Two years after a catastrophic flood caused tens of millions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses in the Grand Forks area, the B.C. government and several timber companies are being sued on grounds that excessive logging caused the devastation. 

In a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court by Peter Waldmann, a lawyer specializing in class action lawsuits, B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, the major logging companies Interfor, Weyerhaeuser and Tolko, three First Nation-owned companies and pulp producer Mercer Celgar are accused of negligence for logging local forests too quickly, creating the conditions that caused the devastating flooding in May 2018.

The claim alleges that too much clear-cut logging occurred on lands higher up mountain slopes where deep snow packs can build, releasing torrents of water in the spring; many of the clear-cuts greatly exceeded size limits; road networks were excessive; too many trees were logged before previously logged forests had recovered sufficiently, and that all of this and more set the stage for the devastating flooding that began on May 8, 2018.

“The defendants’ overharvesting of timber resources has significantly increased the rate of sedimentation from their land, increased the stream flow into the Kettle Basin watershed and increased the frequency, duration and magnitude of major flooding events,” the civil claim alleges.

Three Grand Forks residents or family members of residents whose homes were either destroyed or seriously damaged during the flood are named as plaintiffs in the claim. It is expected that others whose homes, properties and livelihoods were disrupted by the flood will join as part of a broader class action or civil lawsuit in which damages are being sought.

The “proposed class” in the Grand Forks case are “all persons” living within 15 kilometres of the community whose homes, businesses, health or livelihoods were “lost or destroyed” in the extensive flooding.

Logging in the Kettle River watershed between 1965 and 2020. Grand Forks is located toward the southern border. Map: Commons BC

Of the three major logging companies named in the claim, Interfor’s operations are notably singled out. The company has by far the largest share of logging rights in the region, and owns and operates a sawmill in Grand Forks.

“The defendant, Interfor, has unsustainably clear-cut tens of thousands of hectares of land during the last several decades in the Kettle River basin and has extensively profited from the timber resources. This has increased the frequency, duration and magnitude of peak flows that resulted in the May 8-11, 2018 flooding event,” the claim alleges.

The Narwhal, which reported extensively on the human toll of the flooding and on allegations by Grand Forks residents and independent foresters and hydrologists that logging was behind the flooding, asked the company to respond and received a short email in reply. 

“We are aware of this claim and cannot provide much comment on pending litigation, except to say that Interfor has acted in accordance with its permits, licences and applicable regulations, and intends to defend itself fully,” said Xenia Kristos, Interfor’s chief counsel and corporate secretary.

Jennifer Houghton, one of the plaintiffs, had two feet of water in her home when flooding occurred in 2017. Worse flooding the following spring doubled the amount of water in her home, prompting the yoga teacher and local realtor to build a small home on wheels so that she could get it out of harm’s way if another flood occurred.

Jennifer Houghton on the steps of her unfinished tiny home with her two dogs in 2018. She planned to move her new home if spring runoffs threatened her property again in the future. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Houghton declined to comment on the civil suit on the advice of Waldmann. She did say that what has been filed with the court thoroughly captures what she and others believe are the relevant events that increased the severity of the floods and that upended her life and the lives of so many others in her community. 

“I think that the lawyers did a very thorough job of putting the filing together. I’ve put my faith in them,” Houghton told The Narwhal.

Next to Interfor, the provincial government itself is directly responsible for much of the logging that is alleged to have caused the horrendous flooding. BC Timber Sales is an arm of the Ministry of Forests that auctions blocks of forest for logging on a one-time basis, whereas the logging by Interfor and other companies is done under long-term licences awarded by the Ministry of Forests and covering multiple years. The claim alleges that BC Timber Sales had “the responsibility to establish and auction” those forests in ways that “sustainably managed” water runoff from those lands.

But that didn’t happen for a number of reasons, the claim contends.

Both logging under the BC Timber Sales program and logging by Interfor and others often resulted in clear-cuts that were larger than the 40-hectare limit set out in regulations. The lawsuit alleges that for 20 years beginning in 1998, fully 41 per cent of all the logging cutblocks in the Kettle River basin, which feeds into the Grand Forks area, were larger than 40 hectares in size. And BC Timber Sales was the worst offender, with fully half of the cutblocks on lands that it auctioned for logging exceeding 40 hectares. 

Peak flow of the Kettle River. Data from the United States Geological Survey. Graph: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

In addition, the vast majority of clear-cuts were on lands higher up hills and mountain slopes in the region, where snow packs are deeper and become major sources of water as temperatures climb and the sun beats down on exposed snow in the cutblocks. The lawsuit alleges that in the four years ending in 2017, right before the devastating 2018 flood, 69 per cent of all the cutblocks were in that critical zone. 

The larger cutblocks meant that more snow accumulated on the ground where it was not shaded by trees, which made it prone to a fast melt.

Regulations were also in place that were supposed to limit how many forests could be logged based on the healthy regrowth of trees in nearby areas that had been previously logged. That re-growth is known in forest industry parlance as “green-up.” But the suit alleges that healthy green-up in previously logged areas had not been achieved before new logging commenced, even though senior Ministry of Forests personnel had been warned this was endangering the “hydrological recovery” of logged lands, leading to increases in peak water flows.

A house in South Ruckle, one of the Grand Forks neighbourhoods most affected by the 2018 spring flood, was spared falling into the Kettle River. A small shed adjacent to it wasn’t so lucky. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

The suit also alleges the Ministry of Forests, which has key powers to set the rate at which forests are logged, used a suspect computer model for predicting how much forest was available to be logged. The model actually over-estimated how much forest was available by 20 per cent, according to the suit. Based on this, the ministry’s chief forester allocated more timber to logging companies than was “available and sustainable for the region.” 

“This has led to increasing the frequency, duration and magnitude of peak flows. Without sufficient timber regrowth and watershed recovery the result is increased sediment transport, increased water quantity and stream channel discharge associated with flooding that caused the major flooding events in the Kettle and Granby river systems resulting in the damages to the plaintiffs’ and class members’ property,” the suit alleges.

The Narwhal asked the ministry for comment, but it refused to respond saying that it would be “inappropriate” to do so given that the matter is now before the courts.

Anthony Britneff, who worked at several senior positions during his 40 years as a professional forester employed by the ministry, has kept a close eye on events in the Grand Forks area since his retirement and has been highly critical of logging rates and road-building in the region and the threats posed to grizzly bear populations.

