{"id":13711,"date":"2020-10-07T16:10:25","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T20:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=13711"},"modified":"2020-10-08T17:45:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T21:45:14","slug":"election-2020-towards-a-more-sustainable-forestry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/election-2020-towards-a-more-sustainable-forestry\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2020: Towards a more sustainable forestry"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n

A\u00a0recent study found that about 3% of our forests are composed of the giant trees\u00a0<\/a>that most people think of as old growth, yet they are still being logged on Vancouver Island. At the same time, young second and third growth trees, with a high percentage of sapwood, are also being marketed.\u00a0Yet forestry workers are losing jobs.\u00a0What light can the candidates in this election shed upon the path towards a more sustainable forestry?<\/p>\n

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\"Towards<\/a>

photo credit:\u00a0\u201cCoast Douglas-fir in Vancouver 1887\u201d by William McFarlane Notman \u2013\u00a0This image is available from the\u00a0McCord Museum\u00a0under the access number\u00a0VIEW-1803\u00a0& licensed under Public Domain via\u00a0Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

A seldom acknowledged problem: sapwood<\/h2>\n
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Heartwood vs Sapwood chart from David Shipway, Quality Forestry always takes time<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

As\u00a0David Shipway<\/a>, a local builder and Vice President of the\u00a0Cortes Community Forest Cooperative<\/a>\u00a0explained in a previous interview: \u201cSometimes you can use a mix of\u00a0heartwood<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0sapwood<\/a>\u00a0for visual effects, but only indoors where it is going to stay dry. It can be used as a visual feature in cabinetry because it is kind of interesting to have the two colours, but if you are building outdoor stuff you want to stay away from sapwood altogether. It\u2019s only got a few years and it\u2019s rotted. If you build a sundeck that has any sapwood in the cedar, that wood is rotten within five years \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Towaards<\/a>

Second growth trees being harvested . Note the yellow ring (sapwood) visible in each log. photo by Emily Hoffpauir, Wilderness Committee.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

It doesn\u2019t need to be that way<\/h2>\n

While\u00a0Green candidate<\/a>\u00a0Alexandra Morton<\/a>\u00a0was not available to comment, she has alluded to forestry crisis before: \u201cWe\u2019re living in an incredibly beautiful rich place, and yet we are running out of everything. We are running out of houses, we are running out of salmon; we\u2019re running out of trees. It doesn\u2019t need to be that way, if we plan for these things and work together on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Screenshot of our area from the University of Maryland website depicting the tree loss between 2000 and 2019. Each year is a different colour. Click on https:\/\/earthenginepartners.appspot.com\/science-2013-global-forest<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

6,000 jobs impacted<\/h2>\n

Given his many years in the industry,\u00a0BC Liberal<\/a>\u00a0candidate\u00a0Norm Facey<\/a>\u00a0may have some valuable insights. Forestry was among the questions I sent him.<\/p>\n

A member of his team emailed, \u201cWe respectively decline the offer as we prepare for other venues\u00a0. Several of the questions proposed have, or will\u00a0 be addressed\u00a0in other news venues by the NI team and\/or as part of the\u00a0 larger Liberal platform\u00a0news releases. They can be sourced online.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of these news releases<\/a>\u00a0claimed the forestry revenues have dropped over 40% since 2018 and 6,000 jobs have been impacted by shift reductions, curtailments and closures.<\/p>\n

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Data taken from Employment by Industry on the BC Government website, chart by Roy L Hales<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This press release stated, \u201cThe NDP-Green coalition has totally failed the resource industries that are the bedrock of our economy, leaving Interior and Northern communities adrift in the face of serious threats to our way of life \u2026 We are the only party standing up for rural BC, and the way of life that the NDP have written off and walked away from.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP Old Growth Management policy<\/h2>\n

NDP candidate\u00a0Michele Babchuk<\/a>\u00a0talked about the new policies her party is bringing forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0old growth management strategy<\/a>\u00a0that John Horgan\u2019s government passed in September 2020 specified that it would protect approximately 353,000 hectares of old growth forest. More importantly, it shows that our approach is a new and holistic one, that will protect old growth forests for British Columbians today and for future generations. It represents a break from the divisive practises of the past and brings together indigenous leaders and organizations, labour and environmental groups to find a path forward that protects biodiversity, while supporting jobs and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

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click on image above to access the study<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0Coast Forest Sector Revitalization<\/h2>\n

\u201cUnder the Liberal government, processing went down; harvesting went down; employment went down. The only thing that went up was raw log exports, but\u00a0 dovetailing on the old growth management strategy is the\u00a0Coast Forest Sector Revitalization<\/a>\u00a0that was launched in 2019. It speaks to building local processing into our policy and ensures that more fibre is available to domestic mills. It also speaks to sustainable forest practises.<\/p>\n

\u201cFormer Minister Doug Donaldson has said that we can no longer apply yesterday\u2019s thinking to today\u2019s challenges and that we need to shift our approach away from the status quo and create markets for fibre that until now has been left in harvest areas. Changes to waste policy will redirect some of the approximately\u00a0 two million cubic metres of waste wood on the coast. That is enough wood waste to fill 800 Olympic size swimming pools. It will be redirected to pulp and paper producers and the bioproducts in the bioengineering sector, supporting\u00a0Clean BC<\/a>\u2019s Bioenergy strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great start. We have achieved a lot and there is so much more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top photo credit: One of the old growth trees logged in the Nahmint Valley \u2013 Photo: TJ Watt<\/em><\/p>\n

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Image above compiled from photos submitted by the BC NDP party, BC Liberal party and BC Green party<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales A\u00a0recent study found that about 3% of our forests are composed of the giant trees\u00a0that most people think of as old growth, yet they are still being logged on Vancouver Island. At the same time, young second and third growth trees, with a high percentage of sapwood, are also being marketed.\u00a0Yet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":13718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[225],"tags":[1870,1936,1937,1935],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13711"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=13711"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=13711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}