President's Op-Ed: Crisis in B.C. Forests

Massive budget cuts and self-regulation endanger our forests and threaten the environment

BUDGET CUTSSince coming to office, the B.C. Liberals have slashed almost 1,100 forestry workers’ jobs in eight years ¬— the very people who ensure our public forests are sustainably managed and harvested.

From 2002-2004, the Campbell government eliminated 800 jobs in the Ministry of Forests and Range — 304 positions in compliance and enforcement alone.

This year, 204 more forestry jobs are being axed — 62 per cent from compliance  and enforcement and field operations. Then on May 27, deputy forests minister Dana Hayden confirmed that an additional 42 positions would be eliminated, as the ministry moves forward budget cuts planned for next year.

SELF-REGULATION

The Forest and Range Practices Act was constructed to avoid public monitoring and enforcement. Forest companies write and certify their own forestry plans. This is a clear conflict of interest.

Government regulations prevent ministry officials from taking any action to protect environmental and recreational values that would “unduly reduce the supply of timber,” and must ensure their actions are consistent with “maintaining and enhancing an economically valuable supply of commercial timber.”

Applicants can opt out of default standards under the Forest Practices Code and submit their own plans. The Act also eliminates ministry approval for logging cutblock and site level plans, and removes the requirement for stability assessments to prevent landslides.

Incredibly, managers can no longer reject logging plans if resource values are not properly managed or conserved, and face severe limits on requiring additional information from licensees.

The Campbell government has also compromised the public consultation process. Ministry officials can no longer add objectives to the logging plans (like protecting community viewscapes or wildlife habitat) based on public input. Forest stewardship plans have also been extended to five years from two, limiting opportunities for public input.

PROFESSIONAL RELIANCE

The B.C. Liberal government has adopted a ‘professional reliance’ management model, to justify huge cuts to compliance and enforcement staff. Association of B.C. Forest Professionals (ABCFP) members now certify their own employers’ forestry plans, and can designate non-members to confirm that the plans meet approved objectives..

The Association investigates public complaints and can discipline members who breach their code of ethics or standards of practice, but has no power to force changes to logging plans that breech professional practice. ABCFP standards are largely comprised of published guidelines that grant members broad discretion in carrying out their duties — which makes the standards difficult to enforce.

Of the 21 concluded complaints against members in the past three years, 19 were dismissed – sometimes with no published reasons, behind a veil of anonymity. Only two lay councillors (one a retired forester) currently serve on the 12-member appointed board, which lacks any real measure of public accountability.

RESOURCE WASTE

Waste is rampant in B.C.’s forests, which impacts local economies. A March 2009 study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), using ministry data, notes that between 2004–2008, “more than 17.5 million cubic metres of usable wood was abandoned at logging sites… enough material to fill a line of logging trucks… from Vancouver to Halifax and almost half way back again.”

More than 2,400 forest manufacturing jobs are lost each year due to log waste, and only one in 147 logging trucks are spot-checked by ministry staff, according to the study.
In 2007, the B.C. Liberal government stopped producing wood waste surveys.

Forest companies are no longer obligated to report all usable rejected logs they leave on the ground to rot, and only about 10 per cent of B.C.’s logged areas are audited annually.
The study shows that in some districts, logging companies reported “zero or virtually no wood waste… suggesting lapses in reporting and enforcement.” In Quesnel, logging rates fell by six and seven per cent in 2005 and 2006, while wood waste levels increased 937 and 585 per cent respectively.

The past eight years of BC Liberal government has resulted in mismanagement of B.C.’s forest resources on a massive scale. Our government must take their stewardship responsibility seriously and take back control of this key public resource, to manage on behalf of all British Columbians.

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