Over 100 environmental activists and concerned citizens showed up to the (Still) Broken Promises protest in Nelson on June 22nd. Protesters are frustrated because they believe promises of old-growth protection and forestry reform have not been fully realized.
The protest was organized by Kootenay Forest Watch, an advocacy group based in Castlegar, in anticipation of a visit by Premier David Eby. Eby was expected to attend MLA Brittny Anderson’s birthday party on Monday evening. Protesters were disappointed when Premier Eby did not show up at the event.
Brittny Anderson cited an RCMP security assessment as the reason the Premier changed his plans. Corporal Parmbir Kahlon told Kootenay Co-op Radio the RCMP aren’t able to comment on the nature of “protective measures”.
The tone of the protest was one of deep care for the environment, but also mistrust in government commitments to forestry reform. In particular, protesters expressed concern around an expansion in BC Timber Sales’ ability to undertake commercial thinning, salvage logging and wildfire-risk reduction projects. They argue the changes could prioritize timber harvesting over conservation.
Opinions on MLA Brittny Anderson were mixed. Some protesters questioned her leadership on forestry issues, while others praised her efforts within government.
Dr. Rachel Holt, a conservation biologist, was attending the MLA’s birthday party. She came outside to greet the protesters and deliver an impassioned speech.
“…And British Columbia is one of the last places on Earth where you can see the full complement of species, processes, movements of animals and water. And we had caribou behind our house, and now we do not. Because we have royally messed up management of the land here. And we were promised change. And we have not seen that change. We see perpetual lying about the promised change…we have had a chance here to do the right thing. To actually put the Earth and the people who depend on the Earth, first. This government said in their draft Biodiversity Health Framework that the ecosystems of this province and the people that depend on them are at extreme high risk. And we are going to do something about that, that’s why we all voted for this government. And we believed that they were going to do something, but they have fully reverted back to the idea that timber volume is king,it’s the only thing that we’re going to fully prioritize, …and we have not moved forward. Good things started to happen. But they have been stalled because people get scared about money, and they lose faith. We need our leaders to be leaders. They need to provide us with a path forward that can work.”
Suzanne Simard, Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia echoed these concerns. She also stressed that the lack of forestry reform is what she sees as simply a “failure of imagination”.
We have on Haida Gwaii, for example, the richest carbon pools in the world. In the world! And we’re cutting them down, and our government is subsidizing the cutting of them down and sending them to be pulped, on Vancouver Island. Yes, it’s ridiculous, like, what kind of a forest policy is that? And these ecosystems around here are these, you know our Interior Cedar-Hemlock ecosystems, where the caribou live where the grizzlies live where we live, we’re cutting them down. For what? And you know, it’s, I say, it’s a failure of imagination that we have not figured out a different way than cutting down forests. Can’t we value our ecosystems for what they’re worth? And you know what you look around the world, and it’s happening everywhere, except here. It’s happening elsewhere. What is it about our economy that’s so tied to timber? Right, you look at Costa Rica. Costa Rica decided that they were going to invest in ecosystem services, biodiversity, carbon stocks, water, and they’ve increased their forest cover from 20 to 60 percent in the last two decades.
Crowd – I want that here!
We want that here!
Simard says she is not anti-logging, and the argument the protesters are making is more nuanced.
I’m not anti-logging. In fact, I’ve written a whole book called When the Forest Breathes that just came out, that illustrates that we can actually do some logging and, and um protect forest values, protect water, protect biodiversity. It has to be done well. Selective logging can be done in certain places, so that we can make an economy, but we can also make an economy on other values like biodiversity and carbon and water. Other jurisdictions around the world are doing this, and why aren’t we doing it? We have some of the best, richest forests in the world, and we’re just cutting them down like they’re worth nothing, practically. We’re just relying on these old dinosaur technologies and economies that just don’t work for us as British Columbians.”
Another concern that conservationists and activists are citing is the perceived threat of possible commercial logging in provincial parks. Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar stated in an interview with Kootenay Co-op Radio in May that he holds no jurisdiction over BC’s provincial parks. Despite these reassurances, suspicion among environmental activists remains high.
“In the organization Save What’s Left society, they have been putting out comments that somehow this is going to lead to harvesting in provincial parks. That is categorically false and completely misleading. I don’t govern the provincial park system. I’m not responsible for the parks act, the only person responsible for the parks is the minister of Environment and parks…”
Parmar doesn’t govern the park system, but the Crown Land Wildfire Risk Reduction program is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Forests, BC Parks and other agencies. Some conservationists say this overlap raises questions about the degree of influence the forestry ministry could have over activities carried out in protected areas.
Amber Peters, a wildlife & inland temperate rainforest conservation biologist expressed these concerns at the protest. Peters also questioned the areas the province has chosen to designate as parks, and whether they represent the highest biodiversity and climate resilience on the landscape.
They gave us some parks back in the day. Most of them are high elevation rock and ice. They left out the valley bottoms, because that was the easiest logging that was saved for the logging companies.
The really high biodiversity is in this rich valley bottom, old-growth rainforest, and this is a globally rare ecosystem that only exists in three places on Earth, and we have significant areas still that remain, but they’re being logged right now. So the Duncan ancient forest up on the Duncan River and Duncan Reservoir is within our Selkirk Mountains Ancient Forest Park Proposal, and they’re logging all around this right now. all around this ancient forest, that’s been growing since the end of the Ice Age. There is no sign that this forest has ever burned in 12 000 years…Don’t we want to save some refuges like this? Some wet, cool forest where, where our, our lichens, and our fungi and all of these species can hopefully just take shelter while we’re going through this incredible time of change that is accelerating, I think we’re just gettin started with the change that we’re going to see. And these very cool, low elevation rainforest areas sheltered by tall mountains are going to be what we really have to safehold our biodiversity…Our old-growth forests are proven resilient by their age. They have withstood all kinds of changes and pests and disease, and they still stand tall and strong, and they’re our best bet to preserve biodiversity into the future.
Peters also challenges the rationale behind the practice of salvage logging. The BC government defines salvage logging as “the harvest of dead and/or dying timber, trees which have been damaged or infested with insects and will die within one year; and logging residue.”
And I see these loggers on Facebook.…And they say, well, they’re just those trees are going to fall over anyway, like, get them before they fall, right? But when I go in there and I see a 1500 year old cedar tree falling over. Well, it’s hollow on the inside. You know that coyotes are sleeping in there, bobcats are sleeping inside the hollow tree trunk. It’s made a bridge across the river and wildlife are using it as a bridge. They’re using it as a highway to get through the spiky devil’s club. It’s a feeding station for insects, the fungi that grow feed the ungulates. It is doing, I think, far more after having fallen than it was even doing when it was standing. We can’t begin to think that we can do a better job than this. This is ancient wisdom.”
The Ministry of Forests will host public engagement opportunities in Nelson in the coming weeks.
