Province announces protections to old-growth forests, misses Prince George

The BC government’s strategic review, released in April, states “a recent report submitted to the panel by a group of independent scientists illustrates that we are in situations of high risk to biodiversity in many areas in the province.”

However, most of the regions listed in the province’s logging deferral strategy are in southern BC. Nearly 10 million hectares of old forest are already considered protected or unavailable for harvesting.

Connolly says. “we want to see immediate deferrals up here, but that hasn’t happened.”

The strategic review presented to the government also states, “We received many submissions that identified threats to old forests and their values, and a sense of urgency was often expressed.”

“We also received a number of submissions telling us that old forests are well managed and should be left to the professionals. While some of this is likely the result of different perspectives, interests and beliefs, it also depends a lot on location and scale.”

Connolly says, “the panel report has some issues with it, but one of the things we have a strong agreement with is the fact that they say that there is a real lack of public confidence in the system of forest management in BC.”

by Vincent Papequash

Province announces protections to old-growth forests, misses Prince George

What's Trending