Forest Practices in British Columbia

BC’s forest practices are putting us all at risk of increased temperatures, wildfires, flooding and loss of biodiversity

Significantly British Columbia has a very high number of large clear cuts. BC has a higher rate of deforestation compared with the Amazon and our forest practices and standards are certainly nowhere near sustainable.

Herbicide spraying

Logging companies in BC are required to keep competitive species at bay. Each year about 10,000 hectares are sprayed with herbicides. Consequently people are becoming more concerned about the effects of glyphosate exposure and spraying of berry and medicine patches important to First Nations people.

Please see the Stop the Spray petitions below to stop herbicide spraying of forests (Calls to Action) .

BC Timber Sales

BC Timber Sales manages about 20 per cent of the province’s allowable annual cut for “Crown” (mainly unceded First Nations’ territory) timber and they are doing an incredibly poor job of managing forests under their care.

Raw log exports

British Columbia currently exports a large number of raw logs rather than process them here as timber in BC resulting in significant job losses and deforestation. However by preserving old growth and limiting raw log exports we can protect both old growth and jobs.

Wasteful forest practices

Forestry practices in BC are extremely wasteful, slash piles lay abandoned while trees are cut for the wood pellet industry for biomass burning. Better use of abandoned slash could be used for wood pellets while protecting forests from the growing biomass industry.

Salvage logging

Salvage logging is marketed as the answer to burned or forests or dead trees as way to ‘prevent’ wildfires but is it?

“One of the major concerns with salvage logging, is the site disturbance caused by the heavy equipment that both disturbs and compacts the soil, which inhibits natural regeneration and often results in erosion and damage to streams. Logging requires additional roads and skid trails to be built that permanently remove land for the forest landbase and pose threats to wildlife. As well, logging can encourage the growth of weeds and invasive species.” From Shuswap Passion – Shuswap’s burnt forests – to log or not to log?

WATCH: Conservation North’s webinar Gaming the ecosystem: The truth about salvage logging