Logging threatens local watershed

While this recently logged block poses few risks, logging proposed on the opposite hillside does

Across the province, watersheds are under assault by forestry operations as timber supplies dwindle and logging companies move into hillsides above communities. Excessive clearcutting in the upper watersheds above Grand Forks directly contributed to massive flooding in the community last spring, logging above Peachland resulted in excessive siltation in their drinking water thus forcing the community to build a 55-million dollar water treatment infrastructure and here in the Shuswap there have been countless landslides and debris torrents caused in part by logging and roadbuilding that have resulted in millions of dollars in damage and loss of life.

The pink block on the left poses the greatest risks

Early this January, I was asked to assist the Totem Pole Resort community, located on the Bastion Creek floodplain fan, with their response to logging plans for their community watershed by two licensees, Canoe Forest Products (Canoe) and BC Timber Sales (BCTS). Canoe’s blocks were located on the ridge far above the creek and did not appear to threaten the integrity of the watershed, whereas BCTS blocks pose great threats to terrain stability, water quality, and the safety of the residents.

When BCTS announced its revised schedule for the logging and asked for comments within two months, the issue became urgent. Years ago, I had urged the Totem Pole residents to get community watershed status to protect the quality of their drinking water, which they did. We successfully received this status for our local Corning Creek watershed in the 1990s, when detailed planning that involved local residents was a requirement. Consequently, I participated in the process that involved reviewing reports and analysis, which resulted in an inch-thick plan with detailed mapping.

Aerial photo of the Bastion Creek watershed where logging is proposed on this hillside, photo by Luke Gubbels

How times have changed! BCTS informed me that detailed planning is no longer required, but they did have a hydrological assessment that found negligible risks to the timing, quantity and quality of water in Bastion Creek from the proposed forest development. After requesting a copy of the report, I was shocked to learn that they have a policy of not sharing information like this with the public, but that I could read it in their Vernon office or at the Canoe office as the company paid half of the costs of the report.

Here is the scenario I could visualize if the logging proceeded as proposed on the steep south face slope. After a winter with heavy snowpack and an early spring with hot weather, a heavy rain quickly melts the snow on the logged block next to a tributary of Bastion Creek causing erosion. The tributary gets blocked with debris, and when it releases it sends a debris torrent down to Bastion Creek, which temporarily dams the flow. When this dam breaks, a wall of water moves down the creek to the lake, wiping out homes and putting lives at risk. 

We finally managed to get a copy of the 13-page hydrology report after requesting a copy through the Freedom of Information office in Victoria. While we thought the report should contain information we could use to get the plans rejected, the report was woefully inadequate and lacked key information. Fortunately, both the foresters’ and engineers’ professional organizations have also been concerned about the quality of hydrological assessments and recently prepared a new set of standards. Hopefully, BCTS will scrap their plans and report and have a new assessment prepared using the current, 72-page long professional standards. 

POSTSCRIPT

When we finally received the hydrological assessment, it had one sentence redacted. I managed to copy that sentence from a hard copy of the report that I could read but not keep. Here is that sentence:  “For these reasons, lower Bastion Creek is considered to be a high risk area naturally and as a result both BCTS and CFP should minimize incremental effects of their activities on the frequency and magnitude of flood events and landslide initiations.” The reasons are described in this previous sentence: “Both flooding and debris flow events can result in damage to private property and represent a potential threat to public safety.” They left the sentence out because they feared we would misconstrue it in the media!

On August 1, Totem Pole Resort residents and myself went on a field trip to view the area organized by Canoe Forest Products. We stopped to check out a cutblock at the top of the watershed that was logged last winter. It is fairly high elevation, with spruce and balsam and very rough ground. Below the block was a plantation that was logged approximately 30 years ago and appears to be well stocked with young trees.

The forest of balsam and spruce that BCTS wants to log

We then drove to the area across the valley that BCTS proposes to log in a few years. The quality of the timber looks poor, with small stems and about 50% low value balsam. It seems like they are willing to risk causing extensive damage to the watershed in return for some low value timber.

The CSRD is also concerned about the risks to life and property from logging in the area. In April they released a geomorphic study that they had commissioned. From their press release:

Some of the recommendations include developing an acceptable and tolerable level of risk for both proposed and existing developments. Simon Gautschi from Westrek, noted most local governments in BC do not have these types of risk thresholds, so standards for these risk levels would have to be developed by the CSRD. Additional assessments are also recommended for areas with logging or which have been affected by wildfire, as this can increase the potential for landslides. It was also recommended that all creek fan areas identified in the report be designated as Development Permit Areas within the CSRD.

