The Coastal Forest Strategy

On Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland, more than 70 per cent of productive old-growth forests have been logged. Further up the coast, with the recent exception of the Great Bear Rainforest, the remaining islands of monumental cedar and Douglas fir are shrinking. As a result, species such as the marbled murrelet and the spotted owl are nearly extinct.

On Vancouver Island, remaining forests are particularly vulnerable as logging companies seek to offset the impacts of the recession by selling off forest lands for housing development, as in the Juan de Fuca region. In nearby Sooke, old growth stands along Muir Creek are being voraciously logged despite the announced intention of the Capital Regional District to purchase the land and turn it into a park.

The government's 2008 Coastal Forest Action Plan does nothing to reverse the trend of unsustainable logging. It sets no targets for the protection of the last remaining old growth stands on the south coast, and does not even acknowledge their status as a dwindling resource. In addition, the plan proposes to speed up the rotation of second-growth forests by 20 years, increase the harvest rates and continue raw log exports.

The plan makes no provision for protecting biodiversity and ignores the reality of climate change: 

• From carbon sink to carbon source: BC's old-growth forests represent some of the best carbon storage on earth. Clear-cutting them and converting them into managed plantations, as the Plan suggests, would turn a valuable carbon sink into a net emitter of carbon. In order to meet the BC government's emissions target of 33 per cent by 2020, our old-growth forests are the most valuable resource - if left standing.  
• Climate change impact on species: Scientists estimate that 15 to 37 per cent of the world's species could become extinct as a result of the changes in climate that are likely to occur between now and 2050. Apart from cutting carbon emissions, the only meaningful way to keep this number low is to protect natural habitat and corridors that allow species to migrate into any remaining regions with a suitable climate. Intensively managed plantations, which the Plan favours, don't offer much habitat for endangered species.

BC and Canada Should be Global Role Models! As one of the world's richest forest nations, Canada should show the way when it comes to protecting biodiversity and the ability of the ancient forests to store carbon. The BC government has one more chance to present a concrete plan on how to reduce logging of ancient coastal forests. Sierra Club BC advocates a Coastal Growth Strategy that contains concrete mechanisms to protect scant remaining old-growth.  It should define a strict phase-out period for old-growth logging on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, and direct the Chief Forester to set separate logging rates for old-growth and second growth forests.