He said the filing of the claim could be a pivotal moment in ongoing disputes across the province about how forests are managed, particularly in community watersheds. 

“This is a landmark lawsuit,” Britneff told The Narwhal in an email. “The allegations likely apply to many watersheds throughout B.C.’s southern interior. If other communities, First Nations, farmers and ranchers dependent on water have incurred damage due to drought or flooding caused by upstream logging, then they should consider joining this class action. Good luck to the residents of Grand Forks; they deserve full restitution.”

A poster in a downtown Grand Forks coffee shop offers a help line for residents feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with life after the floods. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Contacted at his law offices in Toronto, Waldmann said it can be anticipated that if the matter proceeds to trial, arguments may be made by the defendants that a whole host of things caused or contributed to the flooding.

“There are multiple causes of everything in life. And you have to put before the court scientific evidence that this is the one that really matters,” Waldmann told The Narwhal. “Our basic test is whether the actions of the defendants contributed to or were part of what caused the harm, even if it wasn’t the only factor.”

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Richard Smith calls Peachland home. He has since 1947, the year he arrived in British Columbia’s Okanagan region as a four-year-old boy with his parents from Alberta’s oil fields.

As a young man working at a local sawmill to save money for his university tuition, Smith was impressed by the quality of the water that flowed out of the forested valleys behind the community and emptied into Okanagan Lake. 

“The water was spotlessly clean,” Smith says wistfully. “Oh, yeah, it was perfect.”

But during the past decade, the retired teacher says, his town’s water has turned perfectly awful. It is often murky and unsafe to drink for months on end.

Now, in a big expense for a small town, more than $24 million is to be spent on a new water-treatment plant to treat the water from Peachland Creek, the town’s primary water supply. The hefty price tag is already $5 million more than originally budgeted and will likely climb higher when a connection is made to carry water to the plant from the town’s backup water supply, Trepanier Creek.

Upon completion, the plant’s filters will, hopefully, screen out the fine sediments that have triggered numerous warnings from public health officials. The water will then be disinfected with chlorine and ultraviolet light to kill pathogens, such as Cryptosporidium, that have caused waterborne-disease outbreaks in the Okanagan and elsewhere.

A 2017 landslide downslope of a logging road, which temporarily blocked Peachland Creek, was an emphatic reminder to the town’s mayor and her fellow councillors that they must act. The slide caused the water’s turbidity, or cloudiness level, to jump far above the threshold that typically triggers boil-water orders.

Sadly, all of this was avoidable, Smith and others say. The forests behind Peachland have been extensively logged, the land mined, cattle-grazed and crisscrossed with roads. Clear-cut logging, in particular, has accelerated in recent years, with potentially serious downstream consequences.

Multiple use to multiple abuse

Public-health officials agree that the best way to get water that is the stuff of Smith’s memories is to use a “multi-barrier” approach.

Think of each barrier as a link in a chain.

The first barrier is the land itself — specifically, community watersheds or the lands draining toward a town’s water source. If those lands are kept relatively pristine, the water flowing from melting snow packs and rainfall is naturally filtered and less likely to be contaminated.

The other two barriers are water-treatment plants and the pipes that distribute that water. Take care of barrier one and barriers two and three are easier to maintain.

Peachland’s main water supply comes from Peachland creek. Its muddy waters are seen here flowing into Okanagan Lake. Photo: Will Koop / The Narwhal

The City of New York famously places a premium on barrier one. Its more than nine million residents draw their drinking water from a watershed with three protected lakes and 19 reservoirs. By protecting the lands around those waters, the city continues to operate the largest unfiltered drinking-water system in the United States.

But in numerous community watersheds in B.C., the situation is vastly different. Logging and mining put communities like Peachland and resource industries on a collision course. Multiple use of watersheds is resulting in multiple abuse of water resources, with the communities in harm’s way left to foot the bill.

Fires in a temperate rainforest?

Will Koop is a Vancouver resident who became active in environmental issues in the 1980s, when the forests surrounding the city’s primary drinking-water reservoirs were being logged.

The stated reason for logging was to clear away “decadent” trees that some foresters claimed posed fire risks.

Fire risks in a temperate rainforest? Koop was baffled. He began surreptitiously hiking through the watersheds. The more he saw, the more he believed the trees consistently targeted for logging were the oldest, biggest, and solidest. Dollars drove the logging — not a desire to protect water quality.

The light that Koop and others shone on that logging eventually forced the Greater Vancouver Water District to halt the practice in 1999 — something that the district could do because it had a 999-year lease to the Crown lands surrounding its water reservoirs, a level of control that is the envy of municipal governments across B.C.

Today, an area the size of 150 Stanley Parks is protected, and local governments link the “ecological health ” of their watersheds to clean drinking water.

The birth and death of reserves

After the Vancouver campaign, Koop began to wonder why so much logging was occurring in other community watersheds.

“Community watersheds comprise only 1.5 per cent of the land base,” Koop says. “Yet there is such a frenzy for getting into these places.What’s this all about?”

Koop’s archival research revealed that as far back as 1888, provincial authorities had powers to designate certain areas of public or Crown land as “reserves” that would be “set apart” for special uses such as protecting water.

In old provincial Forest Service files, Koop found maps from the early 1930s identifying the two watersheds supplying Peachland with its water — the Peachland Creek and Trepanier watersheds — as protected reserves. The words “No Timber Sales” were prominently stamped on both maps.

By the early 1970s, almost 300 watershed reserves were formally designated in B.C. and the Ministry of Environment was in charge of the reserves or community watersheds. Logging was supposedly ruled out on all such lands, with only minor exceptions allowed in cases where watersheds had not officially been designated as community water supplies.

But Koop found that despite such protections, logging did occur in many watersheds, including steadily increasing logging upstream of Peachland. The Ministry of Forests had effectively taken over control of community watershed lands. They were there to be logged, and in many cases they were.

Cumulative logging activities in Peachland’s watersheds have degraded the quality of drinking water. Map: Dave Leversee

A weary watershed on World Water Day

Taryn Skalbania moved to Peachland in 1991 from the West Coast, where she was used to high-quality water and communities that took watershed protection seriously.

When Skalbania first arrived, she found Peachland’s water fine, if somewhat unremarkable.

