, First Nations and private property owners.
Finally, it is time to put in place ways to protect these places. The air breathe and the water we drink, depend on it.
The logging across the whole of the Province is a disaster. A disaster for tourism, a disaster for communities and their watersheds and trail systems, and a disaster for wildlife. The clock keeps ticking….and we see new clear cut after new clear cut. There should of course be laws to regulate cutting practices on private land, but what about the Provincial government? Still have not seen any new framework proposed for saving more land from the saw. None. Just articles about how great it is that San Group, or Paper Excellence is going to build another sawmill or expand their pulp production and how this will be such a wonderful boost to the economy. A start would be to overhaul the criteria necessary for BC’s very own BC Timber Sales to be able to cut Crown Land. If it threatens existing trails, or community watersheds, it should not be allowed to sell the lease. Apparently they were responsible for wiping out the giant trees in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni last year…….and I believe they are the agency that was responsible for allowing clear cutting the Alberni Inlet Trail. Also, as another example, the Hudson’s Bay Trail near Hope is slated for MORE logging (BC Timber Sales), starting right at the trailhead at Pearce Creek……no matter that there is a very popular trail there that many man-hours of work have been put in to it, and the other side of the creek has already been logged. Seems like high time to see a proposal from the Greens, and like minded NDP for a plan to tackle the free for all going on right now with our forests.
Thank you for your measured and thoughtful discussion. In my eyes the main problem with logging of any land is the way in which it is done. Modern logging methods are as much to blame as the logging itself. Think of the property of Merv Wilkinson that was logged for over 50 years with good yeild, yet still retaining the structure of an evolving forrest. Think of the logging that is done in national park lands on the Olympic peninsula where in some cases large trees are still taken out by workhorse logging methods. Modern logging is ckearcut and then replacement with monoculture replanting…..all in the name of getting the wood out as quickly as possible and to hell with the destruction of the smaller trees and understory. Perhaps newer (actually older) methods of logging could be used that preserve understory and succession growth while taking out economically valuable logs.
Where are those levers of policy and pressure..We have tried educating these Ministries on the current science and thinking..and yet they persist in a “groupthink” denial of the end of all that we as BC’ers think define our lands. There is nothing beautiful in a clear cut, nor in a aquafarm with robo salmon, nor the constant paving of our farmlands. No one in science of ecosystems thinks any of this is okay. NO matter our protests and friendly attempts at influence has made on lick of difference. Look at the Kootenay Lake region..soon to be the next Grand Forks as the rate of clear cuts in steep watersheds has been determine to be viable by “professional alliance” regimes which are private meetings; run rough shod over our public wealth (crown forest lands). So Adam Olsen and the Green Caucus, while you are only a few, your view into the beast is important, but action in the open and public forum would be a far better result than the black box of Victoria (coastal) leadership on issues so central to the very health of our fellows.
Thank you Jacqueline. From the many, many emails I have received on this issue I am well aware of the challenges in the Kootenay’s. I was just in the Nicola Valley and they also had stories of poor logging practices and resource management. I look forward to a visit into your territory soon. Sonia and I will be using our time in Budget Estimates to deeply canvass these issues with the Forest Minister, and as you can see with this blog, I tend to be wide open on the work that we are doing. Please feel free to share this because the more eyes that see it the better. Thank you for sharing here.
We have developed a very entitled attitude in terms of land ownership – conversations around the responsibility of land stewardship are important as we are here for such a short time: reframing ownership values to stewardship values.
Thanks as always for your thought provoking blogs!
Good message
Clear cutting on private land is a problem across BC and something needs to be done. I live in the Kootenays where private land has been bought and is slated to be clear cut but have also reached out to other communities with the same issue. I’ll be sharing this, Thank you for posting!
Are there any concrete legislative initiatives in the works to address this issue?
My office has been flooded with calls for more to done with through legislation for privately managed forest lands. I am still digging through the information because before getting elected I knew nothing about this. I understand most of the remaining Coastal Douglas Fir is vulnerable and so I will continue to work through this and take action as I can find ways to make positive change.
This is especially sad in the light of impending fossil sunlight resource depletion.
I hope and pray that First Nations will be able to survive the pressure to take greater part in the so-called “economic system,” which is really just a systematic way of using up resources as fast as possible.
This is why I support the courageous hereditary chiefs, who’s job it is to think seven generations ahead. Seven generations from now, there will be no more fossil fuel, no more pipeline jobs, and quite possibly, no more trees to cut.
Someday soon, we will need to learn from those whose memory includes living off the land, rather than living off a paycheque.
Thank you Adam, it’s good to hear your feelings about this. I’m not part of the indigenous population but live here on Saturna. I used to be a logger when I was in my early 20’s but left that industry because of the devastation and wrong headed approach I witnessed and was part of during those 8 years of my life. Sensible, selective logging, with a good stewardship plan, can leave the land in wonderful shape for future band members. The companies that are there now, do not have a “sense of place” or any connection to that land which is just a commodity to them. This is the downfall of the European approach and spills over in to other areas eg: fisheries, forestry, mining etc. We all know, including First Nations, that we cannot continue on this path.
The rule-of-thumb for firewood is “a cord per acre per year.” We’ve carefully practiced that, and find that it seems to work well.
But that doesn’t really mean taking out all the “economically valuable logs.” It means thinning, and taking out non-economical “weed trees” that are crowding other trees that are more valuable, so they can continue to put on growth to become ever more economical.
Taking out just the “economically valuable logs” is like only fishing for the biggest fish — pretty soon, you’re in the Outer Banks situation, where there are no more fish worth taking.
We heat with a lot of alder. This is a non-economic, fast-growing, short-lived wood. It is a nitrogen fixing pioneer species that prepares the soil for slower-growing, longer-lived “economically valuable” trees to come. But foresters and wood heaters alike think of it as worthless.
Everything out there has value. Often, we simply haven’t discovered the value yet. More often, “economic” forces cause us to ruin the ecology by taking only what we value.