drax

By Adam Berls

old growth

Drax continuing to log old growth, says Conservation North

Mar 13, 2024 | 2:40 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — A local conservation group and their partners have found that the company Drax is sourcing logs from old growth forests, despite claims to the contrary.

Conservation North, along with the Bulkley Valley Stewardship Coalition and Biofuelwatch UK have found that throughout 2023, the company Drax, obtained logs and chipped wood from Priority Deferral Areas, which were designated as the rarest old growth forests in the province. Drax continued to procure old growth forest wood for their B.C. mills in January of 2024. In 2022, BBC’s Panorama and the CBC’s Fifth Estate found that Drax was logging old growth and other primary forest in BC to make pellets, and then were sent overseas.

In a recent radio interview, Drax representative Joe Aquino claimed that Drax stopped sourcing logs from old growth forests in 2023.

According to the group, their findings, released last week, showed that throughout 2023, Drax obtained logs and chipped wood from Priority Deferral Areas, which were designated as the rarest old growth forests in the province. Drax continued to procure old growth forest wood for their B.C. mills in January of 2024.

Cannabis Act

Cannabis Act changes could mean great things for local growers

4h ago

Cougars

Cougars look for revenge against Winterhawks to open playoffs

5h ago

Crime

Two arrested in Massey Drive drug bust

6h ago

In a statement to CKPG News, Drax says:

“Drax made the decision in October 2023 to stop sourcing wood fibre directly from OGDAs. Within any of the BC Government’s Timber Marks there can be a number of harvest sites known as ‘blocks’. Drax is not sourcing fibre directly from blocks which have OGDA overlap. To suggest otherwise would be grossly inaccurate and misleading. Since the October 2023 decision was taken by Drax, we are aware of nine truck loads containing material from OGDA overlap areas have been mistakenly delivered to Drax’s sites. For context this was nine out of almost 8,000 truckloads delivered to Drax’s pellet plants over the three months in question – delivering equivalent to around 0.15% of the material received. Therefore, suggesting that Drax is taking tens of thousands of tonnes of material from sites with OGDA overlap, would be false and an inaccurate representation of Drax’s operations. The erroneous truck loads were identified internally at Drax shortly after delivery and we have continued to refine our processes with third parties within our supply chain to reduce the risk of this happening in future. That work is ongoing. None of the material from these nine trucks has been used for biomass pellets delivered to Drax Power Station in the UK.”

They also say that:

“Conservation North is inaccurately assuming that Drax receives wood from all blocks with the same timbermark. This is inaccurate and an example of how publicly available information can be easily misinterpreted by external parties.”

Local news. Delivered. Free. Subscribe to our daily news wrap and get our top local stories delivered to your inbox every evening.

—

X: @AdamBerls

Email: Adam.Berls@pattisonmedia.com