But by the early 2000s, there were days when the water was noticeably murky. By 2012, the water coming out of her taps stayed that way for weeks on end. Then the time span shifted again — this time to months.

That grim reality, among others, prompted Skalbania to become co-chair of the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance, a co-spokeswoman for the BC Coalition for Forestry Reform and a steadfast critic of land-use decisions in her community’s watersheds.

Taryn Skalbania stands in front of the Deep Creek Water Treatment Plant on McDougald Road in Peachland. Photo: Travis Oleniak / The Narwhal

In all of the years of boil-water advisories, 2017 stands out. That year, flooding occurred in many communities bordering Okanagan Lake. High runoff in Peachland’s watersheds also triggered devastating landslides that sullied the town’s water for months on end.

“Dirty water, historically, for freshet for two weeks is one thing,” Skalbania told The Narwhal. “But mudslides that disable the entire town’s water is another.”

The severity of events that year convinced many that clear-cut logging was at least partly responsible for what had unfolded.

“They contribute to how the water comes off of the mountain. They contribute to flooding. They contribute to the degradation of our water,” Chris Eneas, a Penticton Indian Band elder, said of the clear-cuts, which he saw firsthand during a field trip to the watershed in late March during World Water Day.

Many of the clear-cuts were at high elevations, where heavy snowpacks accumulated due to the lack of trees — precisely the same conditions that residents in the southern British Columbia community of Grand Forks believe contributed to the severe floods that beset their community last year.

In Peachland’s case, all the added water helped to trigger mudslides in 2017 that damaged the drinking-water intakes in the two watersheds supplying the community. Repairing the intakes cost more than $260,000, a drop in the bucket compared to the hefty $24-million-plus water-treatment project now underway.

But Skalbania notes that even the best water-treatment facilities cannot cope with water that is too dirty. Underscoring that point, every single water system in the Okanagan had at least one boil-water advisory in 2017, she notes.

If communities hope to keep such events to a minimum, there’s one sure way to do it, Skalbania says.

“Better source protection. It’s a no-brainer. Just ask Vancouver, Victoria, Portland, Seattle, New York.”

All the cities Skalbania mentions have protected water sources.

What’s bad for the bears

Brian Horejsi is another transplant to the Okanagan region. After living and working for years in the Calgary area, he now calls Penticton home.

An expert in large-mammal behaviour, Horejsi was contracted by the Valhalla Wilderness Society to study grizzly bears in the Granby wilderness near Grand Forks. What he found was a watershed so pockmarked by roads and clear-cuts that it had become unsuitable habitat for an iconic wildlife species that defines wilderness in the province.

What baffles Horejsi is that those same activities occur regularly in community watersheds, even though such lands represent a tiny fraction of B.C.’s land base.

“I don’t think there’s any question they should be protected.” Horejsi says. “One-and-a-half percent is inconsequential when you look at the big picture. And the big picture is that those lands are of huge importance for the vast majority of people living in the province.”

“I don’t think there’s any question they should be protected.”

In 2014, B.C.’s independent Forest Practices Board released an investigation of forest practices in community watersheds. The board found that between 2006 and 2014, logging occurred in 131 community watersheds. But some community watersheds were hit far harder than others. Fully half of everything logged in those 131 cases occurred in just 10 watersheds. One of those unlucky 10 did not surprise Skalbania. It was the Trepanier.

The board found that the accelerated logging was a result of the provincial government encouraging companies to aggressively clear away forests that had been attacked by mountain pine beetles.

Skalbania called that finding particularly troubling. In the name of responding to one alleged disaster, the government and industry created another.

“They always have what they call these disasters. ‘Hey, you’ve got a disaster in your back yard and we’ve got to come and clean it up,’ ” Skalbania says. “But they’ve ruined my water.”

Tanya Skalbania at the site of a landslide that polluted Peachland’s drinking water source from Peachland Creek. Photo: Travis Oleniak / The Narwhal

The Forest Practices Board found disturbing evidence that logging companies did not adequately consider what impact their cumulative actions would have on water resources. The board noted that the companies often relied on accredited professionals to address water concerns — yet of 31 professional assessments studied by the board, not one “fully evaluated” the “cumulative hydrological effects” of logging operations in community watersheds.

One year later, B.C.’s auditor general released an audit of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations’ efforts to manage cumulative impacts. The audit concluded that the government did not give the ministry “clear direction or the powers necessary to manage cumulative effects when deciding on natural resource use”. The audit also found that the government did not give the ministry “explicit” direction on how “to manage cumulative effects when authorizing the use of natural resources”.

Putting First Nations in the hot seat

Like many First Nations, the Westbank First Nation watched for decades as the B.C. government turned over vast areas of forest to logging companies while failing to do the same for Indigenous peoples.

“A lot of our members had to go up north to find work,” says Dave Gill, a forester and general manager of Ntityix Resources, a Westbank First Nation-owned company.

After much effort, the Nation received a pilot licence in the mid 2000s that eventually became its own long-term community licence in 2009. That licence, combined with an anticipated woodland licence, means the nation has rights to log a combined 80,000 cubic metres of timber per year — enough to keep roughly 30 members employed.

But the lands the government granted Westbank First Nation forestry rights to lay within a number of community watersheds including the Bear Creek, Trepanier, Peachland, Rose Valley and Power’s Creek areas.

That decision meant that in addition to being logged by the First Nation-owned company, Peachland’s watersheds also faced impacts from logging and roads built by the two largest logging and milling companies in the region — Tolko and Gormon Bros. — as well as BC Timber Sales, essentially an arm of the provincial government that auctions tracts of forest to companies that then do the logging.

The road to water ruin

In its investigation, the Forest Practices Board flagged concerns with logging roads, in particular.

When water courses down roadsides and ditches, it transports large amounts of sediment. That muddied or “turbid” water increases the risk “that pathogens from wild and domestic animals (e.g. livestock) and human sources will attach to the fine sediment particles,” the board concluded.

“When water from the watershed reaches the intake, it must be treated so it is safe for human consumption. If the water is highly turbid, the treatment of water through ultraviolet light, chlorination, and/or filtration is less effective.”

Over the years, Skalbania has learned to appreciate better than most what that means. Water treatment does not guarantee water protection. If you fail to protect your watersheds, you increase the risk that water cannot be properly treated.

