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25 years after the Clayoquot Sound protests, Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth rainforest is still disappearing

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August 2018

While many of BC’s trees are going up in flames, the most resilient provincial forests that are less prone to fire – intact old-growth rainforests – continue to be clearcut in most parts of the province.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the historic Clayoquot Sound mass arrest, a new Sierra Club BC map and data show more than 30 percent of Vancouver Island’s remaining productive old-growth rainforest in 1993 was destroyed in just the last twenty-five years. Only about a fifth remains intact.

Many British Columbians and people around the world believe to this day that the Clayoquot Sound protests resulted in a massive victory for rainforest protection for the whole province. But the reality is different. The protests improved the fate of the rainforest in Clayoquot Sound but not for most other parts of the province. The other ninety per cent of Vancouver Island was relentlessly logged, with severe impacts on coastal economies.

Recently, Sierra Club BC campaigner Jens Wieting did an aerial tour of southern Vancouver Island to photograph the destruction. The footage highlights how much of the Island has been logged since the historic Clayoquot protests 25 years ago. More photos can be seen online here:

Explore photos

In 1993, sixty per cent of the rainforest in the Clayoquot Sound region – the territory of the Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht and Hesquiaht First Nations – was still intact. Although only part of the region (seventeen per cent) received formal protection after the protests, the vast majority of its old-growth rainforest remains intact today. First Nations have gained greater decision making power and are engaged in planning to determine long term land use designations.

But the situation couldn’t be more different across the remainder of Vancouver Island. There, only twenty-nine per cent of intact productive old-growth rainforest remained in 1993 and this number is now reduced to a shocking nineteen per cent. The amount protected remains dismal at less than six per cent.

The protests in Clayoquot Sound, led by Indigenous leaders and supported by thousands of concerned citizens, made international headlines as the largest act of civil disobedience in the history of Canada. August 9, 1993 is considered a peak date of the protests with more than 300 people arrested (out of a total of more than 900 arrested).

As a result of the protests, the BC government had to change course and give up its plan to allow logging of the majority of the region’s old-growth rainforest. In 2017, the Ahousaht First Nation announced a land use vision seeking Indigenous protected areas for the majority of their territory.

The destruction of BC’s globally rare, endangered old-growth rainforests threatens biodiversity, Indigenous cultural values, carbon storage and other environmental services, and a diverse economy. BC’s temperate rainforests represent the largest remaining tracts of a globally rare ecosystem covering just half a per cent of the planet’s landmass. When left intact, they are also considered relatively resilient and less vulnerable to climate impacts such as fire and insect outbreaks compared to other forests.

Yet the current rate of old-growth logging on Vancouver Island alone is more than three square metres per second, equivalent to the area of nearly two soccer fields per hour.

The NDP’s 2017 election platform included a commitment to act for old-growth, promising to take “an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.” But one year into taking power the BC government has not yet taken any meaningful steps to protect endangered coastal and inland old-growth ecosystems outside the Great Bear Rainforest.

The province has still not committed concrete support to the Ahousaht and other First Nations on Vancouver Island who are seeking long term solutions to save the remaining unprotected old-growth rainforest.

It’s time for the provincial government to step up. Please call on Forests Minister Doug Donaldson to protect the last ancient stands of Vancouver Island.

Send a letter

You can also phone Doug Donaldson’s office to register your support for protecting old-growth forests:

Call now

All photos by Jens Wieting

On Clayoquot Sound anniversary, Sierra Club BC map shows more than 30 per cent of Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth rainforest destroyed since protests

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

August 9, 2018

While many of BC’s trees are going up in flames, the most resilient provincial forests that are less prone to fire – intact old-growth rainforests – continue to be clearcut in most parts of the province. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the historic Clayoquot Sound mass arrest, a new Sierra Club BC map and data show more than thirty per cent of Vancouver Island’s remaining productive old-growth rainforest in 1993 was destroyed in just the last twenty-five years. Only about a fifth remains intact.

“Many British Columbians and people around the world believe to this day that the Clayoquot Sound protests resulted in a massive victory for rainforest protection for the whole province. But the reality is different,” said Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club BC. “The protests improved the fate of the rainforest in Clayoquot Sound but not for most other parts of the province. The other ninety per cent of Vancouver Island was relentlessly logged, with severe impacts on coastal economies.”

