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Logging industry targeted B.C. old-growth forests for more than a century, SFU study finds

October 6, 2022

Logging industry targeted B.C. old-growth forests for more than a century, SFU study finds

Ken Lertzman’s paper shows between 1860 and 2016, 87 per cent of logging took place in old-growth forests

A man in a raincoat walks past a giant tree in a forest.
A man walks past an old growth tree in Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew, B.C. A new paper published by Simon Fraser University professor Ken Lertzman shows that decades of logging on the province’s Central Coast targeted the highest-value forests first. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

The worsening effects of climate change are compounding the historical loss of British Columbia’s old-growth forests, says the co-author of a new paper that shows decades of logging on the province’s Central Coast targeted the highest-value forests first.

“History tells us that we have really depleted these high-value elements of the landscape and that we can’t keep going,” said Ken Lertzman, professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University’s school of resource and environmental management.

“At the same time, [forests] have never been under greater threat from natural disturbances that are driven by a changing climate.”

Some forests have been set aside for logging because of their ecological and cultural value, only to be scorched by increasingly severe wildfires, he added.

That’s the reality today’s policy-making must reflect when it comes to determining how B.C.’s forests will be valued and used in years to come, Lertzman said.

Vital old growth first to be cut

The paper published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined more than 150 years of logging across 8,550 square kilometres of forests around Bella Bella on B.C.’s Central Coast.

Of nearly 570 square kilometres logged in the area between 1860 and 2016, 87 per cent of that logging took place in old-growth forests starting in 1970, it shows.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Five Arrested at Fairy Creek Old Growth Blockade

May 19, 2021

Five Arrested at Fairy Creek Old Growth Blockade

‘Protracted stand-off’ predicted. Barred journalists ask court to rule RCMP ‘exclusionary zone’ illegal.

FairyCreekBlockaders.jpg
Members of the Fairy Creek Blockade earlier this spring, when an in-depth Tyee article reported why they risked arrest to oppose Teal-Jones timber company logging on one of Vancouver Island’s last old-growth watersheds. Photo by Ken Dawson.

Five people involved with the Fairy Creek old-growth blockade in a remote region of southwestern Vancouver Island were arrested Tuesday.

The arrests are the first as RCMP enforced a court injunction against protesters who have spent nearly nine months blocking logging company Teal-Jones’ access to various stands of old-growth forest in tree farm licence 46 near Port Renfrew.

Officers read the court order to Rainforest Flying Squad protesters at the blockade’s Caycuse Camp on Tuesday morning and provided people the opportunity to leave, RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Chris Manseau said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

“During the course of day, several individuals refused to leave the area, resulting in the arrest of five people for breaching the injunction order,” Manseau said.

One person has already been released after being processed at the Lake Cowichan RCMP detachment, and the others are expected to be released by end of day, he added.

At least two protesters had chained themselves to a gate before being removed by police, and more arrests are likely to follow, RSF said in a statement Tuesday.

The Caycuse Camp is expected to continue being the focus of enforcement since the site falls in the RCMP’s current exclusion zone, said lawyer Noah Ross, a member of the blockade’s legal support team.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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