By Cheryl Jahn

Anti-Glyphosate gathering

Feb 10, 2023 | 2:22 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Anti-Glyphosate Stop the Spray folks gathered outside the Conference and Civic Centre this morning, where the BC Professional Foresters conference was wrapping up.

“So we’re here trying to meet up with the Forests Minister and the Chief Forester, and we want to have a discussion about the stocking standards and about growing more diverse forests in our in our region,” explains James Steidle, who organized the gathering. “Because if you drive out of town in any direction, within half an hour, you’ll probably be stuck in the middle of a pine plantation. And it wasn’t all pine trees before. We’re losing out on wildlife. A lot of this wildlife, they kind of need your deciduous species, the Aspens, the birches.”

Glyphosate is a chemical similar to Roundup that forest companies tend to spray on the coniferous plantations as a way of killing deciduous trees and those opposed to the practice say it creates a monoculture.

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Steidle has been the loudest local voice in opposition to the practice. He says monocultures of coniferous trees are prone to fire hazards, as has been evidenced in recent years.

“We can actually help secure the future of our forests by having more deciduous out in the landscape. If you’ve got a patch of deciduous and if it’s in the middle of summer, which is the height of forest fire season, the fire will be very unlikely to burn through there.”

But perhaps the biggest argument against the use of glyphosate is what it does to the ecosystem. And the concerns are catching on with the general public.

“You know, people that are getting out into the bush are seeing the place. They see the signs on the side of the cut, like what’s been sprayed. People are shocked. Right. And then you go back to the next year, there’s no moose, there’s no wildlife, there are no birds. Like everything’s dead.”

In recent years, the face of forestry is changing, with multiple mill closures – sawmills and pulp mills – across rural BC. Steidle says things like selective logging could be more appetizing. “We call it the working forest. Well, my question is, who’s it working for? Because we’ve got, you know, thousands of people being thrown out of work just in the last month here in Northern B.C. And if we are making these devalued landscapes where, you know, if we are reducing our wildlife populations for jobs, well, that’s not happening. ”

Unfortunately, while the Minister was scheduled for speak at the conference, he offered up a video presentation instead.