In 1993, sixty per cent of the rainforest in the Clayoquot Sound region – the territory of the Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht and Hesquiaht First Nations – was still intact. Although only part of the region (seventeen per cent) received formal protection after the protests, the vast majority of its old-growth rainforest remains intact today. First Nations have gained greater decision making power and are engaged in planning to determine long term land use designations.

But the situation couldn’t be more different across the remainder of Vancouver Island. There, only twenty-nine per cent of intact productive old-growth rainforest remained in 1993 and this number is now reduced to a shocking nineteen per cent. The amount protected remains dismal at less than six per cent.

The protests in Clayoquot Sound, led by Indigenous leaders and supported by thousands of concerned citizens, made international headlines as the largest act of civil disobedience in the history of Canada. August 9, 1993 is considered a peak date of the protests with more than 300 people arrested (out of a total of more than 900 arrested). As a result of the protests, the BC government had to change course and give up its plan to allow logging of the majority of the region’s old-growth rainforest. In 2017, the Ahousaht First Nation announced a land use vision seeking Indigenous protected areas for the majority of their territory.

“Clayoquot Sound is a forest oasis in the troubled landscape of Vancouver Island,” said Valerie Langer, one of the leading figures of the Clayoquot protests of 1993. “In one small region, most of the old-growth still exists and conservation solutions continue to drive toward ever better outcomes. But across the vast majority of the Island, the old-growth is mostly gone and the data shows that an antiquated mindset is driving the remaining forests over the edge. It’s time for provincial leaders to finally step up to the plate and support solutions for forests across the Island and the province.”

The destruction of BC’s globally rare, endangered old-growth rainforests threatens biodiversity, Indigenous cultural values, carbon storage and other environmental services, and a diverse economy. BC’s temperate rainforests represent the largest remaining tracts of a globally rare ecosystem covering just half a per cent of the planet’s landmass. When left intact, they are also considered relatively resilient and less vulnerable to climate impacts such as fire and insect outbreaks compared to other forests. Yet the current rate of old-growth logging on Vancouver Island alone is more than three square metres per second, equivalent to the area of nearly two soccer fields per hour.

The NDP’s 2017 election platform included a commitment to act for old-growth, promising to take “an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.” But one year into taking power the BC government has not yet taken any meaningful steps to protect endangered coastal and inland old-growth ecosystems outside the Great Bear Rainforest. The province has still not committed concrete support to the Ahousaht and other First Nations on Vancouver Island who are seeking long term solutions to save the remaining unprotected old-growth rainforest.

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Editors/Producers:

Recent aerial photographs of clearcut logging on Vancouver Island: https://www.flickr.com/photos/94279740@N07/sets/72157698359993961

Map showing Vancouver Island old-growth rainforest logging 1993-2018: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/VI_25_Years_of_Logging-1.pdf

Data table showing loss of productive coastal old-growth temperate rainforest and levels of protection on Vancouver Island and Clayoquot Sound: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/Clayoquot-Sound-Anniversary-Data-Table_SCBC.pdf

 

Media Contacts:

Jens Wieting

Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner

Sierra Club BC

(604)354-5312

 

Valerie Langer

(604)307-6448

223 scientists call for rainforest protection as BC government auctions off more old-growth cutblocks

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June 2018

Sierra Club BC is calling on the BC government to listen to the 223 international scientists who sent a letter to the province this week asking for urgent action to protect BC’s remaining coastal and inland temperate rainforest.

Their call for action is a stark reminder that BC’s temperate old-growth rainforests are a global treasure and a global responsibility.

There is no other place on this planet where intact tracts of rainforest with unique ecological and cultural values of this kind still exist. The experts are urging the provincial government to follow through on the promise made during last year’s election to use the ecosystem-based management approach implemented in the Great Bear Rainforest to safeguard all of British Columbia’s endangered coastal and inland old-growth rainforest.

A recently released Sierra Club BC map entitled State of Vancouver Island’s Coastal Temperate Rainforest shows with in-depth detail the scarce remaining endangered old-growth rainforest ecosystems and recent old-growth destruction on Vancouver Island.

The loss of primary forests largely undisturbed by human activity is threatening biodiversity, carbon storage and environmental services. Species that depend on old-growth forests will not survive as the majority of the island is increasingly covered by young, even-aged forests that are clearcut in short rotation forestry.