In March 2017, a slope below a logging road used by Gormon Bros. failed. It blocked the main creek supplying Peachland with its water. A new channel had to be dug for the stream so that the water could once again flow to the water plant. The slide and rechanneling of the creek meant months of bad water and boil-water orders.

In November of that year, local residents had had enough. They filed a complaint with the Forest Practices Board alleging that decades of logging and road-building had damaged their watershed.

Skalbania and others believe that the cumulative effect of all that logging degraded their water and that the simplest, most effective way to improve the situation is to halt the logging all together.

“If taking the tiny 400 square kilometres of our two Peachland watersheds from the entire provincial Allowable Annual Cut in order to protect the health of our ecosystems and in order to secure our water quality, quantity and timing of flow is not doable,” Skalbania says, “then the entire forestry management system in the province is flawed, fragile, a house of cards.”

The Narwhal contacted the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development to ask if B.C.’s chief forester has powers to lower logging rates also known as the “Allowable Annual Cut” in areas of the province to protect community water supplies.

In an emailed response, the ministry’s communications director Vivian Thomas said: “The chief forester cannot make land use or forest management practice changes where other decision makers have the statutory authority to do so.”

One of the most important “statutory authorities” is the Minister of Forests himself. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson can provide “explicit” direction to the chief forester and others on how to manage cumulative impacts.

Such explicit direction could have a big impact on how much more forest is logged in Peachland’s watersheds in the coming years, including logging that is under the provincial government’s direct control through BC Timber Sales.

In the next five years, Donaldson’s ministry says, 240 hectares of forest is slated to be logged in the Peachland watershed through BC Timber Sales timber auctions. That is six times more logging than has ever happened in the watershed under the auspices of such auctions.

In the meantime, the logging companies that historically did the lion’s share of logging in the watersheds have all approached Skalbania and others saying they want to log more as well. But with a twist. Rather than clear-cutting away all the trees, they now propose to selectively log some forests. The logging will allegedly protect the community from wildfires.

Clearcut activity in the Peachland area. Photo: Travis Oleniak / The Narwhal

Talk and log

Smith says selective logging is precisely what should have happened all along. As a young man working in the sawmill, Smith knew that the big fir logs running through the mill where he worked all originated from selectively logged forests. Ironically, there was nothing altruistic about the industry’s choice then or now.

Selective logging has been practised in the continent’s interior fir forests for a century. Such forests tend to be filled with fir trees of differing ages and heights. Selectively logging some of the bigger trees while leaving others behind to grow bigger is just a smart thing to do.

If the industry had stuck with that plan and not embarked on accelerated clear-cutting of the region’s pine forests as well, things may have been okay, Smith says.

Effectively, what the industry now says is that it will clear-cut fewer pine forests but rapidly increase the selective logging of fir trees. It’s a proposal that leaves Skalbania feeling cold.

“Tolko, Gormon and the Westbank First Nations have all come to us to say: ‘Hey, let’s sit down at the table. Let’s talk. We want to selectively log your watershed.’ Well, we’ve been asking for selective logging for years. Some of us have been asking for it for the last 30 years. And they weren’t interested. They told us many times to our face that it’s just not affordable.”

The year before the big slides that underscored the fragility of their community watersheds, Peachland’s mayor, Cindy Fortin, and her fellow councillors voted in favour of sending a resolution to the upcoming Union of BC Municipalities conference, the annual gathering of municipal-government leaders from across the province.

The resolution noted that “water is a public trust” and that protecting and controlling water resources “requires adequate tools to enable local authorities to enact measures for protection of watersheds”.

The resolution, which passed, called on the provincial Ministry of Environment to “expedite” giving local governments more powers to control events in their watersheds, including powers to issue logging approvals.

But if local residents thought that resolution signalled the council’s support for a halt to logging in the watersheds, they were mistaken.

On the recent World Water Day tour of the watersheds, Fortin told a local television station that a “moratorium” on logging was far too “lofty” a goal. “Collaboration” between logging companies was what was needed, she said.

In the meantime, the resolution passed by the Union of BC Municipalities is in limbo. According to a brief submitted to Peachland’s council in August 2017, the Ministry of Environment will not be acting on Peachland’s resolution any time soon.

“The ministry states its work will ‘take several years to accommodate the broad and balanced engagement with those who may be affected,’ ” the brief stated.

To Skalbania’s ears, that sounds an awful lot like a recipe for more talking and more logging.

“We cannot afford to wait two or three more years,” she says. “What will be left?”

This article was produced in partnership with the Small Change Fund.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

A sliver of hope was offered Monday to beleaguered Grand Forks business owners, many of whom remain unable to re-open after floods swept through the city last spring, destroying buildings, stock and livelihoods.

Jennifer Rice, Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Preparedness, during a visit to the city, handed over $2.9 million in provincial funding for small businesses in the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary affected by the floods. Each business will have to apply individually, through the Canadian Red Cross, for grants of about $18,500 each.

Since the Kettle and Granby Rivers burst their banks in May, the province has provided about $13 million in recovery funding, but, with the exception of grants of $1,500 going to individual businesses, the bulk has gone to homeowners.

About 100 businesses were affected by the flood and more than two dozen around the downtown area remain closed, while many other home-based or agricultural operations are also unable to reopen.

Some business owners have left the community permanently because of financial hardship and fears that the floods will happen again because underlying causes, including forestry practices and climate change, remain in play.

Dozens of businesses, like these on Main Street in Grand Forks, remain unopened six months after the flood. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Low morale in Grand Forks

Estimates of losses by some business owners range beyond $500,000 and others are juggling credit cards and dipping into home equity and retirement savings while waiting to re-open, so, for those people, the extra cash will make a difference, said Graham Watt, flood recovery manager at the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.

“It can’t replace the lack of insurance or address the scale of the damage, which for many businesses is hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it will help with some of the impact,” he said.

“I think it’s one important piece of the puzzle.”

Mayor Brian Taylor agreed that the cash injection will help push some businesses back to a viable position.

But, more than that, it is a boost to morale at a time when it is badly needed, he said.

“It’s a strong message to people that they haven’t been forgotten. There’s so much that went to the housing losses and very little recognition of the damages to businesses,” Taylor said.

