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Sierra Club BC reacts to expert old-growth report showing B.C.’s ancient giants logged to the brink

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 4, 2020

An independent scientists’ report released today—B.C.’s Old-Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity—shows in detail how shockingly little is left of B.C.’s most endangered old-growth forests, in particular those with very big trees. Of the little that remains, only a small fraction is protected from logging.

“This report shows that things are worse than we thought for B.C.’s ancient giants,” said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC’s forest and climate campaigner. “These big old and ancient trees existed for thousands of years and 100 years of industrial logging has cut all but three percent. Every natural system has a breaking point and we have reached it.”

Sierra Club BC supports the report authors in calling on the B.C. government to ‘stop the bleed’ and ‘immediately place a moratorium on logging in ecosystems and landscapes with very little old forest.’

“Only about 35,000 hectares of old-growth forests with very big old trees remain across the province, and only a portion have effective protection. We are losing a legacy and all the environmental services that these forests provide for community and human health,” said Wieting. “It is unconscionable that the last remaining big old trees are still being logged as a result of what the report authors call ‘loopholes, gaming, arithmetic errors and simple lack of monitoring.’”

The authors also found that many old-growth management areas, created to protect old-growth forests, do not actually contain old forest.

“In B.C. we have these globally unique old-growth forest ecosystems and our analysis shows they are almost at their endpoint,” said Dr. Rachel Holt, one of the scientists who wrote the report together with Dr. Karen Price and Dave Daust. “We wrote this report under our own steam because government information was either misleading or not making it out to the public. The current management approach utterly fails to protect the ecological health of productive old-growth. We need to change our approach and manage for resilience—for communities, jobs and ecosystems—and not wait to transition until the last big old trees are gone”

“These scientists have painted a stark picture and the fate of these big ancient trees is in our hands. The B.C. government has the opportunity to make conservation and environmental restoration a cornerstone of the COVID-19 economic recovery with a vision for healthy communities, healthy ecosystems and preventing future disasters,” said Wieting. “Investing in forest conservation and improved forestry will create long-term jobs, support the health and wellbeing of B.C. residents, and defend our communities from climate impacts like flooding and drought. This can be accomplished through support for Indigenous-led conservation solutions, ecosystem restoration, investments in government stewardship and a shift to ecoforestry.”

The report’s detailed analysis for all types of provincial forests shows that forests with big old trees never covered more than about ten percent of B.C.’s total forest cover (approximately 50 million hectares, more than half of the province). Only about eight percent (approximately 415,000 hectares) of the original extent of these intact forests with big trees remain as old-growth today across the province. In the case of those forests with very big old trees, only about three percent remain today (approximately 35,000 hectares).

Intact old-growth forests are more resilient than degraded forests and can best protect communities from climate impacts like water shortage, flooding, extreme rainfall and the dangers of landslides identified in B.C.’s 2019 Climate Risk Assessment Report.

The provincial government has opportunities to protect old-growth forests through COVID-19 economic recovery initiatives, logging moratoria, the creation of new protected areas, and amendments to provincial forestry laws and regulations that restore the ecological integrity of B.C.’s forests and close loopholes. Old-growth forests can also be protected by enacting a science-based old-growth strategy in response to the provincial old-growth panel review and implementing an endangered species act.

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B.C.’s Old-Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/bcs-old-growth-forest-a-last-stand-for-biodiversity-report-2020.pdf

 

Media contact:

Jens Wieting
Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner, Sierra Club BC 
604-354-5312 
jens@sierraclub.bc.ca

 

Photo: TJ Watt/Ancient Forest Alliance

Report finds ending clearcutting of forests is as important for B.C. climate action as phasing out fossil fuels

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B.C. clearcuts releasing more carbon than they absorb form a total area larger than Vancouver Island

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

December 12, 2019

For British Columbia, phasing out clearcutting—particularly in old-growth forests—with a transition to reformed forestry that prioritizes ecosystem services is as important for climate action as phasing out the use of all fossil fuels. This is the key finding of a new report and map by Sierra Club BC about the future of forests in B.C. that highlights the full impact of clearcut logging on climate change.

Areas clearcut across B.C. between 2005 and 2017 total 3.6 million hectares, a combined area larger than Vancouver Island. These areas—more than 1.9 million hectares of logged old-growth and close to 1.7 million hectares of logged second-growth—are “sequestration dead zones”: clearcut lands that release more carbon than they absorb.

