The Cruel Reality of the Biomass industry

Recommended
priority actions
The current condition of old forest for many forested ecosystems in BC is low, or very low today, leading to high or very high risk to ecological function, biodiversity and ecosystem services. It is expected to further deteriorate given current policy for protection of old forest and increased disturbance due to climate change.
The historic management approach has allowed the old growth situation to become a significant problem, and the situation will only get worse under current provincial policy. The entire management regime therefore requires a significant shift in order to fix the problem. Individual regions around the province are struggling with this issue — but a higher-level solution is needed.
Apply an immediate moratorium on harvest of old (and mature) forest in any biogeoclimatic variant with less than 10% old forest remaining today. These areas are at overall high risk — and in all of these areas, old forest is being harvested today. Opportunities are being lost daily for effective conservation in these zones.
› CDFmm (all CDF)
› CWHxm1,2, dm
› ICHxw, mk3,4, mw1,2,3,4
› IDFxc, xh1,2,4, xk, xm, xs, xx2, dc, dk1,2,3,4,5, dm1,2, mw1,2
› PPxh1,2,3 (all PP)
› SBPSmk
› SBSwk1,2,3a
› And possibly: ESSFxv2, dc1, mh, mv1,2,3,4, wc3,4, wh3, wk1, wm1,2,3,4 (note potential mis-classifica- tion of age in some of these units).
Apply an immediate moratorium on harvest of any old and mature forest in any BEC / Landscape Unit combination that has less than 10% old remaining today, including existing cutblock permits.
› Altogether, 478 LU x BEC units have less than 10% old forest remaining today, representing 12% of the total number of LU / BEC combinations.
› Most of these areas lie within the BEC variants listed above; a number of others are on Vancouver Island and on the mainland coast.
Focus retention on higher productivity sites due to their rarity, for their value for carbon storage, and to counter the loss of these ecosystems due to biased harvest.
› Apply an immediate moratorium on harvest of any very high productivity (SI >20m, perhaps SI >25m in the Great Bear Rainforest) old and mature forest.
› Where little to no old remains today, apply moratorium to ensure adequate productive mature stands are maintained, particularly in places with long harvest history.

Fix arithmetic errors.
› Stop double-counting protected areas in old forest targets (either increase targets so that they are not reduced by the 12% assumed to be in parks or ensure that sufficient OGMAs to reach target are located outside parks).
› Ensure that targets and inventoried old forest use the same age (i.e., if a target is for forest >140 years, then measure the amount of forest >140 years; if the amount of forest >120 years is mea- sured, then redo the target for 120 years).
Maintain all moratoria by region or forest district, until effective spatial planning is in place to ensure irreplaceable values are not lost.
Place all existing cutblocks on hold in these areas and ensure they were granted legally.

Quoted from Article by
Karen Price, Ph.D., Rachel F. Holt, Ph.D., R.P.Bio and Dave Daust R.P.F., M.Sc.