A whitetail deer haunts the still-abandoned streets of Grand Forks where many businesses devastated by spring floods are expected to remain permanently closed. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

The papered windows of a shuttered business gives directions for deliveries on Main Street in Grand Forks. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Housing help from the province was essential, but “maybe now we’ll see a more hopeful community of people in the business sector,” he said.

“You need the employment, but, also, the vitality that is wrapped up in the small business sector. When they are depressed and feeling left out, it sets the tone for recovery. We want the recovery to be an optimistic process,” Taylor told The Narwhal.

One of the business owners looking forward to the financial help is Lorraine Davies-Van Boeyen, who has not yet been able to re-open her downtown business supply store and is trying to make ends meet by conducting sales from home.

“I really had my doubts when it seemed they were totally ignoring us,” said Davies-Van Boeyen whose losses are estimated at between $70,000 and $80,000.

“But this will certainly help. That’s for sure.”

The Red Cross has been asked to expedite the program and get the money moving, said Taylor, adding that some would have preferred the money to be handled by government and — as has taken place in some communities struck by wildfires — distributed without each business owner struggling through a full application and justification process.

“But I do realize there has to be accountability,” Taylor said.

The ice-ringed Kettle River, once a rushing torrent, now moves peacefully through Grand Forks’ South Ruckle neighbourhood. The large rocks in the foreground were being placed on the river bank days before the flooding in an effort to mitigate rising water levels. It was a lost cause, however, and the excavator that was used to place them ended up being stranded. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Emergency Act not updated for decades

The Red Cross website says the program will launch “in the coming weeks,” so it appears that the wait is not yet over and businesses could remain in limbo into the New Year.

Delays have been one of the many frustrations as the city attempts to pick itself up after the catastrophic flooding and Rice, who was appointed by Premier John Horgan to work with Grand Forks recovery and resilience efforts, acknowledged that many residents don’t believe the system has moved fast enough.

“We have been ill-prepared for these recent events,” she said.

However, B.C. will do better in the future and the unprecedented floods and wildfires over the last two years have prompted the province to take a close look at how it manages recovery, Rice told The Narwhal.

“The Emergency Program Act has not been updated since the 1990s so part of our whole internal looking includes examining what we need to do to put forward new legislation or to improve or update the Emergency Program Act.”

Government is planning to talk to the Insurance Bureau of Canada about problems experienced in Grand Forks and will take a close look at the Disaster Financial Assistance, Rice said.

Sandbags still surround a house deemed unsafe for habitation in the neighbourhood of South Ruckle. The city hopes that with provincial and federal funding it will be able to complete a buyout of many of the condemned homes. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Disaster Financial Assistance is based on 80 per cent of the value of the home, but does not take into account the value of land or outbuildings. The result is that the lion’s share of compensation often goes to owners of expensive homes rather helping those struggling to get by.

“Do we have to look at that? Yes,” Rice said.

The aim is to shift to a more adaptive system with a focus on rebuilding more resilient communities, she said.

“Right now, the way legislation works and, with the design of our program, it is very much about dealing with the immediate need and getting people back on their feet or building back to pre-disaster. We are not actually legislated to do more mitigation or plan to build something that is more resilient,” Rice said.

‘What the heck can take that long’?

Watt is pleased that the province has realized that B.C.’s recovery strategies and legislation need to be revamped and that lessons from Grand Forks will be used to address future problems.

“There’s no real playbook after the first few weeks of recovery,” he said.

Grand Forks resident Les Johnson said floods are different from wildfires, where rebuilding can start shortly after the fire is extinguished, and, in the face of climate change, there is an urgent need for B.C. to look at how to cope with future floods.

“Here we are six months later and we are still waiting,” he said.

“People here are just wondering what the heck can take that long. It is something we are going to face in the future as a province,” he said.

Rice would not comment on claims by some foresters and local residents that the severity of the floods was worsened by clearcutting at higher elevations in watersheds around Grand Forks and excessive construction of logging roads.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations has said the floods were caused by a heavy snowpack in the Boundary region, estimated at 238 per cent of the norm, followed by unusually warm weather and days of heavy rain.

The log yard and mill of forestry giant Interfor is located in the heart of Grand Forks. Many residents feel that rampant clear cutting of forests in watersheds above the Granby and Kettel rivers acted as a catalyst to already dangerous flood conditions. Interfor too suffered damages during the spring floods. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

While there is no dispute that the unusual weather was a catalyst, some point to massive clearcuts and a 2015 Forest Practices Board ruling that government had not taken adequate action to address road density in the area.

Forestry consultant Martin Watts has conducted computer model studies showing that the amount of timber in the Boundary Timber Supply Area has been overestimated by 20 per cent, meaning the Annual Allowable Cut is too high — claims disputed by the forests ministry.

“When one combines a rate of logging that is 20 per cent above a sustainable level with excessive logging at high elevations, the result is flooding,” Watts told the Narwhal.

Although Rice steered clear of commenting on forestry issues, she said the province will be looking at external factors and not just the aftermath of flooding, because Emergency Management B.C. has recently adopted the Sendai framework.

“It looks at how we adapt for a changing world and do disaster mitigation and adaptation. It’s a totally different approach…(Now) we tend to plug a lot of holes and deal with things in silos and, by adopting the Sendai framework we are looking at the upstream, middlestream and downstream effects of the various risks we face in B.C.,” she said, emphasizing that climate change is a vital part of that equation.

Fred Marshall, a retired forester, walks through cutblock 04Q-09, a 454-hectare clearcut logged by Interfor above the Boundary Creek drainage. Marshall believes questionable logging practices are one of the main causes of the Grand Forks floods. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Logging practices blamed

But residents of Grand Forks are already looking nervously at next spring and there are growing concerns over logging practices, Taylor said.

“No one is saying it’s the only factor creating the flooding, but it could be a contributing factor to how quickly the water came down. I think we need a closer look at that. Plus the information that’s out there that logging practices have not been sustainable,” he said.

Taylor would like to see Grand Forks control its own watershed, but the previous provincial government felt municipalities were too volatile to handle that responsibility he said.

“It was also felt that we would be too subject to being influenced by environmentalists who would convince us to reduce the cut and we wouldn’t be able to make our allocations of revenue. That was clearly an indication of the previous government’s attitude to us and our watershed. We are hoping we will get a different response from the NDP government,” he said.

