City of Powell River councillors are supportive of recommendations regarding protection of old-growth trees BC.
At the March 2 committee of the whole meeting, councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said she was happy the matter was back on council’s agenda. The item had been postponed from a previous committee meeting so Tla’amin Nation could be consulted. Leishman said she hoped everyone had a chance to look through the report to the minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development on the strategic review of how BC manages old forests within its ancient ecosystems.
There was a recommended motion to the committee that a letter be sent to the provincial government endorsing recommendations in the report, especially recommendation six, which entailed immediate response to ecosystems at very high risk. The report recommends that until a new strategy is implemented, to defer development in old forests where ecosystems are at very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss.
Leishman moved an amendment so the motion also included recommendation one in the report, which concerns indigenous involvement. The report recommends that there be full involvement of indigenous leaders and organizations to review the report and any subsequent policy or strategy development and implementation.
“Our discussion at the previous committee of the whole on this and the fact that we wanted to discuss with Tla’amin Nation this report reinforces that we send to the province a letter of support for this report and highlight the importance of recommendations one and six, which is one of the immediate response recommendations,” said Leishman.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said part of the reason this motion had been postponed from the December 15, 2020, committee of the whole meeting was to consult with Tla’amin. Hathaway asked if the city heard anything back from the nation.
Chief administrative officer Russell Brewer said staff had not heard back directly from Tla’amin, but they heard from the same delegation council heard from and it was well received. Retired professional forester Janet May appeared before city and qathet Regional District committees in December to outline the report to government on old-growth forests.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she wanted to remind everyone that the immediate protection is not for all old growth, it is specifically for old growth that is ancient – 500 years old and older. She said for this region, there would be very small pockets.
“This isn’t a recommendation to hold off logging all old growth, but rather, a recommendation to freeze logging in extremely rare old growth,” said Elliott. “The very little we have left of this, some of it is in danger of being wiped out forever. So, this isn’t a broad protection for old growth, but rather, to zero in on extremely rare old-growth forests, and to protect those while a strategy is developed that makes sense.”
Councillor Rob Southcott said he didn’t think stands of forest specifically implicated in recommendation six of the report exist within Tla’amin treaty settlement lands.
“I’m pretty confident that is true and I appreciate we have consulted with them,” said Southcott.
The committee voted in favour of Leishman’s amendment and the amended motion to send a letter to the province endorsing the recommendations in the report.