For thirteen years after clearcutting, the carbon released into the atmosphere from decomposing organic matter and exposed soils is more than the carbon captured by the growth of young trees. In other words, it takes thirteen years for young trees to have a net effect of capturing carbon. In the meantime, clearcut areas remain “sequestration dead zones.”

“At a time when we urgently need to be reducing all forms of carbon pollution to defend our communities from the climate crisis, clearcut logging in B.C. is making the problem notably worse,” said Sierra Club BC’s senior forest and climate campaigner Jens Wieting and author of the report. “We can only have a stable climate if we protect intact forests, and we can only sustain intact forests if we stabilize the climate. Both are only possible if we reform forestry and give up clearcutting.”

According to the latest provincial data, annual emissions from logging are 42 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂). In addition, B.C. loses the carbon capture potential of the forests that are clearcut. Sierra Club BC’s analysis shows that, because of clearcutting, more than 26 million tonnes of CO₂ per year remain in the atmosphere that could have been removed had the forests not been clearcut. Taken together, the combined negative impacts of clearcut logging in B.C. on the climate are greater than officially reported provincial carbon emissions, which are about 65 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, primarily from burning fossil fuels. This makes ending clearcutting as important for provincial climate action as phasing out fossil fuels.

Yet forest emissions are largely ignored because they are not counted as part of B.C.’s official emissions in provincial greenhouse gas inventories.

Based on the 2018 Special Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), all jurisdictions must reduce by half emissions from all sources by 2030 to have a reasonable chance of preventing catastrophic global heating.

“Business as usual in forests will worsen the climate crisis,” said Wieting. “By clearcutting old-growth and older forests, we’re fuelling more global heating. We’re putting at risk the future of communities, the forests that remain standing and current and future forestry jobs. It’s not too late for the B.C. government to reform forestry laws so that forest stewardship helps in tackling the climate crisis.”

Sierra Club BC is calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and a funding shift towards forest conservation and improved forest management. Action is urgently needed before worsening climate impacts coupled with destructive logging practices further intensify pressure on ecosystems. Sierra Club BC’s recommendations are to:

  • Protect and restore endangered old-growth forest ecosystems through forestry law reform, modernized land use plans and new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs);
  • Restore government capacity for monitoring and research, investment in restoration of intact forests and reforestation; and
  •  Support communities and companies that want to improve forest management and value-added wood products, creating more jobs and less damage per cubic metre of wood. Forests can be harvested selectively in a manner that reduces carbon losses to a minimum or retains more carbon in forests.

Globally, old-growth forests in B.C. are among the ecosystems with the highest carbon storage per hectare, and with the biggest and oldest trees.

“As the 25th UN climate summit ends this week, B.C. is maintaining its unfortunate reputation as the Brazil of the North. It’s turning Canada’s world class temperate rainforests from the coast to the interior into a Swiss cheese pattern of clearcuts at a time when the world needs global leadership on forest protections to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement,” said Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D, President and Chief Scientist of the Geos Institute in Ashland, Oregon.

“Local governments across Canada are reducing their emissions as quickly as possible. But given how much climate change will cost us, we also need to address the growing carbon losses and impacts that come from bad forestry practices,” said Rik Logtenberg, Nelson city councillor and chair of the Climate Caucus, a network of 240 elected local leaders across Canada. “Clearcutting the forests that surround our communities can have serious impacts on watersheds, dirtying drinking water and putting us at greater risk from flooding, landslides, droughts and wildfire. We need provincial leadership to reduce all emissions, including those from forestry, and we need reformed forestry laws to protect and restore forests as a natural defence against climate change.”

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Clearcut Carbon: A Sierra Club BC report on the future of forests in British Columbia (full report and executive summary): www.sierraclub.bc.ca/clearcutcarbon

Editors/Producers: Photo and video footage of old-growth forests and forest destruction is located at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ie48VmdMwCcVS9Q6GqbTDzxao_Fq1zUY

 

For media inquiries:

Jens Wieting, Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner, Sierra Club BC
604-354-5312
jens@sierraclub.bc.ca

Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, President and Chief Scientist, Geos Institute
541-621-7223
dominick@geosinstitute.org

Rik Logtenberg, Nelson City Councillor and Chair, Climate Caucus
250-551-0420
rik@climatecaucus.ca

 

Photo: TJ Watt/Ancient Forest Alliance

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