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November nights in Grand Forks are dipping below freezing, so Courtnay and Jesse Redding are racing the clock as they hustle to transform a 12-by-16-foot shed into a home where they and their dogs can survive the winter.

“We had a building down in our farmyard that was insulated and had power. It flooded quite badly, but we gutted it, put it on skids and moved it up to the high ground on our property,” Courtnay Redding told The Narwhal.

“Yes, it’s small. We won’t have a door on the toilet, but we love each other and we live outside most of the time,” she laughed.

Like many others in Grand Forks, the couple is continuing to struggle with the aftermath of devastating May floods that saw the Kettle and Granby Rivers burst their banks, swamping entire neighbourhoods and the downtown core.

Courtnay Redding walks toward her now-condemned home, on the outskirts of Grand Forks. The house flooded during the past two spring runoffs and has severe water damage and mould. The Reddings are currently renovating a 12 by 16 foot shed to live in for the winter but will continue to use their old home as a workspace and for showering. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Their riverfront dream farm was destroyed, their meat chickens died of shock after being carried out in the middle of the night through armpit-high water, kilometres of fencing was wiped out and, despite an estimated replacement cost of $450,000, insurance claims have been denied and help from the provincial Disaster Financial Assistance is likely to top out at about $10,000.

“Not enough to even cover a new foundation,” said Redding, who is planning to build a new house on higher ground because, like others in the community, she is convinced that the historic flood was not a one-off.

Courtnay Redding walks down to their river front property. This was one aspect of the land that drew them in and they still love the natural beauty the river provides despite the difficulties that come with living next to its volatile banks. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Courtnay Redding stands in her soon-to-be new home — a 12 by 16 foot shed that will serve as a house until they can afford to build a new one on the portion of their property that’s on higher ground. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Jesse Redding stands on the sandy banks of the Kettle River where flood waters once churned. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Jesse Redding shows where the high water mark was this spring when flood waters covered much of his property for the second year in a row. When the Reddings purchased the property in the winter of 2017 the previous owner told them it had never flooded, which they later discovered was untrue. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

In 2017 there was localized flooding in Grand Forks, but nothing prepared the 4,200 residents for this spring’s water levels, which rose more than half a metre higher than previously recorded.

As residents look for answers, there are increasingly pointed questions about the role of forestry and over-harvesting in the watershed.

Six months after the water swept through Grand Forks, at least 28 downtown businesses are still closed and the city is planning to buy between 80 and 120 properties in flood plain areas, at a cost of $60-million to $90-million, if it can get financial support from the federal and provincial governments. The city is also planning to build three new dykes, raise some houses and reinforce several kilometres of riverbank.

A closed cafe in downtown Grand Forks, where 28 business still remain unopened six months after flood waters flowed through the streets. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

The reflection of a closed shop on Second Street is seen in the boarded windows of another. Slow insurance claim processes and extensive water damage have made it difficult for some businesses to reopen. Graham Watt, flood recovery manager at the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, said he expects some businesses will remain permanently closed. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

A closed hair studio in downtown Grand Forks hosts an advertisement for flood restoration services. Despite more than six months elapsing since water flowed through the streets, many business remained shuttered. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

A recently built house on the outskirts of Grand Forks. Its foundations buckled when the Kettle River rose over its banks in the spring of 2018. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

‘A very, very expensive flood’

The financial toll includes about $25 million in response costs, about $26 million in business losses, the loss of a tourist season at a cost of about $30 million and household damages in the $10 million to $20 million range.

“It was a very, very expensive flood and we are looking for permanent solutions. How do we make sure this doesn’t happen again?” Graham Watt, flood recovery manager at the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, told The Narwhal.

A provincial household emergency assistance program is helping some repair their homes sufficiently to get them through the winter, but about a dozen families need emergency winter housing and will be put up in hotels until they get on their feet, Watt said.

Among the 28 closed businesses, some are unlikely to re-open, he said.

“There are also the farms and rural businesses that had assets in the flood plain, such as large nurseries, which were heavily impacted by the floods, but there is very, very little help for farms,” Watt said.

Graham Watt, recovery manager for the City of Grand Forks, points to one of the many places the now-drought-stricken Kettle River overflowed its banks in the spring of 2018. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

The Kettle River winds through the Grand Forks valley north of the city after the “the forks” where the Granby River joins its waters. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

A house in South Ruckle, one the Grand Forks neighbourhoods most affected by the spring flood, was spared falling into the Kettle River this year. A small shed adjacent to it wasn’t so lucky. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

The Kettle River, which is currently suffering through a drought, winds peacefully through the Grand Forks valley. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Spinoff problems include a shrinking tax base “so those left behind will have a tougher go,” said Les Johnson, whose partner, Lorraine Davies-Van Boeyen, has not yet been able to reopen her downtown business supply store, meaning estimated losses of between $70,000 and $80,000.

Johnson, searching for new ways to put Grand Forks back in business, has taken drone footage of the neighbourhoods that will be abandoned, in hopes he might pique some interest from movie producers.

But, overshadowing all the efforts, are fears that the floods will be repeated next spring and that protective measures will not be in place in time, he said.

As bewildered residents look for causes of the devastation, the provincial explanation is that a heavy snowpack in the Boundary region, estimated at 238 per cent of the norm, was followed by unusually warm weather and days of heavy rain, resulting in a rapid melt.

“This was an extreme and unprecedented flood event that was affected by a combination of warm weather and rain on an extreme spring snowpack,” said a forests ministry spokeswoman.

No one doubts that the weather created the perfect, flood-creating storm, but there is cause for concern that forestry practices in the watershed, combined with climate change, make future floods a virtual certainty.

Interfor’s lumberyard across the Kettle River from downtown Grand Forks. Some residents believe that dykes built to protect the forestry giant’s property made flooding worse for neighbouring communities because the water had nowhere else to go. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Clearcut culprit

Courtnay and Jesse Redding, who both grew up in Grand Forks and moved back two years ago, draw on decades of local knowledge to come to the conclusion that clearcuts worsened the spring floods.

Jesse, who worked in the logging industry for 20 years, said he is shocked by forestry practices and the size of clearcuts he witnessed in the watershed.

“We think it’s climate change, clearcutting and watershed issues that have caused the flooding. That was not an abnormal winter or spring at all,” Courtnay said.