Meanwhile, the BC government continues to design and auction old-growth cutblocks in some of the last remaining relatively intact rainforest valleys on Vancouver Island—with public money!

Southern Vancouver Island clearcuts. Photo by TJ Watt.

This is under the direction of BC Timber Sales, a government-owned agency. BCTS is also responsible for hundreds of hectares of fresh old-growth clearcuts in the Nahmint Valley, near Port Alberni—including the cutting one of Canada’s largest Douglas firs, in May.

And BCTS will soon be responsible for even more irreparable damage. Sierra Club BC’s Mark Worthing recently returned from a field assessment in the Tsitika landscape of Northern Vancouver Island in Tlowitsis-Ma’amtagila territory. He saw fresh roads and cutblocks slated for imminent logging in Schmidt Creek. This area is home to rare and spectacular ancient forests. This is bad enough because Vancouver Island’s old-growth is already so scarce.

But it gets worse: logging in this valley could spell disaster for globally unique orca rubbing beaches. Logging-triggered sediment or a landslide could cause irreparable damage to these beaches that northern resident orcas use for rubbing themselves – in rather the same way humans use a massage parlour.

It’s outrageous that our tax dollars are supporting this destruction of the last remaining old-growth on Vancouver Island – instead of speeding up the badly needed transition to sustainable second-growth forestry under improved logging regulation. Business as usual will result in both ecological and economic disaster, without an orderly transition and safeguarding intact forests as a basis for a diverse economy.

BC Timber Sales has supported solutions in the Great Bear Rainforest and the province must direct the agency to work toward conservation solutions across the province.

Please take five minutes to call BC’s forests minister and tell him it’s time for BC Timber Sales to stop allowing endangered ancient forests to be cut:

CALL NOW

Feature image courtesy of Conservation North

Sierra Club BC: International scientists’ letter a wake-up call for protection of British Columbia’s endangered temperate rainforests

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 28, 2018

Sierra Club BC said today that the BC government should listen to the 223 international scientists who released a letter to the province regarding the management of BC’s forests. The letter highlights the need for urgent and immediate action to protect the globally unique ecological values of BC’s remaining primary and intact coastal and inland temperate rainforest.

“This call for action from 223 scientists is a stark international reminder that BC’s temperate old-growth rainforests are a global treasure and a global responsibility. There is no other place on this planet where intact tracts of rainforest of this kind still exist. They represent a unique ecological and cultural legacy. Their ongoing destruction must be stopped today, not tomorrow,” said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC’s senior forest and climate campaigner.

“These experts have studied what is happening in BC and the science is clear. British Columbia has inspired the world with the conservation agreements for the Great Bear Rainforest. But across more than 90 per cent of the province, logging continues like there is no tomorrow, with insufficient conservation and regulation.”

The experts are urging the provincial government to follow through on the promise made during last year’s election to use the ecosystem-based management approach implemented in the Great Bear Rainforest to safeguard British Columbia’s endangered old-growth rainforest.

BC’s temperate rainforests represent the largest remaining tracts of a globally rare ecosystem covering just 0.5 per cent of the planet’s landmass. Yet the current rate of old-growth logging on Vancouver Island alone is more than 3 square metres per second, more than 10,000 hectares per year.

A recently released Sierra Club BC map entitled “State of Vancouver Island’s Coastal Temperate Rainforest” shows with in-depth detail the scarce remaining endangered old-growth rainforest ecosystems and recent old-growth destruction on Vancouver Island.

The Sierra Club BC map shows that the remaining 218,000 hectares of the most endangered low-elevation old-growth rainforest with the biggest trees and highest carbon storage per hectare (good and medium productivity forest) now only cover 6.5 per cent of the island.

The loss of primary forests largely undisturbed by human activity is threatening biodiversity, carbon storage and environmental services. Species that depend on old-growth forests will not survive as the majority of the island is increasingly covered by young, even-aged forests that are clearcut in short rotation forestry.

The scientists’ letter and their press release can be found at: https://www.forestlegacies.org/press-room/1422-scientists-call-for-protecting-bc-temperate-rainforests

Sierra Club BC’s “State of Vancouver Island’s Coastal Temperate Rainforest” map can be found at:
https://sierraclub.bc.ca/white-rhino-map-shows-vancouver-islands-most-endangered-old-growth-rainforests

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Contact:

Jens Wieting | Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner | Sierra Club BC
C: (604) 354-5312

Old-growth logging: A threat to orca whales?