As a result of the study, the following month this motion which was unanimously approved at the May 16th CSRD Board meeting:

“That the Board send a letter to the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, appropriate senior staff within FLRNORD and BC Timber Sales (BCTS) to express the CSRD;’s strong concerns and to request a temporary logging moratorium in the proposed cutblocks in the Bastion Creek area in view of the Westrek report of November 2017 which recommended that “A regional landslide hazard and risk study should be completed by government stakeholders for the slopes that extend from Sunnybrae to Bastion Creek to determine if there are common factors and issues. In the interim, it is recommended that the CSRD consider restricting or managing future development and re=-development on these slopes until the landslide hazard and risk to each property is more clearly understood.”

December 16, 2019 Update

The most recent letter from BCTS explained that they have denied our request for a moratorium will be going ahead with the proposed logging after all the planning is completed. You can read the letter here: 251346 Bastion Response Totem resort Oct 2019

In response, the Totem Pole Resort group sent this reply:

November 25, 2019

Colin Johnston RPF

Timber Sales Manager

BC Timber Sales – Okanagan Columbia

2501 – 14^th Ave., Vernon BC V1T 8Z1

Phone (250) 558-1795 | cell (250) 309-7423

Forest Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development

VIA EMAIL:  COLIN.JOHNSTON@GOV.BC.CA

Dear Mr. Johnston

Reply to your letter of October 22, 2019       Reference:  251346

The Owners of Strata KA-046 Totem Pole Resort, have requested that I follow-up with you on details in your letter.

You have stated that the ministry is not considering a suspension on timber harvesting in the Bastion Creek Community Watershed in spite of concerns and written requests from the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, Mr. Bill Grainger, community petition, the Shuswap Environmental Action Society (SEAS), and ourselves – Totem Pole Resort.  We have shared your letter of response with our local community, and have been asked by the community to request copies of your response letters to the other respondents named above.

We appreciate the inclusivity of the planning process and our opportunity to participate.  We are interested in following up with you regarding the assessment, referrals, and planning that you have mentioned are all underway.  Specifically, we would like to know if a hydrological assessment, that conforms with current requirements has been commissioned, and which office we can contact to receive a copy?  Also, will there be another call for referrals and comments on the progress of the planned harvesting in blocks K0WB, K5M7, K5M8?

When will we be notified regarding news about new studies being completed?  We are anxious to know if the harvesting activities are going to take place on the north side (southern exposure) of Bastion Creek Canyon and extend down the southern exposed face.

We remain highly concerned that the substantive body of evidence including; advice from professionals, cautions in professional reports, stewardship of the CSRD, professional reports on recent slide activities has not been reviewed with due diligence deserving of its importance.  Our community remains alert and is consulting legal counsel on these matters.

We look forward to hearing from you with answers to our questions. We hope that the line of communication between us will also include the regional district and the local environmental group, we will circulate and cc our community of concerned stakeholders. Our confidence remains high that concerns for the safety and security of human life and community will continue to take precedence over “creating  economic opportunities” when the cost and failure to do so is fatal.

The Final Liquidation – a B.C. forest emergency

By Jim Cooperman

Despite the election of what we often thought would be a more environmentally friendly government, British Columbia’s public forests continue to be disappearing at an alarming rate, with inadequate stewardship for all values including fish and wildlife habitat, community water supply protection, and recreation. Although these forests belong to the people of B.C. and to future generations, they are being managed primarily to benefit a few large corporations.  Urgent reforms are needed to meet the needs of present and future generations and yet to date, little has been done.

The BC Liberals created the problems. The Council of Forest Industries helped them to develop the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), which ended government oversight and allowed forest companies to operate carte blanche for 15 years, enabling liquidation forestry by downplaying or entirely disregarding “non-timber values.” Now the NDP, who were once the architects of the long defunct Forest Practices Code, who more than doubled the size of the park system, and implemented Land Use Planning, are only making minimal changes to address the problems and reverse these destructive policies.

