Watchdog calls for B.C. to boost oversight of old-growth forest on Quadra Island

A fresh cut stump is pictured in a cut block in the Fairy Creek logging area near Port Renfrew, B.C. Oct. 5, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)

British Columbia's independent forest-practices watchdog says there's a risk that a coastal island won't have enough old-growth trees in the future due to inadequate monitoring of harvesting.

The Forest Practices Board says it began looking into old-growth forests on Quadra Island about 250 kilometres northwest of Vancouver after receiving a complaint from an environmental group.

The board says it looked into the situation and found licensees "did not comply with some aspect of forestry legislation" and more government oversight is needed "to identify and conserve old forests."

Board chair Keith Atkinson says in a release that the review found "no one is responsible for monitoring or ensuring that Quadra Island's old forests are conserved, or that enough mature forests are protected from logging."

The review concludes that old-growth management must be improved to ensure enough old growth is present on the island in the future.

According to the board, Quadra Island has very little forest older than 250 years due to harvesting and a number of natural disturbances, but there is an abundance of trees 80-to-120-years old that need to be "set aside to develop into old forest."

The protection is needed, the board says, in order for Quadra Island to meet provincial targets for the amount of old forest and biodiversity in B.C.

"It is up to the provincial government to understand what old-forest values exist in the Quadra landscape unit and ensure that forest licensees' plans include measurable or verifiable commitments to manage them," Atkinson says.

The board's review on Quadra Island found one of the licensees, TimberWest Forest Corp., "does not have an effective strategy" to make sure enough mature forest in its licence area survives to become old forest.

"The report includes a recommendation that TimberWest amend its forest stewardship plan to include a strategy for the recruitment of old forest that describes how it will ensure the full target amount of old forest is achieved," Atkinson says in the statement.

Mosaic Forest Management, which manages forest planning, operations and product sales for TimberWest, says it is "committed to sustainable forest stewardship" in response to the board's findings.

"For decades, TimberWest has not harvested old forest on Quadra Island, and has no plans to do so," a statement from Mosaic says. "In Mosaic’s view the establishment of old growth management areas cannot be finalized without continued collaboration with First Nations and the provincial government."

The original complaint to the Forest Practices Board was lodged by the Discovery Islands Forest Conservation Project, which told the board that old-growth remnants on Quadra Island are "at-risk of being harvested."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2024.