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There’s a new threat to orca whales on BC’s coast, and it’s probably not what you think.

Old-growth logging? But how can that be?

It turns out that BC’s northern resident orcas have a long and important cultural tradition of rubbing themselves on certain beaches on northern Vancouver Island. According to one expert, it’s a fun social activity that is rather like visiting a massage parlour. Amazing, right?

But the beaches that these sensitive, highly intelligent creatures visit to rub themselves are threatened by old-growth logging. BC Timber Sales (BCTS) has plans for old-growth logging and road-building in the Schmidt Creek watershed, which could lead to increasing sediment deliver and even landslides that could be disastrous for these unique rubbing beaches.

Not one watershed on eastern Vancouver Island is fully protected, yet the BC government continues to enable logging of endangered old-growth forests at a rate of three square meters per second. Will the risk of losing unique orca whale rubbing beaches be enough to convince this government to take action for endangered old-growth?

The Schmidt Creek watershed, near Johnstone Straight on northern Vancouver Island, was subject to a logging moratorium from 1992-97 due to concerns about logging practices increasing sediment delivery and impacts on the adjacent orca rubbing beaches, most likely affecting the condition of the gravels that the orcas are drawn to. A provincial report from 2003 about the rubbing beaches stated “given the nearly unique use of the beach by killer whales, management of the area should be cautious.”

Dr. Paul Spong from Orcalab is concerned about the proposed logging operations:

“These orca rubbing beaches are a vitally important cultural tradition unique to this community of whales,” said Dr. Spong. “We’ve been concerned about declining quality of rubbing beaches in this area for a number of years, and feel the risks involved in logging of the Schmidt Creek watershed are simply too great to allow the logging to proceed. If a landslide occurs, it could be disastrous for the rubbing beaches.”

Whales only use beaches with specific characteristics for rubbing and impacts on the watershed, such as increased sediment load as a result of logging or road construction, would likely lead to the loss of these characteristics.

Rubbing beaches location map

As Dr. Paul Spong says, “the rubbing beaches are vitally important to the orcas because their use reflects a very long tradition of the orcas of the Northern Resident Community. It’s a cultural tradition that is many generations long and is unique to this community. They are one of the attractions that draw the orcas back to the Johnstone Strait year after year (the others are fish and company). Quite often when the orcas come into Johnstone Strait, they make a beeline for the rubbing beaches. The beaches were included in the Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve when it was created in 1982 as a recognition of their importance to the orcas.”

He has witnessed this over 30 years that he’s been observing the orca whales. “The orcas’ use of the beaches is very much a social activity,” says Dr. Spong. “Rubbing usually happens in groups, and in past years when there were more groups coming into Johnstone Strait, they used to line up taking turns to rub, kind of like aircrcraft lining up on a runway.  We think rubbing is a lot of fun for them, a bit like visiting a massage parlour, and it is quite often accompanied by unusual vocalisations.”

Sierra Club BC is calling on the BC government to direct government-owned BC Timber Sales (BCTS) to hold off plans for old-growth logging and road-building in the Schmidt Creek watershed because of very high conservation values, including proximity to these unique rubbing beaches.

The BC Timber Sales plan shows a string of five blocks to be advertised for sale in 2018, amounting to 221 hectares of old-growth. The majority of the roadbuilding and logging in Schmidt Creek is planned on steep slopes and will result in risk of landslides, a danger made worse by increasingly severe extreme weather due to climate change.

A September 2017 Forest Practices Board (FPB) report ‘Resource Road Construction in Steep Terrain’ (special investigation) investigated operational issues on steep slopes that lead to erosion and landslides. The report found only 38 percent (10 of 26) road segments examined “met all the criteria for a safe and environmentally sound road and overall resulted in good practices.”

Sierra Club BC’s State of Old-Growth on BC’s Southern Coast map

Sierra Club BC mapping shows that together with the adjacent Lower Tsitika River Provincial Park, this watershed forms one of the few remaining relatively intact old-growth areas on Vancouver Island.

Logging Schmidt Creek would put at risk not just the orca whales, but also one of the few remaining relatively intact old-growth areas providing habitat for old-growth dependent species such as marbled murrelets and northern goshawk that are at very high risk of extirpation across large parts of the island. The province announced increased habitat protection for these two species in February, however, with a timeline of 5 -7 years, these steps would come too late to set aside not yet identified habitat in Schmidt Creek.