As a result of the professional reliance review by Mark Haddock, an oversight body was created called the Office of the Superintendent of Professional Governance in the Ministry of Attorney General with a goal to ensure best practices are implemented. As well, Bill 21 has been introduced that when legislated will amend FRPA to improve public input and information sharing by requiring licenses to prepare operational mapping for review and revise the wildlife definition to better protect at-risk species. More changes are in the works, but it is unlikely that the NDP will reduce the unsustainable rate of cut, revise the forest tenure system (other than Bill 22 which will allow the Minister a veto over transfers of tenures and cutting rights) or remove the caveat that protection of non-timber values must not “unduly reduce the supply of timber.”

The BC forest industry has now consolidated to five large corporations that control 60 percent of the allowable annual cut. Thanks to generous subsidies (including operating without oversight, causing property and ecological damage with the bills going to the public taxpayers, and long term, give-away licenses to control vast swaths of public land to log publicly owned forests) these companies are taking their profits and investing them in U.S. and Swedish mills, which they will be able to operate long after BC’s accessible forests are cut over because these mills cut fast growing, southern pine. So far, B.C. forest companies have purchased 51 mills in the U.S. and 9 mills in Sweden, more than they own in this province.

The forest industry has far more influence over policies and laws than it deserves, given that its contribution to the province’s GDP has been decreasing along with the number of jobs it provides. Forestry only represents 5 percent of the total B.C. economy (GDP) and only 3 percent of the direct jobs. Mills have been closing as wood supply runs out, including the recent closure of the Port Alice pulpmill, the Tolko sawmill in Quesnel and partial shutdowns for Canfor mills.  

Massive amounts of forest land (3 million hectares economic and over 8-million non-economic) are denuded and there is no money to replant them, given that the government and companies can barely keep up with the costs of planting the areas that have been logged recently, annual wildfire suppression costs and disaster relief to communities for floods and drought, let alone deal with the millions of hectares that have been burned in recent years. BC forests stopped being a carbon sink in 2001 and now add far more carbon to the atmosphere than any other source every year. 

The liquidation is moving into the high elevation forests, some previously considered inoperable, which is upsetting the hydrologic balance resulting in massive flooding that is destroying property, including the city of Grand Forks and Okanagan Lake communities. Loss of high elevation forest impacts local climates by removing the cool moist air that normally flows from damp forests down in the evening to cool off the lower hills and lakes. Loss of the evening cooling breezes further warms the valleys, which increase the likelihood of wildfires. 

Land Use planning, which produced so many benefits was shelved by the Liberals and now is barely getting any attention by the NDP. In the Okanagan, parks designated by consensus planning were put on hold in 2001 due to a proposed National Grasslands Park remain in limbo with some now threatened by logging, even though most of them are not grasslands. As well, protected old growth is being logged and mining threatens a wildlife area. Yet, the NDP is refusing a land use planning re-boot. 

BC Timber Sales (BCTS) has approximately 20 percent of the cut and they are irresponsibly logging in community watersheds, which damages water quality and quantity, as well as poses erosion risks. In order for us to better understand the risks of proposed BCTS logging on a landslide prone hillside in a nearby local community watershed, we have requested a copy of the hydrological study, but were refused. Consequently, complaints have been filed with the Forest Practices Board and we have submitted Freedom of Information requests for the document.

The final forest liquidation is laying waste to essential fish and wildlife habitat, especially the endangered species like caribou, owls and salmon and eliminating the final remnants of coastal old growth forests on Vancouver Island. Critical habitat for the mountain caribou adjacent to Wells Gray Provincial Park has been clearcut and more logging has been approved. Logging is not the only problem, as fracking development is degrading northern habitat with roads and drilling pads. The NDP promised to bring in endangered species legislation and although the bill has been drafted, it has been delayed with no implementation in sight. 

Logging is not the only problem, as fracking development is degrading northern habitat with roads and drilling pads. The NDP promised to bring in endangered species legislation and although the bill has been drafted, it has been delayed with no implementation in sight. 

To summarize, the NDP is not reversing the corporate give-away policies of the BC Liberals, thus allowing the final liquidation of British Columbia’s publicly owned forests, which will increase the number of floods and fires, destroy more fish wildlife habitat, and produce more debts rather than benefits for the province, while many of the profits are flowing to corporations that have invested in mills south of the border. We are now witnessing the final liquidation of the province’s once massive tracts of forests and opposition is futile. 

Jim Cooperman was a dedicated provincial forest activist in the 1990s and now concentrates on local activities. His bioregional book, Everything Shuswap, is a regional best seller.