Courtnay Redding points to future garlic fields, planted on a portion of their property that sits well above the flood plain. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

The Reddings are convinced that the floods will happen again and are ensuring that any new structures and animal pens are built on higher ground, leaving the river frontage as a beach.

Jennifer Houghton, a local realtor and yoga teacher, watched her home flood two years in a row and she is also convinced that the floods were not a weather-related anomaly.

“Last year I had two feet of water in my house and this year I had four feet,” she said.

Houghton has gutted her house, but she’s not taking any chances and, with the help of friends, is building a 230 square foot house on wheels, framed on a commercial trailer.

“I am building a tiny house on wheels because I am 100 per cent sure there’s going to be more flooding because of the logging…The next time the flood comes I can just wheel it out,” said Houghton, who is filming a documentary about the flood.

Grand Forks resident Jennifer Houghton in her unfinished tiny home. She hopes to move in by mid-December with her two dogs. Believing her main house, which has flooded in both of the past two years, will inevitably flood again she decided to invest in a home that can be moved when the water rises in the spring. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Jennifer Houghton on the steps of her unfinished tiny home with her two dogs. Houghton was the first Grand Forks resident to apply for a new tiny home permit approved by the city late last year. She plans to move her new home if floods threaten her property again in the future. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Graham Watt, recovery manager for Grand Forks, looks out over the Kettle River from a bank in the Grand Forks neighbourhood of South Ruckle. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Houghton started researching local history for the documentary, following river and snowpack levels and looking for reasons for the floods. She rapidly zeroed in on the combination of clearcut logging and climate change.

“What’s happening in Grand Forks is a microcosm of what is happening everywhere,” said Houghton, who believes that as people realize how climate change and logging practices are affecting their lives, change will start to happen.

Losses from the floods permeate almost every aspect of life in Grand Forks, with many suffering mental health problems, said Houghton, recalling walking into her house in hip waders and watching her possessions floating into the front yard.

However, the community spirit and the work of volunteers has been extraordinary, she said.

“It has really brought the town together. There have been a lot of low lows, but a lot of high highs,” she said.

A poster in a downtown Grand Forks coffee shop offers a help line for residents feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with life after the floods. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

‘The cat was on the couch, which was floating in the living room’

Graham Watt agrees that the community spirit has been remarkable, but the darker elements include eye-opening difficulties and delays in dealing with insurance companies and assistance programs that favour those who had more expensive properties, while those who were getting by with cheaper housing are now being pushed into poverty.

A report on the Grand Forks Economic Disaster Recovery Program by the B.C. Economic Development Association concludes that changes to infrastructure must be made at the local level, with help from the federal and provincial governments, and that support programs be revamped.

“The Province of B.C. must consider a complete review of support programs like DFA, Agri-Recovery and more,” the report says.

Flooding in Grand Forks in the spring of 2018 surrounds the log yard of Interfor. Photo: Sergeant Mike Wicentowich

Tina Rae is one of those who will receive a buyout for her house, but after living in a trailer in a friend’s backyard with her partner, cat and dog, she has temporarily moved in with relatives as she cannot find anywhere to rent with her animals.

The buyout cannot replace her home of 18 years or erase the trauma of having to move out as the water rose, she said.

Flags showing community support line a fence in South Ruckle, one of the Grand Forks neighbourhoods most affected by the 2018 flood. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

An RV, skirted with insulation, will have to suffice for one resident of South Ruckle as a housing shortage forces people with damaged homes to make tough decisions with winter on the horizon. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Wood smoke rises from an RV’s chimney in downtown Grand Forks. Many residents have been forced to find temporary living solutions due to homes being damaged beyond repair by the spring floods. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

An insulated RV will have to suffice for the winter for many residents who are still unable to return to their flood-damaged homes. Some people are choosing to live in local motels until insurance money or buyouts go through. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

“My daughter came down and the next day they went down to get my cat out of the house. They had to kayak into five feet of water. The cat was on the couch, which was floating in the living room,” Rae said.

Making matters worse, insurance claims were denied because their home was in a flood plain, although they still have to pay premiums and the mortgage.

Many people are struggling, Watt said.

“On the wellness side we are hearing there’s an increase in opioid use and substance misuse. There’s an increase in mental health concern, as is typical when a major disaster hits the community,” he said.

Courtnay Redding in the small shed she and her husband Jesse are converting into a living space for the winter. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Frosty sandbags on the Reddings’ property, remnants of the floods that flowed over them this spring. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

The Kettle River at sunset, downstream of where it joins the Granby River. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Before the floods

Long before the floods, studies by independent foresters pointed to problems with unsustainable logging in the Kootenay Boundary Region, compounded by excessive road building and overestimation of the amount of timber in the Timber Supply Area within that region.

“Yes, Grand Forks had a lot of rain in the spring of 2018, but, if the upstream watersheds had not been unsustainably logged, especially at the high elevations, because of the timber supply for the annual allowable cut having been overestimated by 20 per cent, the flooding might not have been nearly as severe,” said Anthony Britneff, a retired registered professional forester who spent 40 years working for the B.C. Forest Service.

Location of the Kootenay Boundary Region’s Timber Supply Area. Graphic: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

Left: The Kootenay Boundary Region Timber Supply Area, showing the two locations of TFL 8 or Tree Farm Licence 8. A Tree Farm Licence is an area-based tenure that grants exclusive rights to harvest timber. Right: the “timber harvesting land base” as identified by the province of B.C. Graphic: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

Clearcuts and roads remove the natural forest cover, allowing deep snow to accumulate and then melt much faster than in a forest setting.

Compounding the problem, most of the logging has occurred at high elevations, where the majority of the watershed is, meaning higher than normal spring runoff can be anticipated, Britneff said.

Martin Watts, a professional forester and forestry consultant, has done studies showing that computer models are flawed and the amount of timber in the Boundary Timber Supply Area has been overestimated by 20 per cent.

Watts said the ministry has never been able to disprove his conclusions, but he has not been able to convince the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations that there should be an immediate reassessment of the timber supply and the amount of trees the province allows to be cut in any given year, known as the “Annual Allowable Cut.”

“To this day, the previous and present government has provided no evidence to support its claim that the timber volume is not over-estimated by 20 per cent…When one combines a rate of logging that is 20 per cent above a sustainable level with excessive logging at high elevations, the result is flooding,” Watts said.