The BC government promised to take action for old-growth. Yet while we wait for a sign that they intend to keep their promise, we are losing endangered old-growth rainforest at a rate of two soccer fields per hour.

The Schmidt Creek logging proposal is a dramatic example of the need for the BC government to modernize land-use plans for Vancouver Island working with First Nations to determine long-term, science-based protection options, and interim protection for endangered rainforest hotspots in the meantime; and to use government control of BC Timber Sales (BCTS) to quickly phase out issuing timber sales in endangered old-growth forests.

Sierra Club BC shared these concerns with the Nanwakolas Council in early March and welcomes their initiative to send conservation stewards to take a closer look at the risk for the beaches in April.

Video footage of orca rubbing, courtesy of Orcalab:

Orca Rubbing Footage 1

Orca Rubbing Footage 2

 

Feature image: Orcalab

“White Rhino” map shows Vancouver Island’s most endangered old-growth rainforests

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March 2018

People who support protection of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island now have a new tool for taking action in their communities.

Sierra Club BC’s new State of Vancouver Island’s Coastal Temperate Rainforest map shows with in-depth detail the scarce remaining endangered old-growth rainforest ecosystems and recent old-growth destruction on Vancouver Island. The map is available for download or in print to support local and First Nation governments and concerned citizens engaging with the provincial government and industry to protect what little old-growth is left on the Island.

You can download a high-resolution version of the map here or contact jens@sierraclub.bc.ca to request a hard copy.

Download map

Taking a look at this map and the ecological hit this island has taken, you would be forgiven for thinking this is Madagascar or Sumatra or another part of the world known for rapid destruction of biological richness. These endangered old-growth stands are becoming as rare as white rhinos.

Sierra Club BC has shared maps, data and recommendations with the new BC government but has not yet seen meaningful funding tied to protecting old-growth in the 2018 budget. In the absence of leadership by the provincial government, it is up to local and Indigenous governments, businesses and concerned citizens to step up and insist the most endangered old-growth rainforest stands are spared from the chainsaws.

Photo: Jens Wieting

BC’s temperate rainforests represent the largest remaining tracts of a globally rare ecosystem covering just 0.5 percent of the planet’s landmass. Yet the current rate of old-growth logging on Vancouver Island is more than 3 square meters a second, more than 10,000 hectares per year.

Our mapping show immediate steps are needed to protect the most endangered old-growth forest, combined with support for Indigenous-led land use planning and long term jobs in second-growth forestry.

It’s time to move beyond this mindset of short term profit that leaves communities with scarred landscapes, lost species, a damaged environment and reduced opportunities for diverse economic activities such as tourism and recreation.

Send a letter to help defend old-growth forests

The Sierra Club BC map shows that the remaining 218,000 hectares of the most endangered low-elevation old-growth rainforest with the biggest trees and highest carbon storage per hectare (good and medium productivity forest) now only cover 6.4 percent of the Island. When including poorer productivity old-growth (ecosystems with smaller trees), about one quarter of the island remains covered by old-growth forest.  The map also shows the 88,000 hectares of old-growth rainforest logged between 2006 – 2016 (2.6 percent of the island, equivalent to 220 Stanley Parks, an area larger than Greater Victoria) as well as the 132,000 hectares of second-growth logged in the same period (3.9 percent of the Island).

The loss of primary forests largely undisturbed by human activity is threatening biodiversity, carbon storage and environmental services. Species that depend on old-growth forests will not survive as increasingly the majority of the Island is covered by young, even aged forests that are clearcut in short rotation forestry.

The mandate letter for Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson calls for sustainable management of BC’s old-growth forests, but it remains unclear what steps the province is planning to take to protect endangered coastal and inland old-growth ecosystems.

Sierra Club BC is calling for immediate action by the provincial government to protect and restore endangered coastal rainforest ecosystems, before intensifying climate impacts like drought, wildfires and storms coupled with destructive logging practices further exacerbate pressure on ecosystems.

Find out more about the state of coastal rainforests by downloading the new Sierra Club BC map State of Vancouver Island’s Coastal Temperate Rainforest now.

Take action to defend old-growth forests

Feature image: Travis McLachlan

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