Why the future of B.C.'s forests has become a huge election issue

Some British Columbians casting ballots in the upcoming election see the vote as a crossroads for the province's famed, massive old trees, its forests' flora and fauna, and its climate future.

In 2020, the province vowed to change the way trees were logged and biodiversity protected. Those close to the issue say delivering on that is more important than ever.

"This is a critical time, an important election," said Jens Wieting with the B.C. Sierra Club.

"We hope that voters in B.C. will reflect about the web of life, the forests in B.C.; the rights of Indigenous peoples. All of these things are connected."

In the lead up to the Oct. 19 election the Sierra Club has been touring cities and towns on Vancouver Island — an important centre of logging in B.C. that was also the location of the War in the Woods and the more recent Fairy Creek protests — with screenings of a unique documentary that follows forestry workers, conservationists and First Nations through their work in forests.

With no narrator, Silvicola aims to provide a non-judgmental account of how forests factor into many lives in different ways in B.C. and how things could change in the future to preserve biodiversity and jobs, and achieve reconciliation with First Nations.

Producer and director Jean-Philippe Marquis, a former tree planter, said he wants Silvicola to bring people together and help them fashion solutions for forestry through collaboration rather than conflict.

Speaking at a recent screening in Cumberland, a community about 180 kilometres northwest of Victoria that was built around logging, Marquis said he wants the film to provide a space "around which both people from the industry and people from the community … gather and they talk."

Major economic driver

Forestry in B.C. is a major economic driver. The industry employs 56,000 people and provides nearly $2 billion a year in government revenue, according to the province. 

Nearly 60 per cent of the province's 950,000 square kilometres is publicly managed forest. The province says around 2,000 square kilometres are harvested each year.

Old-growth forests, defined as having trees at least 250 years old on the coast and 140 years old in the Interior, make up around 22 per cent of the annual harvest. 

Conservationists argue forests, especially old, valuable ones, which are sinks for carbon and biodiversity, are being cut too fast.

Rampant wildfires, driven by climate change, are also reducing forests, while communities reliant on logging are seeing lumber prices in flux and higher tariffs levied by the U.S., resulting in sawmill closures and job losses.

'The election issue'

With so much uncertainty around forestry and its connection to several important issues, Michelle Roy, a mid-Island resident and advocate for protecting old-growth forests, said it's central to the upcoming election for her.

"I think it is the election issue," she said at the Cumberland screening of Silvicola. " A lot of people are saying we've got to focus on the economy, but they are so linked right now — the climate crisis and the economy."

Caleb Cohen, a tree planter in the area who also studies forestry, said he doesn't want the future of industry to be a political fight.

"I think it's great, all the conversations ... trying to bring everyone together," he said at the screening. "If loggers want their kids to be loggers then we need to have forests for them to log and we need to build things out of wood."

The province acknowledges a balance is needed in how forests are managed. It's had a roadmap since 2020 to find it, called A New Future for Old Forests.

It lays out 14 actions for a "paradigm shift" over how old-growth trees are logged to view their forests as non-renewable and managed for ecosystem health.

But four years in, the government has only achieved "advanced implementation" on two of the 14 recommendations: to engage the full involvement of Indigenous leaders and organizations; and to defer development in old forests at high risk until a new strategy is implemented.

Wieting and others want voters to push the parties vying for this election to commit to expedited action to meet the report's 14 recommendations.

"We see ongoing, unsustainable rates of logging," he said. "We now have massive climate change impacts, particularly wildfires … it's hard to keep carbon in the forests and to sustain the forestry industry."

Party pledges

The B.C. NDP says it's on the right path to balance conservation and a viable logging industry.

It has plans to bolster the industry through initiatives such as a Forest Value Fund to create wood-manufacturing facilities, further restrict raw log exports and fully review the way timber is assessed for cutting on Crown land.

The B.C. Conservative Party is promising a sector overhaul to stop mill closures by better defining harvesting areas, changing how much the province charges for trees to be harvested on Crown land, and allowing wood fibre for power generation.

It also says it will "enhance biodiversity and ecological qualities" of B.C.'s forested landscape.

The B.C. Green Party is promising to make conservation, ecosystem health and biodiversity a top priority for forestry. 

It's the only party committing to stopping clearcut industrial logging in favour of more eco-friendly practices "that emulate natural disturbance regimes, such as selective logging, commercial thinning and longer stand rotations," its platform says.

The Greens would also put more money into protecting old forests and compensate First Nations for lost revenues.

In November 2023, B.C. signed a $1 billion agreement with the federal government and First Nations to mutually work toward protecting 30 per cent of lands and waters in B.C. by 2030 — the first province to make such a deal.

"Fundamentally, we need to be part of the decision-making process," said Regional Chief Terry Teegee with the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations at time.

"We need to be part of the decisions being made in our territories, in our province, that we have never ceded."