Fred Marshall, a retired forester, in his home near Greenwood, B.C. Marshall believes one of the main causes of the 2017 and 2018 floods was excessive clearcutting in the many watersheds that feed into the Granby and Kettle river systems. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Solitary larches, left as seed trees, stand in cutblock 04Q-09. A 2016 report by the the Forest Practices Board investigated a complaint made by a local hunter regarding the 454-hectare clearcut. Under normal circumstances cutblocks are required to be no more than 40 hectares but loopholes and exceptions allow companies like Interfor to regularly expand that size. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

In an October letter to Britneff, Forests Minister Doug Donaldson said he is satisfied harvesting decisions “are based on sound environmental and biological principles” and he has confidence in the chief forester’s decisions.

“Those determinations are based on a large body of research, inventory data, field work and monitoring, all with an appropriate consideration for the uncertainty that is inherent to this type of growth and yield analysis and modeling,” Donaldson wrote.

Giving weight to claims of excessive harvesting and road building in the watershed, the Forest Practices Board upheld a 2015 complaint by the Friends and Residents of the North Fork that the density of logging roads meant the threatened Kettle-Granby grizzly bear population was not being adequately protected.

The Board found the government had not taken adequate action to address road density and that the licensees — B.C. Timber Sales and Interfor — did not follow road density targets because they were not legally required to do so.

The floods ‘will happen again’

Roy Schiesser, spokesman for the Friends and Residents of the North Fork, has lived in the area for 20 years and noticed about six years ago that the logging rate was accelerating, together with road construction.

“People now realize that the underlying problem is that we have overcut and overcut the high elevations. I don’t think the residents were aware of how much was going on, but I think people are now are ready and willing to look at options,” said Schiesser.

“It’s not going to get better. It can only get worse if we think we can keep on building roads and overcutting and deal with the aftermath afterwards,” he said.

Despite the Forest Practices Board decision, little has changed and, in addition to more road building and lack of oversight of road deactivation, B.C. Timber Sales is allowing massive clearcuts, said Fred Marshall, a professional forester who owns Marshall Forestry Services and operates a woodlot close to Grand Forks.

“We have been opening up way more forest than we have historically. Big clearcuts. Interfor just cleared about 450 hectares and the other day when I was out there’s another one in the [B.C. Timber Sales] area that I think is close to another 400 hectares. It’s a huge area — inordinately so,” Marshall said.

The log yard and mill of forestry giant Interfor is located in the heart of Grand Forks. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Fred Marshall walks through a 454 hectare cutblock in the mountains between Greenwood and Grand Forks. Marshall, a retired forester, believes that massive cutblocks like this contribute to spring flooding because of rapid snow melt and non-existent topsoil. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

B.C. Timber Sales, which auctions off Crown timber sales licences to the highest bidder, is responsible for 40 per cent of the Annual Allowable Cut in the Boundary region and is also responsible for building and maintaining logging roads, but Marshall said with exasperation that when he asked the crown corporation about the number of roads, he was told they did not know.

“We now have over 16,000 kilometres of roads in the Boundary…The roads are everywhere and the clearcuts are massive. There is no more natural and, hence, the forest doesn’t have the capacity to absorb any large, natural events like it did in the past. It doesn’t have the resilience,” Marshall said.

“There is no question that (the floods) will happen again. More roads are being built and more logging is being done as we speak,” said Marshall.

About 30 years ago the annual allowable cut was 700,000 cubic metres, but, after two large protected areas were formed — Gladstone Provincial Park covering 40,845 hectares and Granby Provincial Park which covers 39,300 hectares — the chief forester kept the cut at the same level.

“How did that happen?” Marshall asked. “It was magic. We lose a huge part of the land base and the cut stays the same.”

Logging is taking place on steeper slopes, the mountain pine beetle has taken its toll and yet there is pressure to log more, he said.

“We are pushing the envelope in every direction.”

Interfor mill and log yard. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Smoke from slash pile burning fills the Kootenay Boundary valleys southwest of Grand Forks. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

But the forests ministry says there are no problems with the cut rate in the region and harvest levels are regularly monitored to ensure licensees are meeting their commitments.

Clearcutting in any watershed in the region must not exceed 20 per cent and no operations have exceeded that number, said a ministry spokesperson.

The annual allowable cut is reviewed every decade by the chief forester and, although the annual allowable cut for the Boundary region was last set at 700,000 cubic metres in May 2014, it was adjusted to 670,142 cubic metres in October 2016 because of the creation of a new community forest, she said.

“The inventory for the Boundary Timber Supply Area is currently being updated and monitoring plots are being established to support future decisions,” she said.

Any future assessments will include the cumulative effect of road densities, she said.

Crossing the threshold

As questions about forestry practices in the Boundary Region became louder, renowned forest ecologist and ecosystem-based forester Herb Hammond took a look at the area on Google Earth.

“I was shocked by what I saw. Talk about ill-designed forestry, it’s a perfect example of it,” he said.

The simple reality is that clearcuts intercept 30 to 40 per cent more snow, meaning snowpacks are deeper than in the adjacent forests, and then the snow melts faster in the spring because it is not shaded by surrounding forests, Hammond said.

“You cross the threshold where you have done way too much and the system just falls apart and that’s what happened,” he said.

“It’s not something that’s going to go away, particularly in this era of deeper snowpacks in this phase of climate change and it’s not something you can easily fix…The damage will continue to grow as long as this kind of ill-conceived forestry continues,” he said.

Roads divert natural water courses disrupting the hydrological cycle and leading to higher peak flows — meaning floods — and lower low flows — meaning droughts, Hammond said.

“When you look at the Kettle Valley you have clearcuts right down from the top of the watershed to the bottom of the watershed and so you desynchronize the water flow,” he said describing B.C.’s forestry practices as a sordid mess, with government hand in glove with the industry and a total lack of accountability.

“The Kettle Valley is a tragedy and what happened in Grand Forks is a tragedy but it’s happening in a lot of places,” Hammond said.

The picture of a community struggling to recover from a flood that many believe could have been much less severe if forestry practices had been different infuriates Britneff.

“The residents of Grand Forks need to hold the forests ministry to account for what some would describe as a crime against wildlife and humanity, a crime still being played out at high elevations in the sub-watersheds around Grand Forks,” Britneff said.

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